ep128emu-core

Use ep128emu as a libretro core

Leverage the convenience of libretro/retroarch to emulate the Z80 based home computers that the original ep128emu supports - that is, Enterprise 64/128, Videoton TVC, Amstrad CPC and ZX Spectrum. Focus is on Enterprise and TVC.

Note: The actual documentation is best viewed in Retroarch docs. Source for maintenance is in libretro docs repo. Standalone version also has a few fixes, see standalone README.

Features

For the emulation features, see the original README. Since GUI is replaced by retroarch, features that would require own window (debugger, keyboard layout setting, etc) are not available. Some extra features not required for original games are also excluded (SD card, SID, MIDI, Spectrum emulation card for EP, mouse).

Content types supported:

• Enterprise disk images: img, dsk
• Enterprise tape images: tap (either ep128emu, tapir, or epte format)
• Enterprise compressed files: dtf (via "ZozoTools" ROM)
• Enterprise direct files: com, trn, 128, bas or . (no extension)
• TVC disk images: img, dsk (TVC type guess from disk layout)
• TVC direct files: cas
• TVC tape images: tvcwav (PCM WAV format, 1-bit versions also supported)
• CPC disk images: img, dsk (CPCEMU and extended formats)
• CPC tape images: cdt
• Spectrum tape images: tzx
• Spectrum direct files: tap

For most content types, there is a startup sequence that will do the program loading, except for disk images. Use fast-forward if loading is slow (such as tape input).

Input mapping and configuration

Emulated machine	User 1 default joypad	User 2 default joypad	User 3 default joypad
Enterprise	Internal	External 1	External 2
TVC	Internal	External 1	External 2
CPC	External 1	External 2
ZX	Kempston	Sinclair 1	Sinclair 2

• Fire is X button. CPC Fire2 is A button.
• Joypad setup can be changed under Port Controls / Device Type
• Keyboard input is enabled
  • Be aware that retroarch uses several hotkeys by default, use "Game focus" (Scroll Lock)
• Other buttons for User 1:
  • L-R-L2-R2 buttons are 0-1-2-3 (several games use these in menu)
  • Use L3 button to display current layout
• Configurable core options:
  • wait period (set to 0 if there are performance problems, set higher to reduce CPU load)
  • use software framebuffer (slight performance improvement, may crash)
  • use high quality sound (disable if there are performance problems)
  • enable resolution changes
  • amount of border to keep when zooming in
  • use original or enhanced ROM for Enterprise (faster memory test)
  • zoom and info keys for player 1
  • autofire button and speed for player 1

Other features

• Save/load state, rewind
• Memory maps exposed for cheat support
• Content autostart except for disk images
• Disk change support for multi-disk (or multi-tape) games
• Customizable configuration (per-content or system-wide)
  • See sample.ep128cfg for details
  • User 1 button map can be finetuned
  • Joypad setup for other users can be changed
  • Emulated machine type can be changed
  • Autostart can be enabled also for disk images
  • Following files are recognized in ep128emu/config inside retroarch system directory: enterprise.ep128cfg, tvc.ep128cfg, cpc.ep128cfg, zx.ep128cfg
  • Most options from ep128emu configuration are also recognized in .ep128cfg files,
• Fit to content
  • Pressing R3 will zoom in to the actual content, cropping black/single-colored borders
  • Borders can be cropped completely (default) or using a margin configurable among core options
• LED driver support, add following to retroarch.cfg to use Scroll Lock led for floppy activity:

led_driver="keyboard"
led1_map = "-1"
led2_map = "2"

Using the core

Requirements

• A system with retroarch installed. Linux 32/64-bit, ARM 32-bit, MacOS, and Windows 32 and 64 bit versions of the core are currently available.
• From version 1.1.0, default ROM versions are built in, no need to download separately.

Running the core

On the supported platforms, the core appears in the online updater, can be downloaded and started as usual. Running it directly:

# Linux
retroarch -L ep128emu_core_libretro.so -v <content file>
# Windows
retroarch -L ep128emu_core_libretro.dll -v <content file>

Contributing

Pull requests welcome. For updating emulation features, it may be better to push it to original ep128emu as well.

Links

• ep128.hu - games and ROMs for Enterprise
• enterpriseforever.com - Enterprise community
• tvc.homeserver.hu - TVC page (Hungarian only)

Licensing

Staying with GPL2 as ep128emu.