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The reason is more simple : sell all the different versions of the MSX-PLAYer ! But again, if I'm not satisfied with this emulator, why should I buy any product linked or embedded to/in this emulator ? Total nonsense from my point of view !!!

wasn't MSXPLAYer an adaption of fMSX, by the way?

I know there's different versions of that thing, the ones in the MSX magazines, probably one for Project Egg (that's an assumption though, don't pin me on it), and the MSX Game Reader one, which you get when you buy an MSX Game Reader.

I don't know where that wants to sell me all different versions of the Game Reader; I do know, that if I buy a product, it's nice that the software that operates it is delivered with it - fortunately it is, and it should *IMO* stay that way, even if it were supported in other emulators.

I know MSXPLAYer isn't perfect (and even BlueMSX isn't, as good as it is), and surely I'd like to see a few improvements, but it does cover the basics - together with the Game Reader it plays MSX games, and the vast majority it plays flawlessly.
The biggest point of critisicm I have on it is that smoothness could be better. It's a good thing the MSX generally sucked at scrolling, so you don't notice it much

But, let's go on for a bit. About what might happen in the future - highly speculative, based on assumptions, so let that be an advance warning and not jump to conclusions, otherwise we'll do exactly what wolf_ warned for (remember, the turbulence), and it's better to keep things nice.
In the future, I guess Woomb will launch, and you can buy MSX games through an online service. I guess, in that case, when you already have a game reader, you're indeed buying another MSXPlayer. Maybe you don't like the idea of Woomb. Possible. Frankly, I find it hard to say.
When Bazix was announced, my thoughts about it were mixed. Good can come of it, bad can come of it. Let's be a bit positive and not immediately jump to conclusions. So far, it seems Bazix has really good intentions with it.
Whatever exactly happened I don't know, only things that were said publically, and that is that the game reader now IS available out of Japan, and I think everyone who made that happen deserves a pat on the shoulders. Even if it would prove impossible to support in other emulators, that alone is great. And while multi-emulator support is preferrable, it's not like the device isn't perfectly usable with the current software. Everything is of rather high quality, and looking around here, and at the CF-ATA IDE I also got, that's the usual case with Sunrise products. I'm not a brand-loyal guy at all, but that, I think, has to be said.

Sunrise, I know the differences between both versions of the Game Reader and I know Samor's blog. So, it's not the point.

I have also one of the first official versions of the MSX-PLAYer, the MSX2+ version, so I know the limits of this emulator and I don't want to use this emulator with the Game Reader, as many users of blueMSX, openMSX or NLMSX.

So, the choice for MSX-A is between 2 options :
- more sales if Game Reader is supported in other emulators than the MSX-PLAYer
- less sales if Game Reader is only supported by the MSX-PLAYer

And it's exactly the same choice for eventual future WOOMB productions (English versions of some games for example) !

Well, since I don't have a MicroSoft OS here, I can not even enjoy the MSX Game Reader with the software that comes with it. As long as I'm not able to enjoy it with openMSX, I'll not buy it. For me it is that simple.
If the (USB level) protocol for the device would be made free, people using OS-X,Linux or any platform that can run openMSX and has USB support will be able to enjoy this piece of hardware.

As for the need of (illegally obtained?) dumped roms needed for MSX emulation, I'm pretty sure that most cartridges run fine using the free (as in speech AND beer) C-bios. You know, the only bios/rom that is shipped with openMSX

Oh, and the Sunrise version of the game reader is better then its Japanese counterpart

From my point of view its not really whether or not MSX-PLAYer is good enough as the only emu solution. I want to have support for it in blueMSX, and then the users can choose what emulator to use with the GameReader.

I'm pretty sure we can add support for the GameReader in blueMSX with or without BaziX/MSX-A/Sunrise's help and blessing. I prefer the latter though. Only question is what they would do if we did support it?

how would anyone but them know? There's only speculation.

If MSX-A doesn't want it, then it could still be in BlueMSX, but unsupported by any official party.
I would be surprised if that would lead to actual lawsuits, but sometimes strange things happen.

And, if the position from Sunrise and Bazix is that they need official confirmation, then as long as they don't have that or when they don't get it, surely they're not going to advice you to go ahead and reverse-engineer it. That would mean they support something violating MSX-A's wishes, and since they're doing business, trouble would come of that.

I personally dont see why anyone would want a "game reader" - or you use your cartridges on a real msx, or use some rom file to play it on emulator - unless you have a super-high-extra-rare cartridge noone else has or have ever dumped, I really dont see any real use for a game reader.

