SuperSoniqs announces Franky, a new VDP card for MSX1 and up

All the best for this great project! Hope you'll finalise it. Nice way to have little MSX1s (and up) back to force. Possibilities seems endless, and really concrete considering SMS existing products.

Is there a way original VDP (1, 2, 2+) screen can be superimposed on/under the SMS VDP screen? (2 layers, like VDU kind of project does...)

Sin

What is the estimated price?

YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE-HAAAaaaah!!!!!!!!

At Last!!

I guessed it was that sms topic, when I read working name "Franky"!

Franky is nice name, please do not change it!!!!!!!!!!! MSX-1 turns to real Frankie-boy when it eats Franky!

Six PSG channels sound nice!

Hmmmm.... tell me, supersoniqs, is it "open-the-case-and-solder-Franky-inside-by-yourself" or are you making Franky cartridge?

In latter case, or anyway, do you have any plans to make sms cartridge/card adaptors for MSX?

Yes, what is estimated price for Franky?

I really hope that at least some MSX-1 developer could get interested about Franky! Thought when thinking realistically, it would be a LOT, if Franky get just few new or modified titles, as "everyone" is stuck into their msx1 projects already. But lets hope Franky can get software it needs!!!!

SuperSoniqs told me the following (subject to change and can also be partly be read at their website):

Developer cards as long as stock last when produced: Zero

About the production costs: It depends on choices to be made yet. Maybe there will be a DIY kit, maybe there will be a card with all necessary components but without the VDP, maybe there will be a complete product and maybe there will be a combination possible, depending on demand.

But please: the targeted production cards as stated on the website will support the VDP, 4 MB ram and the MOS 6581, the latter two controlled by a FPGA. This board will at least be produced without the VDP and MOS chip on them. Targeted production costs without profit, warranty etc. will be around the 25 to 30 euro's depending on IC's used.
How much the card will cost you, will depend on what you pay for your local sms1,sms2 and/or C64 as I have been told. Probably a card with all the components on it will also be sold and at least be supplied to active developers. Price will depend on prices for secondhand sms/c64 and or old IC stock buying.

The board design will be released under GNU license probably and VHDL code for the FPGA also.

@manuel ofcourse , but adding 80 colums is necessary donot you think.
A 4 MB mapper already exist, so why inventing the wheel again

Imagine you made a game that uses 4mbit. To large for the MSX1. Image your game also uses opll music, you need an extra slot. If you need both the memory and the VDP and the FM sounds, then you need to buy a slotexpander for your msx1. Not with Franky, if I read correctly.

Why still use a MSX1 when there are plenty MSX2's or higher for sale at very attractive prices...... Think about the advantages.

to manuel:

GFX9000 can be, of course used in a plain MSX-1, but is not SMS compatible. Video modes are a bit different, though. Game adaption could be possible with GFX9000, but heavy emulation and changes should be needed.
Franky seems to be a perfect option for this.

Well, as usual, software is the key. Using this card, how much work would be required to make a SMS game work in MSX+Franky?

And please, a total of 13.4 million Sega Master System units have been produced. All MSX systems together: about 5 million....

This is very exciting. I would have prefered if the whole cartridge was FPGA, and SMS VDP is recreated in FPGA. And I would rather pay for it and try out before committing on a project...

Theoretically the Sega VDP could also be emulated on the OCM. Probably just a matter of extending the MSX1 VDP VHDL code. But then, you need to buy a secondhand OCM for about 400 euros on ebay. Hmm, I rather stick with SuperSoninqs low cost solution Someone started to try to recreate the SID in VHDL. But that project has been stopped because that guy died. But still, it would never sound the same as the real thing, because the SID only sounds the same when you have two of the same batch, from the same factory. Different batches, different casings and different materials gives every SID it's own unique topping. Try that in VHDL.

Sure, I'll wait for the emulator implementation of this to try out then.
I would love to try it out right now though... can't there be a separate price point for someone that might not do a project?

If you read the blog of SuperSoniqs you'll find out that overlaying is probably not possible. Maybe with external hardware. But, why do you need overlaying? The SMS VDP will scroll your program in every direction. If you have a dual monitor setup, you could use the other VDP/Monitor for scoring tables, map overviews, item pages, dual player games (f.i. when using the sms vdp MSX compatibility modes) etc. etc.

sander: why? because otherwise you need 2 monitors or some switch device.

