MSX Test cartridge

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By freshness79

Supporter (9)

freshness79's picture

10-11-2014, 01:16

Hello MSX world,
this is the first time I post in this forum.
I've recently found my old VG8010 lying around in my parent's house: it broke years ago (guess it was 1989 or such) and then it was replaced by a C64. So, yes, it looks like I switched to Commodore because of a burnt TMS9918 and a broken cap in the power supply.
I fixed the pet some days go, now it's working, but... well you know, it broke when I was a child, some pieces got lost and so it's... keyboardless. While fixing I've searched a test cartridge in internet (mainly funet and this site): I've found something but every cart needed a keyboard to be used.
So I decided to write my own test Cartridge and now I want to share it with you.
MSX test cartridge

Beware that:
- it's my very first program in z80: it's totally different from 6502!!
- it's my first program for MSX: VDP and VIC share only the color number. Not talking about memory management...
- It's been tested only on bluemsx and my VG8010
- Source included

Thanks for a great site: it's been easy to find the information I needed.
ADS alert!
And thanks to roadfighter too: I bought the eprom cartridge from him. if you're looking for a cheap solution for development and you happen to own an eprom/eeprom programmer, then go for it: he's a nice guy and he makes great quality pcbs.

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By Grauw

Ascended (10699)

Grauw's picture

10-11-2014, 11:34

I can’t try it right now, but count me impressed already Smile.

By Manuel

Ascended (19270)

Manuel's picture

10-11-2014, 13:44

CooL! What exactly is it supposed to do?

Test it on some more extreme configurations and you'll get crashes... (e.g. on Boosted MSX2 EN in openMSX, or the Acid1Test-slots machine)

By freshness79

Supporter (9)

freshness79's picture

10-11-2014, 14:13

First of all thanks for the feedback.
The cartridge is pretty simple: it just tries to detect what's in every page of slot 0,2,3.
Then, if some RAM is available in slot 3 (which is the case in most msx systems) it uses it to put there
the slot1 detection code and it runs it.
RAM is tested against two bytes: $55 and $aa.
As it is targeted to msx, it doesn't support secondary slots at all: it treats $ffff as a normal location.
If pages/slots detection goes well it displays the keyboard matrix and the joysticks: this allows to check
whether input ports work.

By jltursan

Prophet (2619)

jltursan's picture

10-11-2014, 15:28

Thanks for sharing a great initiative!

Does it checks VRAM?

By freshness79

Supporter (9)

freshness79's picture

10-11-2014, 17:07

Not yet, but I want to add it.

By Manuel

Ascended (19270)

Manuel's picture

10-11-2014, 21:14

Quote:

As it is targeted to msx, it doesn't support secondary slots at all: it treats $ffff as a normal location.

This sounds weird: the secondary slot register is 100% MSX...

By mars2000you

Enlighted (6428)

mars2000you's picture

10-11-2014, 21:54

Besides, some MSX1 have at least one slot extended :

Al Alamiah AX-150
Al Alamiah AX-170
Daewoo Zemmix CPC-51
Gradiente Expert DDPlus
Gradiente Expert Plus
Mitsubishi ML-FX1
National FS-4000
Perfect 1
Philips VG-8020-20
Philips VG-8020F
Spectravideo SVI-738 (including local variants)
Talent DPC-200A
Toshiba HX-20
Toshiba HX-20I
Toshiba HX-21
Toshiba HX-21I
Toshiba HX-22
Toshiba HX-22I
Toshiba HX-51
Toshiba HX-51I
Toshiba HX-52
Toshiba HX-52I
Yamaha CX5MII
Yamaha CX5MII-128
Yamaha YIS503IIR (including Estonian variant)

By freshness79

Supporter (9)

freshness79's picture

10-11-2014, 22:22

Ehm... ok, I guess I need to read some more: I thought that secondary slot was introduced with msx2.
Sorry, newbie mistake. Smile

By Manuel

Ascended (19270)

Manuel's picture

10-11-2014, 22:46

I guess that explains why it crashes on machines with expanded slots Smile

By giangiacomo.zaffini

Champion (267)

giangiacomo.zaffini's picture

11-11-2014, 02:14

@ Freshness79: cool introducing thread. Looking at Your code it seems it is for pasmo. Isn't it? I trying to use both pasmo and ASxxxx asz80 that comes with sdcc. Keep on with MSX @full throttle!

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