MSXdev'06 #10: Monster Hunter

Konami SCC in BlueMSX worked for me.

No work on OpenMSX

I thought MSXdev rules was to use a standard mapper?

Okay, switched to NLMSX now. Took me a while to find out that you can switch sound with '0' key.

@Wolf: I dont think there is a lot more room for variation in relation to the 256 posible patterns. At least the game has more variation than Shalom for example.

I do miss a bit of story before going on my quest and the spanglish is kinda anoying (not that my english is any good). But making this in less than a year..... Respect!

The game looks great . I played a bit zelda on vba the other day and I must say you're gfx is as good . Impressive game

...and it's C!

hm .. I think I prefer PSG-only in this game.

huey: even with 256 tiles quite a bit o' variation can be done, but one has to anticipate on it while designing the game like that. But these are minor issues anyway..

Ok, tested in RuMSX ...

After a few moments :

"YOU ARE GOING TO SAVE
PRESS REC IN CASSETTE
AND PRESS FIRE ..."

Abi, you can use openMSX to save to tape.

When it asks for a cassette, try this:

F10 (go to the console)
type: cassetteplayer new
(a new cassette image is created, it says where it is; you might want to rename/move it later.)
and save the game.

To load: insert that cassette image again and load your game.

Note that it didn't seem to work correctly. When I saved my game at the start and loaded it later, I got in a totally wrong area of the game where I got stuck. (I hope it's not an openMSX problem, loading/saving works fine for basic programs and Metal Gear save games, so I guess it's OK.)

the game works fine for me in bluemsx. Just use the Konami SCC rom mapper. Haven't tried to save the game though.

IMHO up to now the best game released in msx dev06 (and maybe also dev05). SCC sounds very nice, gpx is simple but of good level, the gameplay is good. Greetings!!

for peeps who use BlueMSX:

Don't double click the ROM to start emulation, but run Blue instead. Then click the "insert cartridge" option to select the file and, more important, the cart type. Set to Konami SCC. That'll do it.

This game sure looks and sounds good. Gameplay seems okay, haven't really tested it. The music is "hard" but fair. SCC really takes it up a notch. Although I'm a BIG fan of PSG music, SCC sounds smoother. SFX, hmm yeah. Next time less obvious Hinotori ripping, eh! (and I do detect some MOG sfx too). Oh well, thaz prolly my own mistake, should not have released those. I'm sure yer using SEE
GFX, the gamefield is ok. The characters etc are brilliant. Good work!

Bring it on!

Well... nice game. Only, one thing, next time I would like to see the cursor move once I press the key and not once I release it!

SEE: Sound Effects Editor, it's like a tracker for sound registers.

nerlaska: how did you test the saving and loading? THere seem to be some problems with it.

Please test this on a real MSX, or an emulator like openMSX that doesn't use CAS images for saving, which don't involve tape timing. (Thanks to BiFi for checking that out.)

Ghostwriter! you are right .. your wish has been conceived

Any hopes of seeing an updated version with password saving?

Ohh .. i'm sorry .. Password is inviable .. i store many bytes and password will be very very long .. and .. i have no enough space in 128Kb .. are full!!! totally full!
About Disk save .. i don't know how to do it .. really. Not without MSXDOS and without DISKROM. Maybe like GameMaster 2 works but .. i don't know how to do it. Is a pendent task.
Really this game was thought for 256Kb and SRAM use. Many work has been placed in my harddrive .. more characters, more story, boss animations, more music, etc. Maybe next year we can produce this entire ROM and i can find more info for saving in a Disk.

