Retro enthusiasts have plenty of ways to bring their old machines back to life. One of them is to do a cosmetic rebuild, but instead of relying on the original hardware, use the Raspberry Pi. Unfortunately, many of these rebuilds lose fidelity to the original hardware by bringing a Linux with a game loader. For purists, the ZXBaremulator allows ZX Spectrum nostalgics to do just that.
Reconstructing our childhood and adolescence is something that many interpret as a way of not knowing how to let go of the past. Others see it as a historical recuperation from a time that will not return and has not been repeated in subsequent generations. Fortunately, everything related to computing has a great capacity to preserve and even reconstruct this past. Emulators have been one of them, but the recent retro craze combined with the ability of some systems to more closely replicate the systems of yesteryear have given it a bit of a revival.
What is a Near Metal or Baremetal emulator?
Well, a near-metal or baremetal emulator It is one that runs directly on the hardware without the need for an operating system in between. In other words, when you start the system instead of running the operat ing system, it runs the emulator. This sends more power to the system emulation. Due to the fact that the CPU will not handle all background processes. This applied to low cost single board computers such as the Raspberry Pi is extremely interesting. Since it allows us to completely emulate how the original system works in terms of use. Something that many will prefer in order to repeat the fidelity as much as possible with the machines of yesteryear and which brings it closer to the operation of FPGA solutions.
ZXBaremulator, the closest thing to a spectrum on a Pi
The ZX Spectrum was a computer that did not use a complex operating system, as it had only one program loaded into memory. What was the program we had dumped from the tape so there wasn’t really an operating system like there was on m any 8-bit systems based on the Z80 or 6502 processors. They just didn’t have not have the power to run a complex operating system.
The example that we leave you as an emulator close to metal is the ZXBaremulator, among its features we can highlight:
- Accurate emulation of 48K, 128K and +2A models.
- Allows you to use PS3 and PS4 Dual Shock controllers, Xbox 360, One and Series controllers.
- We can also use the Nintendo Switch, but in this case without Bluetooth support.
- Allows you to use a standard USB mouse as if it were the Kempston mouse.
- Accelerated loading of virtual tapes in TAP/TZX format.
- Emulation of internal speaker and programmable sound generator, chip AY-3-8918.
- Audio output via HDMI or the mini audio jack in case we use the composite video output.
- You will be able to connect your old tube television if you have the necessary adapter.
- It supports Recreated ZX Spectrum USB keyboard.
- If you want to use one of the keyboards from the original Spectrum models, you have the option of connecting them via the GPIO connection.
- If you want to connect the machine’s original keyboard, you can do so through the GPIO connector.
