Cocoa and the Time Machine now available for MSX

Supporter (2)

17-07-2020, 21:07

Hi,
I'm pleased to announce that we have now ported Cocoa and the Time Machine from the ZX Spectrum to MSX. I never owned an MSX, but I developed Cocoa with MultiPlatform AGD. So, thanks to jltursans MSX enginge for AGD I have been able to convert it. You can download it here: https://minilop.itch.io/cocoa-and-the-time-machine

I had to make some compromises in order to get it to work on MSX so the graphics and sprites had to be reduced a bit. Also I cant create a ROM file for it as the MSX agd engine only supports up to 32K rom distribution and the game is around 40kb. I have howevere managed to squeeze on one of the awesome chiptunes that the talented Mike Richmond made for me. This is my first game and has been well received in the Spectrum scene (there are a number of reviews and walkthroughs that people have done on Youtube). I hope you enjoy it!

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Por Fish

Resident (44)

17-07-2020, 23:17

Great work! Hoping more Spectrum AGD games will be converted to MSX.

Por Manuel

Ascended (19220)

18-07-2020, 00:15

I wonder why you had to reduce the sprites, as MSX should have better graphics capabilities than spectrum as far as I know.

Por Fish

Resident (44)

18-07-2020, 00:24

It's the AGD engine that has some limits

Por Minilop

Supporter (2)

18-07-2020, 00:25

It was a memory issue, more the limitation of what you can do with AGD and the MSX Engine which currently is MSX 1. Its true that the Graphics on MSX are better, but sprites in AGD use quite a lot of memory and the game was already at the limit for the spectrum (40kb), when I compiled to MSX it was a bit larger and wouldn't run, so I needed to remove some of the sprites and simplify some of the scenery graphics (AGD compresses screen data when there is a run of the same block) Its the best I can do with the tool as it stands at the moment. The MSX engine for AGD is quite new, JLTursan did a great job with it, and hopefully if more people use it there will be motivation to continue its development - I'd love to improve it and really take advantage of the graphical improvement of MSX. It's been a fun learning experience for me having never owned or experienced an actual MSX machine,