openMSX 0.9.0

Just moments ago, a major new version of openMSX - the emulator that aims for perfection - was released. In this version (nicknamed Enigma) of one of the front runners of MSX emulation, a lot of attention went to accurate floppy drive emulation. Naturally, plenty bug fixes, improvements and new features are present as well. Too many to mention actually, for that reason, the list below is a mere summary aimed at casual usage.

Disk drive emulation - improved accuracy for Floppy Drive Controllers, support for delayed motor off, disk drive rotation corrected, several floppy drive extensions added.
Video9000 - initial support added, the Video9000 can display GFX9000 output superimposed over the normal VDP, added video recording for Video9000 video source.
Type from file - This is actually a handy feature for gamers. You may recall that the password input dialog in Usas isn't of the highest quality, you probably all had to retype a Usas password at some point. This new feature kind of cures all that. You can create a file that contains passwords, one on each line, and then let openMSX type those passwords by referring to the password index in the console. You can even add comments and white lines to this password file, to keep it all readable. Especially for games with a lot of long passwords (like King's Valley 2 and Maze of Galious) this feature can be practical.
openMSX now supports DMK. This means you can play DMK images of original disks (rather than the cracked ones) in openMSX. For people who already have their own collection of cracked DSK games, this feature probably isn't going to be very useful. However, for people creating TAS videos it actually is important, as the TAS rules dictate that only unmodified games may be used. For more information regarding DMK, see here, here and here.
When running openMSX on the Dingoo console, you'll notice that starting up the emulation session is now twice as fast!
The colors of the reverse bar have been altered to reflect recording or playback state.
People who often make screenshots will be delighted to know that the guess title script is greatly improved, it's used to generate file names if no file name was given. This script can also be used for the channel recorder and other things.

The complete list of updates is far longer than this summary, most new aspects are technical ones. Have fun with the latest version of openMSX. And if you stumble upon a nasty bug, perhaps have an idea for a script or feature, or have an unknown piece of MSX hardware in your attic that needs emulation, you can contact the developers using any of the methods given in the list of features document.

Relevant link: openMSX

Comments (42)

By Sd-Snatcher

Hero (582)

12-08-2012, 20:13

Great news.

But, denyonet please.

By Gradius2

Hero (652)

12-08-2012, 20:26

Loading and recording MSX tapes is still very buggy.

By mars2000you

Enlighted (6502)

12-08-2012, 20:19

Quote:

the TAS rules dictate that only unmodified games may be used

Completely insane !
Can they detect if some cheats without any evidence on the screen are used ?

By wouter_

Hero (525)

12-08-2012, 20:36

mars2000you wrote:

Can they detect if some cheats without any evidence on the screen are used ?

I don't have an opinion on the TAS rules, I only want to comment on the cheat detection part:
It's actually quite easy: the main result of a TAS-run is not a video (the video is often included for convenience), but a sequence of key presses and releases (I've slightly simplified things). So to verify the run, you simply replay those keys (without cheats) and if that gives the same result as the video you can be sure there were no cheats applied.

By mars2000you

Enlighted (6502)

12-08-2012, 20:52

Thanks for the explanations !

Anyway, I prefer normal game videos as I think that TAS game videos are only for fans of speed performance, not for fans who like the game as it has been conceived by the coders.

By FiXato

Scribe (1743)

12-08-2012, 21:02

The OS X release is still being compiled as we speak though.

By Manuel

Ascended (19470)

12-08-2012, 21:48

Gradius2 wrote:

Loading and recording MSX tapes is still very buggy.

It is?

Imagine you are me and you read this comment. What would you think?

I think "If he knows there's an issue, he could have mentioned it earlier at least..." (E.g. in the thread that asks for help testing the release candidate...)

By wolf_

Ambassador_ (10109)

12-08-2012, 21:44

As for the type from file feature, requested by yours truly , this is what you can do with it:

Create a text file with this content:

# ------------------
# Usas
# ------------------

# 0
juba ruins
# 1
harappa ruins
# 2
gandhara ruins
# 3
mohenjo daro

# ------------------
# Metal Gear
# ------------------

# 4
intruder
# 5
hirake goma
# 6
anta wa erai

Save it for example as C:\msx\password.txt

Then, in the openMSX console, type:
type_from_file "c:/msx/password.txt" 5

And after hitting enter you'll see the MSX typing "hirake goma". With Usas this really saves you from typing passwords all over again because the Usas input function sucks quite some balls. So, a document like this could house all the passwords (including the big 'n nasty ones) for your favourite games.

By FiXato

Scribe (1743)

12-08-2012, 22:10

The Mac OS X universal build (with triple architecture, x86, x86_64 and even ppc still, support!) is available now as well.

By Gradius2

Hero (652)

13-08-2012, 00:34

Manuel wrote:

It is?

Sure is.

I performed a lot tests and I confirmed them.

Since this is used for a lot users around (I think) I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one whom confirmed them. No more time for the rest.

