Can someone tell me what the dipswitches on the MSX GameReader do? I can't find documentation on them.

Sunrise is working on a manual which probably will have info on those too.

cool; thx

The results I've had with the device are very positive so far, btw

Quote:

Can someone tell me what the dipswitches on the MSX GameReader do? I can't find documentation on them.

The dipswitches are used to set the id of the gamereader. If you would connect multiple readers, you would have to make sure each reader has an unique id.

It seems that the MSXplayer only supports a max of two readers at the same time; one for slot 1 and one for slot 2 (I think the id doesn't matter, lowest id is probably interpretted as slot 1). The driver can address all 16 variations though.

whoa, you've been busy lately

switch 1: down if you have slot 1
: up in case (you have two readers) slot2
Switch 2 and 3 for the id
Switch 4 :For progamming !

Vincent , have you tested some cartridges. Since Bifi and me already started making a list of working and non-working cartrdiges. The list quite long already , so I would appreciate contributes from you vincent,samor as well as latok and if our friends from the HCC read this, your comments are welcome on my emailaddress or overhere.
Later on we will test also the Konami doubles. Nemesis2 with MOG and that kind of things

Vincent, what happens when you connect 2 game readers. On gamereader 1 you select slot1 by switching dipswitch 1 down. On gamereader 2 you select slot2 by switching dipswitch 1 up. Gamereader 1 though has a higher ID than gamereader 2. If a lower ID gamereader is interpreted as slot 1, what happens when that gamereader has dipswitch 1 switched up and thus selecting slot2?

What possibilities give switches 2 and 3 anyway? 00, 01, 10 and 11.....So it's possible to choose 4 different ID's and thus connect 4 gamereaders? You cannot select that many slots, right?

sunrise, I'll see if I have some cartridges which I can test

I got my information by looking at the communication between the MSXplayer and the driver (that's more or less my only source of info).

What I see is, before the MSXplayer starts reading the cartridge, it checks 16 slots if one is available. That makes me assume the dipswitch (4bits) is specifying that id, but it could be a wrong assumption (I will have to test that in more detail).

Latok, all original ROMs I have (see my home page) are tested already
Any additional titles are very welcome.

Sunrise, are you going to maintain the list, or should I?

You are welcome if you want

Thanks for the dip switches info... I guess that explains why my gamereader was acting like slot2 (switch 1 was up).

As for cartridges. Most of the stuff I tested works just fine...
Not working is Eggerland 2, but BiFi already reported that.

Also, MSXPlayer recognizes the Dutch Stereo FMPAK (mine's from MSX club Gouda) as an MSX1 cartridge and boots in MSX1 basic mode. As such, you can't use the "CALL FMPAK" command.

Rtype plays fine but with PSG music. Maybe it does so on a real Turbo-R? It's supposed to support MSX Music though. Maybe it does with an fmpac in slot 2 but I can't test that.

These issues could just be MSXPlayer and not GameReader related, though.

I also tested SCC cartridges with a Switch. That works how it's supposed to, only if you flip the switch while the game is running it will just continue (unlike on a real MSX) until you restart the emulator - then it will boot in Basic mode and you can use it on a modified SDSnatcher disk for example.

As for disks, tested those too but I don't know if it's interesting information, as it doesn't really have to do with the gamereader, just the emulator.

I don't think I'll have to report on Konami carts, as I'm pretty sure BiFi has all the ones I have + more.

Also working:
-----------------
Hole In One
Topple Zip MSX1
Macross
Penguin Wars
Keystone Kapers
Rollerball
Galaxian
Dorodon
Family Billiards
Mad Rider
Yie Ar Kung-Fu (Casio version)

About R-Type: There are some bugs in this game, mainly for MSX-MUSIC detection. FRS (Fabio Ricardo Schmidlin) knows a lot more about this. AFAIK, the MSX-MUSIC must be in slot 2 and there are some other restrictions to make it work. Try in another emulator (like openMSX) to see when it works.

Manuel, we are testing original cartridges ! !!
So comparison with other emulators is not possible.
Unless you are referring to a diskimage-file as a copy provided you have an original and a so-called dummy cartridge to test

Case of R-Type is not unique, there are 2 other cartridge games that don't detect the internal MSX-MUSIC chip, but require the insertion of a FM-PAC cartridge in slot 2 :

Heroes Of The Lance
Nekketsu Judo

What concerns use of disk images with the MSX-PLAYer, we know that some tools can simulate a real drive when actually a disk image is used. As Execrom is the more 'perfect' tool to run rom files on a MSX computer, it should be interesting to test disk images with Execrom and rom files

for the lucky people having a MegaRAM to have Execrom run megarom games...