CSpect Launcher

A game launcher for the ZX Spectrum Next emulator CSpect. Version 1.5 · © 2026 Giuseppe Papa · GPL-3.0

CSpect Launcher is a simple Windows, Linux and macOS front-end that lists the ZX Spectrum Next games in a folder and starts them in the CSpect emulator with one click. You can rate games, add cover pictures, hide games you do not want to see, set custom launch parameters per game and much more.

The interface is available in English, Italian, Spanish, French and German.

🐧🍎 Linux and macOS version: a version with the same features for Linux and macOS (macOS support is experimental) is available in the linux folder and as the CSpectLauncher-Linux-macOS package in the Releases — see the Linux / macOS README. All versions use the same games.ini file.

Features

• Game list with search and sorting by name or rating
• 1–5 star ratings
• Cover pictures, taken automatically from CSpect screenshots (F5)
• Executables found in the game folder and its subfolders (.nex, .snx, .sna)
• NextBASIC (.bas), tape (.tap) and Z-machine text adventure (.z3–.z8) games started automatically through NextZXOS
• Per-game launch parameters, custom titles and hidden games
• Fixes for old games that crash in CSpect 3, with the CSpect Compat plugin
• Delete a game's save files (moved to the Recycle Bin)
• Settings for language, folders, window size (1x–4x) and full screen
• Everything stored in a plain games.ini file
• Versions for Windows, Linux and macOS (experimental)

Requirements

The instructions below are for the Windows version. For Linux and macOS see the Linux / macOS README.

• Windows with Windows PowerShell (already included in Windows 10 and 11)
• The CSpect emulator by Mike Dailly: https://mdf200.itch.io/cspect CSpect itself needs the latest .NET and OpenAL on Windows (see the CSpect ReadMe).

Installation

Download Launcher.bat and Launcher.ps1 and copy them into a folder of your choice. A typical layout is:

My Next Games\
    Launcher.bat        <- double-click this to start the launcher
    Launcher.ps1        <- the launcher program
    games.ini           (created automatically on first run)
    CSpect\             (the CSpect emulator, with CSpect.exe)
    GAMES\
        Bubble Bobble\
            p_BUBNEXT.nex
        Night Knight\
            Night Knight.nex
        ...

Every game must be in its own subfolder inside the games folder. The CSpect and games folders can also be anywhere else on your disk: you choose them in the settings.

First run

Double-click Launcher.bat. If games.ini does not exist yet, a welcome window asks for:

• Language
• Games folder: the folder that contains one subfolder per game
• CSpect folder: the folder that contains CSpect.exe

Use the ... buttons to browse. If you do not have CSpect yet, click the Download CSpect link. Press OK and games.ini is created. Folders inside the launcher folder are saved as relative paths (.\GAMES), so you can move the whole folder elsewhere without changing anything.

How to use

Main window

• Left: the game list, with a Search box, a Sort menu (Name / Rating) and a ♥ button that shows only your favorite games (the choice is remembered). Favorites have a ♥ before the title.
• Right: title, rating stars, cover picture, file name, parameters and the PLAY button.
• Drag the thin divider between list and details to resize the list (the width is remembered).
• The window size is remembered when you close the launcher, and the last game you started is selected again the next time.

Starting a game

Double-click the game, press Enter, or click PLAY. CSpect starts in the folder of the game's executable, so save files and screenshots are stored next to the game.

Supported files are .nex, .snx and .sna, also inside subfolders. Games that only contain NextBASIC (.bas, or a NextBASIC program saved without extension), tape (.tap) or Z-machine (.z3, .z4, .z5, .z7, .z8) files are started through NextZXOS (see below). Games with none of these files are marked (not launchable).

If a folder contains more than one executable, the launcher asks which one to use the first time and remembers the choice (a file named like the folder is offered first). The choice window has an Always use this executable box, checked the first time: uncheck it for compilations (one folder with several games) and the launcher asks every time, with the last choice and the box as you left them.