Besides the forum there http://forum.vampier.net, says: closed for now

By FiXato

Scribe (1743)

13-08-2012, 01:28

The topic Manuel was referring to was here on msx.org: Help testing new openMSX release, please!
Besides that topic, bug reports are also welcome on the openMSX Official Bugtracker or alternatively via the #openMSX IRC channel on the freenode IRC network

By mars2000you

Enlighted (6502)

13-08-2012, 17:03

About the DMK tools : they don't seem included in the Windows ZIP version, no any "Contributors" directory

By wouter_

Hero (525)

13-08-2012, 19:18

mars2000you wrote:

About the DMK tools : they don't seem included in the Windows ZIP version, no any "Contributors" directory

The DMK tools are still rather bare bones, getting pre-build binaries for those tools wasn't a priority for this release (or in other words, we didn't want to postpone the release till those tools were fully finished). Though if you want to create your own .dmk files you can already follow the instructions Manuel posted in this thread (see his post of 26-06-2012). That post also contains links to pre-build windows binaries (though building them yourself is very easy).

By ray2day

Paladin (743)

13-08-2012, 20:27

I'm very happy with this new version of openMSX and that the openMSX-team keeps improving it everytime.
Thank you openMSX-team. Keep up the good work!

By Samor

Prophet (2174)

13-08-2012, 21:20

mars2000you wrote:

Thanks for the explanations !

Anyway, I prefer normal game videos as I think that TAS game videos are only for fans of speed performance, not for fans who like the game as it has been conceived by the coders.

I agree. I prefer a video of someone just playing good but you can't tell if its real, you just have to believe them on their word, I guess.

By Samor

Prophet (2174)

13-08-2012, 21:24

I briefly tested cas support and it seemed fine.
Anyway, I just caught that forum thread on friday. Gradius2 probably never even noticed it.

I was wondering though, why does it automatically perform a run"cas:" command? It's handy, but it's not very openmsx like... or is it something that (some) real MSX computers do too?

By wouter_

Hero (525)

13-08-2012, 21:31

Samor wrote:

I was wondering though, why does it automatically perform a run"cas:" command? It's handy, but it's not very openmsx like... or is it something that (some) real MSX computers do too?

You can of course disable it if you don't like it, using autoruncassettes.

By Samor

Prophet (2174)

13-08-2012, 21:37

seems weird it's enabled by default, since it doesn't do speedloading of disks and tapes (by default) either.

Not that I don't like it, the behaviour just seems off with how OpenMSX normally works.

By Manuel

Ascended (19470)

13-08-2012, 22:50

I enabled it in this release because otherwise it's very painful to run cassettes on a Dingoo which has no keyboard

Gradius2: I have no idea what you are talking about... I'm running plenty of CAS files without problems, and we also never received any complaints before. But I'm mostly surprised you start mentioning it now and not earlier... Performing a lot of tests and confirming them is one thing, but it remains useless without giving us the details... we can't "smell" that you found a problem...

So, please give us some details and we can see what we can do about the problems you found.

By hit9918

Prophet (2932)

13-08-2012, 23:50

"When running openMSX on the Dingoo console, you'll notice that starting up the emulation session is now twice as fast!"
This thing just happened to me: I just started 0.9.0 and it ran at 200% speed. But, it seems to share registry with the old version. So I am not sure whether last time I left it with 200%.
I guess all this is just a funny incident... or is the emu delivered with 200% speed factory settings?

About diskette speed: "disk rotation", how about the time needed for head moves, is it simulated, too?

By AxelF

Champion (395)

14-08-2012, 00:17

have a small issue with the newest openmsx debugger,
If you enter a adress in the Main Memory section, now you first need to type 0x and then the adress.
i liked it the way it was, always assuming it is a HEX value (without the 0x). you never use a Decimal value here ?

By sd_snatcher

Prophet (3659)

14-08-2012, 01:39

Thanks everyone at the openMSX team for another release of this awesome emulator! Keep up the good work!

BTW:

(1) superimposed V9990 over V9958?!
(2) more mappers now have a romblocks debuggable?!
(3) watch_in_slot
(4) TCL callbacks for warnings for invalid PSG directions and di;halt detection

Those are a dream coming true!

Now if only #2671550, #3009277, #2934010, #2680707 could come true...

And #3218248, #3218271, #2671593, #842969, #1813100, #3011188 would also be very nice!

By mars2000you

Enlighted (6502)

14-08-2012, 02:00

Quote:

Now if only #2671550, #3009277, #2934010, #2680707 could come true... Wink

And #3218248, #3218271, #2671593, #842969, #1813100, #3011188 would also be very nice!

???

By FiXato

Scribe (1743)

14-08-2012, 02:50

I have a feeling the numbers relate to tickets in the bug tracker mars.

By max_iwamoto

Hero (644)

14-08-2012, 07:00

New version is very nice. I even start using openMSX more than blueMSX now The only problem is that I am very used to F12 as a reset button Is it possible to disable or remap F12 in openMSX to something else?

