The ZX Spectrum Emulator, Z80, has been available for the 5 series for many years and given the relatively small catalogue of games available for the Psion the emulator adds a vast range of games to the handhelds.
There's a great video made a few years ago by RetroGamerVX showing how to use the emulator, so I won't cover that in great detail here, but I'm interested in just how well some games perform.
The Psion 5 series isn't renown for a big clear screen, unlike the superior 3 series and Revo screens, and combined with my aging eyesight I find the 5 series increasingly more difficult to use, so how will games designed for TVs in the 1980s fair up on the 5/5mx screen? I've put a few games to the test.
A few points to note first. The emulator has a 'colour' setting. This isn't really a colour setting of course, but toggles the colour schemes used in the games to sometimes invert the colours on the Psion. Experiment for best results. You can access this from the menu or press Control-C while using the emulator. Another useful function is adjusting the screen size. From the menu you can choose Display and set between normal and large (there's also a custom option). Large fits the width of the screen which is good at times but does distort the image. One final point to note, sound is disabled by default. You can switch it on but you might find it affects the performance.
XEVIOUS
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| Xevious is playable on the 7
Series but the ghosting effect is still very noticeable |
The classic vertical shoot-em-up is a bit of a classic on the old home computers. But how does it fair up on the humble Psion 5? Well the first thing I found was to change the colour settings in the emulator. This helped, but personally I found it extremely hard to spot the bullets, the Psion screen ghosting being the enemy here. On the 7 Series it's definitely playable but the ghosting it still very noticable. I'll give it the thumbs up but there are better games to play on the emulator.
Verdict: 5mx 👎 Series 7 👍
FROGGY
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| Froggy on the ZX Spectrum |
Froggy by DJL Software is a nice version of the classic Frogger game. On the Spectrum it's a beautiful feast of colour as you can see above. On the Psion monochome isn't the enemy here, it's the ghosting effect again, making it's almost impossible to see the moving objects accurately. I did try this on the Psion 7, and while the ghosting was still there it's just about playable, so worth a look.
Verdict: 5mx 👎 Series 7 👍
BOMB JACK
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|
| Bomb Jack on the Psion 5mx |
Probably my all time favourite ZX Spectrum game. The difficulty is pitched just right in Bomb Jack, and the controls and movement are a joy. So how does it fair up on the Psion? Well on the 5mx, after tweaking the colour setting and leaving the display in normal width it produces a fairly decent display (especially with enough light on the screen). Some of the levels have more background than others, and that can make it tricky at times to see enemies, but with no tiny bullets and extremely fast moving objects Bomb Jack is a playable game here. On the 7 Series it's fantastic, bar no sound.
Verdict: 5mx 👍 Series 7 👍
FLYING SHARK
Flying Shark was originally an arcade hit converted to home micros with mixed success. The Spectrum conversion isn't bad, moving along at a decent speed with lots happening on the screen. One of the main problems though was the background clashing with the bullets, and the situation unfortunately is even worse on the Psion. On the 7 Series it's okay and playable, but I struggled to get anywhere on the 5mx. Others may have better success but I found there's just too much background and ghosting of the moving objects.
Verdict: 5mx 👎 Series 7 👍
MANIC MINER
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| Manic Miner on the 5mx |
The iconic platform game from 1983 is a firm favourite on the
ZX Spectrum. This plays very well on the 7 Series as you might
expect, while on the 5mx, after toggling the colours it wasn't
bad at all. There's still the ghosting effect on fast moving
objects, but I found it slightly easier to stretch the screen to
large size. Playing on a 5 series might not be the greatest
experience but it works. A tentative thumbs up.
Verdict: 5mx 👍 Series 7 👍
FOOTBALL MANAGER
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| Football Manager on the 5mx in
large display mode |
The strategy game that started all football management games released in 1982 is a classic to try out on the emulator. On the 7 Series it's a great experience, with full screen colour graphics that aren't adversely impacted by ghosting other games suffer. However on the 5 series it's more of a struggle. Like most Spectrum text displayed on the emulator the rows appear close together and despite toggling the colours it's difficult to find a view what's going on. The match highlights on the 5mx fair up a lot better, showing the action pretty well. So if you can cope with the difficulty in reading the text (perhaps with a decent light or good sunlight), maybe you can make this work for you.
