Arkanoid’s paddle for the MSX

In 1986 the Taito company developed the famous game Arkanoid (clearly inspired by another game called Breakout). It was initially released for the Arcade machine, and whose most notable feature was the ship’s innovative control system: a wheel to control the ship instead of a joystick. The wheel allow a very fast and precise movement of the ship, which significantly improved the gaming experience.

Arkanoid was later ported to MSX (and many other systems) and released in Japan in 1987, the game was sold along with an analog controller (I don’t know if it was also sold without the controller). This analog controller connected to the Joystick port, and It allowed a control experience near the Arcade’s. read more

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1MB MSX RAM Expansion

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

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Posted in: MSX

MSXdev’21

For the edition of MSXdev 2021 I will participate as a sponsor, with a Rookie drive NX cartridge customized for this event. This edition of the MSXdev is characterized by focusing on the first generation MSX, with some really basic specifications: Z80 at 3.58Mhz, TMS9918 / TMS9928 video chip, PSG sound, and 16K of RAM memory, without additions of any kind, for both fully MSX1

Good luck to all the contestants!!

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Finally Rookie drive NX supports USB floppy drives

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.

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Posted in: MSX

News February 2018

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:

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Posted in: MSX

LOADROM, the new feature.

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

 

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Posted in: MSX