XTender
by Carlo Delhez
"XTender and XTender2 are ZX81 emulators for MS/DOS (Windows95/NT compatible).

"XTender is a classic "1st generation" emulator, existing since 1991 and running the vast majority of ZX81 programs at unsurpassed speed on XT/AT/386/486 systems. XTender is a shareware product and has many thousands of devoted users.

"XTender2 is a newly developed "2nd generation" emulator, written by the same author. XTender2 is superior to XTender in all respects. It requires a 120MHz Pentium system (or better) to run smoothly. XTender2 is currently a freeware product at beta-testing stage. Download your evaluation copy below."

Features of XTender2 include:

  • Full low-level emulation of the ZX81 hardware, in particular including its complicated video system ('nop-logic') at T-cycle accuracy, with numerous user definable settings such as PAL/NTSC video, physical memory allocation, memory shadow modelling, memory access modelling.
  • Handles any ROM code, for example ZX80, ZX81, Aszmic, 8300, or even a user-developed ROM.
  • Runs any hi-res, semi-hi-res, mixed resolution, and low resolution ZX81 program.
  • Can run ZX81 programs directly from the DOS commandline, or by double-clicking a P-file in Windows95/NT (so you don't have to type a LOAD "..." command inside the emulator).
  • Supports both SLOW and FAST mode, and also intermediate modes (as generated by specific tools).
  • Very realistic video output - not seen before on any other ZX81 emulator- because XTender2 includes a TV-emulator: your PC monitor responds like a real TV-set when the ZX81 does not provide proper video timing (this happens in FAST-mode, for example). XTender2 lets your screen flicker, flash, tremble and roll, very similar to what you would see on the real thing!
  • Provides an excellent keyboard interface. The keyboard will never lock, multiple simultaneous keypresses are possible, and even keyboard matrix errors are emulated correctly!
  • Supports PC-keyboards with QWERTY, AZERTY and QWERTZ layout
  • Produces graphical printer output.
  • Includes a virtual tape interface: Save/Load your data to/from a virtual tape recorder and watch the tape signals being echoed to the screen! The virtual tape interface is the ultimate method to get data into and from any system (including ZX80, ZX81 and Aszmic) and/or by any original (fast) Save/Load toolthat you ever may have used. Original tape recordings can be converted to virtual tape files, and vice versa.
  • Has a very flexible interface to the "outside world" via user-definable ROM-patches that are fully invisible for the emulated system (PEEK, etc.) and that are handled by external programs (i.e. not by XTender2 itself).
  • ...and lots of interesting new features still to come! Just wait & see!

Download XTender
XTender for MS-DOS [
Homepage]
Download XTender2
XTender2 for MS-DOS [Homepage]
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