{fb1000000quality, he doesn't want to scrape software from the bottom of the barrel to create another CD!

Conclusion:

If you have a CD-ROM drive, buy this CD now... It is a must for everyone's CD collection, especially if you're a PD collector! It is a very interesting disc, and well worth buying.

Rating: 9/10  
{ssou

Product: PDCD-2
Price: 35.25 (29.37 to registered Datafile users)
Availability: All 32-bit Acorn machines with a CD-ROM drive
Contact: The Datafile (01934) 823005

Chris Jackson

{sdiv

{fh20000FFMZX
Graham Willmott
{fb1000000
I have never seen the point of Software Emulators. Take the PC emulator; it can only run DOS software, and very limited DOS software at that, so why bother? Also software emulators have the bad habit of being SLOW. That is until now, any true Acorn user, of ex-beeb owners / purists that I know never saw the attraction of the good ol' Spectrum. The attraction was the games, the authors didn't have to bother with fancy graphics, so they spent their time writing some of the most playable games ever. Take the Miner games, Monty Mole, Jetman, need I go on. Luckily this emulator has captured the essence of the good ol' Speccy in one piece of Public Domain software which runs at the same speed as the trusty 48k rubber keyed armoured tank.
 
As soon as you look at the icon you can tell this is going to be a polished product, the desktop front end is well laid out and the help file is written well. So now I have my nice Spectrum Emulator running; I want some games, please.
{s720
As any Spectrum owner will tell you there was a device marketed by Romantic Robot called a Multiface ( I, II, 128, +3). What this did was to disassemble the program which was in the computer's memory when you pressed the red button on it. Once you had done this you could alter addresses to cheat (like the _Desktop Hacker_"Features.HackerTut") or save the game's position. It is these files which you can download from most BBS's and set the file type to SNA then drag it to the MZX icon, and hey presto: one fully functioning Spectrum!

You have the choice of playing the game in the desktop or in single tasking mode. The single tasking mode is the best option for us with mortal acorns, but those with RiscPC's can have a Spectrum running at full speed in a desktop window!

The one thing that surprised me is that as soon as I loaded a game (like Sabator) how it all came back to me. All those hints and tips from the now retired Speccy mags (Crash, Your Sinclair and Sinclair User). The only thing that threw me was remembering the keys to the game!

There are plenty of snapshots available from the _Digital Databank_"Regulars.700Comp" BBS, which include some gems like Spy Hunter, Great Escape, Jetman and even the classic Horrace Goes Skiing! It doesn't cost anything, the games don't cost anything, so re-live the memories and get this.

9/10
{ssou
{ss_r

{sdiv

Sounds Riscy would like to point out that they are trying to get the Acorn world to drop the instant association between the word 'Spectrum', and a rubber computer. From here on, the word 'Spectrum' will revert to its dictionary definition:

{fb1D00000s{fb1F08000p{fb1F0F000e{fb100F000c{fb100F0F0t{fb10000F0r{fb1C000F0u{fb18000F0m {fb1000000- n. band of colours into which a beam of light can be decomposed

[shurely shome mishtake - Ed].
