Writing Code Like It's 1982

Since there is now a real chance that I will get my long-expected Spectrum Next in the next few months, I've started to set up a production pipeline for some good old Z80 assembly programming.

There are multiple options that even support the extended features of the Spectrum Next, but they all come with some limitations. I'm working on a Mac, so that limits the options somewhat, but I ended up actually using a Windows-only assembler/emulator combination.

• Editor: BBEdit with Derek Bolli's Z80 Codeless Language Module for BBEdit
• Assembler: Mike Dailly's SNASM (included with CSpect below)
• Emulator: Mike Dailly's CSpect

The main issue with SNASM and CSpect is that both are Windows apps. CSpect is actually a Mono app and once I had Mono for OSX installed I can run the emulation quite nicely from the OSX Terminal. SNASM is unfortunately a DOS app, so I have VirtualBox with a Windows 10 image running that has my Z80 development folder as a shared folder mapped to the D: drive.

This setup is actually relatively transparent during development and the assembler supports all current Next-specific extensions to the Z80 instruction set. CSpect supports the new graphics modes and also the Next hardware registers, so I can now move ahead and start work on Spectrum apps.

First I have to acquaint myself with Z80 assembly after taking a 35-year break. It's been a long time.