Although not officially supported, it does run well (although can be a bit fiddly as it is designed for touch screens). It is suitable for playing games with a physical keyboard and/or joystick.

You can add your own games and artwork much the same as the iOS version, except the folder to copy to is here

~/Library/Containers/Spectaculator/Data/Documents

Open a Finder window, Press Cmd+Shift+G and type the path above.

Installing and configuring Wine is beyond the scope of this document but this simple quick guide assumes a Debian derivative such as Ubuntu or Linux Mint.

You must be familiar with the Linux terminal and run the following commands:
(ignore lines with #s, these are comments)

# Install Wine
sudo apt install wine
# Optional configuration
winecfg

Install Spectaculator

# Install Spectaculator (assumes Spectaculator90.msi is in the current folder)
wine Spectaculator90.msi

Running Spectaculator

# Run wine explorer
wine explorer

Navigate to the Spectaculator folder and double-click SpecStub.exe to start it.

Spectaculator will now run:

Further customisations are possible, such as creating applet on a Cinnamon panel to start it.

• Spectaculator 8
• Spectaculator 8 with lifetime free upgrades
• Spectaculator 7.51 and older

If you have lost your serial number, contact support and we can recover it for you.

I’m excited to announce that Spectaculator 9 is now available for Windows. It’s been a long time coming but worth the wait!

Updated for modern hardware and Windows

Spectaculator now supports high DPI (4K) displays and multi-monitor setups.

You can now drag Spectaculator to whichever monitor you want to use and go full screen on that monitor.

The display is now crisp and sharp again on modern versions of Windows with 4K displays. Overlays in particular benefit greatly from high DPI screens.

Previously, Windows would just scale the low-res window manually, causing a blurry effect and ruining any display enhancements such as scan lines and overlays.

More information here.

Debugger Enhancements

There are a huge number of improvements to the debugger in this release and was the main focus:

• Debugger projects for saving and loading debugger sessions (breakpoints, watches, labels, comments, bookmarks).
• Complex breakpoints
• Watches
• Inline Assembler
• Bookmarks
• Comments
• Memory Inspector
• Call Stack window
• Screen Inspector
• Graphics Inspector
• … and many more

List of Changes

For a complete list of changes, see the documentation.

Does my existing serial number work with Spectaculator 9?

Spectaculator 9 is a free upgrade for users that purchased version 7.5 and older and those that purchased 8.0 /w lifetime free upgrades:

• Spectaculator 8
• Spectaculator 8 with lifetime free upgrades
• Spectaculator 7.51 and older

If you have lost your serial number, contact support and we can recover it for you.

…And Finally

Seasons Greetings to everyone still playing with the rubber keyed wonder!

Jonathan Needle, December 2025.

Normally the user is responsible for selecting the correct controls (Keyboard, Kempston, Interface II etc.) and pressing various keys to start the game (which vary from game to game).

Spectaculator automates all of this via a process known as Autoconfig: The correct controls are automatically selected and locked so the user doesn’t accidentally change them. Pressing the red button (or button A on a gamepad) starts the game.

However, if you want to use a Bluetooth keyboard to play these games, disable Autoconfig in the Settings section and reload the game – the controls will now be unlocked.

Two images can be added for each game. Both must be in PNG format:

1. A smaller thumbnail used in the games and programs list. This should be 90 pixels wide, 138 pixels tall and must be named [game filename].icon.png.
2. A larger version used on the game details screen. This one should be upto 280 pixels wide (although generally 233px for a standard cassette box), 357 pixels tall and must be named [game filename].artwork.png.

Place both in the same folder as the game itself (you will need to perform a pull refresh on the games list screen if Spectaculator is already running).

In the example below, artwork has been added for Quazatron by Hewson (available from WoS since Rebellion® have granted free distribution rights):

Supported file formats include .tap, .tzx, .dsk, .szx, .z80. It’s recommended to use tape images (.tap, .tzx) and Spectrum +3 disk images (.dsk) for the best experience.

macOS

Adding a game is straight forward:

• Connect your iOS device to your Mac using an appropriate cable.
• Trust your device, if asked.
• In the Finder, locate your device in the left menu and click it.
• Click the Files tab to show your apps and locate Spectaculator.
• Drag the game you want to play from another Finder window and drop it on Spectaculator.
• The game will be uploaded to your device.
• If Spectaculator is already running on your device, perform a pull refresh on the games list screen.

NOTE: You can uploaded multiple games at the same time.

Windows PCs

On Windows, you will first need to install the Apple Devices app from the store, if you don’t already have it.

• Connect your iOS device to your Windows PC using an appopriate cable.
• Trust your device, if asked.
• Start the Apple Devices app.
• In the Apple Devices app, locate your device in the left menu and click it.
• Click the Files item to show your apps and locate Spectaculator.
• Drag the game you want to play from a Windows explorer window and drop it on Spectaculator. Alternatively, click the Add File… button and select the game to upload.
• The game will be uploaded to your device.
• If Spectaculator is already running on your device, perform a pull refresh on the games list screen.

NOTE: You can uploaded multiple games at the same time.

After refreshes for Android and iOS last month, Spectaculator 8.0 for iOS is the first major update in 5 years!

Since it’s inception, one particular feature has been requested more than any other. Thanks to a recent change of Apple’s policies regarding emulation, we can finally bring this to iOS.

Add your own games!

Supported formats include .tap, .tzx, .dsk, .szx and .z80.

Controls and artwork can be fully customised for each game. Further information can be found in the FAQ:

• How can I add my own games to Spectaculator for iOS?

External (Physical) keyboard support

In previous versions, this was always limited to Adventure type games as iOS didn’t provide key up/down events which are a must for playing most Spectrum games.

With iOS 13.4, Apple introduced this feature. It’s now possible to use an external keyboard to play games and write BASIC programs. For older devices running iOS 12 and below, this is still limited to playing text adventure type games.

New versions of Spectaculator are available today on Google Play (v2.1) and the App Store (v6.1).

The Android version has been updated to the same set officially licensed ZX Spectrum games as the iOS version.

iOS Game Controller Support

Spectaculator now works with iOS game controllers such as the Moga Rebel, Mad Catz C.T.R.L.ⁱ, SteelSeries Stratus and many more.

The touch screen controls of all existing games are intelligently mapped onto the game controller buttons and sticks.

ZX Spectrum games should always be played using physical controls and now you can, finally, on iOS!

Improved support for physical controls and gamepads

Spectaculator for Android now supports the extended set of buttons, sticks and triggers on modern gamepads. This support extends to devices with built-in physical controls such as the JXD 7800b (above).

Availability

Spectaculator is available now on Google Play (v2.1) and the App Store (v6.1).

Normally the user is responsible for selecting the correct controls (Keyboard, Kempston, Interface II etc.) and pressing various keys to start the game (which vary from game to game).

Spectaculator automates all of this via a process known as Autoconfig: The correct controls are automatically selected and locked so the user doesn’t accidentally change them. Pressing the red button (or button A on a gamepad) starts the game.

However, if you want to use a Bluetooth keyboard, locking the controls restricts which keys can be used to play the game. There are a fixed set of keys that map directly to the on-screen controls:

From version 2.1, the Autoconfig feature can be disabled:

This disables all enhancements to the built-in and purchased games – the game is loaded in its original, unmodified form.

Do not disable this feature unless you need it for the reasons outlined in this document. Doing so generally makes all built-in and purchased games unplayable using the touch controls and gamepads.