Fuse has many options to
control various details of the emulator and the machine being emulated.
Reset Preferences This is available at the bottom of each peferences screen and will cause all of Fuse's current preferences to be discarded and replaced with the default values as shipped.
The General Options tab lets you configure miscellaneous Fuse options.
Emulation speed Set how fast Fuse will attempt to emulate the Spectrum, as a percentage of the speed at which the real machine runs. If your machine isn't fast enough to keep up with the requested speed, Fuse will just run as fast as it can. Note that if the emulation speed is not exactly 100%, no sound output will be produced.
Screen refresh rate Specify the frame rate, the ratio of spectrum frame updates to real frame updates. This is useful if your machine is having trouble keeping up with the spectrum screen updates.
Issue 2 keyboard Early versions of the Spectrum used a different value for unused bits on the keyboard input ports, and a few games depended on the old value of these bits. Enabling this option switches to the old value, to let you run those games.
Late timings If selected, Fuse will cause all screen-related timings (for example, when the screen is rendered and when memory contention occurs) to be one tstate later than "normal", an effect which is present on some real hardware.
Use tape traps Ordinarily, Fuse intercepts calls to the ROM tape-loading routine in order to load from tape files more quickly when possible. But this can (rarely) interfere with TZX loading; disabling this option avoids the problem at the cost of slower (i.e. always real-time) tape-loading. When tape-loading traps are disabled, you need to start tape playback manually, by choosing theTape, Play menu item.
Fast tape loading If this option is enabled, then Fuse will run at the fastest possible speed when the virtual tape is playing, thus dramatically reducing the time it takes to load programs. You may wish to disable this option if you wish to stop the tape at a specific point.
Detect
tape loaders If this option is enabled, Fuse
will attempt to detect when a loading routine is in progress, and then
automatically start the virtual tape
to load the program in. This is done by using a heuristic to identify a
loading routine, so is by no means infalliable, but works in most cases.
Use .slt traps The multi-load aspect of SLT files requires a trap instruction to be supported. This instruction is not generally used except for this trap, but since it's not inconceivable that a program could be wanting to use the real instruction instead, you can choose whether to support the trap or not.
Confirm actions Specify whether `dangerous' actions (those which could cause data loss, for example resetting the Spectrum) require confirmation before occuring.
Allow writes to ROM If this option is selected, Fuse will happily allow programs to overwrite what would normally be ROM. This probably isn't very useful in most circumstances, especially as the 48K ROM overwrites parts of itself.
Show tape/disk status Enables the status icons showing whether the disk and tape are being accessed.
Set joysticks on snapshot load Controls whether Fuse should allow snapshot files to override your current joystick configuration.
Save thumbnail icons Controls whether Fuse uses a thumbnail of the current screen image as the icon when saving snapshots and screenshots.
The Sound Options tab lets you configure Fuse's sound output.
Enabled Specify whether sound output should be enabled at all. When this option is disabled, Fuse will not make any sound.
Volume Slider for overall Fuse volume.
Loading sounds Normally, Fuse emulates tape-loading noise when loading from TAPs or TZXs in real-time, albeit at a deliberately lower volume than on a real Spectrum. You can disable this option to eliminate the loading noise entirely.
AY stereo separation By default, the sound output is mono, since this is all you got from an unmodified Spectrum. But enabling this option gives you so-called ACB stereo (for sound from the 128's AY-3-8912 sound chip). This actually works a little better than ACB stereo modifications for the machine itself, since it uses stereo positioning rather than simply playing on one channel only.
Beeper
pseudo-stereo
The Spectrum beeper is
inherently mono, but enabling this option adds a simple fake-stereo
effect. While the slight echo involved can sometimes make beeper
noise sound worse, in many cases it gives an acceptable
result.
Hi-Fi beeper Use higher fidelity sound generation to improve the reproduction of some multi-channel beeper tunes by reducing aliasing noise (e.g. Fairlight 2).
The Peripherals tab, lets
you configure the peripherals which Fuse
will consider to be attached to the emulated machines.
None If this option is selected, Fuse will not emulate any mass storage device (except for the integrated disk devices on the +3, Pentagon and Scorpion).
Interface I If this option is selected, Fuse will emulate the Sinclair Interface I, and allow microdrive cartriges to be inserted and removed via the Media, Interface I, Microdrive menus.
Simple 8-bit IDE If this option is selected, Fuse will emulate the simple 8-bit IDE interface as used by the Spectrum +3e, and allow hard disks to be connected and disconnected via the Media, IDE, Simple 8-bit menu.
ZXATASP interface If this option is selected, Fuse will emulate the ZXATASP interface, which provides both additional RAM and an IDE interface. See the ZXATASP AND ZXCF section for more details.
