WebMSX release 2.1 with MSX2+ and FM sound support

Why does this emulator run demos much smoother than openMSX and blueMSX? Is it because in a browser, it is easier to imitate the 60hz refresh rate?

It has such a good experience and is so easy to use. Love it

Yep... It's a very easy to use and already very complete MSX emulator. Paulo has done some great & amazing work with this emulator.

Amazing work indeed! Also, the speed of development amazes me.

@tfh; which link is that? Tried them both, they seem to work fine with both Chrome and Firefox.

Because it's cheating a bit AFAIK it adjusts the emulation speed to match the monitor refresh rate. But the author can tell you more about it.

Music Module or the FM-PAC (accidentally) mentioned twice?

I'm not sure if I understand what you guys mean by cheating :-)

But what WMSX does is that, by default, it auto-detects your native video frequency and always try to achieve 1:1 V-Synch, even if your host machine is 60Hz (almost all machines) and you're running an emulated PAL MSX at 50Hz. It implements a technique called "video pulldown" (without interpolation), which is what most modern TVs, for instance, do to adapt the various source video frequencies to their native frequency.
WMSX currently supports pulldown for 50, 60, 100 and 120Hz host frequencies.

Paulo

You think that may be some problem with WMSX or it is supposed to work that way?
Remember to DISABLE the default MSX-MUSIC Extension of you want to insert an FM-PAC cartridge to avoid conflicts on the YM-2413 ports.

I didn't even know that DSKs could carry copy protection....

Maybe it assumes there is MSX-AUDIO and does not work right with only MSX-MUSIC? Does it work in a real machine with only MSX-MUSIC?

Yes, its in the roadmap... ;-)

I think both Fony DemoDisk #2 and ProTracker are using (at least) tracks 81 & 82 for example

Surprised by the smoothness of everything well done!

Wow! Very Good!I have wanted to include all of the features. Rom format Do you plan to add more? For example, Mirrored ROM, etc.

Strange... Having a look now.
Are you using a Savestate in this case because of the "Press CTRL" thing?
I plan to add a feature to automate that too, so we can start games that need this easily.

You found a bug that occurs in rare situations when loading a State at launch time with a different VideoStandard.
Its fixed, please update to Release 2.1g.

Also, you can omit the AUTO_START_DELAY (that changed) and the ALLOW_URL_PARAMETERS (default) parameters from your launch config.

Thanks!

Mirrored ROM? What is that? Any example of ROM that would need this format to run properly?

I think that the SCC is not correctly emulated at all.. It seems that this routine does'nt work to detect a SCC inseted in webMSX:

LD A,02 ;is ROM??
LD (09000h),A

LD HL,9800h
LD A,(HL)
CPL
LD (HL),A
CP (HL)
JR Z,isRAM

LD A,03Fh
LD (09000h),A
LD A,(HL)
CPL
LD (HL),A
CP (HL)
JR nz,isRAM

Tell me if I'm wrong... or tell me how can I detect a SCC inserted in webMSX

Thanks!!

I haven't explained correclty... for your answer...

I didn't wnat to say that your emulator isn't correct or something similar.

There are some games that use that routine to serach the SCC cartridge... I only insert in slot 1 a "SCC cartridge", direclty from the config menu "KONAMI SCC Extension Enabled in slot 1".

You can try it with, for example, the SD Snatcher Melancholia Translation. It works with SCC+ extension, but does'nt find the normal SCC. It uses the same rutine than me.

That routine only shows that the SCC is RAM through memory area from 9800h to 9FFFh. That's all...

Of course, thanks for your emulator, it's amazing!!

Not at all... I didn't take this way. We are cool.

Can you explain the routine a bit? The "is RAM" jumps are considered success (its an SCC) or not?

The SCC and SCC-I are different chips, the address ranges to access the wavetable are different. Also, the SCC has no extra RAM, the SCC-I has. As I understand, SDSnatcher is meant to work with an SCC-I, not SCC. I don't know if I have the exact same version you mentioned, but the English Translation I have here only works with the SCC-I.

The SCC-I chip starts in the SCC compatibility mode, but SD Snatcher (at least the on I have) immediately switches to SCC-I mode, and if there is no SCC-I, it fails and asks "INSERT SOUND CARTRIDGE".

But it isn't in a real SCC, right?

Thanks!

