I've had experience with QBasic, some Java, and some HTML programming. I'm willing to learn whatever language you use to make games on this emulator. I also have experience with Flash MX...

I'm tired of making text adventures in Qbasic, thought I'd try something new. Anyone interested in teaching me?

Hey there MadScientist and welcome to the wonderfull world of the 8-bit machines!

coding for MSX is not hard but takes some efforts. Doing the BASIC stuff is e.z. you'll have no trouble with that. Assembly (Z80) is the key word wehn it comes to programming the MSX. there's plenty of docs and ppl around who're willing to help you with whatever ish u'll encounter.

I bet there's s'm peeps outhere who can point out some locations for docs'n stuff. Like Funet?

good luck with this experience.

Hey MadScientist,

Welcome to the MRC forums! Well, like ro said, first you need to decide what language you want to learn. If it's MSX-BASIC, you could probably learn this without too much help. It's relatively simple, and very powerful at the same time. Being a BASIC language though, you're not going to get the maximum out of the machine. If you really want to get the most out of the MSX system, you'll have to learn assembly. It'll take a lot more time to master, but it is great fun to control a computer at such a low level. In either case, there are many people on the forums here who are more than willing to help you out with the occasional problem/question. Apart from that, there's also a great deal of information available online about the MSX system. Especially when learning assembly, there's a number of sites that have technical documentation, sources and articles available. Good luck!

MS: if you don't want text-adventures, you're likely to want graphical stuff ... you'll need some gfx-toolies as well: Age and Graphsaurus for screen 5 for example... Polka for screen 2 and 4 .. ^_^

Or perhaps you can draw on PC and use BMP2MSX to convert them to the screen of choice..

Hello MadScientist!

If you want to learn a new programming language, I recomment Turbo Pascal. It's a very easy language where you can code in a very clear and readable style. You can have inline MC code, too. Turbo Pascal is as interactive as MSX-BASIC and generates COM-Files. And Pascal is an ancestor of ADA, from which the VHDL syntax is taken. So leaning Pascal prepares you for coding VHDL for the OCM!

Is Pascal free? I like free stuff. And are there any sites you'd recommend for tutorials? Oh, by the way, I DO like text adventures as long as they have a good storyline (I just got tired of making them.) Same goes for most games I like for that matter.

I don't know if Turbo Pascal is free. Last thing I know is, that the MSX club Gouda had the rights on the MSX version of Turbo Pascal some years ago. (There are also versions of Turbo Pascal for lots of other computers and operating systems!)

Here are a link to some informations about Pascal: www.hansotten.com/pascal.html

Pascal is a relatively easy to learn language. From a certain point of view, it is much easier than BASIC! There also must be many good books for learning Pascal in public libraries.

By the way: I once had a text advanture called Fantasia written in BASIC. Does anybody knows it?

I believe if someone does not know the mSX system, basis a good start point to get used with posibilities.
TP is a bit heavier since it oblige you to think a little bit more in advance at what you want to do.
But personally is think TP is very good...
By the way I remember there was a cross developement tool to develop turbo pascal for MSX on a PC , dont
remember exactly the name ...

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... it oblige you to think a little bit more in advance at what you want to do.

That's exactly why Pascal is better than BASIC!

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By the way I remember there was a cross developement tool to develop turbo pascal for MSX on a PC , dont remember exactly the name ...

Do you mean to develop TP programs for MSX on PC? If so, why do you need a tool for that?

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By the way I remember there was a cross developement tool to develop turbo pascal for MSX on a PC , dont remember exactly the name ...

MSXPad

(disclaimer: I've never used MSXPad, or even seen it in action. I'm just pointing )

Didn't MCCE have the rights for TP on MSX? As far as I know I have an original lying around somewhere...
At any rate there was a manual that came with it... Maybe it floats around the internet nowadays.

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Didn't MCCE have the rights for TP on MSX? As far as I know I have an original lying around somewhere... At any rate there was a manual that came with it... Maybe it floats around the internet nowadays.

MCCE indeed had the rights for TP on MSX. And made version 3.3, lots of MSX support added in that version. The programmer, Frits Hilderink, also known of the NLMSX emulator, made TP 3.3f public domain and ithe compiler is now published, with the manual in the diskimage, on my website http://www.hansotten.com - MSX Software - Pascal compilers

I did program in pascal for msx. I do remember there was short memory for applications...

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I did program in pascal for msx. I do remember there was short memory for applications...

I also did program in Pascal (Turbo Pascal) for MSX. In TP, you can compile to the memory, which is fast, but restricts the program size, especially if the whole sourcecode is also in the memory. You at least need to have a very small sourcetext with include files, if you want to compile to the main memory. You can select compilation to the disk, so you can have rather big .com files. Maybe you must set the end address to a higher value, too. There's also the possibility to load parts of the code during runtime.