Discount Days and new MSX products!

Discount Days and new MSX products!
And we would like to inform you what we did last year and will do next.

MSX VHD PC  Interfaces: IF-7900 ready! IF-C9C coming!
At SuperSoniqs we’ve been busy the last year to bring the IF-7900 VHD interface created by Heikki to production for Victor (JVC) MSX computers.

This device is now available for order. Work has also started to recreate the IF-C9C VHD interface for Victor HC-90/95 and the first prototypes are currently being build. 

Contact us if you’re interested in obtaining the latter. To refresh your memory; both interfaces can be used to control VHD players with your MSX. VHD was a contender of the Laserdisc system. It also has some MSX games released for it. But you can also control normal VHD discs with the MSX basic extension in the cartidge. It’s fun to play with and the players can be obtained easily and cheap with a Japanese Buyer proxy service. Please note that you’ll need a player with the “VHD PC” logo and a compatible Victor MSX.
Makoto YM2608 OPN Sound Card new batch coming

The Makoto (YM2608) has also been put in production and by popular demand we will create a few extra. Work on the cartridge label and packaging has been finished so you will get all the parts to make a complete product. The original design was made by Iyatemu based in America and the final product has been finished in China by Digital River Hardware. We think it’s great that we as MSX users can still work together globally to create new stuff for our hobby.
You can preorder a Makoto from the new batch here.
PlaySoniqs Back in Stock with discounted price

As many of you know, a lot of our stuff is built to order. That means that we will obtain the pcb’s and most parts, but final assembly will only happen after we receive your order. This has to do with two things: costs and time. Some parts of the PlaySoniq like the C64 SID cost more than 50 euros per part nowadays. Or 35 euro for the Sega Master System VDP. It’s just to expensive to stock pile those. However, we did finish some PCB’s of the PlaySoniq currently (except the SID) so if you want one and don’t want to wait a long time, this is your change to get one. The price will be lowered temporarily so we can empty our stock. Check it out here!

Neotron New Batch Available!

For the Neotron we’ve build and completed also a new batch. These can be shipped immediately. To refresh your memory; this device contains the YM2610 chip used in Japanese arcade and Neogeo game machines. Fun fact; the Spanish Ghost and Goblins port has support for the Neotron, but VGMPlay also. If you combine a Makoto with a Neotron you can also play music made for the YM2610B (Taito) Arcade machines. More and more msx games get OPN music from their arcade versions backported, so don’t miss out. And since we want to fund our new projects, we lowered the price of the Neotron also. Link here!

New in our shop: The SixPac OPLL cartridge!

New in the shop: the people behind the creation of the Sixpac FM-PAC clone (Outer Heaven) asked us to distribute their product. The sixpac was created to make the best possible sound output with genuine OPLL chips as possible. It has an audio output connector and uses 5 and 12 volt to create perfect audio output. It has a build in rom with some FM tracks, extra basic commands and volume can be adjusted (on the PCB) to balance it with your MSX. SixPac will come with the cartridge case, sticker, PCB and box. Manufacturing will take some time. Please be patient when ordering because we might also do a new version of the PCB. Also make sure your MSX (FPGA clone) supports 12 volt on the cartridge bus.
Pre-order the best OPLL sound cartridge here!

Join the Beta for the Modulon 2.0 Slotexpander!

Also currently in development is the successor of our Modulon! New are volume controls that can be adjusted more easily and separate audio outputs per slot. To get this thing in production and to give you a chance to support us, a temporary beta program will be opened where you can get the new Modulon faster, cheaper and help us testing. Please follow the link here to apply.

Franky 15 year anniversary version

To commemorate the 15 year anniversary of Franky, our first product with the Sega VDP processor, we’ve build up a few pcb’s that will come with a new designed sticker and Box with full color label. If you like Sega Master System and don’t need all the functionality of the PlaySoniq, or just want to make your SuperSoniqs collection complete without soldering, this is your chance.

Introducing our latest products

Meet Robby, our new speech interface for MSX.

Developed by JunSoft, Robby can be your talking companion for hours! Programmable from basic and machine code, this eighties speech chip with additional processors for audio processing can keep you busy for hours. Who needs AI when you can get a real robotic voice? Finally your best friend can talk to you too! Comes with full colour box. Manual is downloadable from the product page.

