The instructions are a bit poor, and from a search of the web, I found people were having a variety of problems like me, so I had a play around to see what would get me started.
After a lot of research, overall the best option for a plain MSX like my Toshiba seemed to be to use Sofarun, a browser type program, which runs off the SD card and allows you to mount DSK images and ROMs etc, so I downloaded that, and also NEXTOR.SYS, COMMAND2.COM and I created an AUTOEXEC.BAT file containing the following lines:
Code: Select all
PATH A:\DOS\ A:\SR
CD GAMES\
SR /S
Don't worry too much about getting the files you need, I have attached a file called MSX_Disk.zip.txt to this post, just remove the .txt file extension and unzip everything you need. I also included the best manual I could find, again, remove .txt and access the PDF as normal.
So what did I do?
- First I booted from the cart with both of the switches set to the right when looking at the front of the cartridge (This enables mapper mode) and a blank 2GB SD card in the front slot.
- Next I ran the command CALL FDISK from the BASIC prompt and followed the on screen instructions to create a single 16MB FAT 12 partition on the 2GB SD card.
- I then shut down the MSX machine and transferred the SD card to my laptop and unzipped the contents of MSX_Disk.zip to that partition.
- After ejecting the SD card from the laptop, I reinserted into the cart and powered on the MSX. The MSX now booted with NEXTOR.SYS, MSX-DOS and with Sofarun started.
- From Sofarun, press ESC and select the option to exit to BASIC.
- Now NEXTOR.SYS is loaded, I re ran 'CALL FDISK' from BASIC and used the menu to review and delete the 16MB partition and create a new 2GB partition.
- I repeated the power off process and moved the SD card over to my laptop again and re-copied the contents of MSX_Disk.zip back onto the new 2GB partition, then back to the MSX, where it now boots and I have a 2GB SD card where I can start to add DSK and ROM files that I can start using Sofarun.
None of the above was easily available in one place, which was not helpful.
This is what it looks like booted:
And as you can see it looks very like normal DOS environment. Note that on first run, Sofarun (SR /S) will create a few work directories, this is normal, just wait for it to complete.
Here is a ROM (Dig Dug) executed directly from the Sofarun environment:
So I said this was a review, well that part comes now.
The cart I bought is very nicely made, and I have no complaints about that, however getting to a point where it can be usefully used like for example the FinalGROM for the TI99/4a or the Concerto for the Atari 7800 is, as you can see, a pretty painful process.
I expect now that I have the files to get booted and a process, then in all honesty, it's simple and repeatable, hence adding the instructions above to help folks who are struggling.
If I'd known all of this before, I'd have likely looked for something else more like FinalGROM, but it is what it is and it works.
As it is now with Sofarun, it's going to be really handy, but if you want a cart that will just plug and go, this isn't for you.
If you're prepared to do the setup as I did, then you're good to go.