Rookie Drive

I’m pleased to present the new firmware for my Rookie Drive NX storage cartridge. (v 20260211)

The old floppy disk emulator.

In this new version, the floppy disk emulator has been removed, but don’t worry, because the new USB floppy drive driver already includes a new floppy disk emulator. So what? I don’t understand anything!!! Let me explain:

USB FDD Driver 2.1.1 – New Floppy Disk Emulator

Konamiman has improved its USB floppy drive driver, and one of the improvements is the creation of an excellent floppy disk emulator. This emulator allows you to mount floppy disk images without having to type anything. Through a simple menu, you can select the disk image you want to use. Fantastic!!!

Another change that users will surely welcome is the addition of an activity LED in the latest Rookie Drive cartridges. Previously, this LED only worked under Nextor, which was, shall we say, somewhat absurd. This behavior has been modified, and now the LED illuminates according to the disk activity taking place.

New BASIC commands for the new floppy disk emulator (F1 or call USBHELP)

_USBRESET - Re-initialize device

FDD device only:
_USBERROR - Show last ASC/ASCQ error

Storage device only:
_USBMENU - Show file navigation menu
_USBCD - Show current dir

_USBCD("dir/dir") - Change dir, rel
_USBCD("/dir/dir") - Change dir, abs
_USBFILES - List files in curr dir
_USBMOUNT - Show mounted file name
_USBMOUNT("file.ext") - Mount file
_USBMOUNT(-1) - Unmount file
_USBMOUNT(0) - Mount default file
_USBMOUNT(n) - Mount nth file, 1-255
_USBMOUNTR(...) - Mount and reset
_USBFDDMODE(n) - n=0: normal, 1/2: force 1DD/2DD mode
read more

MFDC cartridge is a floppy disk drive controller for MSX computers. The controller allows two PC 3.5-inch floppy disk drives to be connected simultaneously, allowing for convenient copying between disks.

The MFDC controller is designed to use standard PC floppy drives, so that you can reuse old floppy drives that you already have, whether in an old computer or one that is lying around in a drawer at home.

The connection is simple, just use the same data cable that was connected to the PC, this is as far as the data cable is concerned. As shown in the photo, the connector has a slot, this slot must match the protrusion of the connector of the data cable itself, thus eliminating the possibility of connecting the cable incorrectly. Additionally, “Pin 1” is also indicated on the label. Pin 1 must match the color marking that all flat ribbon cables have. read more

This new cartridge is a 1 Mega byte memory expansion, it is compatible with MSX1, MSX2, MSX2+ and Turbo-R computers.

The 1MB expansion is the ideal complement to the Rookie drive cartridge, if you are using it in an MSX1 and want to use the Nextor operating system, or if you have a Japanese MSX2 with only 64KB, since the Nextor operating system requires at least 128KB.

It is also very useful for those MSX2, like the HB-F9S that only have 128KB, with this RAM expansion and a mass storage cartridge you can use the wonderful SofaRun software, which allows loading games in .ROM format into RAM. . read more

Surely there have been countless hours that Konamiman has dedicated to the development of this magnificent driver, I have just done tests with the material that he has sent me, once functional I have integrated it into the Rookie Drive driver package.

I can only tell Konamiman 3 things: Thank you, thank you, thank you. And is that the development of the driver required some knowledge and skills worthy of a MASTER.

I remind you of the owners of a Rookie drive that you can update your unit to the latest version from home, in the download section you will find the latest version of the firmware.

There is only one “gap”, in the market there are dozens of USB floppy disk models, in my experience we have shown that only a few work really well, others simply do not work.

The driver is developed following the UFI protocol, specific for USB floppy drives, so the first thing to see is if the floppy disk in question uses that protocol.

The disk drive that I use is a TOSHIBA, but internally it is a TEAC FD-05PUB

I hope you enjoy it.

Some cartridge labels have been peeled off, if this is your case here you have the label so you can replace it yourself.

The Roxie drive NX project is more alive than ever, during these last days I have been collecting technical information and doing some tests, with very interesting results. Although it is in a first phase, the new Nextor driver aims to improve its performance in USB operations. In the first tests I managed to reach an increase of 20% in data transfer rate.

On the other hand I am preparing a new batch of cartridges, finally on Sunday afternoons they serve for something useful !!! 😉

If you are interested in the cartridge send me an email!

Although only the plate is visible in the photo above, the final result is such that:

If you have an MSX and want to give it a new life, do not think about it, contact me and I’ll solve any doubts you have:

I am still working hard in the driver of Rookie drive 720, and this week I finaly get to work a new feature, LOADROM.

Using Call loadrom(“filename.rom”), you can load 8/16/32K Rom files into the MSX RAM, fast and easy, (not all the roms work, but a lot of them load well)

This video is in realtime, just see and ejoy.

And this one, using a little program in BASIC saved in the AUTOEXEC.BAS