Installation & first run

Install

Download Bizmuth for your platform from the Downloads page:

• macOS — open the .dmg and drag Bizmuth to your Applications folder. It’s signed and notarised, so it opens without a Gatekeeper prompt.
• Windows — run the installer (.exe), or unzip the portable .zip and run bizmuth.exe.
• Linux — the portable .AppImage (chmod +x and run), or install the .deb (Debian/Ubuntu) or the Arch package.

First run — the setup assistant

To run software, Bizmuth needs the Spectrum ROMs and (for the Next) a NextZXOS SD card image. The first time you launch it with nothing configured, a first-run assistant offers to set that up:

• Download the starter pack — fetches the Spectrum ROM pack and a ready-to-run NextZXOS SD card image (including the Next host ROM) into a folder you choose, and remembers the paths.
• Locate existing files — point Bizmuth at a folder where you already have them.

Your choices are saved to the config (~/.bizmuth/config.json), so every later launch goes straight to the machine. You can change the paths anytime under Preferences → Media.

Setting up manually

Prefer to do it yourself? Grab the ROM pack and SD image and put the ROM files in your configured ROM folder, with these exact names:

If a required ROM is missing, Bizmuth shows a “No ROMs!” screen naming the files it needs — and, on a fresh install, re-offers the setup assistant.

The Next also needs the SD card image to boot NextZXOS. The starter pack includes a ready one; see SD cards & NextZXOS for pointing Bizmuth at a different image.

Choosing a machine

By default Bizmuth emulates the ZX Spectrum Next and boots NextZXOS from the SD image.

To choose a different machine, use the Machine menu — see Machines.