All,

I have bought a Panasonic FS-A1F with upgraded 128k mapper.
Im trying to find Konami MSX games up to 128k, like Nemesis, Vampire Killer, Metal Gear, F1 Spirit, Salamander, etc...
I have found some versions at FUNET, but they run extremely slow. Someone told me that that happens because they are PAL versions.
Looking at the Internet, I found more easy to find MEGARAM versions of it. Anyone can suggest me a website with that? The list that I'm looking is this one bellow:

Nemesis (Gradius)
Penguin Adventure
Vampire Killer
King Kong 2
Hinotori (aka Firebird)
Ganbare Goemon (aka Samurai)
The Maze of Galious
Metal Gear
Usas
The Game Master 2
Majutsushi (aka Mah-Jong 2)
Nemesis 2 (Gradius 2)
F1 Spirit
Pennant Race 1
Salamander
Parodius
King's Valley 2 MSX1
King's Valley 2 MSX2
Contra (aka Gryzor)
Pennant Race 2
Quarth

Best Regards,
Heitor.
hbarcellos@gmail.com

I am sorry, but asking for "illigal" content is not allowed on MRC, I don't expect you will find an answer here.

An original Konami game is shipped on cartridge which will always run, even on msx with 64k.

...all of them require only an MSX with 16 KB. Most Konamis do work with only 8 KB RAM!

Anyway, if you want to play "backups" of the original Konami games in cartridge, I suggest you to get a MegaFlashSCC cartridge. A handy peripheral!

yeah... but I mailed you tips on how to play those 'illegal' 20 years old gamez...

Keep in mind that those "adaptions" have to use a slightly different mapper from the Konami one (8 k banking vs. 16 k banking). This feature sometimes affects to the "conversion": no sound, some pauses (rare)....
Original cartdriges use to be 50 Hz /60 Hz compatible, that is, if your computer is NTSC, then your game will be running 60 Hz. Try to VDP(10)=0 or VDP(10)=2 before loading to see the difference.

Quote:

...all of them require only an MSX with 16 KB. Most Konamis do work with only 8 KB RAM! Anyway, if you want to play "backups" of the original Konami games in cartridge, I suggest you to get a MegaFlashSCC cartridge. A handy peripheral!

If the game says 64kbytes is the minimum then i thought it would not run with fewer.I do not think any msx2 machines has 16kbytes of ram.Minimum was 64 i think for msx2.Now if there is a msx1 that had only 16kbytes and was upgraded to msx2 and still has 16 then that is another story

Does anyone have an msx2 with only 16 kbytes?IF so i would like to test to see wether the game would run with only as little as 16 or 8.And what about video ram of msx?


If you have an oiriginal cartridge like metal gear 2 it can even run on a msx2 with only 64.However for disk dumps or execload or to load original roms on a real msx2 then you need usually the double amount of ram.(Example 128 kbyte game needs 256) 256 needs 512 and so on.

An MSX2 always has 64kB or more RAM, indeed. It's in the standard.

Manuel i have a question regarding the last posts.Let's say that indeed there was an msx2 with only 16 kbytes of ram.Since a z80 can address only 64kbytes of ram would not that create a problem?There is the circuity inside the cartridge (konami 8 or 16) but the z80 does know only that it can address 64 at a time and would need paging to view the rest.Would not that create problems?

So if konami cartridges use 8k or 16k blocks,does z80 in those games only address 8/16kbytes maximum at a time?

I do not think that these games could run with only 8 or 16kbytes of main ram due to the processor.
(of course i could be wrong)

The memory mapper (inside the cartridge) swaps 8 or 16 kb ROM pages from the cartridge and doesn't use RAM.
So it's possible to run a 512kb game on a 16kbRAM machine (like MSX1).

Just depends on how the game is progammed (64kbRAM is easier then 16kbRAM to program).

Shalom - Knightmare III is an example of a megaROM (512kb) that runs on a 16kbRAM machine.

vdp(10)=vdp(10)and253

hbarcellos since you are looking for games for 128kbyte memory mapper,If you want i could upload a fixed metal gear 1 version for 1mbit.The one available for 128kbyte memory mapper by SMA international has random glitches in many places,and crashes randomly when using the elevators.I have fixed the bugs of that version and that new one is working perfectly on elevators and it does NEVER crash.Would that be considered a bad action?To post a link that has a copy of the fixed game?If it is not allowed i could give you my email to talk further about this.

Best regards

As far as I know it's not allowed to have a romdump (diskcopy) of a rom game unless you also own the original gamecartridge. However I find it easier to run my games from (hard)disk instead of changing cartridges all of the time. I have an original MG1 so I should be save (I think). If you've made a bug free diskversion of MG1 I would also like to have it. If you're going to send an email, add me to your list

Ok i will send it to you!

Well yes,the original cartridge saves fines,the copy on disk saves too,but unfortunately many msx2 users did not have tape,and the mysterious elevator bug makes the game crash,(and have random lockups and glitches in the game).

All these were caused by the elevators,i always wanted to find why,the reason was a EI instruction that happens in a loop that is in the elevator.The elevator slows down on the disk version.

Reason?Probably the change of page that occurs from the video ram to ram.(there are various calls to other addresses that indicate a bank switch there in the rom version ).Now on a rom this happens fast.On the disk version because an msx2 has only 128 user ram and you cant load a 128kbyte game on a 128 machine,you have to steal some unused video ram and swap data from video ram to user ram and vice versa.

In the original rom file when loaded in the emulators in the elevator area i think there were plenty of writings of blocknumber to these addresses so i assume that

6000H-7FFFH is switched by writing a blocknumber to 6000H
8000H-9FFFH is switched by writing a blocknumber to 8000H
A000H-BFFFH is switched by writing a blocknumber to A000H

So in a way in the elevators the next levels of the game were actually loaded,and there a lot was a lot of bank switching that occured.

Now that's probably the reason that the elevators were going so slow in the cracked version.I assume that since a small part of the unused video ram was used as temporary storage for data,the transfer of data from video ram to user ram In the disk version caused the slow movement of the elevators.In the disk version the call to these addresses 6000h,8000h,a000h was changed and probably refered to the data transfer from/to video ram.

.I assumed that since the elevators slowed down the music had to be slowed down,but that did not happen!The elevators were going very slowly up and down and music continued to play at normal speed.Now i thought i have something

So i assumed that the Enable interrupt instruction (if you want i could give you a dissasembly of the elevator area to see the glitch) was the reason for this lockup.When i disabled that instruction and after i changed 2,3 more instructions,the miracle happened elevators were slow like before,and the music synchronized to the slow movement of the elevators.

I tested it on a real msx and emulators for over 1 hour of going up and down,and it never crashed.Also the random glitches that the game had before were gone!.

I am looking for the martos crack version of mg2 that has some crashes on the basement water area.I would love to debug dissasemble and see if i can fix it too,since it would be good for all 256 owners.

I think other problematic 128kbyte version of konami megaroms could easily be fixed.

Other megaroms i want to fix are the 128kbyte of vampire killer (no sound the cracked version).Mg2 martos crack.Nemesis 1,(crash after level 4 or 5 i think).

Are you all into this?To have proper fixed version of our old beloved games?Since metal gear 1 could be fixed i think anything can be fixed!