I finally won a Panasonic FS-A1ST (have to wait for it to come from Japan though), so now I want to get my Frog Feast game (frogfeast.rastersoft.net) working on the system.

So...

Can I create a 320x212 (or possibly 320x224) display mode? Would this mode work with a normal TV/monitor?

Do the sprites have there own palette or do they share the palette in 16 color mode?

Is SDCC a decent compiler to use for the TurboR? I'm not worried about the availability of libraries, since I will create my own routines. This is part of the fun of porting Frog Feast.

Concerning sound effects, what format PCM files can the TurboR play?

The turboR is just a normal MSX2+ computer, with a few (very nice) extras. This means no new video modes, unfortunately... You can use all the MSX2+ modes as usual, so they highest resolution would be 512x212 in screen modes 6 or 7. Sprites share the palette of any paletted mode. The only exceptions to this rule are screen 8, which has a fixed sprite palette and screen 12, which allows you to set all 16 colors. Screen 11 also allows you to freely define the sprite palette, but then those colors are also used for the paletted pixels, if any. Just look on the net for detailed info, there should be plenty. The PCM plays standard (8bit signed) PCM data. It's very simple to convert unsigned samples to this format though, even realtime if needed. Sample playing is very CPU intensive though, so it's hard to do other stuff while playing samples. Zone Terra proved it can be done, but it's not easy.

Quote:

Can I create a 320x212 (or possibly 320x224) display mode? Would this mode work with a normal TV/monitor?

No, for games you can only generate 256*212 or 256*192 display modes on tR. You can also generate 512*192/212 with 16 colors, but then you can use only 2 pages instead of 4.

Quote:

Do the sprites have there own palette or do they share the palette in 16 color mode?

They share the same pallette exept in 256 color mode, where 16 color pallette is fixed.

Quote:

Is SDCC a decent compiler to use for the TurboR? I'm not worried about the availability of libraries, since I will create my own routines. This is part of the fun of porting Frog Feast.

I don't know this compiler, but there is no known good C compilers for Z80/R800 AFAIK, if I understood your question right.

Quote:

Concerning sound effects, what format PCM files can the TurboR play?

In tR there is 8bit DAC that can be used to play samples. You can use any format you like with the DAC. BIOS play routines support pure unsigned 8bit PCM and stupid custom (bit like LZW) packed PCM samples.

Try HITECH C.
The CPM version is free and the PC cross compiler version is very nice, able to supporte CPM and ROM format and (with some effort) to support paged ram

Hi Raster, will you release the sources? I'm willing to learn more to implement a little idea of mine

Yeah, I plan on releasing the sources. But, I have to get started first.
I've been finishing up the X68000 version, which will be ready shortly.

It sounds like the best option is to shrink the screen down to 256 pixels wide. This shouldn't be too hard.

Quote:

[quote] No, for games you can only generate 256*212 or 256*192 display modes on tR. You can also generate 512*192/212 with 16 colors, but then you can use only 2 pages instead of 4.

Can this mode be tweaks to 320 * 212 by adjusting vertical and horizontal size registers on the 9958?

Raster: you can't change the horizontal pixel timings on MSX, really!

As manuel said, you can't change the pixel timings. By using scroll registers, you can have your virtual 320 pixel screen in theory, but only 256 pixel wide window will be visible. With height you can trick a bit to get up to 240 pixels (without interlace), but this is a bit useless information I guess.

...unless you're willing to create your program for the V9990 video chip. The Gfx9000 module (which contains the V9990) is an add-on for the MSX and offers a.o a 384x240 overscan mode (named B2)