ZXCF
interface
If this option is
selected, Fuse will emulate the ZXCF interface, which provides both
additional RAM and a CompactFlash interface. See the
ZXATASP AND ZXCF section for
more details.
DivIDE interface If this option is selected, Fuse will emulate the DivIDE interface, which provides both additional RAM and a IDE interface. See the DivIDE section for more details.
+D interface If this option is selected, Fuse will emulate the +D interface, which provides both a floppy drive and a printer interface. See the +D EMULATION section for more details.
Beta
128
interface
If this option is
selected, Fuse will emulate the Beta 128 interface, which provides a
floppy drive interface. See the BETA 128
EMULATION
section for
more details. Beta 128 emulation is enabled for the Pentagon and
Scorpion machines regardless of this option.
ZXATASP upload This option controls the state of the ZXATASP upload jumper. See the ZXATASP AND ZXCF section for more details.
ZXATASP write protect This option controls the state of the ZXATASP write protect jumper. See the ZXATASP AND ZXCF section for more details.
ZXCF
upload
This option controls the
state of the ZXCF upload jumper. See the
ZXATASP AND ZXCF section for
more details.
DivIDE
write protect
This option controls the
state of the DivIDE EEPROM write protect jumper (E). See the DivIDE section for
more details.
MDR
cartridge len
This option controls the
number of blocks in a new microdrive cartridge. If the value smaller
than 4 or greater than 254 Fuse assumes 4 or 254. See the Interface I section for
more details.
See the
Printer Emulation section
for more details.
Emulate
printers
Specify whether
emulation should include a printer.
Graphic
Output File
Specify the filename and
location for the printer graphics output file.
Text
Output File
Specify the filename and
location for the printer text output file.
Kempston joystick interface If this option is selected, Fuse will emulate a Kempston joystick interface (probably the most widely supported type on the Spectrum). Note that this option is basically equivalent to plugging the interface itself into a Spectrum, not to connecting a joystick; this affects how the Spectrum responds to a read of input port 31. To use a Kempston joystick in a game, this option must be enabled, and you must also select a Kempston joystick the Options, Joysticks... menu.
Kempston mouse If this option is selected, Fuse will emulate a Kempston mouse interface. If you're using Fuse full-screen, your mouse is automatically used as if attached to the Kempston interface. Otherwise, you'll need to click on the Spectrum display in order to tell Fuse to grab the pointer (and make it invisible); to tell Fuse to release it, press Escape.
Interface
II
If this option is
selected, Fuse will emulate a cartridge port as found on the
Interface II. Cartridges can then be inserted and removed via the
Media, Cartridge, Interface
II menu. Note that the Pentagon, Scorpion, Interface
II, ZXATASP and ZXCF all use the same hardware mechanism for
accessing some of their extended features, so only one of these
should be selected at once or unpredictable behaviour will
occur.
The RZX options tab, lets you configure how Fuse deals with RZX emulator input recordings.
Create autosaves If this option is selected, Fuse will add a snapshot into the recording stream every 5 seconds while creating an RZX file, thus enabling the rollback facilities to be used without having to explicitly add snapshots into the stream. Older snapshots will be pruned from the stream to keep the file size and number of snapshots down: each snapshot up to 15 seconds will be kept, then one snapshot every 15 seconds until one minute, then one snapshot every minute until 5 minutes, and then one snapshot every 5 minutes. Note that this "pruning" applies only to automatically inserted snapshots: snapshots manually inserted into the stream will never be pruned.
Compress data If this option is selected, any RZX files written by Fuse will be compressed. This is generally a good thing as it makes the files significantly smaller, and you probably want to turn it off only if you're debugging the RZX files or there's some other program which doesn't support compressed RZX files.
Competition mode Any input recordings which are started when this option is selected will be made in `competition mode'. In essence, this means that Fuse will act just like a real Spectrum would: you can't load snapshots, pause the emulation in any way, change the speed or anything that you couldn't do on the real machine. If any of these things are attempted, or if the emulated Fuse is running more than 5% faster or slower than normal Spectrum speed, then the recording will immediately be stopped.
Recordings made with competition mode active will be digitally signed, in theory to `certify' that it was made with the above restrictions in place. However, this procedure is not secure (and cannot be made so), so the presence of any signature on an RZX file should not be taken as providing proof that it was made with competition mode active. This feature is included in Fuse solely as it was one of the requirements for Fuse to be used in an on-line tournament.
Competition code The numeric code entered here will be written into any RZX files made in competition mode. This is another feature for on-line tournaments which can be used to `prove' that the recording was made after a specific code was released. If you're not playing in such a tournament, you can safely ignore this option.
Always
embed snapshot
Specify whether a
snapshot should be embedded in an RZX file when recording is
started from an existing snapshot.
