My little MSX corner

20 years have passed since my first MSX come to my hands, a Sony HB-75P that I still own. It wasn't the the first computer anyway, before that I had seen (and work with) a neighbour's Dragon 64 and my brother's Spectravideo SVI-328. The last one shows me the potential of the incoming MSX machines, so when the standard was launched I was one of the people waiting at the shop's doors (well, in fact I was the only one waiting...) to buy one. The first machine I saw was the Sony HB-55P; but his lack of memory and cheap keyboard makes me wait a bit more, till the 94's xmas exactly, when a 64Kb machine arrives, the HB-75P, with a real keyboard and even a black stylish design.

I still remember the first games I purchase : "Ninjya Kage" and "Limited Express SOS" both great fun; but very, very hard to beat. After that, I start to program MSX-BASIC , all kind of programs, not only games, even useful ones!. It was my BASIC version of Pacman that shows me how slow a bad programmed game can be, so after kick through the window my MSX-BASIC book I bought a Z80 machine code book and believe me, it was easy. I think that the main fact about Z80 is "easy to learn, though to master", so please me do you a favour and (if you like programming, of course) visit Thomas Scherrer Z80 HomePage.

Soon I finished my first MC game, it was a "game&watch" type game where you must kill ants with a "manic miner" boot to avoid bugs eating your food. I called PICNIC and now I've no clue about where it can be. I've a pile of tapes in a corner, so one day I'll spend some months looking for it, not a great loss anyway.

My brother, after realize that the SVI 328 wasn't a true MSX, soon purchased a new SVI, the SVI-738 X'Press, a great bizarre machine with a 3,5" floppy disk drive. Suddenly, there was a new world to explore for me: the tape to disk conversion. It keeps me busy for about 2-3 years and prove it useful to learn something about MSX memory bank switching, code optimization and some little cracking knowledge. In all this time I never managed to get nothing superior to a MSX1, so as time passes my brother switch to a PC (a XT with EGA graphics, thanks God!) and myself to an Amiga 500; but that's another history...

My first MSX2 comes in 1997 IIRC. I started again with the standard and amazed with the hardware scene I bought some new extras like PC-keyboard adapter, slot expander, memory expansion, etc. Of course the main problem was always the lack of modern software to take profit of all this hard developments ; but I still believe it's a matter of time. Now, after my two firsts MSX2 passed away I'm stick to my NMS8245 and more recently to a Panasonic TR.

But back to bussiness; now, the question is : What's the key in programming the MSX?. Well, for me is easy to answer, I'm looking for relax, weird, uh?. In my daily work, after battling against concurrency, error handling and source code wrote by unknown bastards, I need a rest and believe me or not, programming MSX helps me to reduce stress. Someday I'll learn to cultivate my own home tomatoes but for now I'll keep fighting with mnemonics.

Blah, blah, blah,......

Stop nonsensing!, I've been talking about my MSX software, so, here they are some of my programs:

XPong
Caverns of Titan
Viking!

...and for PC too :

MSX-BASIC ROM creator

Hope you like it!,...anyway I'll continue programming such crap...

MSX developed software

XPong

1Kb(!) MSX binary developed for Karoshi Corp. forum's "let's pong 1k contest"

The Game

A pong game with some special features, yeah, you know, variable speed, multiple balls, etc.

Screenshots

XPong (title screen) XPong (in-game screen)

Controls

Selection screen controls :

1 key : Selects 1 player game against CPU.
2 key : Selects 2 player game.

in-game controls :

1P mode : Cursor keys or joystick in port 1
2P mode : Like 1P mode + joystick in port 2 for player 2

Load instructions

To load the game you must type :

bload"xpong.bin",r

This game must run in all MSX machines. XPONG has been tested with success on the following machines :

- Sony HB-75P (photo)
- Philips NMS 8245 (photo)
- Panasonic FS-A1FX (photo)
- Panasonic FS-A1ST (photo)

..and of course, OpenMSX and BlueMSX!

Download

Binary : xpong.bin

Source code (asMSX syntax) : pong.asm

Note : Not included bitbuster decompression header

Both files could be found in the following packed archive : xpong.zip

Changelog

07-05-05 First release!

07-09-05 Updated!. Changes are:

Improved CPU's AI against 2 balls.
Solved a bug with ball's direction after being hit.
Increased the chances to get a direct hit. The game is more agressive now.
...and finally the CPU is a bit more stupid, so anyone can win a match! :P

Caverns of Titan

16Kb ROM game developed for MSXdev'05.

The Game

Guess what?. It's a Manic Miner clone with a MSXish twist. There're a lot of good plattform games for MSX; but none really good in the style of MM. Even the original MM is poorly ported, too much close graphically to the spectrum version. So I decided that being a favourite of mine, the standard deserves a good puzzle/plattform game.

