It's always nice to read how people appreciate something you made. Thanks for the compliment. If you have ideas for new features please let me know. I'm quite fresh out of ideas since I added the on-the-fly patching system to ROMLOAD.

Well, the thing that Ramones did in FL2.COM writer for Padial's flash is neat.

He have switches to patch games on fly to fool game's territory. This way people can play Vampire Killer or Nemesis in English (euro) mode on Japanese computers and the over thay around

If you know which addresses to patch, it can be done with ROMLOAD as well.

I'll take a look at FL23.COM source tonight...

Also here www.msx.org/forumtopic3226.html Manuel Pazos described how he changes game region:

Quote:

It just searchs for LD A,(#2B) and LD A,(#2C) instructions, and replace them with a LD A,x

I know how it's done. Maybe I will add that in the (near?) future. Any more suggestions?

No, it works great!!! Just please keep it open source

I wish someone write a Norton Commander-like dual pannel shell for MSX with plugin API (similar to Far Manager and WinCommander on Windows side). In this case a lot of neat open source utils (romload.com, fl2.com, execurom.com) could be transformed into plugins and used easily!

Actually, since you asked! There are some RFFs (requests for features) from my side:

1) optional feature:

replace first command after "AB" to jump to a block of code, allocated in the end of megarom, and this code should check if hot key (let's say CTRL+B) is pressed, and if it is, then replace "AB" with 0x0000 and reboot MSX, if hot key is not pressed, just modify first instruction after "AB" to it's original value and jump to it, so the game plays as it's supposed.

The use for this feature is a quick SCC+ cartridge reset done in software. Right now I need to wait about 5 minutes before DRAM in SCC+ zeroes and I can boot.

I know I can either take the cart out and put it back in or add a button to power off dram, but I don't like those hardware solutions, because they damage external look of cartridge

2) support load from at least one of the popular MSX archive formats: pma/lha, arc or sl (whatever was this superfast MSX packager from Erog "SOLiD" Voznesensky). This way a user can put about twice as many games on a floppy!

3) add visual mode. I.e. if I launch romload -v (or any other parameter you prefer), open a nice simple 40-character wide menu, which have simple disk browser and allows to choose the rom file, and after this choose settins to launch it.

4) create CRC database with known parameters, so users don't have to experiment to get a rom working, if they have a popular ROM image that is in database

Quote:

1) optional feature: replace first command after "AB" to jump to a block of code, allocated in the end of megarom, and this code should check if hot key (let's say CTRL+B) is pressed, and if it is, then replace "AB" with 0x0000 and reboot MSX, if hot key is not pressed, just modify first instruction after "AB" to it's original value and jump to it, so the game plays as it's supposed. The use for this feature is a quick SCC+ cartridge reset done in software. Right now I need to wait about 5 minutes before DRAM in SCC+ zeroes and I can boot.

I think it can be done with ROM images that are smaller than the 64KB or 128KB available in the cartridge. In other cases it's not that easy as you can't know if there is some free space left in the ROM image where that code can be stored to add this feature. And I'm not into modifying ROM images just for that. Meanwhile, you can always use the patch feature to modify one of these bytes to prevent it from restaring after a reset. The /R option would reboot to DOS or BASIC though instead of starting the ROM image. I'll take it in consideration to add.

Quote:

I know I can either take the cart out and put it back in or add a button to power off dram, but I don't like those hardware solutions, because they damage external look of cartridge

So you'll have to stick with this. What I do is switch off the computer, take out cartridge, switch on the computer, wait until it's booted, switch it off, insert the cartridge and switch it on again. For me it seems enough time has passed for the DRAM's to get at least the first 2 bytes differently.

Quote:

2) support load from at least one of the popular MSX archive formats: pma/lha, arc or sl (whatever was this superfast MSX packager from Erog "SOLiD" Voznesensky). This way a user can put about twice as many games on a floppy!

This might be an idea. It'll require just 1 file in the archive (matching the criteria, in most cases it'll be the extension of a file) and I do need sources for the extraction part as well as permission to add it to get the feature going and to release the source.

Quote:

3) add visual mode. I.e. if I launch romload -v (or any other parameter you prefer), open a nice simple 40-character wide menu, which have simple disk browser and allows to choose the rom file, and after this choose settins to launch it.

I actually have been thinking about this, but for version 2. I don't see it as a significant part of the program to implement it in a hurry.

Quote:

4) create CRC database with known parameters, so users don't have to experiment to get a rom working, if they have a popular ROM image that is in database

I have added a list with common ROM image file names with the options necessary to get it working in one go. It's called ROMLOAD.LST and should get most people started. It might be an idea to combine with the previous feature request.

Hi BiFi, the tool is good as is

1) You are right about patching as alternative to (1), but very few are capable of it

If you implement it as optional, then folks can try this option, and if it corrupts the game, won't use it

2) Well, then you can use gzip format, since it is GNU. But it could be tough to come up with fast unpack code

3) sweet! I'll be waiting for 2.0!

4) CRC is more reliable then name of the rom. GoodMSX names are usually reliable, but they don't fit in 8+3 DOS format... But I understand your point

PS: I think we should move this thread to "Software" -> "ROMLoad feature request"

Quote:

1) You are right about patching as alternative to (1), but very few are capable of it If you implement it as optional, then folks can try this option, and if it corrupts the game, won't use it

I'm sure there are people who can find out which block(s), address(es) and byte(s) need to be changed and these can be published.

Quote:

2) Well, then you can use gzip format, since it is GNU. But it could be tough to come up with fast unpack code

That tackles one format, now for the rest... unless all these formats are supported by it.

Quote:

3) sweet! I'll be waiting for 2.0!

That may take a while.

Quote:

4) CRC is more reliable then name of the rom. GoodMSX names are usually reliable, but they don't fit in 8+3 DOS format... But I understand your point

The filenames in that list are names from about 8 years back. I did add a list of konami titles with their RC number which is my way of identifying it.