What can I tell you guys... I've been an emulation freak for years and thought I'd try something new last week and downloaded a little app called openMSX. Wow.... it is a shame that this system never took off in the west as I can see now why it was/and is so popular elsewhere. I am totally stoked by the development potential still for this system... I'm not much of a game maker, I'm more of a utility app kinda guy. But, seeing as I'm new to this system (trust me guys, I'm an msx user for life now [wait 'til I get a real system..... ahhhh]), sorry, them damn tangents again, I have a couple of questions that I hope you will be kind enough to answer...


1> Is mon80 a dangerous download? (I haven't been able to find it anywhere. I've been using Devpac on my ST and Amiga so I'd like to stick with Hi-Soft products.)

2> On boot-up can text mode be changed? (Would like to see the Sunrise boot in 80 cols)

3> Seeing as I am using an emu, and for me the only system I've really been using is the turbor [FS-A1GT], how the hell can I switch it to an american keyboard layout? (If it's in the xml I missed it, or if it's in the firmware my japanese is nil)

4> Coding links. (Not much of a question, but a request)

5> What version of dos to use to install uzix? (it won't let me use MSX-DOS2)

I think that's about it for now........

2>
in basic the command WIDTH 80

(if this was your question anyway )

4>
http://map.tni.nl/
http://www.hansotten.com/indexmsx.html

3> I don't know anything about firmware, but selecting a non-japanese machine helps for me. I can use an American keyboard (I believe they are the same as Dutch keyboards) with a Philips machine. In openMSX.

I can do that with a mode 80 in my autoexec before basic, I mean when Sunrise is detecting the ide chain, can I do that without messing in a system rom?

3> If you download fs-a1gt_firmware_int.ips from the MSX IPS Patch Archive, put it in share\machines\Panasonic_FS-A1GT folder and add this in the <rom></rom> tags of the hardwareconfig.xml:

      <patches>
        <ips>fs-a1gt_firmware.ips</ips>
      </patches>

and start openMSX with that config, you have an MSXturboR GT with international keyboard and charset.

What's a dutch turbor system then? Having trouble finding one.

Thank you BiFi.....

Officially turboR and MSX2+ computers were only released in Japan, hence the Japanese keyboard layout. An example of the Dutch machine would be the popular NMS82xx series. If you select one of those machines (the NMS8245 was my fave) you'll see they have the international keyboard layout. Patching the ROM of the GT like BiFi suggested would also work fine, of course.

To set the screen to 80 columns, go to BASIC, type:

SCREEN 0
WIDTH 80
SET SCREEN

I would like to add SCREEN,,0 - disable keyclick

Thanks for the info, however I gave up basic years ago guys, although using it on the msx might be a good way to become aquaited with the system. However the first thing I ever get for any computer, or emulated computer I use is an assembler and a debugger.

Can anyone point me in the direction of a mon80 download.... I have gen80, now I just need the debugger...

Note that MSX Basic is *very* complete. It can be very slow, but you can do a lot with it.

But, the instructions above program the 80 chars mode into the clockchip. That can be quite useful. (SET SCREEN = save current settings to clock chip.)