Sony HitBit 11 not booting into Sofarun + Mapper Megaram 512kb

By mars2000you

Enlighted (5957)

08-04-2021, 21:48

You will need an other machine (with all its ROMs) to emulate it anyway ....

By Manuel

Ascended (18082)

08-04-2021, 21:48

By the way, I think the Japanese site is mistaken: the guy seems to think that the ROM space that ends with "II" is for a Level 2 kanji ROM, but the "Sentence II" there is I think just "Word Land Sentence II". Still: no ROM present in that whole. Don't know why.

By Manuel

Ascended (18082)

08-04-2021, 21:49

The picture from Andres shows the same wholes in the PCB as the Japanese site, right? So I think the machine just is as it is like this. We can fully emulate it as it is, right?

By mars2000you

Enlighted (5957)

08-04-2021, 21:50

Manuel wrote:

By the way, I think the Japanese site is mistaken: the guy seems to think that the ROM space that ends with "II" is for a Level 2 kanji ROM, but the "Sentence II" there is I think just "Word Land Sentence II". Still: no ROM present in that whole. Don't know why.

I agree on this point. Just a detail, probably he does not know the correponding Sony cartridge.

By mars2000you

Enlighted (5957)

08-04-2021, 21:52

Manuel wrote:

The picture from Andres shows the same wholes in the PCB as the Japanese site, right? So I think the machine just is as it is like this. We can fully emulate it as it is, right?

Emulating an uncomplete machine is non-sense for me.

By thegeps

Paladin (851)

08-04-2021, 22:36

And if it isn't incomplete? Maybe they planned to put these "missing roms" when designed that machine and then never added them (and holes for rom are the only heritage of this incomplete design, instead of incomplete machine). I mean: 2 machines opened and both without the same roms?

Machines as it were sold, missing some planned-to-be parts...

By Manuel

Ascended (18082)

08-04-2021, 22:43

That's my point. I don't think it's incomplete if 2 independent machines lack the same ROM chips. Apparently they were planned, but not put on there. I'm very eager to emulate this rare machine

By Pentarou

Champion (389)

09-04-2021, 01:30

Machine has 2 x M531000 (1Megabit) Mask ROMs, big enough for a full Kanji Level 1 (128kB) + Bios/Basic (32Kb) and whatever stuff can fit in the remaining space.
Empty footprints are probably for alternative ROM set built with 3 x 256Mbit ROMs instead of 1 X 1Mbit.
If you look closely you can see there are 3 straps labeled 256/1M, so either 1 Megabit chip or "FW2" + "文2" + "BASIC" @ 32Kb each.

Andres wrote:

I do not know if there's a key to do that

CTRL-SHIFT-CODE-GRAPH seem to work on some other SONY machines.

BTW. Would poke &HF346,1 : _SYSTEM work to boot to DOS if the BIOS forces to skip Nextor?

By Andres

Supporter (11)

09-04-2021, 01:34

Going to try it this weekend.

By gdx

Enlighted (4632)

09-04-2021, 02:33

mars2000you wrote:

The Kanji-ROM is confirmed here: https://uniabis.net/pico/msx/msxjp/

No, this page indicates that his MSX does not display characters only. He says his MSX has an issue that he couldn't determine. I think its firmware ROM is faulty.
Andres picture of the board shows that there is no missing Rom so there is no Kanji-ROM. It would be an amazing coincidence that one falls on two same japanese MSXs with its Kanji-ROM removed. In addition, I do not see any trace of desoldering on the PCBs and there is no MSX1 with Kanji-ROM level 2. There isn't even a location to put a 128KB ROM on the PCB (only for 32kB ROMs). A level 2 Kanji-ROM uses 256kB.