Author Archives: supersoniqs

Philips MSX-Audio Expander Bios Upgrading

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Some users have asked us how to modify the Philips Music Module expander to support the new MSX Audio Rom 1.3 made by Brazilian MSX user FRS. This new bios has quite some new features like better MSX-Music instrument support and support for games that make use of the MSX-Music (FM-PAC) bios. A lot of ASCII MSX-Music now work! Please follow the FRS page link later on in this article for the release notes.  We have tested this new rom with our expander and indeed some modifications needs to be done. Although those modifications are not complicated to do at all.

First you have to remove the yellow wires on the bottom of the expander:

Then you have to connect jumpers labeled 2 and 3 on the expander board. See below for the example (done on the bottom of the expander)

And this is all you have to do! Please note that the new MSX Audio bios from FRS does not include the original Philips software.
The latest bios from FRS can be downloaded at his homepage, in the tools section: http://frs.badcoffee.info/tools.html

You need the file msxaudio13.NMS-1205.rom from the MSX Audio Bios v1.3 zip package. Please contact Bas at www.bas-ditta.info if you need help obtaining a new flashed rom. If you own a Music Module and want better support for games and music, please note that we still have a few MSX Audio Upgrade boards left.

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MSX meetings

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Unfortunately we could not attend the latest MSX meeting held by AAMSX in Barcelona due to an unexpected strike of the air traffic controllers in Spain. Luckely Spanish MSX user Salva managed to bring his PlaySoniq to the party so at least visitors could take a peek. Thank you Salva for demoing the PlaySoniq.  We did however manage to attend the nice MSX Info Party in Helsinki last August and made a small video of the PlaySoniq in action for you to enjoy.

PlaySoniq and MIDI-PAC together

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Last Saturday, the monthly MSX Mariënberg meeting was held. We still had all the PlaySoniq, MIDI-PAC and MSX gear in boxes due to the Bonami retro fair that was held one week before. So we could easily also show a little demonstration in Mariënberg.

At the Bonami fair, people liked the PlaySoniq and the MIDI-PAC. For the PlaySoniq we had to convince people that it was actually a MSX that was playing Sega games. For the MIDI-PAC we’ve got questions about which CD’s we were playing (while we actually were demo-ing MSX games). This was also partly due to Tjeerd bringing his Yamaha XG wavetable MIDI module. Which actually blows away our simple Yamaha TG-300 tone generator.

Over the last weeks, we also managed to let the PlaySoniq work together with the MIDI-PAC.There are about 64 Sega Master System games with support for OPLL (the same chip as in the MSX Music standard or the FM-PAC has). Since the PlaySoniq can reroute that music and sound effects to the MSX, the MIDI-PAC can pick those up too and convert that to MIDI data on the fly. In short: with the PlaySoniq and the MIDI-PAC combined, you can also enjoy your SMS-FM games with your MIDI equipment. Try that with a Master System Console 😉

We recorded a little video at Mariënberg to show the MIDI-PAC and the PlaySoniq working together. A big thank you to Filip Slagter who was willing to demo YS2 FM and Scramble Spirits on the PlaySoniq and MIDI-PAC combined. And Firehawk with the MIDI-PAC. we hope you like this video. But keep in mind that this demo was recorded with a phone (and the TG-300). A lot of the lower frequencies in the bass and drums sounds are therefore missing in the sound output.

PlaySoniq tips

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Some users report that their FM-PAC is not working with the PlaySoniq. Others report that the joysticks are not working. For FM-PAC support you first have to activate the FM-PAC. After typing CALL MUSIC (or add this enty in the sega.bas file) everything works. Albert Beevendorp wil release a tool with which you can activate the FM-PAC from MSX-DOS. We hope to make this available soon. For joystick support you also have to edit the sega.bas file. By default only the keyboard is active. To change this, change line 120 by entering ‘ 120 OV=4 ‘ and save “sega.bas” again. Please note there’s an overlay matrix in the manual were you can check which option best suits your needs, or the game you want to play. PCEFAN reports that overlay code 3 works best in most situations. Just try and check the results for your configuration.

If you experience soft SCC sound, there a few ways around this. First of all, there’s a volume adjuster on the PCB which you can adjust to balance the SCC mixing. Please check the manual for details. To get full control over the audio mixing, also for mixing OPLL sounds with PSG, MSX with PlaySoniq and our upcoming MIDI-PAC we bought a Behringer VMX-300 3-Channel audio mixer. These can be picked up for about 50 euros at local or webbased trade-in markets. New it’s about 120~150 euros. We got ours for 50.

