Jess Ragan Posted June 29, 2005 Share Posted June 29, 2005 (edited) Even though emulation on the PSP has become extremely popular thanks to the recent swap-free system exploit, older consoles such as the Atari 2600, ColecoVision, and Vectrex aren't getting the representation on the system that they deserve. Most of the authors of the PSP's emulators are Japanese, and thus have no emotional attachment to these systems, all designed in America for a Western audience. However, there is hope for those of you looking for a classic gaming fix. One emulator, fMSX, runs software for a Japanese computer so similar to the ColecoVision that several of its games were ported to that format, with almost nothing changed. Included among these ports are the following games, all indistinguishable from their ColecoVision counterparts: Squish 'Em Sam Alcazar: The Forgotten Fortress Zenji Pitfall! Pitfall II Antarctic Adventure B.C.'s Quest Cabbage Patch Kids The Dambusters Flipper Slipper The Heist H.E.R.O. Keystone Kapers Monkey Academy Oil's Well Rock 'n Bolt Sewer Sam Video Hustler In addition to these, there's a wide variety of classic games on the MSX that never appeared on the ColecoVision... titles like a graphically enhanced version of the fast-paced shooter Turmoil, the last two Mr. Do! sequels, and the Namco sleeper hit Mappy. Then there are those games that Eduardo Mello ported from the MSX to the ColecoVision, such as Yie Ar Kung Fu (minus the multiplayer mode) and Sky Jaguar. Finally, there are games that are exclusive to the MSX, like Penguin Adventure, the jaw-dropping sequel to Antarctic Adventure. If you're a fan of PSP emulation, but feel there's been something missing, fMSX and the many classic games available for it should help you fill that gap. JR Edited June 29, 2005 by Jess Ragan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beer Monkey Posted June 29, 2005 Share Posted June 29, 2005 It's a start. Hopefully we see real classic console emulators soon. I've been playing stuff like Mappy and Millipede via NES emulation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NE146 Posted June 29, 2005 Share Posted June 29, 2005 Yeah.. just relax and give it some time. Heck we're just barely out of launch still. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveW Posted June 29, 2005 Share Posted June 29, 2005 there's a wide variety of classic games on the MSX that never appeared on the ColecoVision... such as Yie Ar Kung Fu (minus the multiplayer mode) and Sky Jaguar. JR 882831[/snapback] The MSX also got Gradius, Gradius II, Salamander, and another one who's name I can't remember off the top of my head. It also got Metal Gear 1 and 2. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cimerians Posted June 30, 2005 Share Posted June 30, 2005 Jess, as always, thanks for the PSP updates. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jess Ragan Posted June 30, 2005 Author Share Posted June 30, 2005 I appreciate that! JR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joshua Posted July 1, 2005 Share Posted July 1, 2005 also, there are a few early nes titles, most notably karateka , galaga, ms pacman, kung fu, dig dug... activision anthology runs a bit for vba as well, albeit quite a bit slow and choppy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davidbrit2 Posted July 1, 2005 Share Posted July 1, 2005 The MSX emulator looks promising, but I can't get it to actually run anything. I can bring up the main emulator menu, change the settings and all that, but when I select POWER to actually start emulation, it just exits back to the PSP menu. Do I have corrupt BIOS ROM images or something? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shannon Posted July 2, 2005 Share Posted July 2, 2005 Thanks for the info. I noticed the same trend as well, although there was an Amiga emulator released recently. Gonna be interesting to see how this one pans out. As for american consoles. Now that the 1.50 exploit it out I'm expecting to see some american console gaming goodness. Hopefully in the Atari area. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jess Ragan Posted July 2, 2005 Author Share Posted July 2, 2005 The MSX emulator looks promising, but I can't get it to actually run anything. I can bring up the main emulator menu, change the settings and all that, but when I select POWER to actually start emulation, it just exits back to the PSP menu. Do I have corrupt BIOS ROM images or something? 