Fuse can emulate many of the common types of joystick which were available for the Spectrum. The input for these emulated joysticks can be taken from real joysticks attached to the emulating machine, or from the q, a, o, p, and space keys on the emulating machines keyboard, configured via the Real device option. You can also configure which joystick axes to use on gamepads with more than one joystick/pad. Note that when using the keyboard to emulate a joystick, the q, a, o, p, and space keys will not have their normal effect (to avoid problems with games which do things like use p for pause when using a joystick). See also the Machine, Bind Keys to Joystick option.
Each of the joysticks (including the `fake' keyboard joystick) can be configured to emulate any one of the following joystick types:
None No joystick: any input will simply be ignored.
Cursor A cursor joystick, equivalent to pressing 5 (left), 6 (down), 7 (up), 8 (right), and 0 (fire).
Kempston A Kempston joystick, read from input port 31. Note that the Options, Peripherals, Kempston interface option must also be set for the input to be recognised.
Sinclair 1 Sinclair 2 The `left' and `right' Sinclair joysticks, equivalent to pressing 1 (left), 2 (right), 3 (down), 4 (up), and 5 (fire), or 6 (left), 7 (right), 8 (down), 9 (up), and 0 (fire) respectively.
Timex 1 Timex 2 The `left' and `right' joysticks as attached to the TC2068's built-in joystick interface.
For the real
joysticks, it is also possible to configure what effect each button
on the joystick will have: this can be Joystick Fire, equivalent to
presing the emulated joystick's fire button, Nothing, meaning to
have no effect, or any Spectrum key, meaning that pressing that
button will be equivalent to pressing that Spectrum key.
An individual setting is
available for each Spectrum variant emulated by Fuse which allows
selection of the ROM(s) used by that machine. Simply select the ROM
you wish to use, and then reset the Spectrum for the change to take
effect.
Choose a type of Spectrum to emulate. An brief overview of the Sinclair, Amstrad and Timex computers can be found at http://www.nvg.ntnu.no/sinclair/computers/zxspectrum/zxspectrum.htm, while more technical information can be found at http://www.worldofspectrum.org/faq/reference/reference.htm.
Spectrum 16K Spectrum 48K The original machines as released by Sinclair in 1982 with 16 or 48K of RAM respectively.
Spectrum 128K The 128K machine as released by Sinclair in 1985 (Spain) or 1986 (UK).
Spectrum +2 The first machine released by Amstrad, in 1986. From an emulation point of view, the +2 is virtually identical to the 128K.
Spectrum +2A Spectrum +3 The two machines released by Amstrad in 1988. Technically very similar to each other, except that the +3 features a 3" disk drive while the +2A does not.
Spectrum
+3e
A +3 with modified ROMs
allowing access to IDE hard disks via the simple 8-bit interface,
as activated from the Options,
Peripherals dialog. See the
http://www.zxplus3e.plus.com/
for more details.
Timex TS2068 The NTSC variant of the Spectrum as released by Timex in North America.
Timex TC2048 Timex TC2068 The variants of the Spectrum as released by Timex in Portugal. See http://www.worldofspectrum.org/faq/reference/tmxreference.htm for more details on the Timex models.
Pentagon
128K
Russian clone of the
Spectrum. There were many different machines
called Pentagon from 1989 to 2006, this machine corresponds to a 1991
era Pentagon-128K with the optional AY sound chip and the integrated
Beta 128 disk interface, and is the version of the machine most often
emulated. More technical details can be found at
http://www.worldofspectrum.org/rusfaq/index.html.
Pentagon 512K Pentagon 1024K Newer versions of the Pentagon Russian Spectrum clones which incorporate more memory and the "Mr Gluk Reset Service" ROM offering a more powerful firmware.
Scorpion ZS 256 Another Russian clone of the Spectrum. Some details can be found at http://www.worldofspectrum.org/rusfaq/index.html, like all the Russian clones they have built in 3.5" disk drives, accessed via the Betadisk interface and TR-DOS (the Technology Research Disk Operating System). The most important distinction from the Pentagon 128k and similar machines is the display timing details.
Spectrum
SE
A recent variant
designed by Andrew Owen and Jarek Adamski, which is possibly best
thought of as a cross between the 128K machine and the Timex
variants, allowing 272K of RAM to be accessed. Some more details
are available at
http://www.worldofspectrum.org/faq/reference/sereference.htm.
Select the graphics filter currently in use. See the GRAPHICS FILTERS section for more details.
Bilinear This filter can be used in addition to any of the other graphics filters and sets each pixels colour based on it's nearest neighbours vertically and horizontally.
Black and white TV This option allows you to choose whether to simulate a colour or black and white television.
Use scanlines in PAL TV filters This option allows you to choose whether the PAL TV scalers should also simulate TV scanlines.