PlayZX

In-app purchases
4.5
603 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
Learn more about how developers declare sharing
No data collected
Learn more about how developers declare collection

Ratings and reviews

4.4
549 reviews
simon moreton
April 7, 2024
This is a MUST have app if you have any zx spectrum computer or a spectrum NEXT.. as long as you have an EAR socket in your spectrum your laughing. I have just tried this on my spectrum next and loaded a game up using my mobile phone through the earphone socket and voila it actually works 10/10 for this brilliant and amazing app....NO more loading old spectrum games from tape this does exactly the same but in digital form and 1000's of them... Well done to the development team behind this...
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Baltazar Studios, LLC
April 9, 2024
Thank you! The "development team" is one guy (me) toying with it in a spare time, since I also enjoy loading and playing old games.. appreciate your review! 🤠🌈
Dennis Lloyd
April 9, 2024
Fantastic source of old retro speccy programs. Use it lots to load my Spectrum+3 to re live my 80,s games. Also can change waveform and change from stereo to mono. Perfect
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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.