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| Football Manager on the Psion
7 is a joy |
VIRUS
Converting Virus to the ZX Spectrum was an amazing feat.
Originally 'Zarch' on the Acorn Archimedes, the first
commercially available 32 bit home computer, it was converted to
the 16 bit Amiga and Atari ST. So it's no small miracle this
game made its way on the humble Spectrum. So how does it do on
the Psion? Well not too brilliant. The good news is toggling the
colour settings does improve things so make the wire frame
graphics quite visible, but the refresh rate is sadly too low
and the bullets too small to see before you are hit. Sadly this
is a thumbs down for me on the Psion emulator.
Verdict: 5mx 👎 Series 7 👍
XENOBLAST
Well I had hoped this especially would work, being one of my own releases (shameless plug, you can download it from itch.io here. Sadly though on the 5 series it suffers similar problems to Xevious with ghosting and hard to see bullets, so a non-starter. It's very playable on the 7 Series however, if a little blurring on occasions.Verdict: 5mx 👎 Series 7 👍
THE LORDS OF MIDNIGHT
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| The Lords of Midnight on the
Psion 5mx |
On the Psion 5mx I struggled to read the text in normal indoor light levels. Outdoors or under a good spot light it becomes a lot easier, so can be playable. Changing the colours helps, and I preferred the 'large' wide view setting.
I've thumbs down the 5/5mx here but you might fair up better.
No problems with the 7 Series.
Verdict: 5mx 👎 Series 7 👍
ALL HALLOWS' EVE
All Hallows' Eve is a
modern text adventure by Mancave Software (also available in
physical format from Cronosoft). It uses a
very traditional text format so how does it fair up on the
Psion? Like The Lords of Midnight rows appear very close
together but here text is more readable, using a more standard
font and clear backgrounds. It's still a bit more difficult to
read than native Psion fonts and your mileage will vary. Same
goes for most other plain font text adventures on clear
backgrounds.
Verdict: 5mx 👍 Series 7 👍
JET PAC
Verdict: 5mx 👎 Series 7 👍
LOAD RUNNER
Load Runner is another early Speccy platformer that's great fun
when you get the hang of it. While on the Psion 7 Series this
remains fun on the 5mx the characters are tiny, making this just
too hard to play for me sadly.
Verdict: 5mx 👎 Series 7 👍
HEAD OVER HEELS
Last but not least I put the 1987 game Head of Heels to the
test. With an adjustment to the colours and settings it
produces a very playable game on the Psion 5mx. Contrast is
good, characters are large and clear and ghosting is minimal
thanks to the controlled speed of movement. Controls are
responsive and can be customised in game. My only criticism is
the text on the main menu is tricky to read but that can be
overlooked given how well the game plays. Recommended for all
Psions.
Verdict: 5mx 👍 Series 7 👍
What about the Revo?
Despite the smaller screen and resolution the Revo has a much
better contrast than the 5/5mx, making playing Spectrum games
generally easier. One downside is the lack of backlight of
course, but in normal light you're sure to get better results.
Summary:
- On all Psions games without extremely fast movement make it
a lot easier to see what is going on and avoid ghosting
effect.
- On the Psion 7 just about all games I've tried worked okay,
with the only real issue being ghosting on the fastest games.
- Any games relying heavily on text may be a struggle to read on the 5/5mx particularly if the text is small, on a clashing background or multi-coloured fonts that aren't clear.
- Games with filled backgrounds can make it very hard to see small moving objects like enemies or bullets etc.
- Isometric games such as Head of Heels and Knight Lore seem well suited to the emulator on all Psions.
- Experiment for yourself! Your eyesight may be better than
mine (I certainly used to find the 5 series easier to look
at!) and you'll have different results in different lighting
conditions. Download some tap files and get testing!
Download links:
The emulator program itself can be downloaded here: Z80 ZX Spectrum Emulator from World of Spectrum
Most of the games here are available to download from the World of Spectrum archive.
Be sure to download the TAP (non tzx) formats of the file.