Does the diskette image bundle zip file is only 5? It is not available but no more?

From the text you linked:
"The memory area from 9800h to 987Fh behaves as RAM. The memory area from 9880h to 98FFh is write only; if you read it, it'll always return FFh."

Edit: Can you please explain your routine, and where it fails in WebMSX?

I have written incorrectly the last part of the routine, anyway I'll explain it:

LD A,02
LD (09000h),A ;select a ROM part in visible area (8000h-A000h)

LD HL,9800h
LD A,(HL) ;read in A the value of 9800h
CPL ;put in A the complementary value of A
LD (HL),A ;write that value in 9800h
CP (HL) ;compare the actual value of A with the actual value in 9800h
JR Z,isRAM ;is the same?? then in 9800h we have RAM
;is different? we have ROM
LD A,03Fh
LD (09000h),A ;select SCC part from visible area (8000h-A000h)
LD A,(HL) ;read in A the value of 9800h
CPL ;put in A the complementary value of A
LD (HL),A ;write that value in 9800h
CP (HL) ;compare the actual value of A with the actual value in 9800h
JR z,isSCC ;is the same?? then in 9800h we have RAM (we have SCC!!)
;is different? we have ROM (we haven't SCC)

That's all...

All of them use the same way to detect the SCC... the one that I've explained in the previous comment... First checks ROM and then checks RAM for the SCC part...

I'm sure that Paulo will solve that small problem...

A while ago i have created a Patch for the SCC detection in SCCmusixx.

The new detection routine can be found here (Code included)
https://www.msx.org/forum/msx-talk/software/scc-music-altera...

The Patched SCCmusixx Disk can be downloaded here
http://s000.tinyupload.com/index.php?file_id=000470941597336... (Warning POPUPS !)

Unfortunately the patched version can not find the SCC in WEBMSX, not shure why ?
it works on a REAL MSX (with FlashROM-SD) and OpenMSX, even with a SCC-i

@ppeccin, Keep up the great work on this great Online MSX emulator, Great Job...

Same behavior. Intro works plays the SCC. Inside the editor, it says "NO SCC".
2 different detections are being performed? One in the Intro and another in the editor???? Why?

larsthe18th, can you describe what the detection routine does? What it assumes should happen with the SCC?
I have found a problem and fixed it, but for SCCMUSICXX I still get this weird behavior.

It works if I insert a REAL SCC GAME with ROM (like SpaceManbow), but it does not work with the SCC Expansion (no ROM).
That makes me think something is wrong with the detection routine. ROM in the cartridge should not make a difference, and should not be searched for.

Am I wrong?

Well... I could be wrong here, so please don't shoot me if I am I haven't owned a piece of real MSX hardware in over 15 years now I think
But, I remember when using real MSX hardware, you had a switch on your SCC-cartridge. When you plugged it in, and the machine was in BASIC (or DOS) you switched the cart back on, meaning that also the game ROM was active again, together with some other parts maybe. Not only the SCC.

As for the SCC-Musixx & Pro-Tracker (and our Fony DemoDisks) not finding the MSX-Music & SCC, I suspect the following:

* If the software searches these chips, it won't find them (for some reason)
* If the software assumes it's in port 1 and just starts writing to those ports (intro of SCC-Musixx), it works
* If the user selects the correct port and the software starts writing to those ports (Both music editors), it works

Now it detects the SCC correctly!! Good work!!

Yes, that is VERY VERY funny.
Its using the Text2 mode. I can't imagine right now any reason that would make a program write to the wrong VRAM address like this...

If that were a line interrupt issue, sprite collision or any other timing-related issue, I know that the line accuracy may cause some problems.

But a simple write to VRAM in Text mode? I don't know what could possibly cause this.

Any ideas? I don't know if the authors are watching this, but any idea of what crazy operation could cause something like this?

Both authors haven't seen an MSX from up close in like 20 years and are also not active on this forum (or anywhere in the MSX scene....), so we don't have to expect any information from them.

@ppeccin Are you aware of the early vram reading when setting the vdp address for input? If you set the address for input, but do an output instead, it will skip one address.

If course! I am very happy with the feedback guys!
PLEASE keep reporting the problems. That only makes WebMSX better!

