openMSX 0.3.3 released

In the night before Bussum (just like the good old times), openMSX 0.3.3 was released. This is also the version that was demoed at the fair today. This new release brings you the following improvements:

• Windows specific code was merged into the main branch. There now is an "official" Win32 port that is part of this release.
• New HTML manuals replace the HOWTO. These manuals will make it easier for you to find the information you need. Also, the HTML layout looks better. Due to time pressure, the manuals are a bit rough at places, but they will be improved the future.
• New MSX devices:
  - MSX-MIDI interface (turboR).
  - MSX-RS-232 support (8255 UART).
  - PCM input (sampling) for turbo R via a .wav file.
• Added a debug device: write data to special I/O ports and its get logged to stdout or a file in a format you specify. Very useful if you develop MSX assembly programs in openMSX.
• Several improvements and fixes in the VDPCmdEngine; VDP emulation is even more accurate now.
• All read-only input files (ROM images, disk images, background pictures, XML) can now be gzipped or zipped and will be transparently decompressed by openMSX. Note that some games require write access to their disk in order to run (for example, Seed of Dragon).
• New dir-as-disk feature: a directory can be specified instead of a disk image and the contents (up to 720K) will show up as files on the MSX. There is no support for subdirectories (as used by DOS2) yet. This feature is still experimental, so please report problems if you encounter them.
• Several cassette emulation updates and new features:
  - Automatic .cas to .wav conversion in CassettePlayer.
  (no patched ROM needed anymore to run .cas files)
  - Cassette sounds are now audible.
  - Tapes can be rewinded.
  - Tapes can be forced to play.
  (like unplugging the 'remote control' plug on a real machine)
• A different keymap (e.g. for Japanese PC keyboards or to use Russian MSX keyboards on a US English PC keyboard) can be used now, via settings.xml.
• Keys for the key joystick are now configurable in settings.xml.
• Added joystick emulation for mouse (a feature that the Philips SBC-3810 and Sony MOS-1 and similar mice have).
• Various console updates:
  - Tab completion behaves much more like the UNIX Bash shell now.
  - Clearer error messages.
  - More than one command is possible, use ';' to separate them.
  Especially useful for binding several commands to a single keypress.
• User-configurable channel settings for mono sound devices. You can set them to left, right or mono mode at run time.
• Many things are now user configurable via the console:
  - .wav input file for PCM sampler
  - log file for the printer logger
  - output file for the MIDI out logger
  - input file for the MIDI in reader
  - input and output file for the RS232-tester
• ROM database now uses SHA1 sums in stead of MD5 sums.
• The MSX turbo R machine description uses a single 4MB ROM image, plus the Kanji ROM. This is closer to how the real machine works.
• Several machine and extension configurations added.
• Fixed compilation on GCC 3.4-pre development version.

Relevant links:
Download page
openMSX home page