SAM Coupé¶

Overview¶

The British SAM Coupé (1989) mixes a Z80-compatible CPU with a palette richer than the ZX Spectrum, aiming squarely at home and hobbyist programmers. REG-Linux includes it under the samcoupe metadata tag so the themed art appears alongside the rest of the retro computers.

Technical specifications¶

CPU: Zilog Z80B running at 6 MHz with support for banked ROMs and hardware sprites.
Memory: 256 KB of RAM on board (expandable to 512 KB and beyond) plus 48 KB ROM for the OS.
Display: Custom Video Display Generator offering 256×192 resolution, 256 colors from a 4096 palette, and sprite-based zoom/scroll support.
Sound: General Instrument AY-3-8912 PSG with three tone channels and noise, routed through stereo outputs.

Quick reference¶

ROM folder: /userdata/roms/samcoupe
Accepted formats: .cpm, .dsk, .sad, .mgt, .sdf, .td0, .sbt, .zip
Emulator: samcoupe
System group: samcoupe

ROMs¶

Drop disk, tape or cartridge dumps into /userdata/roms/samcoupe. The emulator recognizes CPM/TIP images without renaming, so leave the files as you obtained them.

Emulator¶

samcoupe¶

The integrated core reproduces the original keyboard, joystick and expansion chips. It runs inside EmulationStation with sensible defaults; use /remapping_controls_per_emulator to tweak the keyboard or joystick mapping when necessary.

Controls¶

Refer to the controller overlay for the keyboard-inspired layout and single-button joystick reference if you need to map keys manually.

Troubleshooting¶

Ensure your archive contains the expected disk types (e.g., .sad, .td0).
Consult the generic support pages if a title refuses to load.