Spectrum Emulation On The Mac

Like many people, my first computer was a ZX Spectrum. I had a 48k machine when they were first released and promptly had to take it back because it was faulty. Happily, the second time was a charm and I spent endless hours battling space invaders, building rocket ships and collecting keys.

For many years I've avoided emulators because I'm usually disappointed when I revisit my youth. Recently, though, I weakened and installed FUSE which runs as a native application on OS X.

Much to my relief, I wasn't disappointed at all. The old games, though crude in graphics and sound, are as infuriatingly addictive as ever. There is now no chance of me finishing anything on time. If at all.

So I decided to put this little site together to say a bit about Spectrum emulation on the Mac and to dedicate a few pages to the best games. I'll add some more games when I get the chance but, for now, these were/are my favourites.

Where permissable, I'll include the files for download (usually in TZX format). If I don't list your favourite games, take a look at the TZX Vault at RetroGames; they have pretty much every Speccy game ever released with all the legally downloadable files onsite.