snapconv(1)

📦
version 1.4.6 · 2 versions
, in ubuntu stonking

✨ snapconv(1) ✨

okay bestie, so this is the manual for snapconv — a Sinclair ZX Spectrum snapshot converter, from the Emulators section of the manual, and it's genuinely so much simpler than it looks 💖

🌸 NAME 🌸

snapconv — the Sinclair ZX Spectrum snapshot converter, aka your lil glow-up machine for snapshot files 🦋

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

snapconv [ -c ] [ -n ] [ -f ] infile outfile

that's it. that's the whole vibe check. three optional flags, one thing in, one thing out 💅

💜 DESCRIPTION 💜

snapconv converts between ZX Spectrum snapshot files. like, it takes a snapshot in one format and hands you back the same snapshot in a different one. that's the whole job and it slays at it 👑

🎀 OPTIONS 🎀

  • -c — says "compress EVERYTHING in the output snapshot, bestie", even if doing that makes the file bigger than it would've been if some of the data was left uncompressed. it's giving compatibility, because it keeps some buggy programs happy that can only read fully compressed .z80 files 🙈
  • -n — says the output snapshot should be uncompressed. periodt.
  • -f — says the A and F and A' and F' registers should be swapped. okay so storytime: version 0.5.0 and older of libspectrum(3) had a bug that resulted in these exact registers being swapped, but only in SZX snapshots. version 0.5.1 and newer of libspectrum(3) automatically recognise those snapshots and fix the problem for you 🫶 but this flag is still necessary to fix some snapshots created by development versions only of libspectrum(3) — the ones where the bug was already fixed, but which can't be told apart from snapshots that still contain the bug. messy, i know 😭
  • -h, --help — gives you brief usage help, listing all the available options. little cheat sheet energy 📝
  • -V, --version — outputs version information. the receipts ✨
  • infile — specifies the snapshot to be converted. this file can be in any of the snapshot formats supported by libspectrum(3). no cap, any of them 🌈
  • outfile — specifies the output snapshot. the format gets determined by the file extension, and it can be in any of the formats libspectrum(3) supports for output. so basically pick your extension and let it cook 🍓

💀 BUGS 💀

None known. not one. zero. the cleanest girl in the group chat ✨

🌟 SEE ALSO 🌟

The comp.sys.sinclair Spectrum FAQ, at http://www.worldofspectrum.org/faq/index.html — go read it, it's iconic 💖

👑 AUTHOR 👑

Philip Kendall (philip-fuse@shadowmagic.org.uk). king behaviour, fr fr 💜

so yeah, this writeup is for snapconv(1), version 1.4.6, dated 25th July, 2026 — thanks for coming to my ted talk, now go convert some snapshots bestie, ily 🎀💅🦋

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