Hello,

I was wondering how would i format a floppy disk under fMSX to save games for the truly excellent games: Metal Gear 1,2 and SD Snatcher? I have the Amiga version of fMSX 2.3. Help would be much appreciated.

Thanks,

under dos: format a:
under basic: call format

Thanks,

I will try that.

OR create a BLANK disk using DISKMANAGER / DISKEXPLORER (both downloadable from the downloads section IIRC)

Quote:

OR create a BLANK disk using DISKMANAGER / DISKEXPLORER (both downloadable from the downloads section IIRC)

I don't think that would work on the Amiga version, that sounds more like something you would do on the Windows/PC version. Thanks anyway though. I didn't manage to try fMSX out yesterday, but will so today!

Cheers,

oh, sorry . you're right. they're pc tools.

unless you have cracked version of metal gear 1 that can save to disk, you won't be able to save current game state to a floppy image - maybe only to .cas file.

But there are emulators that can save current state of the whole MSX, some versions of fMSX are also capable of doing this (at least I saw patches enabling this feature).

I've simillar problem, not with emulator, but with real machine.
I cannot boot MSX Dos - I can format the disc using CALL FORMAT on MSX, copy MSXDOS.SYS and COMMAND.COM (from www.aamsx.org/howto-4.php?lang=en) on PC, but my MSX 2 (Philips NMS 8245) cannot recognise them (or what?) and performs no boot (CALL SYSTEM returns then "invalid function call".
Discdrive seems to be OK, it can boot, when an AUTOEXEC.BAS is found on disc. But - usually it stops with error message on command, beginning with '_' (e.g. '_MBKLOAD'). Are these commands part of MSX Dos? Or do I need another ROM? (I've MSX BASIC 2.1 and DOS BASIC 1.0).
My goal is to run UZIX, but it seems impossible without this MSX Dos.
Sorry for so stupid questions...

Hm, when you have a DOS1-formatted diskette with both MSXDOS.SYS and COMMAND.COM on it, it SHOULD boot DOS1, actually. You have booted your MSX2, then inserted a diskette and typed: 'CALL FORMAT' or '_FORMAT'? Then you've chosen between singlesided and doublesided? Then you've copied the 2 above mentioned files to your formatted diskette? It should work :/

About the loading of Moonblaster Samplekits: the command '_MBKLOAD' should work in BASIC, but you MUST load the Moonblaster BASIC Replayer first. That replayer adds extra commands to BASIC, such as _MBMLOAD and _MBKLOAD.

> Hm, when you have a DOS1-formatted diskette with both MSXDOS.SYS and COMMAND.COM on it, it SHOULD boot DOS1

I supposed so too, but no boot then...
Maybe I've wrong files from the internet source? Can anyone test them?

>You have booted your MSX2, then inserted a diskette and typed: 'CALL FORMAT'

So I did.

>Then you've chosen between singlesided and doublesided?

Double. (I suppose, NMS 8245 has double sided drives)

>Then you've copied the 2 above mentioned files to your formatted diskette?

Yes, on PC (first under Win98, then, when my idea was, that those 'long names' are unreadable for MSX, I tried old MS-DOS, with the same effect, i.e. no boot)

>It should work :/

But no MSX Dos appears on screen and I cannot CALL into SYSTEM.
Thanks, I'll try it again and again.
Maybe MSX Dos files from another internet source 'll run better.

>'_MBKLOAD' should work in BASIC, but you MUST load the Moonblaster BASIC Replayer first.
Thanks again.
I've no such hardware, but it 'll help me, when simillar command 'll appear in some program. I've simply to find appropriate Basic extension.

Quote:

I've no such hardware, but it 'll help me, when simillar command 'll appear in some program. I've simply to find appropriate Basic extension.

No, it's no hardware, the replayer is software. Or do you mean you don't have an FMPAC or Music Module? Of course, you do

CALL SYSTEM will not work (Give Illegal Function Call like you described) unless MSX-DOS was already started once.

Try:
POKE &HF346,1
CALL SYSTEM

But really.. If the disk was formatted on an MSX, and has the MSXDOS.SYS and COMMAND.COM it should just work.

Now, here's what I think: You probably use M$ Internerd Exploder, and it has downloaded the MSXDOS.SYS as a TEXT file, in stead of BINARY. So your MSXDOS.SYS is FUBAR'ed.

When I saw the word Moon, I supposed to this Basic extender belongs to Moonsound.
I was wrong. Thanks again.

By the way, this is not related to your question, but have you tried AmiMSX 3.1? AmiMSX is one of the best MSX Emulators that I have seen ever, although it do not have the advanced features of the emulations of nowadays, it runs very very smoothly and you can work with the emulator as it was a real MSX (using real MSX floppy disk, and of course, you can format them).

The homepage of AmiMSX is: http://www.arrakis.es/~joanant/amsx.html

It will need at least a 68030 CPU to run at 100% speed.

Some Windows versions have the annoying habit of overwriting boot sectors on floppies if they contain a non-Windows boot sector. If this is the case, you can solve it by either copying the files to a freshly MSX-formatted floppy from DOS. Or you can repair the boot sector on a disk damaged by Windows:

• floppy 1 contains the files, but a damaged boot sector
  
• floppy 2 contains a valid boot sector (for example, it is freshly MSX-formatted)
  
• in BASIC, insert floppy 2 and type "d$=dski$(0,0)"
  
• insert floppy 1 and type "dsko$ 0,0"