.bas, .tap and .z5 games (NextZXOS)

CSpect cannot open .bas, .tap and Z-machine (.z3–.z8) files directly: they need NextZXOS, the operating system of the Next. When you start one of these games, the launcher:

1. copies the NextZXOS system files once from your SD card image (by default zxnext.sd in the CSpect folder, the image downloaded by CSpect's ZXOS.bat);
2. creates a small SD card image (64 MB or more) in your temporary folder, with NextZXOS, the game's folder and an autoexec.bas that loads the game;
3. starts CSpect with that image: NextZXOS boots and the game starts by itself.

The image is created with hdfmonkey, which is included with CSpect (hdfmonkey folder). Your zxnext.sd is only read, never changed.

A NextBASIC program saved without autostart is copied into the image as GAME.BAS, starting from its first line, so it runs instead of being only loaded (the file in the game folder is not changed).

CSpect does not include zxnext.sd: it is downloaded the first time you run CSpect's ZXOS.bat. If it is missing, the launcher offers to:

• Yes: run ZXOS.bat now. CSpect opens in full screen and asks "ZX Spectrum next SD Image not found, do you wish to download it?": answer Yes (if the question is hidden behind the full screen, press Alt+Tab). CSpect then downloads the image (the screen stays black meanwhile), while the launcher shows a waiting window with the elapsed time. When the NextZXOS menu appears, close CSpect with Alt+F4: the game then starts by itself;
• No: select an SD card image you already have (saved as nextzxos= in games.ini);
• Cancel: do nothing.

Some .nex games do not start when CSpect loads them directly (for example The Lords of Midnight, which stays on a black screen). For these, choose Start with NextZXOS in the right-click menu: the game is then loaded by NextZXOS (.nexload, or SPECTRUM for .snx) in the same way.

Notes:

• .tap files are loaded in 128K mode (NextZXOS Tape Loader). For games that need the 48K Spectrum, choose Load in 48K mode in the right-click menu (shown only for .tap games); the file shown in the details then ends with (48K).
• Z-machine text adventures (.z3, .z4, .z5, .z7, .z8, such as Infocom games) are played with ZXZVM, the interpreter included in the NextZXOS distribution (C:/GAMES/Z-Machine/ZXZVM in zxnext.sd): the launcher copies it into the image and starts the story directly, without ZXZVM's welcome screen and without its "press a key to start" prompt. Files whose name is longer than 8 characters are copied as STORY.Z5 (or .Z3...).
• The image is created again at every launch. When CSpect is closed, the files that the game created or changed in its folder (saved games, high scores) are copied back to the game folder, so they are there at the next launch; keep the launcher open until you close CSpect. Images of previous launches are deleted automatically (except the one of a CSpect still running).
• CSpect starts in the game's folder, so F5 screenshots are saved next to the game and used as the cover, as for the other games.
• The file shown in the details ends with (with NextZXOS). The CSpect option -mmc= is not used for these games.

Rating

Click the stars next to the title (click the same star again to remove the rating), or press Ctrl+1 … Ctrl+5 (Ctrl+0 removes it).

Cover pictures

While playing, press F5 in CSpect to take a screenshot: it is saved in the game folder and used automatically as the cover. When you return to the launcher, the picture is updated.

Picture priority:

1. image= in games.ini
2. the latest CSpect screenshot of the executable (<name>_<date>.png, or screenshot_<date>.png for .bas / .tap / .z5 games)
3. cover.* / copertina.*
4. the latest other CSpect screenshot in the folder
5. screen* / title*
6. the first picture found in the folder

If you take several screenshots, the most recent one is used.

Right-click menu (on a game)