By Manuel

Ascended (19470)

14-08-2012, 08:54

hit9918: it's shipped at 100% by default, of course, so I guess it's some kind of incident, indeed The point was that start up time on a Dingoo halved from about 7 seconds to about 3.5 seconds.

max_iwamoto: sure, quite easy. In the console type: bind F12 reset, see also http://openmsx.sourceforge.net/manual/commands.html#bind

By mars2000you

Enlighted (6502)

14-08-2012, 09:23

FiXato wrote:

I have a feeling the numbers relate to tickets in the bug tracker mars.

I had guessed that, but it looks like crypted messages if you are a new MRC visitor. Not a good way to communicate !

By Vampier

Prophet (2413)

14-08-2012, 19:23

I'm sorry... didn't see any communications guidelines posted by MRC.

By Manuel

Ascended (19470)

14-08-2012, 22:37

Note that on the openMSX website, the (top) link to the debugger is also updated to the latest build, which matches openMSX 0.9.0. It supports several new features based on openMSX 0.9.0 and won't work with 0.8.2 or earlier releases.

By Gradius2

Hero (652)

15-08-2012, 02:15

Manuel wrote:

Performing a lot of tests and confirming them is one thing, but it remains useless without giving us the details... we can't "smell" that you found a problem...

So, please give us some details and we can see what we can do about the problems you found.

I need to check the files again, hope I didn't deleted them.

By FiXato

Scribe (1743)

15-08-2012, 17:41

Remember by the way that you'll always find the latest development builds for Windows and Mac OS X on the openMSX Daily Builds website.

By [WYZ]

Champion (451)

18-08-2012, 17:54

I've a silly problem since I can't write "_" in the console.

By [WYZ]

Champion (451)

18-08-2012, 18:06

ups! Solved by pressing TAB key.

By Manuel

Ascended (19470)

18-08-2012, 21:49

Still, what a weird issue!

Gradius2: any news about the bug you experienced? What exactly is going wrong?

By [WYZ]

Champion (451)

19-08-2012, 01:31

OpenMSX (windows 32bits version). Keyboard mapping seems to be wrong. Some of the character shown are weird and it was impossible to me find a way for input "_". TAB key predicts the commands so it's a partial solution.

By Manuel

Ascended (19470)

19-08-2012, 08:44

What keyboard do you use and which keyboard settings in Windows do you use? Is this new with 0.9.0, or has this always been an issue?

By wouter_

Hero (525)

19-08-2012, 08:45

[WYZ wrote:

]OpenMSX (windows 32bits version). Keyboard mapping seems to be wrong. Some of the character shown are weird and it was impossible to me find a way for input "_". TAB key predicts the commands so it's a partial solution.

The openMSX console directly uses the unicode keycodes it receives from SDL, so to type '_', you *should* simply type it using your host keyboard layout (openMSX doesn't do any remapping here), but apparently that doesn't work for you.
To debug this, try executing 'set kbd_trace_key_presses on' in the openMSX console (use tab completion ;-) This will show debug output on stderr, so start openmsx from a dosbox to see it. (Note that it won't show output when the openmsx console is open, but to investigate the unicode keycode that's ok). When you type '_', you should get a line containing 'unicode: 0x005f'. What do you get? It might be useful if you can join our IRC channel: #openmsx on irc.freenode.net, so that we investigate this faster.

By [WYZ]

Champion (451)

19-08-2012, 14:00

Dosbox print (after f10 / exit console)

Key released, unicode: 0x0000, keycode: 0x 400123, keyname: F10, release

And the char shown is '%' (in the console)

I'll try to join #openmsx

By Manuel

Ascended (19470)

19-08-2012, 15:00

[WYZ] that's the F10 keypress, but we're mostly interested in a _ keypress. So, please do the same, and press _ in the console and then paste the output please

By [WYZ]

Champion (451)

19-08-2012, 18:28

@Manuel: If I'm not wrong that's exactly I did.
(Note that it won't show output when the openmsx console is open, but to investigate the unicode keycode that's ok).
So the keyname is f10.
Repeating the procedure out of console keyname is SLAH (&H3D /&h2F).

Anyway I'll post in OpenMSX forums.

By xain09

Supporter (11)

18-09-2012, 09:15

Very nice. Going to try to use this on OS X instead of the old fMSX port. Curious about the LD games!

By Manuel

Ascended (19470)

12-08-2015, 22:13

Gradius2 wrote:

Manuel wrote:

Performing a lot of tests and confirming them is one thing, but it remains useless without giving us the details... we can't "smell" that you found a problem...

So, please give us some details and we can see what we can do about the problems you found.

I need to check the files again, hope I didn't deleted them.

So, um, did you ever post a reply to this?

Anyway, can you check with the latest openMSX whether you experience problems with cassette support? I'm still quite interested in any issues.

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