Does ZXCOMP really convert Z80 machine code into 8086 machine code, or does it use some trick?

Of course it's a trick. If you have any knowledge about such things, you must know that real conversion is nearly impossible for many reasons (self-modifying code for example). So, ZXCOMP converts Z80 snapshots into a kind of P-code (more precisely, packed Z80 code) and links it with a run time module (which includes a P-coded ROM image too) which interprets it. This module is about 32K long for 48K snapshots and about 48K for 128K snapshots. P-code is usually about half size of full snapshot length. We must say that well-known "compiler" CLIPPER is not a real compiler too. It does a similar thing and nobody knows it. That's why ZXCOMP look like a real compiler!  more