Make a Raspberry a real MSX.

I made a little demo using the original pcb from meesokim design in last MSX RU in Sevilla last october showing a MSX2 cartridge (Vampire Killer/Castlevania) up and running on pi no modification was needed in code, also my FMSX port for PlayStation 4 was presented.

Please if you change code or hardware design publish it and leave it open. This should be always an open source/hardware project.

My information is that Meeso Kim is the inventor of the board, as I mentioned in the news post. Please correct me if I'm wrong. As I'm known for late news post, this item was hangin' around at my home the last two months. I wasn't able to spend the time it deserves to test. I asked Meeso Kim this summer if he wanted to distribute the board, which he denied.
User mygodess did report about a ZemixMini.

Have a look at this tweet.

As mentioned, this project is just in the beginning. We hope for both support, BlueberryMSX and OpenMSX. A real MSX substitute should support those hardware extensions for sure. Of course a Pi could just emulate the boards, but cartridge slots are one thing that makes an MSX (the DIN tape connector is the other thing ).

Hi, All.

It's meesokim's writing.
I've almost done for read/write for real MSX cartridge. It's time to make more realistic case.
I recommend you use my recent work for RPMC schematic and blueberryMSX modification on my github.

http://www.github.com/meesokim/msx-cartridge
http://www.github.com/meesokim/blueberryMSX

BlueberryMSX is more flexible environment for Raspberry Pi than OpenMSX.
Also I improved many features of BlueberryMSX.
- Scanlines for LCD monitor.
- 4:3 screen ratio for 16:9 display.
- Shortcut Keys profile same to PC version.
- MIDI port output support (by using Software MIDI like timidity)
- PNG Screen shot by pressing F6.
- interal SCC sound enabled for ROM cartridge
- USB floppy disk support (/dev/sda or /dev/sdb)

Recently I've started to make a frontend based on pygame.
It's similar to Groovy Arcade.
I'd like to do something with you to improve MSX experience for Raspberry Pi based MSX machine.

* Zemmix mini is a remake commercial project with this RPMC board schematics.
It is a very limited edition based on official license from Zemmix TM holding company.
MSX is not directly related to this product.

Everyone can make their own product but it has to be open hardware schematics for better improvement with public.
BlueberryMSX is already open source.

Happy New Year 2019!

Best Regards,

Miso Kim

You don't need to put any R because Raspberry Pi GPIO makes pull-up internally with output 1 simply.
And There is no 74HC244 any more on latest PCB (it's miss print). Only 74HC373 3pcs, 74LVC4245 1pc, and 74HC08 1pc.
If you want to use LEDs, you have to use 1k ohms ~ 47k ohms (less make brighter light) and 74HC595 1pc.

This is great! I remember posting about this some time back - RasPi is ideal for something like a homebrew 1chip MSX. Very happy to see that someone's starting on the hardware.

We only wanted that they mention you clearly as original author of the project (you deserve the credit for it).

Of course as an free and open source project everyone is free to sell, build or modify the code and hardware sharing with everyone the improvements.

Nobody is arguying it

Thank you again for your efforts Kim and happy new year!

meeso.kim - if there's soething we can do in openMSX to help you, please let us know. What kind of flexibility is missing? I'm interested to know!

74HC244 should be 74HC373. Right?

Thanks for this work, meeso.kim!

Interesting project.

Great job Meeso, long time I look to your job.
Now I'm planning to make a MSXPi
One question : /M1 is no longer decoded in RPMC V9 ?

I have only one cartridge that require this signal (BEER IDE) but I think it's not really usefull.
Just need to check my design and I'll oder PCB.

I expect to test this soon B-)

I've updated openMSX repository.
http://github.com/meesokim/openMSX

If it's not too much of a distraction: what's the intended interfacing of an emulator to this board? I assume (?) you don't have a generic emulator patched to run in exactly real time and produce/react to real bus signalling, because you'd at least need to be bare metal for that sort of timing control and that's a whole different sphere of porting, so is it more like capturing an image of any on-board ROM contents and detecting any on-board hardware, then emulating those independently? Or am I grossly underestimating?

Did you use 'make staticbindist' instead of dynamic shared so?
I will try it today night. Thank you for your comments.
2018.8 version means the source codes of github at 2018.8.
It is not related to openMSX official version number.

Here is the recent RPMC board gerber files to order PCB and schematic.

RPMC V2019-1

You can get more information from github.
https://github.com/meesokim/msx-cartridge/tree/master/rpmcv2019-1

Thank you!!
But now i have v9. It needs 74HC244 or 74HC373?

I can run openMSX properly with recent source and 'staticbindist' parameter.
It has still tiny/a little bit performance drop problem during real ROM cartridge. Sometimes performance drop reach 70%. It makes uncomfortable sound output. Of course blueberryMSX has no such problem. openMSX has rich functions than blueberryMSX. It might be a root cause. Because real MSX slot signal protocol makes a time consuming work. More faster emulator can meet the timing requirement.

It needs 74HC373 from V8. Thank you.

Well, it depends on many things. For instance, the scaling method used, the renderer used (OpenGL or software), the video settings used, the amount of sound channels that need to be emulated, the use of these sound channels, the type of sound chips that are generating sound, the resampler used....

