Using a Custom ROM with ZX Spectrum 48K

Klive lets you replace the built-in ZX Spectrum 48K ROM with any compatible 16K ROM image of your choice. This is useful when you want to test or develop against alternative ROM implementations, patched ROMs, or diagnostic ROMs.

Selecting a Custom ROM

While the ZX Spectrum 48K runs, open the Machine page of the Settings dialog. Its ZX Spectrum 48K ROM option has two buttons:

• Browse… — opens a file picker to choose a ROM image
• Reset — removes the custom ROM and restores the original Spectrum 48K ROM

Click Browse… and browse to your ROM file. Klive accepts files with the .rom and .bin extensions (as well as any other extension via the All Files filter).

Once a valid file is selected, the machine is restarted automatically with the new ROM. The path to the ROM file is stored in the project configuration, so it will be reloaded automatically the next time you open the project.

Resetting to the Default ROM

To go back to the original ZX Spectrum 48K ROM, click Reset next to the ZX Spectrum 48K ROM option on the Settings > Machine page. Klive will ask for confirmation before switching back:

Are you sure you want to reset to the default ZX Spectrum 48 ROM?

Confirm with Yes and the machine will restart with the built-in ROM.

How the ROM Path Is Stored

The ROM file path is saved in the config section of the Klive project file (.klive) under the sp48RomFile key. As long as the file exists at that path when the project is reopened, the custom ROM will be used automatically — no extra steps required.