MSX Pico - multi Flash ROM cartridge | MSX Resource Center

Dutch hardware fanatic Jeroen Taverne created a multi Flash ROM cartridge called MSX Pico. An MSX device offering multiple features including SCC and dual PSG audio.

Debuting recently with his excellent MSX keyboard connectivity convertors, Jeroen Taverne is a relative new face in the MSX hardware circles bringing fresh new ideas to the scene. In his latest adventure, Jeroen took a few popular ingredients and mixed them together in a new cartridge device dubbed the MSX Pico. Named after the heart of the thing, a Raspberry Pi Pico clone with 16MB Flash memory. MSX Pico comes in a Konami sized MSX cartridge format.

The Pico cartridge features:

Built in ready to use game ROMs
Built in Nextor to use micro SD card in MSXDOS2
Stereo high quality audio DAC with 3.5mm output
SCC+ emulation (PSG left, SCC+ right)
Dual PSG emulation (PSG1 left, PSG2 right)
MP3 playback in stereo (48kHz maximum sampling rate)
RGB status LED, also used for showing audio level
Optional MIDI output through mini USB which uses same cable as the Midi Pac. A cable can be ordered as add-on
USB-C connection for firmware updates
When Nextor is used, 224 kByte extra RAM, SCC+ and Basic Kun plus is available as well
ROM files with a maximum of 8MB can directly be loaded from micro SD card by the built in menu without using Sofarun or Romload
DSK files can directly be used from micro SD card using disk ROM emulation
Automatic mapper type detection. Supported mapper types: ASCII8, ASCII16, Konami with and without SCC.
50/60Hz video output selection

Note that Pico is currently not compatible with 7 MHz machines.

Not too shabby! A fairly complete piece of MSX hardware offering a multitude of features, indeed. The MSX Pico is housed in a 3D printed small cartridge, and costs 80 euro. Have a preinstalled micro SD card (minimal 16GB) for 5 euro extra, the optional MIDI cable for 10 euros extra.

The MSX Pico is available by contacting Jeroen directly, using his e-mail address.

relevant link: MSX Pico GitHub

Media browser (3)

Comments (43)

Expert (104)

20-11-2023, 17:17

Wow, looks great!

Supporter (1)

20-11-2023, 20:08

Looks great and works great !

Paladin (863)

20-11-2023, 18:57

cool!

2 things:
* The github-link does not work for me.
* how is 8MB ROMs adressed? The above mappers can only map up to 4MB, if I understand correctly (ASCII16)

By JeroenTaverne

Expert (65)

20-11-2023, 19:04

Hi!
Website will arrive very soon.
Do you know any game which uses 8MB and which mapper type is used? I can add extra mapper types in the future and make it available through software update.

Paladin (838)

20-11-2023, 19:09

Well there's the Konami Ultimate Collection of 5120K. It has its own mapper type, documented in the openMSX source files. Basically as I understand, it's Konami type and swapping banks of 2048K.

By JeroenTaverne

Expert (65)

20-11-2023, 19:40

Ok, I will have a look. Where can I find this collection? My "website" is online now. Video demonstration will be added as well.

By JeroenTaverne

Expert (65)

20-11-2023, 19:40

I found some info here:
https://github.com/openMSX/openMSX/issues/1031

Paladin (838)

20-11-2023, 19:41

Have a look at tfh's download site

Expert (70)

20-11-2023, 20:52

Looks very good

Is there any big advantage over the Carnivore 2 which i now have?

By JeroenTaverne

Expert (65)

20-11-2023, 21:11

It's much cheaper and can play MP3 files. Disadvantage is less RAM available and no FM-Pac emulation. But RAM size is not a limitation for MSX-Pico to run ROMs and disk images.

By JeroenTaverne

Expert (65)

20-11-2023, 21:11

I added videos here:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1113206428793908/permalink/6...

Ascended (19801)

20-11-2023, 21:21

Does it work on turboR?

Expert (70)

20-11-2023, 21:23

Ok, thanks alot Jeroen.
Seen the vids and love it, great product.

Expert (65)

20-11-2023, 22:12

Hi Jeroen, I have sent some emails asking for your interfaces for a Victor HC90 and Sony F900 but have no answer, are you still selling these interfaces?.

Regards.

Paladin (863)

20-11-2023, 22:29

JeroenTaverne wrote:

Hi!
Website will arrive very soon.
Do you know any game which uses 8MB and which mapper type is used? I can add extra mapper types in the future and make it available through software update.

I’m not aware of any atm (except that I know Manuel Pazos’ hardware has 8MB). But I’m thinking of releasing something for 8MB (with 16kB pages), but there is nothing made for this (and thus nothing in openmsx). So… I’m still (re-)searching.

By OeiOeiVogeltje

Paragon (1442)

21-11-2023, 01:21

ordered...

By JeroenTaverne

Expert (65)

21-11-2023, 05:36

Hi. I found an HC-90 email. Are you Bruno? I am still selling these interfaces.

By JeroenTaverne

Expert (65)

21-11-2023, 05:40

I have tried a subset of current functionality a couple of months ago on a turbo-R and this worked. I have not been able to test my latest version yet.

Paladin (838)

21-11-2023, 08:43

Bengalack wrote:

I’m not aware of any atm (except that I know Manuel Pazos’ hardware has 8MB). But I’m thinking of releasing something for 8MB (with 16kB pages), but there is nothing made for this (and thus nothing in openmsx). So… I’m still (re-)searching.

Manuel Pazos' hardware is emulated in openMSX as Konami Ultimate Collection type. I never heard of this before either, only last week I received the digital edition of Pampas & Selene and it uses this mapper type. Though Pampas & Selene still is only 2048K and would have fitted in regular Konami type mappers I think.

