PlayZX

In-app purchases
4.5
600 reviews
10K+
Downloads
Content rating
Everyone
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About this app

PLEASE READ THIS TEXT IN FULL BEFORE INSTALLING:

Select from thousands of Sinclair ZX Spectrum games and play them through the headphone jack to load them onto your Speccy. You can also select your local (on the device) TAP or TZX files, convert them to sound files and play them. This way you can load games for not only the ZX Spectrum micro but also any other retro computer that have compatible audio jacks.

IMPORTANT:
1. This is not an emulator, *it* will not play those games! You need an actual ZX Spectrum.

2. If you cannot browse and select your own files, it is likely caused by new Android permissions that Google changed with their newer development kits.
Please try this: Go to "System" -> "Apps & Notifications" -> Select "PlayZX" app -> scroll down to "Permissions" and allow "Storage" permission.

3. Make sure that your Android device is *not* connected to USB (for example, to charge it), while using this app. (Electrically, its ground needs to be floating with respect to the ZX Spectrum power supply)

4. Put your Android device in "Do Not Disturb" mode (*not* the Airplane mode as it needs internet access). This will prevent random notifications to disturb the signal output.

5. Use a good quality, preferably short, audio cable. For best results, use a stereo cable and turn the option to invert one stereo channel. Play with the volume: you may get different results on your phone vs. on your tablet, for example.
Updated on
Jan 15, 2024

Data safety

Safety starts with understanding how developers collect and share your data. Data privacy and security practices may vary based on your use, region, and age. The developer provided this information and may update it over time.
No data shared with third parties
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No data collected
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Ratings and reviews

4.4
546 reviews
Nigel Kendrick
October 15, 2023
This is a great app for loading up some fun! I've been using it with my 2 Speccys for a couple of years and recently tried it with my TS1000 (US version of ZX81), but it did not play the files. I now see a ZX81 fix has been done, so fingers crossed...! Will report back if I can get Mazogs to load!
1 person found this review helpful
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Baltazar Studios, LLC
October 15, 2023
Yes, I have made some fixes to the ZX81 .P file converter and successfully loaded one small program (onto my 1k ZX81). It is super fussy with loading files.
Mr Kosmos
January 7, 2024
Great app. At one point stopped working, but updates fixed it. Maxxing volume, using square wave and inverting one stereo channel works best for me.
1 person found this review helpful
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Baltazar Studios, LLC
January 7, 2024
Thanks for the review! Yes, I've also found that inverting one channel is the only way to get it to work on one of my newer Samsung tablets.
A Google user
September 26, 2019
The app works really well. I have modified my ZX +2A to load games on the (then) output-only connector, and now it's perfect. It loads games from PlayZX consistently. However if the author would accept some suggestions, they would be: - To be able to configure the user interface to increase the font size, on small screens is hard to select the exact game you want - And on bigger screens (10.8 inch tablet), the fonts are also too small, there is a lot of screen estate that gets wasted - There is no way to rewind the virtual tape! This is infuriating. For example, you try to load R-Type. It's a 10 minute audio virtual tape. The initial load is about 3.5 minutes. Then there is an intro on the computer, and you have to be quick to pause the PlayZX player, or else it'll start playing the 1st stage segment. If you miss that, or forget to press pause, you're dead. You won't be able to rewind, say, 5 seconds to try and load the header again. - Also it would be VERY useful to prevent the screen saver/lock screen (as an option), because when the phone/tablet screen goes blank, PlayZX stops playing the tape. So preventing the screen saver/screen lock to happen or keep playing in background it would be perfect. All in all, it works GREAT. Thanks!
16 people found this review helpful
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Baltazar Studios, LLC
September 26, 2019
Thank you for your detailed review. I am not actively developing this app (also, it is quite old now), but I do attend to it once in a while. I will stash your suggestions and see if they can be implemented reasonably quickly. Thanks!

What's new

Added option to save the last wave file to Downloads folder.