SoundStar, your offbeat stereo PSG synthesizer & album

SoundStar contains the six channel stereo SAA1099 sound chip developed by Philips during (perhaps for?) the commercial MSX era. It was really ahead of it’s time. Because of the wider frequency range it can produce really great sounds from deep basses to high pitched hihats. Included in the cartridge is a build in replayer developed by Laurent Holst (Grauw) with a selection of the best songs made by composer Dennis Sanders (Pyramex) which called this “probably the most rare format to make an album”. External support for over 300 songs in Roboplay and VGMplay is available.  Get your copy of this rare music album in MSX cartridge format for only 50 euro. (Please buy one so I don’t need to put my angry wife on the next cartridge label! ;). Order here!

Slotexpanders and MIDI-PAC’s

We have a few of our Modulon slotexpanders ready (and parts stocked to build more). Already housed in version 4 of our 3D printed casing. Now for a discounted price! Get your Modulon slotexpander here: Modulon – Supersoniqs

We are also finalising a new batch of MIDI-PAC2 cartridges so don’t hesitate to order one if you want one!

New! Darky Junior. Meow!

Since prices of the AY-8930 sound chips are currently prone to teeth sharp market fluctuations; we now offer our Darky Stereo Sound Card with effects processor and three mixers also with normal PSG processors. For about half the price of a normal Darky you will have all of the functionality. Chips can be swapped later (they are installed on sockets) when good deals come to us again. Full color manual and box included for only 79 euros. Link.

Makoto YM2608 Sound Processor Cartridge

Together with Electric River Hardware we brought the YM2608 Yamaha Sound Processor to MSX. This device, called Makoto has been in development since 2018, originally by Iyatemu. This OPN card features 6 FM channels, a PSG and 4 Bit ADPCM. If you like the music of NEC’s PC-8801/PC-9801, Sega Megadrive and Fujitsu FM-towns games, this card should be part of your collection.

IF-7900 VHD Interface reproduction

Currently available is the IF-7900 VHD-Interface reproduction for MSX. VHD is the Japanese predecessor of the Laserdisc system made by JVC (Victor). A few titles were released on VHD for the MSX. Apart from this you can of course also control other VHD discs or make your own programs in MSX Basic.  Check the promo video of JVC here: VHD Video Disc Promo . SuperSoniqs produced this cartridge together with Heikki (the creator) and we will distribute this cartridge. Order here

Introducing the PlaySoniq Hub

For the PlaySoniq, the Sega Audio Video expander for MSX (Including SCC/SCC+, 16MB memory and Commodore 64 SID) we made a HUB. This way you can easily connect different audio and video cables to the PlaySoniq. For 30 euros you will get the assembled HUB, A 3D printed enclosure, a new isolated connector cable to connect your PlaySoniq and a new RGB to SCART cable. Apart from the audio in port this Hub should also work with our first Sega VDP cartridge “Franky”. Get it here!

Autumn is coming. Luckily.

Some new or improved MSX items to cheer you up. Who needs summer anyway?

New Slotexpanders Available!

Made with super smooth black resin, it’s hard to discover this is actually 3D-printed. This time mostly with low insertion force gold plated slot-connectors. At a discount price.
Modulon – Supersoniqs

No time to look at falling leaves with this Dual Slot SD-Card Reader

A few copies left of this durable and reliable SD-Card reader with 512KB memory mapper for MSX1 and up.

Dual Slot SD-Card Reader plus 512KB Memory – Supersoniqs

A new MIDI-PAC2 batch is currently also in production!
Order MIDI-PAC2 Here

Robby, our Voice module for MSX

Yes! Ready for production! This is Robby, our Voice module for MSX. Now your best friend can talk to you too! It’s now possible to order your copy of our initial batch of 50 pieces.

Support our development here: Robby the MSX Voice Module

SuperSoniqs Shop is open!

Dear MSX-users, thanks to Eric Boez from Repro factory we now have our own shop! In it are most of our products you know and some new ones! Let’s order!