add this info to your softwaredb.xml

	<software>
		<title xml:lang="en">Monster Hunter (English)</title>
		<system>MSX</system>
		<company>Nerlaska</company>
		<year>2006</year>
		<country>ES</country>
		<dump>
			<original value="false"/>
			<megarom>
				<type>KonamiSCC</type>
				<hash algo="sha1">aa6055ba0e433aa9c93df4444783cacb9628a7e2</hash>
				<remark>
					<text>MSXDEV06</text>
				</remark>
			</megarom>
		</dump>
	</software>
	<software>
		<title xml:lang="en">Monster Hunter (Espaniol)</title>
		<system>MSX</system>
		<company>Nerlaska</company>
		<year>2006</year>
		<country>ES</country>
		<dump>
			<original value="false"/>
			<megarom>
				<type>KonamiSCC</type>
				<hash algo="sha1">7b8015f919c8dd95db683f3f3d0799cf7ef1bc22</hash>
				<remark>
					<text>MSXDEV06</text>
				</remark>
			</megarom>
		</dump>
	</software>

just look at the file structure and it will become clear where to put it.

MAKE A BACK-UP OF OF THE SOFTWAREDB.XML FILE!!

i'll try to release the XML file in a seperate release from openMSX and bluemsx.

Not too sure about that, the rom compresses from 128kb to 77kb (WinRAR), so quite a bit o' repetitive content is in there (like maps).

Nerlaska: why can't you support disk saving with the diskROM? It's all standard disk BIOS routines. Should be OK, I think.

About saving to tape: use openMSX to see what happens on a real MSX. The timing is important: the tape is running at a constant velocity, so you have to take care of the timing when you do those BIOS calls.

I'm afraid that it's a bit hard to play this game without being able to save...

@jltursan: What c compiler is best for MSX1 development. I've used SDCC for other targets and a tiny bit of hitech c for MSX.

About DISKROM .. mmm .. i'll take a look. But i'm not sure of be a easy task.

About compression. All is compressed (Graphics, music and maps) less the code.

About C compiler. I have used SDCC, i think is a very good compiler, free and constantly updated. The problem for this Z80 compiler is the not support for MegaROMS .. then you need to make .. the incredible for do it! but .. works very easy for 16 & 32 Kb ROMS.

And check the info about FCB's here:

http://map.tni.nl/resources/dos2_environment.php

And for clarity: if you want your tape routines to work, just make sure the timing for reading is exactly the same as the timing for writing. Then you know the bytes are on the tape at the right moment when you read them back.

No-one needs to worry about English, as long as we understand the meaning of it, no one bothers when things are not up to Shakespearian grades.

About SRAM .. well .. support SRAM inside a cartridge with SRAM .. but is a special cartridge like Konami SCC but with SRAM.

About Cassette...
Yes .. music stops bug .. it has been solved.
And .. OpenMSX bug? .. well .. i have seen that CBIOS maybe works wrong? with Tape Bios routines, could be? seems to enable C Carry Flag after BIOS call and in BlueMSX (MSX-1 Normal ROM) .. no Carry Flag occurs and save the info ok. Why BlueMSX BIOS works ok .. and CBIOS tell me error?

Check similar games to see what I mean (eg. Legend of Zelda on the NES, Golden Axe Warrior on the MasterSystem).

Closer to home: Dragon Slayer 6 !

Nerlaska: using an external SRAM like the one in the PAC and FM-PAC could also be a nice option!

About openMSX: I only tested with regular BIOS ROMs, and it indeed doesn't work there, probably because of the different timing between saving and loading.

I have not tested with C-BIOS. But C-BIOS has not implemented the tape I/O routines yet, anyway.

Ok ... then .. could be i have solved Tape problem .. i need to test in a Real MSX .. but .. now .. timing load == timing save.
if CBIOS doesn't support tape .. i can imagine what's my problem in OpenMSX
About DISKROM .. yes .. i could initialized it but .. some kind of new problems appear i need to solve because strange things occur in the game .. maybe DISKROM gets RAM? and i have less RAM for operating?

I would say, that if you want to use disk drive, try to stay under #D800
In DOS2 there is some more TPA memory available because some parts of OS is under mapper.

About cassette usage, headers & stuff read "2. CASSETTE INTERFACE" from here.