MSX in PC Active

بواسطة wimpie3

Champion (436)

18-07-2022, 12:26

In this month's edition of the Dutch magazine "PC Active", I've written an article on how to emulate an MSX with a Raspi. Nothing special at first sight, but I went as far as to hide the Raspi boot process completely. You turn on the hardware and the MSX boots without even showing you're working on an emulator. Enjoy!

بواسطة AxelStone

Prophet (3199)

19-07-2022, 08:14

Great! Is there available an english version of the article? Thanks

بواسطة wimpie3

Champion (436)

19-07-2022, 13:36

Nope, no English version.

بواسطة Zwarteziel

Rookie (24)

03-08-2022, 20:59

Hi wimpie3,

thank you for your article! As it happens, I purchased a Raspberry Pi 400 a short while ago, with the intention of configuring it to boot as an MSX. Your article came at just the right moment. I'm having trouble upgrading OpenMSX once version 16.0 is installed though. Before reading your post, I created this thread to explain my problem. It seems the 17.0-1-files you refer to don't have been replaced by 18.0-1-versions that need alternative libraries to function. Can something be done to get it to work?

بواسطة smx

Expert (74)

04-08-2022, 08:31

I have been looking for a similar solution for some time.
I tried Sedai Linux with my Raspberry PI3 B, but I don't go beyond 45 FPS.
How does your installation perform in terms of performance?

Thank you

بواسطة Zwarteziel

Rookie (24)

06-08-2022, 11:06

Quote:

I have been looking for a similar solution for some time.
I tried Sedai Linux with my Raspberry PI3 B, but I don't go beyond 45 FPS.
How does your installation perform in terms of performance?

Thank you

Hi smx,

I was able to install version 17.0 of OpenMSX yesterday, by using an alternative repository provided by a forum-member in the other thread I created. Performance on the Pi 400 leaves a bit to be desired. When I use the settings provided in the article, a game like Aleste runs at 60.0 fps at times, but displays quite a lot of framedrops. My old copy of Undeadline displays the same behaviour. It could be that this is Pi4/400-related, since I've read posts that older versions of OpenMSX on a Pi3 work fine.

بواسطة Zwarteziel

Rookie (24)

06-08-2022, 11:13

wimpie3 wrote:

Hi wimpie3,

thank you once more for the article. I noticed a slight omission in one of the texts, that caused my Pi 400 to ignore the service that handles the automatic boot of OpenMSX. Maybe it's not needed on other Pi's, but I needed to add the following line to the end of the file [openmsx.service]:

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

بواسطة wimpie3

Champion (436)

06-08-2022, 15:39

Due to the two-month publication schedule of the magazine, it's always a bit tricky to mention download locations and version numbers. In this case, there was a new version published of openMSX right before the new edition came out, and the old version was deleted.

Not sure about the performance of the Pi400, I've used a Raspi3b and OpenMSX and a quick test showed no framedrops. I didn't try all the games though, and honestly I personally I still prefer the "real" experience of a "real" MSX. I don't think I used the WantedBy option, I can't find it back in my notes, might be my fault though.

بواسطة Zwarteziel

Rookie (24)

06-08-2022, 16:08

Hi wimpie3,

yes, I figured that something like that must have happened regarding the files. Still, it could be sorted out thanks to the forum, so I am very happy. Your article was a godsent, to be honest... being new at all of this, I'm not sure if I could have figured out things like the autoboot.

Regarding the performance, I noticed two things:

I made a mistake when editing [config.txt] that caused the resolution to stay at 1280x720 instead of the 640x480 you described. I altered this and the emulator now performs a lot better and stable.
My device sometimes reports that the SDL-device is already in use or not avaiable at startup. When that happens OpenMSX starts, but has a lot of slowdowns. Exiting the emulator and restarting it manually helps.

I'll look into the second item some more. I am very fond of the real MSX-machines myself btw. Due to limited space in my house, I figured the PI 400 might be an interesting alternative. So far I am enjoying it a lot, tinkering and all!

بواسطة wimpie3

Champion (436)

06-08-2022, 19:44

Thanks! I'm doing my best to keep the MSX alive!

بواسطة Gonzo XIII

Supporter (3)

08-08-2022, 13:20

AxelStone wrote:

Great! Is there available an english version of the article? Thanks

Good question... Being only new to MSX, but I get the feeling that English-speaking territories was not its primary market.