Getting started¶
Download¶
Every release is on the releases page. Pick the file for your system:
System |
File |
|
|---|---|---|
Windows 10 or 11 |
|
|
Windows 11 on ARM |
|
Snapdragon and other ARM64 chips |
Windows 7 or 8.1 |
|
64-bit |
|
32-bit |
|
Linux |
|
|
macOS |
|
Apple silicon |
Nothing else has to be installed. Machines, ROM images and settings come with the program, so it runs right away.
Windows. Unpack the archive anywhere you can write to, and run xpeccy-plus.exe.
Folder and file names may have any letters (Cyrillic, Greek, Chinese…) on Windows 10
(version 1903 or later) and 11; on older Windows, the letters of the system’s language.
Linux. Allow the file to run (chmod +x, or the file’s properties), then run it. It
needs a distribution no older than Ubuntu 22.04 (glibc 2.35).
macOS. It needs macOS 13 or later on a Mac with Apple silicon. Open the disk image and drag xpeccy-plus into Applications. The program is not signed by a registered developer, so macOS refuses to start it the first time: open System Settings > Privacy & Security, find the message about Xpeccy+ and click Open Anyway.
The first start¶
The first start asks which machine to run:
Which machine to start? - any of the built-in machines.
Next time - Start the last one chosen, Ask again, or Start this one.
You can change the answer later on the Application page of Options.
Run a program¶
Open a file in any of these ways:
File > Open…;
drop the file onto the window;
give its name on the command line:
xpeccy-plus game.tzx.
A snapshot (.szx, .z80, .sna) continues straight away from where it was saved.
A tape or a disk can be run or just mounted. Run resets the machine and starts the program on it; Mount only puts the tape or disk in, as if into a real recorder or drive. The first time, Xpeccy+ asks which one you want. Tick Remember my choice to stop the question; to change the choice later, use the File types page of Options. To be asked about one file only, hold Shift as you open or drop it. With a divMMC on, Run starts a tape from a Hard Reset and cannot start a disk in a drive.
If the current machine cannot run the file (a +3 disk on a Pentagon, for instance),
Xpeccy+ switches to a machine that can - to the machine named in the file, if the file
names one; a .z80 or .szx snapshot goes to the model it names even when the current
machine could run it. When you next open a file that your own machine can run, Xpeccy+
switches back to your machine.
The File types page of Options sets this for each kind of file:
Auto - switch only when needed, then back to your machine. A
.z80or.szxsnapshot opens on the model it names. A snapshot that needs the ROM of its own model but does not say which one is asked about, as with Ask;Ask - every time there is a choice, the Choose a Machine window lists the other machines that can run the file, the one named in the file first: Switch to the one picked, Keep the current one, or Cancel and not open the file. It does not ask when the current machine is the one named in the file, or when only one machine can run it;
Keep current - never switch the machine;
or one machine that always opens this kind of file.
Where the settings are¶
System |
Folder |
|---|---|
Windows |
|
Linux, macOS |
|
Everything you change is kept there: config.conf holds the settings, roms holds the
ROM images. A file put in roms under the name of a built-in image replaces that image.
On Windows the settings are in the program’s folder, so the program can be moved or
copied together with its settings. To run with a
different settings folder, start the program with --confdir <folder>.
Updates¶
Once a day Xpeccy+ asks GitHub whether a newer version is out. When one is, a window says so and shows what is new since your version, with Download to get it (or Update, see below) and Later to close the window until the next check. The window has two settings, saved at once:
Check for updates - Every day, Every week or Never.
Update channel - Releases: new versions only. Development: the development build too, made each night from the newest code; a release newer than the last development build is offered as well. A release starts on Releases, a development build on Development.
Both are also on the Application page. Help > Check for Updates… asks at once.
On Windows, and with the Linux AppImage, the window has Update instead of Download: the program downloads the new version, checks it and gets it ready. Restart Now closes the program the usual way (the machine is saved, a disk with unsaved changes is asked about) and starts the new version; with Later, the new version takes the place of the old one when you quit.
On Windows only the program’s own files change: the folder keeps its name and place. In
config, your settings, machines, NVRAM, cards and the files you added are never touched. A file that came with the program and that you changed, such as a ROM image you replaced, is kept; if the new version has a new one, it goes toconfig\update-<version>and the program tells you so.An update cut short, by a power cut say, is undone at the next start.
A build is updated only to one of its own kind: x64 to x64,
arm64toarm64, and eachlegacyfile to itself. To change, download the other file. When a new version has no file named like yours, the window says so and offers the release page.On Windows 11 on ARM, an x64 or
legacybuild runs under emulation, and updates to the nativearm64build instead: it runs 1.5 to 2 times as fast there. When there is no new version, the check offers thearm64build of the version you have, once; Help > Check for Updates… offers it every time. Switch puts it in place as an update does. Don’t Ask Again, in the switch’s window or an update’s, keeps your build: its updates stay of its kind, and only Help > Check for Updates… offers the switch.When the program’s folder cannot be written to (
Program Files), Download is offered instead.The AppImage is replaced by the new one.
The first start does not check, and --no-update-check skips the check for one run. The
check sends a request to api.github.com and, for the list of changes, one to
raw.githubusercontent.com; the program’s version is in them, nothing else is.
A program you built yourself, or one from a distribution’s package, checks only when you turn the check on, and then offers the release page instead of a file.
This manual¶
Help > Manual opens this manual from the program’s own files, so it needs no network. It opens in the language of your system when the manual has that language, and in English when it does not. Switch the language at the top of the left column.