MNBIOS demo 2 - Changelog

Earlier this week flyguille released the second version of MNBIOS. At the time we could not report what changes had been made since the previous demo version. As the list of changes is quite impressive and important, we decided to dedicate another post to this promising new (not-backwards-compatible) BIOS for MSX. Here's the changelog:

• Contrary to the previous demo version, this version is fully programmable
• It's possible to switch between applications at any time without the need to make a reset
• Screen 0 (actually screen 7) supports a matrix of 85x35
• Each character has its own text and background colour
• The amount of different designs of characters is not limited to 256; the kernel supports up to 2048 characters (16kB/8)
• Up to 341 designs of sprites supported
• The MNBIOS filesystem can handle storage devices of (2^32)*512 = mmmm (with FAT12, FAT16 and FAT32 support)
• Added a multichip/multichannel player in the kernel with the PSG driver. The rest of the sound chips can be added with external drivers
• Support for push-buttons in the keyboard device using the function STRIG 2 (not only one as in MSX-BASIC). The functions FSTICK and FSTRIG are ideal for sport games
• 2 memory drivers, HIMEM and ADM to manage data blocks and files loaded, respectively
• An ADR system that manages all drivers installed with a matrix for 16 drivers (the final release will support 255)
• The SHELL now supports the execution of BAT and EXEC files
• The SHELL supports swapping, redirection and nesting of the output texts (/P /W), both the internal commands and the applications that use the SHELL as communication medium with the user. It also supports automated conversion of variable and numerical expressions and file specification parameters
• Documentation available in Spanish and English (English at 90%)

To run MNBIOS you need an MSX2 (or higher) with a memory mapper. At the moment the disk driver only supports the Talent DPF-550 disk drive. The final release will support the Sunrise IDE interface.

Relevant link: MNBIOS Website