(Occasionally there will be important pieces of Spectrum BASIC to look at. they tend to be rare on the ZX Spectrum. These can be analysed, but we’ll ignore these at this time. Occasionally, a game will have been written in a high-level non-compiled language (e.g. Sometimes there are complexities like self-modifying code, but it’s safe to ignore these at this early stage. We will want to change the binary numbers of the machine code into assembler mnemonics - human readable version of the instructions. Each subroutine can be analysed to various depths - depending upon the information required. The ZX Spectrum had a Z80 microprocessor, so has a specific machine 'language' or code. These are the routines that run the game. Next let’s look at the types data we will want to examine. As soon as it runs on an emulator, you are good to go.įor later games, this snapshot format generally has had any unpacking or unscrambling (simple encryption used on later ZX Spectrum games) already done, which mean the code, graphics and text strings are in plain format. Getting a game off a physical tape into a modern computer is outside the scope of this article - but there are plenty of resources. tap/tzx file into a ZX Spectrum emulator and save as one of these formats. For games on World-of-Spectrum, SNA or Z80 formats.

It can be disassembled into Z80 code and graphics directly. Generally a snapshot of the memory when the game/program has loaded is much easier to deal with, for several reasons. You need a binary image of the Spectrum memory. because it’s important no one gets into trouble about this. I’ve put a brief introduction to the legal implications at the bottom. The techniques here are generally a form of reverse engineering. I accept no responsibility for any liability and I will not show any techniques that involve breaking copy protection. I assume you are doing this simply for ‘academic’ interest (learning, etc.). The techniques are generally applicable to other platforms, programs and systems with some changes.

These series of instructions give you some hints about how to take apart a (16 or 48K) Sinclair ZX Spectrum game.

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