Anyway, as mentioned a few posts back, you can find the Konami Ultimate Collection rom of 5120K at tfh's site. It runs fine in openMSX.

By gdx

Enlighted (6603)

21-11-2023, 11:21

Briqunullus wrote:

Basically as I understand, it's Konami type and swapping banks of 2048K.

No, if I remember correctly this is common mappers with 2 extra bits for each switching registers to expand segments number.

Paladin (838)

21-11-2023, 13:12

Could be, I only had a quick look at it. I thought I saw only 2 bits for bank switching, not for each segment. Main point for me is, it does exist. And leave the implementation details for the developers.

By gdx

Enlighted (6603)

21-11-2023, 13:25

OK, the 2 bits act on all segments at same time. It's not 2 bits per page then.

Expert (65)

21-11-2023, 17:17

JeroenTaverne wrote:

Hi. I found an HC-90 email. Are you Bruno? I am still selling these interfaces.

Nope but I just have sent another email

By JeroenTaverne

Expert (65)

21-11-2023, 18:46

No email received. j.taverne@gmail.com
Else send me a PM through Facebook.
facebook.com/jeroentaverne

Expert (65)

21-11-2023, 19:21

I don't have a Facebook account but, I go now to send another email.
I have sent two emails on 7 and 9 of this month to j.taverne@gmail.com, let me give another try ;)
aaaand... sent! :)

By sdsnatcher73

Enlighted (4452)

21-11-2023, 19:38

At least the link in the original post does not work correctly for me (the j. is not in the mailaddress after the link opens in the mail program on my phone).

Paragon (1745)

21-11-2023, 20:13

This is nice; I am very tempted. I guess you will be doing firmware updates and upgrades at times? MP3 playback on MSX, does it get routed through the MSX cartridge to come out of the MSX as opposed to just the 3.5mm jack? I appreciate that any sound through the MSX will be in mono.

By ro

Scribe (5113)

21-11-2023, 20:28

Fixed the e-mail address in the post
My apologies

By JeroenTaverne

Expert (65)

21-11-2023, 22:04

djh1697 wrote:

This is nice; I am very tempted. I guess you will be doing firmware updates and upgrades at times? MP3 playback on MSX, does it get routed through the MSX cartridge to come out of the MSX as opposed to just the 3.5mm jack? I appreciate that any sound through the MSX will be in mono.

Yes. I even get help now to add more features (I hope FMPAC) and better mapper detection as well. The right channel is currently routed to the sound input pin of the cartridge as the SCC/second PSG sound is send to the right channel. I could add mixing MP3 to mono in software as an option.

Paragon (1199)

21-11-2023, 21:43

I imagine the answer will be "no", but I'm asking just in case ^^
Is it possible to have a version with SD card instead of Micro SD?

By JeroenTaverne

Expert (65)

21-11-2023, 22:02

aoineko wrote:

I imagine the answer will be "no", but I'm asking just in case ^^
Is it possible to have a version with SD card instead of Micro SD?

There is not enough room available at the top of the cartridge. It sits between the Pi Pico and the DAC interface. But I will keep this in mind. No promises...

Paragon (1745)

21-11-2023, 23:23

"I could add mixing MP3 to mono in software as an option."

Yes please!

Paragon (1199)

21-11-2023, 23:30

JeroenTaverne wrote:

aoineko wrote:

I imagine the answer will be "no", but I'm asking just in case ^^
Is it possible to have a version with SD card instead of Micro SD?

There is not enough room available at the top of the cartridge. It sits between the Pi Pico and the DAC interface. But I will keep this in mind. No promises...

That would be great.

By JeroenTaverne

Expert (65)

22-11-2023, 12:25

djh1697 wrote:

"I could add mixing MP3 to mono in software as an option."

Yes please!

Ok, I will add it in next update. During playback you will be able to switch.

By JeroenTaverne

Expert (65)

22-11-2023, 12:29

Another note:
The MSX Pico works fine with my SX1-mini at 8MHz. 7MHz is currently a problem on real MSX machines.

By JeroenTaverne

Expert (65)

22-11-2023, 12:30

Apolonius wrote:

I don't have a Facebook account but, I go now to send another email.
I have sent two emails on 7 and 9 of this month to j.taverne@gmail.com, let me give another try ;)
aaaand... sent! :)

Email is received, related posts can be removed I guess to keep the topic clean.

By incrediblehark

Supporter (5)

23-11-2023, 15:18

Sounds like a really good project! Would like to get one for the midi output myself, but hopefully there will be turbo r compatibility one day.

Paladin (863)

26-11-2023, 12:36

If we (the community) introduce a mapper that goes beyond the 4 MB limit (like, more than 8 bits mapping on an 16kB-page mapper), would it be possible for a program/rom to use/map all 16 MB?

Resident (53)

26-11-2023, 22:09

Looks like a very interesting project ! It has the potential of making MSX more accessible through better supply of modern storage devices. I will definitively watch this.

By JeroenTaverne

Expert (65)

27-11-2023, 08:06

The cartridge is software defined and needs maximum 1MB for its own code, so about 15MB can be available for 1 or multiple ROMs. I will add support for the extra mapper address bits as described here: https://aoineko.org/msxgl/index.php?title=ASCII-EX_mapper
Btw: sent an email to Aoineko but I got a delivery error.

By JeroenTaverne

Expert (65)

27-11-2023, 08:12

retro69 wrote:

Looks like a very interesting project ! It has the potential of making MSX more accessible through better supply of modern storage devices. I will definitively watch this.

That might be possible but soldering an extra internal wire to supply 5V to the USB-C connector is required.

By japanretroCT

Master (160)

27-11-2023, 11:51

It support multidisk images or i can use sofarun?

By gdx

Enlighted (6603)

27-11-2023, 12:01

It's a shame there's no memory mapper.