install

Additional install commands

macOS

Homebrewverified · 100%

brew install joyce

local Homebrew formula metadata

overview

Package summary

Emulates the Amstrad PCW on Unix, Windows and macOS

Project links

Homepage

Commands and aliases

dskconv
dsklabel
lsgotek
xanne
xjoyce

history

Project history and usage

JOYCE is John Elliott's Amstrad PCW emulator for Unix, Windows, and macOS. It emulates the PCW family and incorporates ANNE for the PcW16, preserving a British word-processor/computer line whose original development codename, Joyce, became the emulator's name.

Project history

The official JOYCE page describes an SDL-based emulator for the Amstrad PCW on Unix, Windows, and Mac OS X, with possible portability to other SDL-supported platforms. The FAQ documents emulation of the Z80 CPU, screen, keyboard, floppy controller, Centronics ports, serial interface, built-in PCW printers, mice, light pen, beeper, and LocoLink.

The update history reaches at least December 2002 with JOYCE v2.0.2 and continues through the 2.2 stable series, 2.4 stable series, and 2.5 development series. Later entries added or repaired hard-drive emulation, host-directory drive support, PcW16 acceleration, joystick support, disk-format support, Mac OS X build support, printer output, PCW-Linkit, and PDF/PNG output paths.

Adoption history

JOYCE is niche by normal package-manager standards, but valuable in retrocomputing because it packages PCW and PcW16 emulation for modern systems. Homebrew packaging makes xjoyce and companion disk utilities available to macOS users without manually building an older SDL-based emulator stack.

How it is used

JOYCE is used to boot and run Amstrad PCW software from disk images, use emulated printers and ports, share files through emulated drives, and preserve workflows around CP/M, LocoScript, PCW games, and PcW16 software. The FAQ is careful about boot disk legality, noting that copyrighted boot disks cannot simply be redistributed.

Why package nerds care

JOYCE matters to package nerds because it is the sort of emulator that keeps historically specific hardware usable from a standard package manager. Its formula bundles not just a main emulator but disk and utility commands, which is typical of preservation-oriented emulator packages.

Timeline

2002-12: JOYCE v2.0.2 stable was released.
2007-12: JOYCE v2.2.0 stable was released.
2021-12: JOYCE v2.4.0 stable was released.
2023-05: JOYCE v2.4.2 stable was released with C++17 compilation fixes.
2026-03: JOYCE v2.5.5 development was released.

Related projects

JOYCE is paired with ANNE for PcW16 emulation and is related to the Amstrad PCW, CP/M, LocoScript, DSK disk-image tooling, LocoLink, PCW public-domain software archives, and other PCW emulators and preservation projects.

Sources

security posture

Risk level: green

narrow executable package without higher-risk signals.

Risk classifier

green risk · low confidence · appliance

Why

narrow executable package without higher-risk signals

Signals

metadata:no-higher-risk-signals

Install behavior

No Homebrew bottle metadata was recorded.

Recommended review

Before unattended agent use, check whether the tool reads plaintext credentials, writes remote state, publishes artifacts, or shells out to plugins.

executables

Installed executables

Command	Kind	Exposure	Note
`dskconv`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`dsklabel`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`lsgotek`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`xanne`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.
`xjoyce`	executable	indexed executable	Discovered from the local executable index.

freshness

Version and freshness

These signals separate page generation age, package-manager activity, and upstream release comparison. Version lag is warned only when an evidence URL and comparable versions are present.

page generated2026-08-03

manager version2.4.2

manager updated

local dataunknown

upstreamnot available

latest detectednot detected

okNo freshness warnings were generated.

install metadata

Package metadata

Package key	brew:joyce
Version	2.4.2
Package manager	Homebrew
Homepage	https://www.seasip.info/Unix/Joyce/index.html
Bottle	not recorded
Service	none declared

package graph

Links come from deterministic package relationships, av.db category and tag curation, ecosystem matches, and package hub membership.

source trail

Generated from repository data

This page is generated by av-web from the private package SQLite artifact built by scripts/generate-pkg-sqlite.py.

Combined YAML source

View the package source record on GitHub.

combined/joyce.yml

Used sources

Geiger risk classifier
cross-ecosystem install command graph
curated package history
pkg.so package database
pkgdb category and tag curation

Install joyce with Homebrew