You can see the VMX-300 and the MIDI-PAC prototype in action here:

MIDI-PAC Sample Music

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Tjeerd of WORP3 informed us that developments on the MIDI-PAC go well. And he wanted us to hear the progress already. Please note that the algorithms to convert MSX Music to MIDI out commands  are still being tweaked. The software to create mappings for MIDI instruments is also still under development. In the mean time please enjoy the following recordings (made with a Roland Sound Canvas SC 55):

Fray:
Demo 1
Demo 2

Illusion City:
Demo 1
Demo 2

Xak:
Demo 1
Demo 2


Xak: Tower of Gazzel
Demo 1
Demo 2

Of course, in the end the final quality of the sound output will be determined by your equipment and instrument presets made.

Update October 2010: Please note that these audio files are in not representative anymore. The current quality that the MIDI-PAC can deliver is way better.

Kralizec’s Goonies ‘R Good Enough runs on Franky!

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We just found out at the MRC that Kralizec is releasing their new game “Goonies ‘R Good Enough’ on the next 37th MSX users meeting in Barcelona, which will be held on June 19th in Barcelona. The first 35 buyers will get an official Goonies badge and a poster. The game is priced at 35 euro and the cartridge also contains a SCC and PSG in FPGA. Apart from being a great game, the best news is of course that this game also supports the MSX1 compatible screen mode of Franky ;-). Which could be nice for those users who have Franky and a MSX1, but no RGB output on the MSX1.  It’s also great for testing your Franky card.

The game can also be ordered from the MSX cartridge shop and Sunrise if you are unable to attend the meeting. Check Kralizec at the MSX cartridge shop for details.

There’s an old promo of the game on Youtube:

Converted software for Franky

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One of our happy Franky users, PCEFAN, has adjusted a lot of games so they work (better) on Franky. PCEFAN also made some custom loaders for different types of memory. Of course we can not host those games here. A solution would be to host the IPS patches instead. unfortunately we don’t have the ability to host files on this WordPress site. If you know a good place to hosts the patches please let us know.

The following games are manually adjusted (please note that you still need a loader tool):

Alien Syndrome Ninja Gaiden
Alien Storm Outrun
Air Rescue Pacmania
Action Fighter Pitfall 2
Alex the Kid in BMX Trial Power Strike 2
Alex the Kid in High Tech World Quartet
Alex the Kid in Shinobi World Rastan Saga
Alex the kid in The Lost Stars Rtype
Altered Beast Sangokushi 3
Choplifter Scramble Spirits
Cloud Master Shadow Dancer
CyborgHunter Shinobi
Dynamite Dux Smurfs
Eswat Solomon No Kagi
Fantasy Zone The Maze Space Harrier
Fantasy Zone 2 Street Of Rage
Forgotten Worlds Street Of Rage 2
Gauntlet Thunderblade
Galaxy Force Time Soldiers
Global Defense Vigilante
Gokuaku Doumei Dump Matsumoto Wonderboy
KungFu Kid Wonderboy 3 The Dragons Trap
Maze Walker Wonderboy In Monster World
Mercs World Games
Moon Walker Zaxxon 3D
Ms Pacman Zillion
Choplifter
FantasyZone The Maze
Global Defense
Gokuaku Doumei Dump Matsumoto
KungFu Kid
Wonderboy
WorldGames
Zillion
Quartet
Alex Kid In High Tech World
Alex Kid Bmx Trial
Solomon No Kagi
MazeWalker
CyborgHunter
Gauntlet
Pitfall2
Alex kid The Lost Stars
Dynamite Dux
Wonderboy In MonsterWorld
Space Harrier
Sangokushi3
Ms Pacman
Rtype
Rastan Saga
Power Strike 2
Street Of Rage 2
Street Of Rage
Shinobi
Action Fighter
Smurfs
Altered Beast
Cloud Master
Vigilante
Thunderblade
Time Soldiers
Wonderboy 3 The Dragons Trap
Moon Walker
Ninja Gaiden
Shadow Dancer

New MSX Audio ROM Available

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We have a new ROM for the MSX audio upgrade board. This new rom ensures better compatibility with Compile disk based games, support for loading programs from hard disk and configurations with slot expanders and multiple hardware configurations. Some users experiences lock-ups in some cases. We tested these configurations with a real Panasonic MSX Audio cartridge and we experienced the same problems. It’s safe to say that our new ROM is now more compatible than the original MSX audio ROM! We also included the default Philips Music Module program in the same rom. Pressing ESC during boot will start the default Philips Program. Pressing TAB during boot will disable the ROM completely. Because the new ROM is twice the size of our original rom some adjustments on the PCB are also necessary. Existing users who bought their expander PCB from SuperSoniqs may apply for the new ROM and needed parts without additional costs. Please contact info@supersoniqs.com for details. All new orders will go with the new ROM and adjustments to the PCB, starting today.