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Good Z80 Assembler / Simulator

Posted: Fri Jan 03, 2014 6:11 pm
by Johnny Starr
I know this is a 6502 forum, but I am really hoping that some of you might recommend a good solution for assembling / simulating the Z80.

I've looked around, but have either only found DOS based simulators with little documentation, or expensive commercial applications.

I'm just looking for a simple cross assembler and a way to test the code.

I find it odd that there is so much out there for the 6502 but not the Z80. Perhaps I am not looking in the right place.

Thanks,

Re: Good Z80 Assembler / Simulator

Posted: Fri Jan 03, 2014 8:14 pm
by nyef
Try looking at video-game related websites, such as smspower. A number of home video game systems (off the top of my head, mostly SEGA systems), used the Z80 as a CPU, and enthusiasts still develop new games for these. Or MSX computer related websites, for the same reason. You'll find emulators for Linux, for Windows, for Mac, open source and closed source, and if you start with a computer emulator then you can probably find a self-hosting development kit for it, even if it's "just" an assembler and debugger.

Re: Good Z80 Assembler / Simulator

Posted: Sat Jan 04, 2014 6:59 am
by BigEd

Re: Good Z80 Assembler / Simulator

Posted: Sat Jan 04, 2014 9:03 am
by Tor
There's also this overview: http://www.z80.info/z80emu.htm

On that page you will find a link to e.g. 'z80pack' which I've used myself. Would insert a link but the Android browser is unable to paste text into posts at the right place when editing.

-Tor

Re: Good Z80 Assembler / Simulator

Posted: Sat Jan 04, 2014 10:30 am
by rwiker
There's also a NewBrain emulator from http://www.newbrain.info – Windows only, but it seems to come bundled with some software, and I think an assembler is also available for it.

Note: I haven't tried this myself.

Re: Good Z80 Assembler / Simulator

Posted: Sat Jan 04, 2014 10:37 am
by BigEd
Tor wrote:
... 'z80pack' which I've used myself. Would insert a link but ...
Thanks Tor, that looks good: http://www.autometer.de/unix4fun/z80pack/ (cross platform, open source, windows port can be found. Command line but supports front panel models (even 3D models))

I should mention, Dajgoro here set up http://anycpu.org/forum as an overflow for any non-6502 micro enthusiasts. Thus far, most of the users there are also here. It's not clear to me that we need such an overflow, but if we do, there it is.

Edit: I reposted this query there, at http://anycpu.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=106

Cheers
Ed

Re: Good Z80 Assembler / Simulator

Posted: Sat Jan 04, 2014 2:14 pm
by Tor
Thanks Ed.
Another Z80 emulator listed on www.z80.info is 'YAZE', 'Yet Another Z80 Emulator'. There are two variants (at least). I have used this one also. Both z80pack and Yaze are good. The Yaze variant I used was for CP/M 3.0 emulation, via this page: http://www.moria.de/~michael/yaze-cpm3/

(I'll post a summary of this on anycpu.org as well)

-Tor

Re: Good Z80 Assembler / Simulator

Posted: Sat Jan 04, 2014 2:19 pm
by BigEd
Thanks - that looks good too!

(About the cpcwiki - I found that in a post with an attached comment saying that it was active. And now I notice that there's an attached forum at http://www.cpcwiki.eu/forum/emulators and nearby.)