Is there any way to test a .rom file in a true HW?

Enlighted (6935)

17-09-2006, 11:28

I would like to have something to test is what is being developed works on a real MSX
Is there any magic and exotic MSX HW able to emulate an ASCII8K mapped megarom starting from a .ROM file ?

Entrar ou registrar-se para comentar

Por Haohmaru

Paladin (774)

17-09-2006, 11:54

There are several, actually:

Mega Flash ROM
LPE-FLASHG-V2

Por ARTRAG

Enlighted (6935)

17-09-2006, 14:02

Which of them can be programmed directly by a PC and is the most suitable for crossdevelopment?

LPE-FLASHG-V2 seems quite complex to be programmed. I understand that you need an EPROM programmer apart.
Mega Flash ROM seems easy go, but it requires an MSX with disk dirive (that actually I don't have)

Por Guillian

Prophet (3517)

17-09-2006, 15:15

I built a cartridge reader/writer for PC that can read and flash MegaFlashROMs cartridges in a few seconds. It should be possible to do the same with the game reader.

Por Haohmaru

Paladin (774)

17-09-2006, 18:38

Both LPE-FLASHG-V2 and MegaFlashROM are to be programmed using a MSX2 machine with diskdrive. I am interested in Guillan's cartridge reader/writer fo PC.

Por djh1697

Paragon (1702)

17-09-2006, 20:23

A DDX MegaRAM will also work, made in Brazil!

Por Huey

Prophet (2694)

17-09-2006, 21:56

How did the people from MSXdev (Infinity, XLS, karoshi etc. etc.) test their ROM's ????

Por Haohmaru

Paladin (774)

17-09-2006, 22:22

I think most of them used emulators - since a handful MSXdev games refuse to work (correctly) from either LPE-FLASHG-V2 or MegaFlashROM.

Por Edwin

Paragon (1182)

18-09-2006, 00:01

After we switched to 48k, we made the rom file loadable as .com (an idea shamelessly stolen from The Cure ) and tested with that to get it tested on disk capable systems. For the rest of the MSX1 testing, Bifi used his eprom cart to test it an a real msx1 a couple of hundred times (easier said that done as the cart didn't support 48k roms). MSX1 compatibility turned out to be a bit more difficult than first expected.
I'm guessing that some may have used cassette input to load the rom.

Por pitpan

Prophet (3155)

18-09-2006, 00:05

Indeed, Edwin, I have. I converted both THE CURE and UNIVERSE: UNKNOWN to WAV format, so that it can be loaded using the cassette interface in real MSX computers.

I use this technique too to test my programs in the real hardware because they were not megaROMs. I did some tests too using megaFlashSCC, megaRAM and SCC+ cartridges. These also support megaROMs. It is a lot of fun uploading games to this devices using only the cassete interface!

Por Guillian

Prophet (3517)

18-09-2006, 12:39

I am interested in Guillan's cartridge reader/writer fo PC.

It is a not too complex device. Here is an image of two prototypes I built.

The first one was fast reading cartridges, but slow flashing them.
The second was enough fast doing both things.
The third is the fastest. I need to fix the CS signals yet.

I made a program for reading a flashing cartidges. It also calculates the CRC32 of the ROM and compares it with the BlueMSX ROM database, to show the name of the game, company, etc. It is a fast way of looking for unkown ROMs in you MSX collection :P
Nerlaska helped me to port the program from java to C++, so there are two versions available.

Perhaps I'll publish the schemes in the next CALL MSX, but I need time to write an small article and make a decent board design ^^!