which msx2 games works fine on msx "1.5"?

Champion (303)

05-05-2017, 21:06

since Yamaha YIS503-2 and CX5M-II seems to use 9938 with 16k of vram, do anyone know which msx2 games works fine there? perhaps only Space Manbow and Outrun? (i guess that they are "screen 4" games...)
(note that i didn’t try any of them yet on emulation (like on openmsx) or on real hardware)

By msxtrd

Champion (274)

05-05-2017, 21:47

AFAIK, Space Manbow is screen 4 and 5. If it had 128K VRAM built in something might work, but with 16K not really.

By Manuel

Ascended (19469)

05-05-2017, 21:48

I doubt any MSX2 game would work with 16k VRAM. They will definitely all assume 64kB VRAM at least.

By msxtrd

Champion (274)

05-05-2017, 21:55

Manuel, are there any games that only use 64K of VRAM?

By Manuel

Ascended (19469)

05-05-2017, 22:13

Yes, many. All Konami games that do not have "128K VRAM" on them, for instance. Take a look!

I checked out some which need 128k VRAM:
- MG2 SS
- Pennant Race 2
- Hai no Majutsushi
- Quarth
- SD Snatcher
- Snatcher
- Space Manbow

But quite some only require 64k VRAM

By msxtrd

Champion (274)

05-05-2017, 22:26

Wow, really? How many msx2 models with 64K VRAM were made?

By nitrofurano

Champion (303)

05-05-2017, 23:13

and which ones?

By NYYRIKKI

Enlighted (6067)

06-05-2017, 00:04

Quite a hard question as I've not used such an "MSX 1.5" for ages...

Only game that I really know & remember to be really done for "MSX 1.5" is "O'Connor among The Falling Walls"... maybe "Phobos" as well, I don't remember this game's details now.

Lately FRS has also done many patches that I think can turn MSX1 games to "MSX1.5" games... For more info search for "MSX CoolColors". I think Transball might fall in to this category as well as it has native support for smooth scroll, but I don't really know if it detects such a machine correctly...

From actual (originally) MSX2 games only one that I could think about to try would be Nemesis 3... How ever I don't really know if it works at all on those mentioned computers or not... With some bad luck it may crash to lack of EXTROM-call, but there is good possibility that it starts as well..,

By Manuel

Ascended (19469)

06-05-2017, 00:29

I only know these MSX2's with 64kB VRAM:
- Canon V-25
- Hitachi MB-H3
- Talent TPP-311/312
- Toshiba HX-23

By msxtrd

Champion (274)

07-05-2017, 22:12

So they were crippled to reduce cost i guess? As far I googled that MB-H3 can be upgraded internally to 128K, what about the rest?

By Manuel

Ascended (19469)

07-05-2017, 22:56

I guess all of them can be upgraded to 128kB. They're not really crippled, MSX2 defines 64kB or 128kB VRAM. It's really officially supported in the standard. Try to run the MSX2 disk version of Hydlide, one of the first MSX2 games. The game doesn't detect VRAM and asks you which amount of VRAM you have