No, I didn't know about this site.
Quite a few adds there! :-)
Looking forward to receive some donations! :evil: B-)

Its a pity they have reduced the screen size sooo much. The bottom bar even looks ugly... :(
Its also a bit too low on the page, I have to scroll down to see the screen.

Do we know the author? I could help and give some design tips.

My god, I think you nailed it!
That passed completely unnoticed to me! I thought that this pre-read would be non observable in real scenarios, but you're right. It can affect the resulting writes if you use this undocumented and odd sequence!

I will test this right now.
Thanks SO MUCH for pointing that, even if it does not work...

LOL.. ricbit is also some kind of an emulation guru... A long long time ago, he wrote BrMSX. The fastest MSX emulator in town!

So, what about FDD2 and the Traktor demos? Are they full working now? Or what is still left?

Nice improvements/progress Paulo!

I had a (discerning) look:

Syntax Infinity (in order of appearance):

* a blink (or two) in the first part;
* garbage in the title screen (black lines, looks like remains from previous part);
* some garbage in the screen after that (face scene & before, top-left corner);
* sound: what's supposed to sound like a hat, sounds more like a snare;
* explosion scene is missing;
* credits part goes wrong, showing the next credit too early.

When this demo was released some of this stuff was problematic in either blue-/openMSX (or both) as well:
* the title screen lines/garbage;
* the missing explosion scene;
* ... (more?)

openMSX still show some garabage / 'stray pixels' on the tumbling/rotating bars scene (near the end) btw (in a way it looks worse ATM than it once did..?)

For reference: MSX2 recording / live recording.

@Paulo: have you considered implementing reverse / step back (yet)? :)

It is!

@ppeccin Can you make Aleste 2 rom work? Looks like mapper trouble.

http://www.ricbit.com/temp/aleste2.zip

It will work if you place the format hint "[KonamiSCC]" in the filename.
It also works on the latest development version due to new Formats supported and the new extended Roms DB, not published yet.

I will be publishing a new release later today, it will work out of the box.

Paulo

WebMSX Release 2.1k is online.

Main changes:
- A lot more ROM Formats (mappers) supported. Mostly cartridges with SRAM including GameMaster2
- Save/Load the SRAM from all cartridges supporting it to/from a file (drag&drop suported!)
- Better ROM recognition. Thanks to Vampier for sharing the DB! :-)

Paulo

Well, yeah, it's a demo, so some edge stuff there, take it easy..

Sure, more somewhat of a 'wild' suggestion.. But *if* you might consider it at some point, perhaps it could be feasible to just record every x seconds or so (and just keep a limited amount of history), so it won't be that much of a performance hit.

Eagles 5 Download

Eagles 5 was executed on blueMSX. It was good. Eagles 5 Rom format is Mirrored ROM. Running in WebMSX displayed in black screen.

Please Troubleshooting.

Tried it on a tablet, only problem is the tablet keyboard won't show, so controlling or other input isn't possible. Tried it on a Chrome browser on an iPad.

Your detection for .ROM files is working pretty well btw I added some more games to my site and only ran into one .ROM that wasn't detected propperly! Well done! Even all the SCC+ version are detected with 100% accuracy O

Yup... It was confirmed earlier that IE11 isn't supported 100%. You probably also don't have sound in IE11.
Switch to Chrome or Edge and all works fine

Ow sorry, did not know it was allready mentioned.
Is it something that can be easy fixed ? it would make me very happy.
The sound issue is not a big problem.

AxelF, IE is a very bad browser, it lacks several of the resources that WebMSX uses. It will not run properly.
Do you need to use IE for any particular reason? Why can't you switch to a more decent browser like Chrome?

Baby Dinosaur Dooly Link

Please support this game. Baby Dinosaur Dooly was executed on openMSX.

Thank you very much.

openMSX Source Code Download

openmsx-0.13.0.tar.gz decompression.

openmsx-0.13.0 > src > memory > RomDooly.hh, RomDooly.cc

Cool :) Updated the version on my site as well :)

I don't know that exactly, I think that is a special RAM inside that cartrdige... All you have to know is the way the game delivers with that port (0Fh):

#0F Page size select
bit 7, 6: 8K (1, 0) or 16K (0, 1)
Function of writing to address range #4000-#BFFF
bit 5, 4: RAM SELECT (1, 0) or WRITE (0, 1)

the Zemina memory extension slot is selected for address range #4000-#7FFF