Screenshots

Caverns of Titan (title screen)

Controls

The usual in this kind of games:

Space/Trigger : Jumps!
Arrow keys/Stick : Moves left/right!

Load instructions

Being a ROM game, you can use any emulator or EXECROM MSX-DOS utility to load and execute it. The game has been tested with success on OpenMSX v0.5.1, BlueMSX v2.3.1 and RuMSX v0.30

This game must run in all MSX real machines. Caverns of Titan has been tested specifically on the following models with no problems at all:

- Sony HB-75P (photo)
- Philips NMS 8245 (photo)
- Panasonic FS-A1FX (photo)
- Panasonic FS-A1ST (photo)

Download

Binary : caverns.rom
Game instructions Instrucciones del juego

ROM cartridge sticker

Changelog

20-12-05 First release!

23-12-05 Update.

Added some background decorations to level 3.
Fixed info in scrolling text and added some credits.
Optimized some routines to gain some space.

28-12-05 Update.

Fixed incorrect initialization of PSG R#7.
Added a new sound system and some great SFX. Thnx Wyz!!.
Optimized again.

Viking!

16Kb BASIC ROM game developed for MSXdev'05.

This little strategy game it's a remake from an old Dragon computer "classic" developed in 1982 by Prickly-Pear Software. The MSX version is a 16Kb BASIC ROM game with some little assembler routines to speed up graphics. Most of the original code is still there and so the original playability, there was even some bugs that I solved. Hope you like as I like it back in the 80's!.

The Game

The objective of the game is to become King (and richer!) as fast as possible. Simple; but very addictive! :). Till four players are supported with nine levels of difficulty, the bigger, the harder.

Screenshots

Viking! (English version) Viking! (Spanish version)
English version Spanish version

Original Dragon Screenshots

As you can see, there're some differences between versions. After all, the MSX was a (at least graphically) superior machine!.

Controls

Nothing special. Online instructions are present in every game screen.

Load instructions

Being a ROM game, you can use any emulator or EXECROM MSX-DOS utility to load and execute it. The game has been tested with success on OpenMSX v0.5.1, BlueMSX v2.3.1 and RuMSX v0.30 (the last one needs to manually set the Slot 1 type to "Normal 16Kb, start on &H8000").

This game must run in all MSX real machines. Viking has been tested specifically on the following models with no problems at all:

- Sony HB-75P (photo)
- Philips NMS 8245 (photo)
- Panasonic FS-A1FX (photo)
- Panasonic FS-A1ST (photo)

Download

Binary : viking.rom

Binary : viking_e.rom

Game instructions Instrucciones del juego

ROM cartridge sticker

Changelog

08-15-05 First release!.

09-06-05 Updated!.

Fixed a stupid typo that makes program fail with syntax error (doh!). The plague strikes fine now!
Some flaws related to grain management and decimal maths are fixed too.
Improved the game endings.
Fixed a strange bug that involves vpoke and maybe play command (not 100% sure about that). It happens even on real MSX machines!
Minor cosmetic fixes and changes.

09-14-05 Spanish version added. Some fixes in both versions:

Changed the way boats, armorys, markets and temples are displayed. Internally the game always use the real number of items; but in screen a maximum of 15 units are displayed. Now the display shows the real number too (the higher number of boats drawed is still 15!).

Known Bugs

The "PRINT USING" format for currency values ($ character) on TurboR machines doesn't work.
Due to decimal arithmetics, a displayed number could be greater than really is...not a serious bug; but sometimes is a bit annoying. :P
The KANA mode on TurboR must be always turned off!! :D

Miscellaneous Stuff

MSX-BASIC ROM creator

This time is a PC MSX related tool, useful when you have a MSX-BASIC listing and you want to convert it to a fully compatible ROM cartridge file. The tool even supports the generation of ROM files with binary data (assembler routines used by the BASIC) merged.

Screenshots

Usage

Easy. First select the BASIC file, then optionally the binary file containing assembler routines. If you include the binary file you can select an automated calling procedure to the starting address of this file (useful if you want to invoke a relocation/unpacking procedure to page 3!).

Beware!, this last feature although supported by the BIOS seems to be tricky to implement due to (probably) some stack problems so, my first recommendation is to call the initialization routine from BASIC (using DEFUSR).

Push "Create ROM" button and voilà!, a ROM file will be created.

Bugs

The tool has not been extensively tested. So I'm sure it will be plagued by bugs, please don't hesitate to report them if you find any!.

Download

Binary : ROMcreator v1.0

Links (MSX related)

Lots of technical info & tools!

Karoshi's forum (offline)
MSX Assembly page
MSX Banzai! / MSX2(+) VDP Programming Document
BiFi's Home Page
Maggoo's MSX page (amazing engine!)

(c) 2005 José Luis Tur Santolaria. You can mail me to : jltursan(at-symbol)y/a/h/o/o.es (you know, first delete the slashes!)
See you in the movies!