Easy ordering and paying

It is now possible to easy order and pay for products. For our most popular products it is now possible to place pre-orders, so we can start scouting parts and start production. In the past we could only do very small batches. With pre-orders we can order pcb’s with smd components pre-soldered so we can produce faster and reduce waiting times.
We have build some new products and we will finally produce some of our earlier products again the coming months. The PlaySoniq will be produced again after 5 years, as will the MIDI-PAC2 and Modulon. Darky, our Stereo ePSG audio expander is available for pre-order although it will take some more time to finish it. Our latest family member ‘Neotron’ is now being produced.
Go to Shop

Doramus Drum Controller

With our Doramus Drum Controller for the Guitar Hero Drum set you can finally enjoy the best Rhythm game for TurboR. Limited first batch ready for ordering and shipment.

Neotron

Ever wanted to hear NeoGeo or Arcade sounds playing from your MSX? With Neotron you can! Developed with Jun Soft this VGMplay compatible OPNB cartridge with 15 extra sound channels will rock your ears!

Neotron Information

Thank you for reading!

And stay tuned, we are busy with some more MSX products which we will announce soon and add to our shop! Please allow us to close pre-ordering when maximum amounts we can produce in the next months have been reached.

Introducing Darky, the stereo ePSG soundcard with effect processor

Hi all,

You know these questions that start with “What if?”. Here at SuperSoniqs it is all about making our own “What if’s” possible. One of those was of course the lack of stereo sound in any MSX.  A while ago we stumbled upon an AY8930 sound processor. It was designed by General Instruments as an successor of the AY-3-8910 and sold to Microchip Taiwan together with their other chip designs. Microchip actually released it, implementations were made for PC (the infamous Sound Master) and the design was also used in a few arcade systems. The fun thing about the AY8930 is that it has two different operating modes, one is AY-3-8910 compatible, and the other one is the enhanced mode. The enhanced mode of the AY8930 adds separate envelopes for the three channels (as opposed to one shared envelope in the AY-3-8910), variable duty-cycles, more bits of precision for note frequency, volume, and envelope frequency, and a much better configurable noise generator.

darky

But of course the main fact that it was backwards compatible with our MSX PSG made us thinking why not release a cartridge with this soundchip? And why not a cartridge with two new ePSG’s? Since these chips have separate outputs for each PSG-channel (even our MSX PSG has, but few MSX’s actually make use of this), we thought it would be nice to put each channel into a stereo mixer, so that each seperate channel can be mixed and placed into the stereo dept field (stereo panning). Also, the channel mixers used have some more functionality like treble, bass, equalizing and 3d stereo spatializing.

But that’s not all. The audio end result of the mixed channels is fed into a SPIN FX-1 Effect processor, which has fixed effects such as echo, reverb, flange, chorus, etc. and 8 programmable effects. For this a EEprom is also part of the PCB design.

In default mode our new cartridge will start in the MSX PSG compatible mode, with the second PSG on a different clockspeed to create a pseudo stereo effect, usable with all existing MSX software. Registers are being made to access all PSG’s in MSX or ePSG enhanced mode, and to control the mixers and effect processor. An Atmel processor and Philips CLPD are used to control all hardware on this PCB.

The ePSG stereo card has two stereo mini-jack outputs, one line-out and the other one is an amplified headphone output.

Our Darky ePSG stereo card for MSX can be ordered here: https://shop.supersoniqs.com

Franky Cartridge Enclosure .STL files

Dear all,

Due to populair demand we hereby publish the .stl files of the Franky cartridge enclosure too. Some people had problems converting the Sketch-up files. With these .STL files you can 3d-print a compatible casing for your Franky project. Most professional 3d printer companies also accept these .stl files. Have fun with it.

Link to zip file containing the stl files

 

PSQTOOLS updated and SMSLOAD for PlaySoniq released!

TNI informs us that PSQTOOLS, the toolset for the PlaySoniq module has been updated! Three new tools have been released: PSQSAVE and PSQLOAD, to save and load PlaySoniq module settings and SMSLOAD, a tool to load and run Sega Master System ROM images. SMSLOAD also supports Sega SC-3000 and SG-1000 rom files, when the correct extension (e.g. name.sg) is given at the command line. Grab them at the TNI site: www.tni.nl

Philips MSX-Audio Expander Bios Upgrading

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.