There is no reason that blueMSX would be faster than openMSX, if the same kind of settings would be used. You can also take a look here: http://openmsx.org/manual/setup.html#tuning (although it might be a bit outdated).

No decoupling capacitors in the schematic..., will that work properly ?

Well I bought this slot interface for debugging/developping audio applications targeting sound espansion (Sfg-05, FM-PAC, DelSoRi, neotron, etc. ) cartridges, so every detail about sound path and/or power is appreciated.

@meeso.kim : Thank You for the explanation.

Exactly, we can use the following +12V/-12V generator.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/TPS5430-Positive-Negative-Dual-Swit...

And it was a misdrawing of RPMC schematic. Because it was wrong +12V pin and -12V pin. I just put +12V only for 2 pins.
I will fix it and update it soon.

I think in Europe is easier/cheaper to order this
TRACO POWER TMV 2-0512DHI

just a little update about 12Vdc supply missing.
I found this item on Kadenken shop that allegedly should fix it :
Power connection harness for MSX by Lost Technology/mado sen

Some other information about it (still in Japanese) on maker blog page :
Lost Technology MSX AT PSU

Ciao! :)

I have a doubt, I want to buy this board to use it on my raspberry pi 3, but I don't know how it works, I have read that you have to put a micro SD card with an operating system configured.
Where can I get this operating system?
Which?
Thank you.

Thanks hamlet, one more thing, how does it work? Is it going well? Is it very complicated to make or is it better to buy it?
What program is used to open .gbr files?
Thanks for your help.

@Knightmare72 If you are ok with retrocomputing on a RasPi, this will be you gadget. I did not tested too many carts, mostly games. There are some which did not work properly, but the software is still in development and getting better.

Yes, this will be the first when I get my hands on a Pi400.

and having a case to match that pi400

It is the same board. I didn't found a way to get it running o my PI400 although I didn't tried hard.
You can read about the Pi2 / Pi3 version on Lupies hideout.

Well, this didn't work either:

I bought the RgR board, too. it arrived two weeks ago but I didn't managed to get it working in my Pi400. In fact I didn't put too much effort in because time space and the lack of these.

I really hope there will be more development in to these products, I like it very much and for me a cartridgeport makes an MSX.

As good a modern laptop kb can do.
You know I'm from the last century and I like the Sony HB55 keyboard much more than modern ones.

Missed this tread. Working on similar stuff. Making a msx on a pi400 using the cleanest and most stripped down linux possible. I am not aiming into cartridge ports but having the ability to carry a almost real msx computer under my arm to any event and not have to be afraid for it to break down is a big + for me. I own the real thing but nowadays getting a turbor replaced is far out of my budget. Having a beautiful alternative as this is awesome.

Although the BMC is indeed a project worth mentioning, I'm not in need of DB9 aslong I have USB.
Keyboard interfaces like Keyrah or BMC for the original hardware are obviously hard to realise on out system.

How do these cartridge boards work? Are they physically mapped into the emulator slots? Or are inserted cartridges copied into emulator's ram?

Asked what distribution drives the Pi400 @matheusjgsantos answered:

" is working on a simple system that make RPi400 boot right as normal MSX2 console. Please wait a bit when it is ready, port to RPi4 is not easy as whole graphic system is different."

Try this

user: root
password: fudeba

There wasn't much movement in the past, Robby.
But now Game Restore is selling a GPIO Interface for the Pi4 and promised to build a Raspbian + openMSX port for it.
Been in touch with them a week a go, they said it will be finished soon ("give us a few more weeks").

As seen on twitter:

Download link:
Google drive

solved audio stuttering, using pi os legacy lite an blueberrymsx 2.0 plus from matheus j.g. santos github.

My test with raspberry pi 3 and rpmc v2019:

https://youtu.be/toa927QWd8w

I am wondering whether there is a well functioning openmsx distribution for this adapter. I have a Raspberry Pi 3 A+. What image is recommended for this?

@pakoto, thanks. So openmsx is not really a good alternative?

Trying to run the bluemsx 2 but when i start it it says: Shader not initialized and repeats that continuesly. Any idea what to do?

Compiling doesn't work either:

/usr/bin/ld: cannot find -lbcm2835
collect2: error: ld returned 1 exit status
make: *** [Makefile:442: bluemsx-pi] Error 1

Could i share my sd card image working here? All software included is open source i think.

blueberrymsx 2.0 plus RPMC autoboot pakoto 16gb.img
Sorry, i don´t have small sd card to obtain .img
https://mega.nz/file/KNVQxb6J#d8O7S7RpcocCIyYEAcv_U308DHQabc...

Thanks!

working for me with f1 spirit. scc music included.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=toa927QWd8w

Captured using hdmi usb device.

Yeah, same problems here with various usb psu and usb-cable combination. More issues with cables than with PSUs. Now i have perfect combo with good quality cable and ipad charger.

no brand, sorry. Try old cables from phones thas uses 5v 2a.

New "fast charge" cables / adapters that don´t work for me, uses 9v to get more watts with less amps (and cable section), i think.