'international' turbo r bios

Champion (380)

31-05-2004, 17:08

I have been busy to create a international msx turbo r bios. This isn't very usefull on a real turbo r, but I think it is for emulation.
I already changed the font and the keyboard layout, but now it is time for stuff like graph and code keys.

Before I start disassembling the entire bios, perhaps somebody has some pointers on how this works ? Perhaps there is some magic poke or something ?

Or perhaps somebody already made a international bios ?

Any pointers are welcome !

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By NYYRIKKI

Enlighted (6093)

31-05-2004, 18:13

This might be usefull also in real MSX tR, if you change CHCPU routine so, that Z80 ROM mode is Z80 DRAM and R800 ROM is R800 DRAM mode. You can do that by using following routine:

	CALL #183
	PUSH AF
	LD A,1
	CALL #180
	LD A,#FC
	OUT (#FE),A
	LD HL,#2020
	LD (#84E3),HL
	LD HL,0
	LD (#84E5),HL
	LD (#84E7),HL
	XOR A
	LD (#84B3),A
	OUT (#FE),A
	LD A,2
	CALL #180
	POP AF
	CALL #180

What comes to the actual question, I've done Finnish keyboard driver for A1ST. It anyway worked so, that you could use KANA to switch between original and Finnish keyboard.

In A1ST you can use free space in #1A31 for additional code. In A1GT this space contains MIDI interrupt handler. (If I remember correctly the font was right after this free space)

I just checked the routine and it seems to links it self to address: #E58 It also updates font tables in #1BBF and #101D At end it refreshes the screen font by using routine in #717

If you want to localize your BIOS, you can probably disassemble some other ROM and rip ready made code, but note, that all the keys may not be physically in same place.

To take a look at your BIOS, I recommend you to use SUPER-X. It is simply the best MSX program for this purpose.

~NYYRIKKI

By NYYRIKKI

Enlighted (6093)

31-05-2004, 18:22

Perhaps there is some magic poke or something ?

Oh, I forgot... Actually there is one related trick for MSX1 and up. You can change font by defining new address of font in following way:

#F91F (B) Font SlotID
#F920 (W) Font address

... font changes after next SCREEN command.

~NYYRIKKI

By flyguille

Prophet (3031)

31-05-2004, 20:33

don't forgot the DEAD key, when you made the keyboard routines...
and the CTRL+A plus a letter, on the CRT printing chrs routines...

By Philip

Champion (380)

31-05-2004, 21:02

Nyyrikki, do you still have the english manual for super-x ?

By NYYRIKKI

Enlighted (6093)

01-06-2004, 12:27

Nyyrikki, do you still have the english manual for super-x ?

Yes, send me a mail, and I'll send it to you.

By Philip

Champion (380)

01-06-2004, 12:33

It looks like I figured it all out.
I just copied the following from my vg8325 rom:

#002B - #002C Landcode etc.
#0D89 - #1101 Keyboard routines and layout tables
#1BBF - #23BE Font
#1B96 - 1BAA Some keyboard routine lookup table which I moved to #1A85

And I changed the routine on #1021 so it looks at the moved table on #1A85

For those who want to try it out, you can download it (in openMSX format) here:
www.xs4all.nl/~phoeven/msx/fs-a1gt_firmware_int.zip

By Latok

msx guru (3960)