+retroclouds Posted August 1, 2020 Share Posted August 1, 2020 This morning I stumbled on the MSX DEV 20 game competition. Quality of entries is (very) high most of the time. Although not TI-99/4a related, I’m listing one MSX1 entry because of its TMS9918 graphics madness. Bullet hell and smooth scrolling on the 9918 with huge bosses. 11 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
artrag Posted August 1, 2020 Share Posted August 1, 2020 Have you seen this other msxdev2020 game? 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
artrag Posted August 1, 2020 Share Posted August 1, 2020 You can play msxdev games online here https://www.file-hunter.com/MSXdev/index.php?id=themenacefromtriton Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+dhe Posted August 1, 2020 Share Posted August 1, 2020 If you didn't tell me, I would never have guessed a TMS9918. It would also be neat to know the output device they used to get such clear video. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
artrag Posted August 1, 2020 Share Posted August 1, 2020 Using emulators you can get nice videos The roms are free on msxdev website 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Asmusr Posted August 1, 2020 Share Posted August 1, 2020 I wonder if these games are developed by a single person or the MSX community is big enough to put together teams of programmers, graphic artists and music composers? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+InsaneMultitasker Posted August 1, 2020 Share Posted August 1, 2020 Is the MSX1 vdp and memory configured the same way as the TI? Or in other words, are their hardware and/or performance differences that make games like this 'easier' to create and program with the 9918? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
artrag Posted August 1, 2020 Share Posted August 1, 2020 (edited) 1 hour ago, Asmusr said: I wonder if these games are developed by a single person or the MSX community is big enough to put together teams of programmers, graphic artists and music composers? Mainly alone coders who do everything but there are some exceptions This is a work team of 3 people https://www.msx.org/news/challenges/en/msxdev’20-11-relevo’s-snowboarding you can try it here https://www.file-hunter.com/MSXdev/index.php?id=snowboarding It is an accurate and philological study on Konami games in'80 Edited August 1, 2020 by artrag Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
artrag Posted August 1, 2020 Share Posted August 1, 2020 (edited) 4 hours ago, InsaneMultitasker said: Is the MSX1 vdp and memory configured the same way as the TI? Or in other words, are their hardware and/or performance differences that make games like this 'easier' to create and program with the 9918? The vdp is tied to the z80 i/o ports and has its 16KB of VRAM, the z80 has a separate RAM of 16KB or 32KB (or 64KB) according to the msx1 model Plain game ROMS can be up to 48KB (actually up to 64KB but it is non very standard ) Using rom mappers, you can get up to 512KB of rom, but there are many mappers and some can be larger Edited August 1, 2020 by artrag typos Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
artrag Posted August 1, 2020 Share Posted August 1, 2020 This is another noticeable entry https://www.msxdev.org/2020/07/27/msxdev20-15-labbaye-des-morts/ It is the msx port of a PC game from Gryzor87 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+mizapf Posted August 1, 2020 Share Posted August 1, 2020 Looking into the MAME emulation of the MSX computers, I found that there is an abundance of variants from different manufacturers: Al-Alamiah Canon Casio Daewoo Eurohard S.A. Fenner Frael Fujitsu Goldstar Gradiente Hitachi JVC Mitsubishi National / Matsushita Olympia Panasonic Perfect Philips Pioneer Samsung Sanyo Sharp / Epcom Sony Spectravideo Talent Toshiba Victor Yamaha Yashica Yeno (and that's just for the MSX1-clones) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carlsson Posted August 1, 2020 Share Posted August 1, 2020 ^^ Yes, that was the idea with MSX, to become a standard for home computers similar how the IBM PC was to become a standard for personal computers. Obviously the majority of those manufacturers would never have entered the computer business if there was not a standard to attach to. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
artrag Posted August 1, 2020 Share Posted August 1, 2020 Some models are very slick, you can see how they look here https://www.msx.org/wiki/Category:MSX1_Computers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+mizapf Posted August 1, 2020 Share Posted August 1, 2020 This gives me some appetite to take a peek at the MSX systems in MAME; if there is some interest I could upload the required ROMs to our WHTech server. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
artrag Posted August 1, 2020 Share Posted August 1, 2020 (edited) Here the full list of msxdev games to be played in the online emulator WebMsx https://www.file-hunter.com/MSXdev/index.php?id=MSX Edited August 1, 2020 by artrag Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Vorticon Posted August 2, 2020 Share Posted August 2, 2020 10 hours ago, artrag said: The vdp is tied to the z80 i/o ports and has its 16KB of VRAM, the z80 has a separate RAM of 16KB or 32KB (or 64KB) according to the msx1 model Plain game ROMS can be up to 48KB (actually up to 64KB but it is non very standard ) This is essentially the same setup as in the Coleco Adam computer which has 64k of RAM on top of the 16k VDP RAM. I was actually able to add graphics capabilities to Turbo Pascal 3 under CP/M on the Adam using that setup and embedding z80 assembly code into graphic modules. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+jedimatt42 Posted August 2, 2020 Share Posted August 2, 2020 14 hours ago, Asmusr said: I wonder if these games are developed by a single person or the MSX community is big enough to put together teams of programmers, graphic artists and music composers? I don't know about these msxdev entries, but I know many of the new homebrew being released on cartridge for the MSX are from small teams with diverse skills as you describe. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+mizapf Posted August 2, 2020 Share Posted August 2, 2020 21 hours ago, mizapf said: This gives me some appetite to take a peek at the MSX systems in MAME; if there is some interest I could upload the required ROMs to our WHTech server. Are there any preferences for a particular MSX1 (and/or MSX2) system? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+retroclouds Posted August 2, 2020 Author Share Posted August 2, 2020 Sony Hitbit for MSX1 and Philips for MSX2 ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+adamantyr Posted August 2, 2020 Share Posted August 2, 2020 The MSX architecture has definite advantages over the TI, especially where memory is concerned. Plus the sound chip is slightly better. (4x more range so you get two extra octaves) It's not impossible to write such games on the TI, if you use a SAMS card to overcome the memory limitations. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matthew180 Posted September 6, 2020 Share Posted September 6, 2020 The MSX1 is a great system, I personally really like my MSX1 Toshiba HX-10. MSX BASIC is really nice, giving fully access to all of the 9918A's capabilities directly, i.e. all 4 graphics modes are supported with native commands, and VRAM was 100% available for program use (since the system had its own RAM, VRAM was left for, well, video purposes as it should be). MSX BASIC even has commands to set VDP registers directly, and luckily it does not validate the register number, so you can access the F18A's enhanced registers from MSX BASIC. I actually used this quite a bit during testing. I really wish the MSX had penetrated the U.S. market, and had that been the case I think I would be hanging out in the MSX forums these days, instead of the TI forums. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HOME AUTOMATION Posted September 6, 2020 Share Posted September 6, 2020 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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