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Desert Island Retro

ZX Vega - version 1 disappointment and Solution


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So this is something I posted elsewhere a long while ago, kind of a cut and paste repost - so here goes...

Ok, after my disapointment with the ZX Vega it made me want to build a simple Raspberry PI build to support a vision that is right for me.  It was clear that the Vega console was just not meant to be.

Here is MKI of my Spectrum PI, running on a V4 image that I had made.

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The Raspberry PI is inside the Microdrive case and the slot is at the front for the MicroSD card.

This is running FUSE and goes straight into the emulator and has every version of emulator that FUSE supports up and running. The joystick support is setup as Kempston and the screen loads full screen with the TV lines for the retro feel. When you hit F1 to open the loader, it defaults to the Specturm directory where the games are. Simple, crisp and clean.

SMB has been setup so you can simply browse to it from your PC and drop whatever roms you want into the Spectrum directory.

Here it is with a USB joystick and keyboard attached.  The keyboard is one of these but running with the supplied USB cable rather theb bluetooth...

Spectrum - Bluetooth Keyboard

It came originally from this Kickstarter ( Kickstarter ) which I missed so ordered via Amazon, but you have to be really careful with it.  You need the Andriod APK application to unlock it now as the it's originally setup for Spectrum mode, not PC mode.  The application that was on the Apple store is no longer there.

The joystick is a USB version of the Competition Pro.

The front of the unit has the slot for the MicroSD.

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USB and ethernet available form the back of the case.  Green stuff blue / yellow epoxy putty was used to build the back of the case out and then sprayed black.

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HDMI and power presentation here.  From mains power, this will happily support the USB keyboard and joystick.

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The image I used was slightly customised.

When the system boots, it will show the PI screen, keep a watch out for the IP address of it if you need it just before this.

Press ESC and it takes you to a second screen that I have here that also needs an ESC key pushing.
( At some point I am putting a picture there with the FUSE commands, for the time being it's a simple testcard. )

When FUSE loads, you press F1 and you will bring up the popup box to open games.

It defaults to the /home/pi/Spectrum/ directory and I have made various sub-directories to drop whatever you want in each by format.

SSH and SMB have been enabled, no password for SMB and SSH uses password.

From your Windows machine, if you open file manager you can go to \\LINUX\Spectrum to get to the Spectrum file share.

The two user accounts, pi and root both have the password set to password.

From the command prompt the following commands are worth knowing:

fuse-sdl
This will reload the emulator ( not that the /home/pi/Spectrum dir won't be default unless you launch from there )

startx
Loads the GUI enviorment for Windows fans

sudo raspi-config
Loads the configuration menu. Select option 1 to expand the file system to use the whole SD card.

passwd
Change the password for whatever your logged in as.

sudo nano /etc/samba/smb.conf
Edit SMB settings for file sharing to create / remove shares.

HERE IS THE IMAGE FOR ANYONE THAT MAY BE INTERESTED

I OFFER NO SUPPORT ON THIS

EVERYTHING YOU DO FROM HERE ONWARDS IS AT YOUR OWN RISK

Image setup instructions from scratch to build your own are here PI V4.txt.

The actually image is linked below.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1GcPmX-ZdBM4nj38OtPjHPZTtitMJodrV

The image is restored to the SD card using Win32DiskImager-0.9.5.

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  • 3 weeks later...

If you have access to a 3d printer there is a slightly more elegant case solution which doesnt involve killing a Microdrive case (most retro forums you would be shot for modding a case like that to put a pi in :)https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2157795 and I use this image https://www.arcadepunks.com/kinguyrons-loaded-zx-spectrum-pi-image-simply-austin-zx-spectrum-base-first-look/ which comes with everything fully loaded and ready to play. Not sure how well it works with the "real" spectrum keyboard though

 

2fbfc574da33f119ec81d9a4ea7a54d6_preview_featured.jpg.b7b885621d32674084e742473efa783a.jpg

 

Edited by Gary
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47 minutes ago, Gary said:

If you have access to a 3d printer there is a slightly more elegant case solution which doesnt involve killing a Microdrive case (most retro forums you would be shot for modding a case like that to put a pi in :)https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2157795 and I use this image https://www.arcadepunks.com/kinguyrons-loaded-zx-spectrum-pi-image-simply-austin-zx-spectrum-base-first-look/ which comes with everything fully loaded and ready to play. Not sure how well it works with the "real" spectrum keyboard though

 

2fbfc574da33f119ec81d9a4ea7a54d6_preview_featured.jpg.b7b885621d32674084e742473efa783a.jpg

 

0:54 Alexander Armstrong  disguised as sir clive sinclair

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