Pi Pico Gets a ZX Spectrum Emulator

antirez has developed ZX2040, a ZX Spectrum emulator ported to the Raspberry Pi Pico microcontroller. Leveraging Andre Weissflog’s existing ZX Spectrum emulator, ZX2040 is tailored for the Pi Pico platform and is optimized for use with ST77xx TFT displays. The emulator features a user interface optimized for small, low-resolution screens and minimal buttons, catering to the Pi Pico’s compact form factor and lack of a full QWERTY keyboard.

To achieve smooth performance, certain optimizations and hacks were implemented. The microcontroller is overclocked to ensure sufficient processing power, and the emulator dynamically upscales or downscales the display resolution in real-time to accommodate various display sizes. This flexibility allows the emulator to run on a variety of displays, despite their differences from the ZX Spectrum’s original resolution of 256×192 pixels.

The project’s code is available on GitHub, accompanied by detailed insights from antirez into the underlying mechanisms of the emulator and the optimizations applied to make it functional on the Pi Pico platform.

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