How To Load Msx Images

[bast525]

hey all. Now trying to get MSX working. Well it runs the same as all of Ryleh's other emu's, and I get it running and some games (like Metal Gear) you just select it and it loads by itself and runs.

But I found a website on the net with lots of msx homebrews or ports that come in other formats... for instance, I found one which is in LZH format, actually it's a Zip file, with many files inside. So I put it in gpmm/msx like all the others, and then rescan the directory and the emu does recognize the file (though it says unrecognized CRC since it's a homebrew). Then when I select the game to run, it just boots up into the MSX DOS/Basic screen with a cursor, waiting for me to do something.

Well... I dont know what I'm supposed to do I tried typing in various commands such as run or the name of the game but nothing does anything. Is there a specific command to get this running? Or are homebrews and such not playable on the emu?

 

[majick]

I found one which is in LZH format, actually it's a Zip file, with many files inside.

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No, it's not. LZH/LHA is its own archive format, which is not ZIP. Back in the days before ZIP was invented, it was very popular, but these days, not so much.

You'll want to convert the archive to an actual ZIP file.

 

[Hazey]

As said you'll first want to check what kind of files are in that LZH-package. If it is a ROM-file or a DSK-image just repack it in a ZIP-archive and you're good to go.

However plenty of homebrew stuff is provided as loose files only. What you'll then want to do then is put the files from the archive into a DSK-image (and zip that up if you want) so the emulator can read the image.
I recommend Disk-Manager for this job ( http://members.eunet.at/lexlechz/DiskMgr.html ). You can drag-n-drop and all that, so it should be pretty simple to use. Edit: correct download link: http://members.chello.at/lexlechz/software.html#DiskManager
For more information on the DSK-format you could read http://www.faq.msxnet.org/suffix.html#DSK

If after this the software still won't run it most likely didn't came with a loader. Depending upon the type of executable you'll have to start it differently. You can find info on that here: http://www.faq.msxnet.org/suffix.html

Hope this helps!

 

[bast525]

my bad... I had never heard of LZH before. I uses a winzip icon and opens with winzip, so I assumed it was a format for msx. So then it wasn't working in fMSX simply because it could not unzip it? Still find it odd that it recognized it at all. Okay I'll try unziping and then just zipping into regular .zip file and see what happens.

There were several files in the lzh of different extensions I dont know what it was really.

 

[bast525]

Okay I unzipped the lzh, extracted all the files and put it into a regular zip and put it back on my smc, and got the same results. it shows up on the list in fmsx, I select it, and then it gives a disk loading image, and then a blue screen with cursor, waiting for input.

Okay I dont think this website has any warez, so I'm gonna post the link so you guys can see the file for yourselves and maybe figure out why it's not working:

http://www.msx.org/

In the middle of the page are the lists of the top downloads of the year, the game I'm trying is "666 The Haunted House". You can open up that lzh file and see what all different kinds of files are in there.

 

[Hazey]

MSX.org definitely has a no-warez policy. But as you indicate the package to have multiple files it most likely is distributed as a files-only package. You'll need to get those files on a DSK-image ( http://members.chello.at/lexlechz/software.html#DiskManager ), optionally zip up that DSK-image and have the emulator load that.

I'll take "666 The Haunted House" as an example:
- unzip "666.LZH" to a temporary directory
- start Disk-Manager and select "File -> New..."
- mark "Disk format/capacity" and select "MSX-DOS boot sector", "2 sides, 80 tracks, 9 sectors/track (720KBytes)" (this is the standard. don't worry, it'll remember your settings next time)
- now just drag-n-drop the files from the temporary directory to the Disk-Manager window
- select "File -> Save as..." and save the new DSK-image with a name such as "666.DSK"
- optionally zip up the new DSK-image, to save some SMC space ("666.zip")
- have the emulator load the new DSK-image and you're set!

Fortunately "666 The Haunted House" includes a loader, so you won't have to type in anything else. There are however games/demos that do not include a loader ("autoexec.bas") in which case some command need to be entered at the prompt. For those really interested in that see http://www.faq.msxnet.org/suffix.html
The reason why many games on MSX.org are not offered in a emulator-ready format is simply because they still mostly are used on the original platform. However most of the PC-emulators nowadays can also use the plain files or a directory as image. It is a shame fMSX32 can not (yet?).

 

[bast525]

sweet... many thanks that did the trick...

all that trouble and what'd it end up being... a text adventure hey man I love old school but not THAT old school... maybe if I had a chatboard *shrug*.

well no biggie at least now I know how to handle those types of files, and perhaps there are other good things at that website to check out for the MSX.

Thanks guys

Hazey - can I create my own autoexec.bas files for the games that don't have this autoloader? Real pain in the butt to start the games that dont have it...


EDIT: n/m... seems if you just rename the .ldr file to autoexec.bas it works

 

[Hazey]

*nods* Renaming the LDR-file (short for "loader") to "autoexec.bas" works indeed. However I'd advise to copy the file to "autoexec.bas", not rename it. The reason for this is that some old games may want to load the LDR-file later. And if it can't find it, it'll hang.

Copying is fairly simple. Just do so in Windows and then create a DSK-image, or in the emulator use the following:

copy "xxxx.ldr" to "autoexec.bas"

Where "xxxx" is the name of the LDR-file. Glad to hear you got it working though!

 

[bast525]

sweet thanks for the tip... I was wondering if just renaming it like that would cause problems later.


sux for me that the MSX never came out here in US (or was never big I dont remember if it released here or not) as now I am really interested to try some more games but most are japanese games with titles I dont recognize... dont know what to try....

 

[Hazey]

Check out the polls at MSX.org, plenty of them cover the "best MSX game ever"-lists. Or just keep track of the monthly download stats, those easily show which homebrew titles are popular.

 

[bast525]

You know... I must really be a 'tard when it comes to searching... because I looked around that website for 'best of' lists and didn't find anything other than the homebrews list.

I'll take another look... I'm sure there are some good games for the thing other than the Konami games.

Tell you what though, this homebrew "Blade Master" is pretty damn sweet. Even though the Atari ST is technically superior I've found more better games on the MSX so far.