Hi all,

I'm confused about ports $DC and $DD. In several MSX port lists on internet you can find information about Kanji ROMs. Port $D8 and $D9 are used for JIS1, and $DA and $DB for JIS2. Does anyone know something about 24 dots Kanji? Is it a cartrigde perhaps?

Thanks,
Kwik

Don't know much about kanji ROMs, but as far as I know the kanji in the JIS2 rom are 16x16 pixels...

Two MSX2 computers use kanji 12x12 pixels : National FS-4600 and Panasonic FS-A1FM.

The following explanations come from Martos

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Accessing 12x12 kanji rom works as follows:

- port 47h selects JIS row (each contains 192 characters)

- port 48h selects JIS column (character inside that row)

Writing at any of these ports updates an internal register, which points to a certain address of the rom. The formula is: 800h + (row * 192 + column) * 18

18 is the length in bytes of character definitions (18 bytes = 144 bits = 12 x 12 dots).

Note that character definitions do not start at position 0 of the rom, but at position 800h. By doing so, the limit between JIS1 / JIS2 characters lies exactly at the 1st 128K / 2nd 128K boundary.

- port 49h reads from the position pointed by the above mentioned register, and automaticaly increases it. So after setting row / column, a sequence of 18 reads from this port will yield the full definition of the character.

Thanks! I didn't know of Kanij being accessed through the switched I/O ports. I already found a userful source from Martos: www.funet.fi/pub/msx/system_roms/Dumping_Tools/K12DUMP.MAC

But the question about $DC and $DD and 24 dot kanji remains? Can anybody help?

Well, like I said, I've never heard of 24-dot kanji. Logic would suggest tho, that it's possible that they're controlled in the same way the other kanji are. I would try that first, maybe you'll get lucky... Which machine is it that has these 24dot kanji btw?

I don't know which machines use it. It might also be a cartridge, i have no clue. All i found was a very references to 24 dot kanji, but no addition information whatsoever. Here are two examples:

map.tni.nl/resources/msx_io_ports.php
www.funet.fi/pub/msx/mirrors/hanso/hwmodsetc/iopoort.txt
www.work.de/nocash/portar.htm#kanjirom

Hmmm.... another MSX mystery

Thanks Sonic..... but you're not really helping (no offense)

Well, there's not much I can help with if you:

a) don't know if the information is accurate
b) don't know what machine this applies to, if any
c) don't know what cartridge this applies to, if any

Didn't Konami (or some big software house) release a dictionary/writing program on cart once? Perhaps there's someone who knows what size the Kanji used by that program are...

Konami DID sell a writing program for MSX: EC-700. Can't recall the exact name tho... I live thru numbers ^_^

You're right D-Tail. It seems that the EC-700 package contains an EC-702 Kanji-Rom cartridge. I'm not sure however that this is the 24 dots kanji, because it seems to be working on MSX1 and 24 dot characters are quite big on 256 pixels...