FLAX: New Flash cartridge

On the MadriSX 25th anniversary event, held last Saturday June 28th, Matra showcased FLAX. FLAX is a new type of Flash cartridge for your MSX, a device to which you can upload a (game) ROM image. It has the following features:

1024kB Flash ROM
8kB ASCII mapper
Enable/disable button

All this, plus case and packaging will cost you only € 25,-. It will be on sale very soon through Matra and Bitwise.

Relevant link: Matra

Comments (18)

By Manuel

Ascended (19298)

30-06-2008, 23:35

Yikes, that's quite a lot cheaper than the MegaFlashROMSCC. How can it be? Is the SCC that expensive?

By dvik

Prophet (2200)

01-07-2008, 00:59

I really hope its not another AMD based flash cart. With an intel strata based flash cart I can make a nice loader for PC that uses the Game Reader, but a bug (?) in the Game Reader makes random access writes too slow to be practical (takes 1 hour to flash a MegaFlashRomSCC cart ! ). So please, please, not another AMD flash based cart

By SLotman

Paragon (1242)

01-07-2008, 03:11

AMD or Intel, I don't care... another nice surprise from Matra, after the "shockwares"

Go, Matra, go!!!

By dvik

Prophet (2200)

01-07-2008, 06:56

I didn't mean to sound negative, but the thing is that with the right technology, a flash cart can go from good to great. What I don't like with the flash carts I have is that they need to be flashed from the MSX which pretty much means transferring files from the PC to the MSX using floppy which means I need to have a floppy on my PC which I don't have anymore So for cross development AMD flash based carts aren't that great.

But sure, its nice to see a a new cheap flash cart although I prefer to pay for the right stuff if needed.

By cesco

Champion (454)

01-07-2008, 08:40

I'd love to see a cartridge with a SD card slot-in... you could stuff a SD card from your own computer, and then insert it into the cartridge. A small firmware in the cartridge could show up a game selector, that could let you choose which game you want to play...

That would be totally awesome

By pitpan

Prophet (3155)

01-07-2008, 08:53

I guess that Padial's SD/MMC adapter already has this feature.

By pitpan

Prophet (3155)

01-07-2008, 09:07

@dvik:

Believe it or not, I upload the games to the MegaFlashSCC using a plain MSX1 and the cassette interface. It doesn't take that long. For example, NEMESIS takes about 1 minute

By Huey

Prophet (2694)

01-07-2008, 09:54

@pitpan: I hope there is some phun in your remark. 1 minute wait time when crossdeveloping is killing

Stupid question: So only 8kb mappers are supported?

By pitpan

Prophet (3155)

01-07-2008, 10:24

Well, 1 minute time is OK if you're developing such a game as NEMESIS, I guess

By Tanni

Hero (556)

01-07-2008, 14:45

@ dvik

What I don't like with the flash carts I have is that they need to be flashed from the MSX which pretty much means transferring files from the PC to the MSX using floppy which means I need to have a floppy on my PC which I don't have anymore

Have your read my posting on blueMSX-website?

By dvik

Prophet (2200)

01-07-2008, 17:58

@pitpan: Flashing an AMD based cart with the game reader is really that slow. The problem seems to be a combination of the program sequence of AMD flashes (4 writes to different addresses per byte programmed), and that the game reader USB implementation has some issues with random access.

I have an ESE cartridge (battery backed ram I believe) that unfortunately broke. That one could be flashed in less than a second using the game reader, very convenient for cross development

By dvik

Prophet (2200)

01-07-2008, 17:59

@tanni: I'm not sure what post you're referring to. Can you post a link?

By Latok

msx guru (3926)

01-07-2008, 17:59

8kb ASCII Mapper. Does this mean not all ROM-files will work inside this flash cartridge?

By Tanni

Hero (556)

01-07-2008, 18:44

Mobile blueMSX, USB devices and external file system access

By [D-Tail]

Ascended (8263)

01-07-2008, 22:42

8kb ASCII Mapper. Does this mean not all ROM-files will work inside this flash cartridge?I have been told that there are some programs that fix mapper problems, i.e. force the game in the 8kB ASCII format. As far as I know most ROMs work fine with the ASCII 8kB mapper.

By Manuel

Ascended (19298)

01-07-2008, 23:09

Tanni: sounds like an USB version of the openMSX cd, which is a live cd which boots with openMSX. You can even reburn it with a load of software added to it

By dvik

Prophet (2200)

01-07-2008, 23:28

blueMSX supports both read only execution with separate location for save states and configs (in My Documents or something) and the 'portable' standard that basically is an USB version that doesn't pollute the host PC with any files.

I haven't run either of these in a while so I'm not sure what state the support is in, but at one time the emulator conformed to some type of standard for USB apps.

By hap

Paragon (2042)

04-07-2008, 21:03

dvik: get a nowind device
- usbhost: PC -> MSX Nowind, instantly
- OPF: MSX Nowind -> MegaFlashROM SCC, matter of seconds with disk access delay basically gone

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