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The Special Cartridge Menu



The Cartridge Menu is part of the File/Cartridge Menu; for every slot, it contains the following menu items :

The MSX Game Reader is an USB device for your PC, it has been released by ASCII / MSX-ASSOCIATION in Japan and by SUNRISE outside Japan.
It allows to use MSX cartridges on a PC, what adds more fun and accuracy to your MSX experience.

It comes with an installation program and a special version of the MSX-PLAYer, the official MSX emulator released by ASCII / MSX-ASSOCIATION.

To use the MSX Game Reader in combination with blueMSX, you need to first buy the complete official package and to install the included software. The presence on your PC of a specific file is indeed required and this file will be present after installation of the included software.

SCC (Sound Custom Chip or Sound Creative Chip) is a sound chip developed by Konami and Yamaha under the technical name K051649. It is present on some rom games like King's Valley 2 or Salamander.

SCC-I is a improved version under the form of a Sound Cartridge released with the SD-Snatcher and Snatcher games.

You can find more info here.

Ese-SCC is a Japanese invention that allows to produce SCC sounds from external SRAM.

- insert mginst.dsk in the first floppy drive (now recognized as B: - A: is reserved for the SRAM)
- on the commandline, type INST1 or INST2 to install MSX-DOS1 or 2 on the SRAM and initialize the SRAM
- reset the MSX

See this site : http://www.big.or.jp/~saibara/msx/ese/index.html

An IDE or Integrated Drive Electronics interface with controllers is one way to add an hard disk and/or a CD-ROM to a MSX computer.

You have the choice between 3 different IDE controllers :
- Sunrise IDE
- Beer IDE
- GIDE

An SCSI or Small Computer System Interface with controllers is another way to add an hard disk and/or a CD-ROM drive to a MSX computer.

You have the choice between 3 different SCSI controllers :
- Mega-SCSI
- Wave-SCSI
- Gouda SCSI

You can find more info on these pages :
- IDE and SCSI controllers
- Running hard disk images
- Creating hard disk images
- CD-ROM and CD-AUDIO

FM-PAC means FM-Pana Amusement Cartridge, it's a cartridge released by Panasonic.

It contains two different parts :
- a music part (MSX-MUSIC with an integrated software that you can run by using CALL FMPAC in MSX-BASIC
- a saving system for some games (S-RAM).

PAC is a simplified version, it contains only the S-RAM.

All generic MSX2, MSX2+ and MSXturboR machines, with exception for the MSX2 Only PSG machine, come with an intern MSX-MUSIC chip and the PAC, so it's not required to add a FM-PAC cartridge !

If you want to use the FM-PAC cartridge or the PAC cartridge on a MSX1, use this special menu.

You can find more info about MSX-MUSIC here.

The Sony HBI-55 Cartridge is a special SRAM support that allows to save personal data.

It can only be used with some Sony machines :

- HB-55, HB-75, HB-201 (MSX1)
- HB-F1, HB-F1II (MSX2)

Although there is already RAM in a MSX computer, you can extend it internally (by using the Machine editor) or externally (by using this Special menu).

Addition of external RAM is only possible on MSX2, MSX2+ and MSXturboR machines.

MegaRAM is mainly a Brazilianse invention that allows to run a MegaROM game on a MSX computer without Memory mapper, what it is the case of most MSX1 machines and of some MSX2 machines. It can also be used on MSX2/2+ machines with a memory mapper. There are also Korean MegaRAMs.

For a good working of the MegaRAM, you must always select a size bigger than the size of the MegaROM game. For example, if you want to run a game on a 256 Kb MegaROM, you must select at least a 512 Kb MegaRAM .

Ese-RAM is a Japanese invention that allows to use external SRAM.

- insert mginst.dsk in the first floppy drive (now recognized as B: - A: is reserved for the SRAM)
- on the commandline, type INST1 or INST2 to install MSX-DOS1 or 2 on the hard drive and initialize the SRAM
- reset the MSX

See this site : http://www.big.or.jp/~saibara/msx/ese/index.html

Mega Flash ROM is a Spanish invention that allows to store games and applications on external RAM. The SCC variant adds SCC sounds.

For more explanations and the MSX-DOS tool OPF.COM, see this website : http://soft.mundivia.es/mpazos/flashrom/index2.html


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