Item	What it does
Choose executable...	pick which .nex / .snx / .sna (or .bas / .tap / .z5) file to start, and whether to always use it
Launch parameters...	custom CSpect parameters for this game only (empty = general ones)
Rename title...	change the name shown in the list (empty = folder name)
♥ Add to favorites / Remove from favorites	marks the game as a favorite (shown with ♥, and filtered by the ♥ button next to the Sort menu)
Hide game / Show game again	hide or show the game in the list
Delete save files (.sav)...	moves the game's .sav files to the Recycle Bin, after confirmation
Open game folder	opens the game folder in Explorer, with the executable selected
CSpect 3 compatibility	fixes of the CSpect Compat plugin (it must be installed next to CSpect.exe) for old games that crash in CSpect 3: "Layer 2 at bank 9" (l2bank9, e.g. Montana Mike), "DivMMC automap off" (nodivmmc, e.g. Deltas Shadow), "DD 01 breakpoints as NOP" (dd01nop, e.g. Elite Next) and "RAM cleared at start" (zeroram, e.g. Spice Invaderz); click an option again to turn it off
Load in 48K mode	only for .tap games: loads the tape in 48K mode instead of 128K; click again to turn it off
Start with NextZXOS	starts the game's .nex / .snx through NextZXOS instead of CSpect's own loader (for games that stay on a black screen); click again to turn it off
Show hidden games	also shows hidden games, so you can show them again (remembered when the launcher is closed)

Settings (gear button, bottom right)

• Language
• Games folder and CSpect folder
• Window size (1x to 4x, CSpect option -w1 … -w4)
• Full screen (CSpect option -fullscreen)
• Other CSpect parameters (default: -vsync -zxnext -mmc=.\)
• Credits, version, license and links to this page and to CSpect

Keyboard shortcuts

Key	Action
Enter	start the selected game
Up / Down	move in the list (also while typing in Search)
Ctrl+1 … Ctrl+5	set the rating
Ctrl+0	remove the rating
F5	reload the game list
Esc	clear the search, or close the launcher

games.ini reference

games.ini is a plain text file; you can edit it with Notepad (close the launcher first). Everything can also be changed from the launcher itself.

; general settings
[_default]
lang=en
games=.\GAMES
cspect=.\CSpect
args=-w2 -vsync -zxnext -mmc=.\
sort=name
listwidth=368
nextzxos=.\CSpect\zxnext.sd

; one section per game folder (all keys are optional)
[Folder name]
file=game.nex
rating=4
title=My title
args=-w3 -zxnext -mmc=.\
image=cover.png
hidden=1
favorite=1
askfile=1
boot=nextzxos
tapmode=48

Key	Meaning
lang	language: en, it, es, fr, de
games	games folder (absolute or relative to the launcher)
cspect	CSpect folder or path of CSpect.exe
args	in [_default]: CSpect parameters for all games; in a game section: custom parameters for that game
sort	list order: name or rating
listwidth	list width in pixels
window / maximized	window size (960x600) and maximized state (1), saved when the launcher is closed
favonly	1 = show only the favorite games (♥ button)
showhidden	1 = also show the hidden games (right-click menu "Show hidden games"), saved on exit
lastgame	last game started (folder name), selected again when the launcher opens
nextzxos	SD card image with NextZXOS, used for .bas / .tap / .z5 games (empty = zxnext.sd in the CSpect folder)
file	executable to start (may include a subfolder)
rating	rating 1..5
title	name shown in the list
image	picture to show
hidden	1 = hide the game
favorite	1 = favorite game
tapmode	48 = load the .tap in 48K mode
compat	fixes of the CSpect Compat plugin for this game, comma-separated: l2bank9, nodivmmc, dd01nop, zeroram (passed to CSpect in the CSPECT_COMPAT variable)
boot	nextzxos = start the .nex / .snx through NextZXOS
askfile	1 = ask which executable to start at every launch ("Always use this executable" unchecked)

Comments must be on their own line, starting with ;.

New game folders are added automatically. When a game folder no longer exists, its section is removed; the previous file is kept as games.ini.bak.

License

CSpect Launcher is free software, released under the GNU General Public License version 3 (GPL-3.0). You may use, copy, modify and redistribute it under the terms of that license; modified versions must be released under the same license, with their source code. It comes without any warranty. See LICENSE or https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0.html.

CSpect and the games are not part of this project and are not covered by this license: they belong to their respective authors.

Credits

• CSpect Launcher: © 2026 Giuseppe Papa, GPL-3.0
• CSpect emulator: by Mike Dailly, https://mdf200.itch.io/cspect

Related plugins for CSpect: CSpect Compat (fixes for old games in CSpect 3) and CSpect Scanlines (TV-style scanlines).

• ZX Spectrum Next games belong to their respective authors.