Have this SMS VDP the same horrible delay restrictions of the msx1 vdp's when writing to vram?

Have you at supersoniqs planned how those SMS-->MSX-1 ports can be used then?

Load them from disk (was and is RARE thing for MSX-1) or load it waver way from any cd-player? (which is more like MSX-1 way, since it loads like tape)

But does waver need some modification then to convert sms-->msx-1?

And anyway, you can´t load every sms game into msx-1´s memory from cd-player or disk, as memory ends at 64Kb (if your msx has that much)

Or do you have plans to make and publish sms ports as msx cartridges?

Then, if you are gonna make Franky inside cartridge, then you cannot use ported cartridge games on MSX-1s which have only one cartridge slot.

Unless you make Franky as cartridge which has cartridge slot on top of it. I recommend this option to make Franky usable on EVERY msx-1!!!!!!!!

I want, Ren & Stimpy Show: Quest for the Shaven Yak, Game Gear version (or Brazilian SMS port version).

*Newzealand Story - thought I rather would play Viejo´s SCREEN 2 one.
I'm so glad you say this!
I always wished for an MSX port of this game, now I know it even exists!

@dhau : dude that's just so wrong on so many levels.

...and now I make you unhappy, demonseed. There exists one SCREENSHOT about how it would look on MSX-1. Check karoshi forum, search words "los archivos", select first result, in the halfway you see Alex Kidd In Miracle World clone screenshot and bit after halfway of the page you find Rainbow Islands screenshot, and just few games more and there is The New Zealand Story screenshot. Last one looks like Amiga one, just minus graffitis and some little extra colour.

@Dhau: I just asked to stay on topic. Your comments are meaningless. I just buried two family members because of cancer.

@MäSäXi: the way developers distribute their programs is up to them. Sure, things could be loaded from tape, waver, laptops or cd-roms. We hope to get a memory mapper in the final product so size is not a limit anymore. True, you still have to load the software. But, in Brazil there are a lot of MSX1 computers with disk drive. For the rest of us: try buying a disk drive, or better yet a flashcard reader. disks are so 1990. ;P

Hmm. But then, that's only sid sound..

True, but only if you buy the hardsid. What they do is that they will buy a secondhand C64, rip out the SID and sell it to you. Some people complained waiting weeks for their chip.

Good news ... Keep the secret!

I thought, more than once, about buying a GFX9000 but the lack of software prevented me from doing it.

This new card is going to be a successful project imho: it is almost an MSX VDP (easy to develop for) and it can be a bridge between Sega and MSX with ports of Master System games to MSX.

Btw, I don't like the name of the card (Franky). Choose a decent name...

Hopefully someone does sid player for msx to play sid files on real msx which has franky´s sid batch inserted.

Lot's of reasons of course :-) The fun is not only in playing sms stuff on MSX. Final product also will have SID and Memory mapper if everythings goes well. That's something SMS doesn't have. Second, when SMS hardware is used in combination with MSX developments, the possiblilities are endless. BTW: there's some Japanese SMS stuff that makes use of the OPLL chip. Only the Japanese SMS had that chip. Should be easy to support the FM-PAC. Try that with European SMS And we'll try to keep final product as cheap as possible. With a little luck it will be cheaper that buying a SMS in a retroshop. Finally: it's just fun to have. And nobody will force you to buy one

BTW: We are doing this primarily because we think it's fun doing this. Maybe this card will never make it to production. It would be nice, for those people who want it, but that's it.

Indeed, I think it is a nice piece of hardware, specially because it doesn't seem that it will suffer from the lack of software that other msx hardware does. I hope the hardware will allow the faithful conversion of as many sms games as possible in order to help its adoption.

How about to name it "Frida"?
It's a female name...

And keep this work coming. Great stuff.
Finally MSX will be able to have decent versions of Altered Beast, Moonwalker, Shinobi.
Alex Kidd for MSX? Cool.

Sure, we have emulators and it's possible to buy cheap SMS and so on.
But it's fun to do this for MSX.

Keep up with the good stuff.