But that's me, apparently there's a lot of people interested on this

For Reverse Engineering, in US it is illegal - see how they banned that program which decripted the DVD protection... so noone can really says that it's legal or not - it's a matter that can change from country to country.

As for buying MSX software online, you can already do it here (look at the webshop link on the left menu) and even on my site, for the games I made...

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I personally dont see why anyone would want a "game reader" - or you use your cartridges on a real msx, or use some rom file to play it on emulator - unless you have a super-high-extra-rare cartridge noone else has or have ever dumped, I really dont see any real use for a game reader.

Or imagine you want to play MSX1 Megaroms on your flashrom and you don't have an MSX2 or higher to load the games into it. I suppose it would be possible to load them via emu+game reader.

And the great advantage of blueMSX (or openMSX or NLMSX) is the fact that you can choose the generic (or eventually special) machine on which you want to run your MSX1 games.

If you prefer the brighter MSX2 colors, you will select a MSX2 (or higher) machine. As the MSX-PLAYer is conceived for the game reader, almost all MSX1 roms will run in MSX1 mode, also for the colors.

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I personally dont see why anyone would want a "game reader" - or you use your cartridges on a real msx, or use some rom file to play it on emulator - unless you have a super-high-extra-rare cartridge noone else has or have ever dumped, I really dont see any real use for a game reader. But that's me, apparently there's a lot of people interested on this For Reverse Engineering, in US it is illegal - see how they banned that program which decripted the DVD protection... so noone can really says that it's legal or not - it's a matter that can change from country to country.

I also know examples in the US where it wasn't declared illegal.

As for the game reader, well, I personally like the idea to be able to use real cartridges in combination with more modern hardware. Equally, I like to be able to use real PS1 cd's on a PC (with cd based consoles, it's already possible... the opportunity to do the same with cartridges is great)
It's a matter of preference - I also like it when emulators support MSX disks through the pc diskdrive (mind, keep 'em write protected for safety purposes) and even when you can use a datarecorder, allthough admittedly I'm a bit impatient to wait for them to load
Simply put, I think emulation gets an extra dimension when it has closer relation to the original hardware. That's also why a OCM is cool, IMO.

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I made my own cartridge reader/writer. It works using the parallel port, not the USB, but it is fast enough (about 2-3s reading a 128K ROM, and about 7s flashing it) Anyway, it is a quite simple device. It doesn't work as a real MSX slot since it doesn't implement all the signals. ^^!

Here's the version for Sega cartridges :

http://www.smspower.org/smsreader/

The way to folllow to get a free MSX game reader !!!

And here's an interesting discussion for developping an USB version :

http://www.smspower.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=36698

MSX-PLAYer communicates with the GameReader using the msxgr.dll. This dll contain a number of exported functions, so the only thing that needs to be done in order to use the GameReader in other apps is to use the exported functions in the msxgr.dll.

So is this really a problem? If I bought the dll (it comes with the actual GameReader hardware) can't I use it the way I want or are there restrictions on what applications I can use with the dll?

And here's the alternative MSX Game Reader :

http://ore-kb.net/hard/MSXRw/

Excerpt from this 2004 thread :

http://www.msx.org/forumtopic3802.html

(Sunrise - September 23 2004, 10:59)

"I am very sick of insults, so please do it yourself !
There was a lot of news you have not read in the Dutch sectiON
BUT SINCE YOU ARE BLIND , THE PCB IS BY THE MANUCTURER.
IF TESTS WORK WELL AND MANUFACTURER IS IN TIME YOU SEE THE PROTOTYPE AT BUSSUM. AFTER THAT WE PRODUCE THIS YEAR. AFTER THAT THE CREATORS OF THE EMUALTORS GET A COPY FOR MAKING THE DRIVERS OF THE EMULATORS.WE SELL COMPLETE PRODUCTS"

We are now almost 2 years after ....

Since there is no production of alternative GameReaders I think we need to focus at the two different GameReaders from Sunrise and MSX-A. These two devices are easy to buy and work well.

But it doesn't seem like the interface will open up in the near future, so the best way is probably to just add support for it in e.g. blueMSX and then see what happens...
I really doubt there is a problem since the solution would only use the msxgr.dll which has to be bought from Sunrise/MSX-A with the hardware. The emulator would only use that dll if its available on the PC, not modify it or include it in any releases.

忍耐は永遠であるはずがありません。