Re-visiting the good ol' days
MetroSpec, the ZX Spectrum emulator for Windows Phone, is now available on the Marketplace. We've been following the developments of the app itself from when it was pitched to us as an idea at a previous developer meetup, went through beta recently, and now being published. It's a superb app that's well worth checking out, even if you've never heard of the old-skool console.
MetroSpec supports emulation for both 16K and 48K version of the ZX Spectrum, which is accompanied by full sound and three visual quality settings. A handful of titles are bundled with the app, with the ability to import more via SkyDrive or from a web server. Standard .Z80 and .SNA file formats are supported, as well as .TAP and .TZX type formats. To save space, .ZIP, .RAR, .7z, gzip and tar can be used when loading games.
Save state functionality is present with SkyDrive integration so games can be loaded and continued on other platforms and / or emulators. Due to different tiles being available for enjoyment, the controls and key maps in ZX Spectrum can be reconfigured on a game-to-game basis. To keep up with how much time has been spent in each game, statistics are displayed and the last title played is easily accessible via a quick launch.
For convenience games can be pinned to the home screen, favourites can be added and stored, and screenshots are able to be saved to the picture library. Filtering through mass amounts of games is possible through filters (genre, publisher, developer, most played, etc.), which makes it easy to have a fairly sizeable collection while on the go. If one has enjoyed their fair share of retro gaming, the ability to code in Spectrum BASIC is present within the app.
That's just a taste of what's included in MetroSpec. You can download MetroSpec from the Marketplace for $0.99 (79p) with a free version available. The ad-supported version is limited to a maximum of 3 Save slots (instead of the full 9), maximum of 2 pinned game tiles, as well as the number of games available to import - unfortunately we're unable to see the latter on the Marketplace yet, it shouldn't be long.
