Take a look at this page :
http://gigamix.cocolog-nifty.com/blog/2004/11/post_13.html
The Japanese MSX fans seem to really appreciate blueMSX ... and they have found
some little bugs !
:)
Here's a translation, made by a Japanese that knows English.
Some parts about the features of blueMSX are skipped
Title: blueMSX is mind blowing!
-------------------------------------
blueMSX one of constantly evolving & improving emulator's new version was
released on NOV, 20. One of the highlight of this update would be the TR
support and SVI which was consider an ancestor of MSX1 architecture. (Do I see
Colecovision?!) Also comes with the usual "rich" virtual emulation environment,
overlapping with high-spec and reaching it's stabablity to kingdom. Oftenly the
term "One of the Best" is been heard now & then.
Athough I am beta tester of "MSXPlayer closed beta", blueMSX is just to hot to
pass by, so I decided to do a review on it.
Totally High-Spec! and rich function.
-----------------------------------------
Compared to other MSX emulator, blueMSX has nothing really lacking matter fact
it's known to be one of that comes with the most powerful emulator in MSX
scene. Honestly it's been a while since I saw an emulator that aim for such a
high quality specification. (I use to think RuMSX was pretty high, although
while back then.)
Here are the main features of blueMSX
(...)
Although it's not mentioned in the official listing, the Skin feature is worth
mentioning. It has a cool design geared toward the design concept, which adds a
good impression to the emulator. I would hope to see STOP / SELECT / KANA
/GRAPH keys to be accessible from the skin since, they are easy to locate in
real MSX but sometimes difficult to figure out on the pc-keys. Maybe for an
actual usage (programming) which I expect in skin, maybe I'll do it if I have
to learn theme feature.
Stableness in Basic programming is quite good to regardless that it's a foreign
emu. It has a complete JIS compatible key input, also LINE & PAINT doesn't have
skipping or leaking while drawing, collision detection in VDP that is rarely
used like ON SPRITE GOSUB also are supported. The timing and calculation is
very close to an actual MSX, so games that utilize empty FOR~NEXT to control
timing also works. Also, some reports about MSX-FAN disk doesn't under specific
environment.
One defect I notice right away is that responce on joypad (KEYBOARD) seems a
bit numb. (In Scale x1 it's not so apparent, so maybe it's due to my machine
power) Unless there might be some delay which causes the player character
"sliding" feel in games like shooting. Maybe some faster response should be
considered.
Using blueMSX like MSXPLAYer.
-------------------------------------
The purpose of MSXPLAYer is to combine real FDD and MSX GAME READER to use
actual true media as in real MSX. The concept totally differs from emulator
that aims itself to total virtual emulation environment. This require blueMSX
to be adapted a bit inorder to use it as a "real machine".
This is where DIR as DSK comes handy.
(...)
By using this feature and mounting the root directory on DRIVE A: you can
actually access FDD directly. (little trick)
You must also beware that everything must exist as a file format so you can't
use non-DOS format.
Other thing to be aware is that under DIR as DSK feature all saved changes is
not transfered to the directory. (Although saved changes are there so maybe
information is once saved as a virtual disk and blueMSX is manipulating that??)
Well anyway, if you're developing an MSX software you have better chance use
the regular disk image style. I hope it supports writting to the dir, but
probably very difficult...
If you try hard enough you can actually obtain bios from MSXPLAYer which can be
used in blueMSX. If you are worried about the copyrights you can try this
method, refer to the "FUN MSX emulation & games (Shuwa-system publishing)"
magazine.
WANTED: Configuration for the real DUMMIES
-----------------------------------------------------
Since I'm an user coming from graphical background, maybe some people wouldn't
even care or notice this, but I point this out anyways. The video control is
way to versatile and the default setting causes a color saturation, causing a
wanted color to show unexpected. If you run a basic program shown in the
diagram, palette (6,6,6) and(7,7,7) would result as a same colour with no
difference.
This symptom however can be adjusted (fixed) by, setting GAMMA and contrast to
1.00. By the way default is GAMMA
1.02/BRIGHTNESS1.04/CONTRAST1.08/SATURATION1.00.
The default setting of the sound also has STEREO which will sound different to
a (usually) MONO environment users. So when BGM played only on PSG may sound as
it is panned on 3ch. (Although YAMAHA MSX were made that way) It sometimes
gives different impression of the music itself.
To emulate the actual feeling of real FDD the access time works like real one.
Maybe some option to enable/disable the wait state in drive emulation. How
about an access sound when enable. (lol
Maybe this is there prefered default value but,to me it sounds a bit geared
toward core users. Maybe some option to toggle beginners default setting or
rather a "basic" default setting.
Defects in MAGICAL LABYRINTH
-------------------------------------
Despite the game quality, my circle's gamesoft MAGIC LABYRINTH remix would not
run properly on all MSX emulators. blueMSX v2.0 also comes with the defect so
I'll point out few examples.
1) Opening animation (SCREEN3) will not change properly. Most like the palette
is carried on properly. Maybe the active visual page in SCREEN 3 is lacking. I
also notice same kind of problem in other creation from my software.
2) If booted in turbo-R mode, MSXView font would exit but the data doesn't
causes only blank would be shown. This also causes software that utilise
MSXView font. Whether the font doesn't exist or way of how things are mapped is
different in boosted MSX turbo-R, If font data doesn't exist why not not use
dummy rom file which is rather friendly.
3) after Staff scroll(screen6 interlace) which brings back to the opening,
GIGAMIX logo (screen5), seems like the back screen is still been shown in
interlace. Need of setting the visual page to the odd number after screen3 is
required to show real interlace mode properly. (The way real msx works) blueMSX
seems to always working in interlace mode.
Great possibility of fixing bugs! Expectations for the future
-------------------------------------------------------------------
At this point we already notice the potential and quality of blueMSX, and it
expects to support Sunrise Game Reader in near future. (How about ASCII'S
version?) It is probably the closest emu to actually consider itself as "MSX
contents player". I'm looking for what blueMSX may bring in the future.
Also thanks for linking to my site.
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