well, for a dream it's not bad

MORE BETTER BASIC

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Trebmint seems a bit confused: Quote: Another thing is that software should not be free! Free software kills. Obviously the OCM would never be commercially viable for a software developer, but shareware, freeware should be avoided at all costs. How can you say that free software kills unless it's deployed in a working weapon system or a failing medical system? But in his next message: Quote: Oh and symbos should be the defacto OS! Last time I checked symbos was still freeware, so it should be avoided at all cost and it should be the defacto OS! Does that mean we should avoid the OCM at all cost because the program that should be the defacto OS, is freeware?

I was primarily talking games with reference to my software sells hardware remark. An OS of some sort is a necessary feature of the OCM so of course it would be free in that it comes with the machine. I see no contridiction there!

I guess what I'm trying to say is that software that costs has more percieved value that that which is free. Its human nature. Once you give away software for a machine that machine is devalued in many peoples eyes as being worthless, again that's human nature. Thats not to say that free software is worse than expensive software, often its better but we live in a world people see value and price as the same thing.

I wish...

* Direct CPU access to the VRAM.

* Higher CPU clock frequenties (say 50 MHz) - with possibility to go back to original frequenty.

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we live in a world people see value and price as the same thing.

this is only true for stupid people. More intellingent life form evaluate the quality of the SW not the price. In other words, they use the BRAIN!

Has that more intelligent life form already been discovered?

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Quote: we live in a world people see value and price as the same thing. this is only true for stupid people. More intellingent life form evaluate the quality of the SW not the price. In other words, they use the BRAIN!

That possibly explains why 5% of PC's users prefer the superior, and free linux over the ever crashing and slow windows. To borrow a quote 'Nobody ever got rich overestimating the intelligence of the public'

I want more than 8 sprites in-line!! Perhaps 32?
Just that, and faster VRAM (accesing directly and as usual, both options), and maybe 4 vram pages at screen modes 7,8,11...

With that I will be happy. But only if this become a kind of standard.

Um... and I want an optional boot screen with a japanese naked girl

Since MSX3 software will be all new, there is no need to keep it compatible with MSX whatever. It should be easy to program for it. So no stupid timing problems; just stall the cpu when it’s too fast (like a 200MHz Z80) and so on.
There should be a system timer, maybe more. Some advanced DMA or whatever you’ll call it, with some functionality for graphics. The vdp won’t need a command engine that way.

CPU:
No need to be Z80 based. Why not look around and add some more modern chip design? Make it a dual cpu design, the Z80 to boot and compatibility, another to do the work.
Anyway, the cpu should have direct access to all memory, not only vram and sampleram, also main ram; let’s forget that stupid memory mapper.

VDP:
No need to be TMS9918 based. Just add some more advanced vdp. GFX9000 like (not compatible, there is some 'strange behaviour' I don't like), but why not improve it a bit? Add a 1024x768 mode, more game modes (like I said before) with enough and big enough sprites, hardware screen split support: just a list with what register you’d like to change on which lines, no need to bug the cpu with something like a colorsplit.

SOUND:
No need to be PSG based. The wave part of MoonSound should not be a problem to add. The FM part of MoonSound is underused anyway. A sound chip with linear frequency control would be nice, too.

cpu: z380-alike
32 bit lineair addressing, mul/div, pre-emtive multi tasking support, stuff like that
gfx: gfx9000-alike
maybe some 3D-accelleration? Nah... not needed
sound: MoonSound-alike
MoonSound can 'do' the rest, too

(st00pid windows...)

and you're sure that'll all fit and such?

It could, actually. Part of the difficulties of 'emulating' MSX hardware is having to emulate all the odd-ness and unexpected behaviour. By making hardware much more advanced, you can also end up making it more simple and easier to emulate. I also like the idea of creating a brand new 'MSX', by the way. And something that isn't even downwards-compatible indeed. If we want something really nifty, there's no point in carrying all that legacy-baggage. It would be nice to create a new piece of hardware, very MSX-like, but not necesarily downwards-compatible in every aspect. Only time will tell what will be possible though. And if people do want to make the 'MSX3' it should be a very coordinated effort.

moon on a stick! That's what I want

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I also like the idea of creating a brand new 'MSX', by the way. And something that isn't even downwards-compatible indeed

It's the contrary of the MSX philosophy : the downwards-compatibility is a MSX credo !
Let's take the problem by the other side as VHDL programmers have found the way to replace tape and disk by the SD card. If you replace the 'classic' VDP by the GFX9000 for example, you need to create a tool that will allow to convert your old programs, making them runable with the GFX9000. There's a lot of work, I guess !

MsxKun & sojerd:

Msx is not so bad actually. It needs only some touchs.
Take at reference the 2+: It has hw scroll, horizontal & vertical. so to do animations you can use page swapping (conceptually identical to draw on a back buffer & copy to displayed area) & vdp commands without for example using HW sprites. To do scroll is is not so heavy as it can be at a first impression... the PSG is not so bad to generate music. Of course if you want to play mpeg, see jpeg, mp3 & do 3d realtime stuffs you cannot do it actually, but a computer old 20 year is not for this features. If you want them, you should move to a modern architecture (PC?)

Most people complain about the 8 sprites / scanline limit. Trust me. Sprite are the wrong way. Forget please!
They are only for limited 8 bits machines that could not do quick data transfer . Even the AMIGA had it but almost no-one used sprites HW, because SW sprites with blitter are more and more nice and flexible.