ElectrEm 0.6b review
DownloadElectrEm is an emulator of the Acorn Electron, an 8bit microcomputer first launched in 1983 that was once the fourth best selling in the UK market.
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ElectrEm is an emulator of the Acorn Electron, an 8bit microcomputer first launched in 1983 that was once the fourth best selling in the UK market. Although sold as compatible with the BBC Micro, the only shared component is the 6502 CPU. All other compatibility is achieved through a well documented firmware interface to graphics mode setting, sound generation and keyboard/joystick input.
Although the number of programs that directly use the Electron hardware so as to be incompatible with the BBC is small, the Electron is subject to a variable bus speed that makes most Electron software work at the wrong speed on the BBC and makes the implementation of an emulation based on an existing BBC emulator or almost any other 6502 emulation code impractical if not impossible.
ElectrEm also strives for ease of use to an extent not previously common in the Acorn emulation community. On the whole it is enough to point the emulator towards a tape or disc image and it will automatically configure the emulated hardware into a compatible form and then launch it.
What's New:
re-organised Preferences dialogue to make it more user friendly
added a helpful warning if the user attempts to set a printer target but has the required hardware disabled
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