884363[/snapback] Could be. Do you have the BIOS files in the right place, and are they properly named? You'll need to store the BIOS files in a special folder on your PSP, called (what else?) BIOS. The folder will look like this: ms0:/PSP/GAME/MSX/BIOS (ms0: is your PSP's hard drive designation... it could be D:, E:, F:, or even an icon if you're using a Macintosh. The folder "MSX" is whatever you named the folder where the MSX emulator is stored on your PSP) The files should be named as follows: MSX.ROM DISK.ROM MSX2.ROM MSX2P.ROM RS232.ROM FMPAC.ROM You don't have to have ALL of these files if you intend to just play cartridges for the original MSX, but if you want to play more advanced games like Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake or Zanac AI, you're probably going to want them all. If you're worried about corrupt BIOS files, you can always download them from the following sites: http://www.theoldcomputer.com/Libarary%27s...oms_summary.htm http://www.planetemu.net Hope that helps! By the way, good to see you around, Dave. You should stop by more often! JR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davidbrit2 Posted July 2, 2005 Share Posted July 2, 2005 The MSX emulator looks promising, but I can't get it to actually run anything. I can bring up the main emulator menu, change the settings and all that, but when I select POWER to actually start emulation, it just exits back to the PSP menu. Do I have corrupt BIOS ROM images or something? 884363[/snapback] Could be. Do you have the BIOS files in the right place, and are they properly named? You'll need to store the BIOS files in a special folder on your PSP, called (what else?) BIOS. The folder will look like this: ms0:/PSP/GAME/MSX/BIOS Gah, can't believe I missed that step. Ha ha. Thanks, it seems to be running now. Now I just have to figure out why the keyboard overlay isn't displaying. :-) (I have to actually unzip it, right?) By the way, good to see you around, Dave. You should stop by more often! JR 884667[/snapback] Eh, I'm usually around. It's just that my lurk/post ratio is a bit high. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cimerians Posted July 2, 2005 Share Posted July 2, 2005 Finally got around to the MSX emulator but I get a "The game could not be started" error. The readme is in Japanese so I have no idea what I'm missing. I created a BIOS directory as well. Do I have to use an exploit to transfer files? I simply hooked up my PSP to my PC and created the directories on the PSP and copied the files there using windows explorer. any ideas? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davidbrit2 Posted July 2, 2005 Share Posted July 2, 2005 Finally got around to the MSX emulator but I get a "The game could not be started" error. The readme is in Japanese so I have no idea what I'm missing. I created a BIOS directory as well. Do I have to use an exploit to transfer files? I simply hooked up my PSP to my PC and created the directories on the PSP and copied the files there using windows explorer. any ideas? 884806[/snapback] Check the firmware version on your PSP. It has to be 1.50. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jess Ragan Posted July 2, 2005 Author Share Posted July 2, 2005 Finally got around to the MSX emulator but I get a "The game could not be started" error. The readme is in Japanese so I have no idea what I'm missing. I created a BIOS directory as well. Do I have to use an exploit to transfer files? I simply hooked up my PSP to my PC and created the directories on the PSP and copied the files there using windows explorer. any ideas? 884806[/snapback] Cimerians, you MUST use an exploit program to transfer the files. They simply will not work otherwise. And Dave, you're going to need to set an option in fMSX to make the keyboard appear. Highlight CONFIG in the fMSX options screen, then press O. Highlight "WallPaper keyboard", press O, then select the keyboard file. It doesn't matter whether or not it's zipped... it works even if it's compressed. JR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shannon Posted July 2, 2005 Share Posted July 2, 2005 Yeah that keyboard thing is hard to know about unless you can read the original documentation. Seems like an unusual way to handle something that comes (default) with the emu. As for using homebrews on 1.5 PSP's. You need to run the conversion software. It creates an empty pbp for your main directory and then copies the actual homebrew into the "other" directory. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davidbrit2 Posted July 8, 2005 Share Posted July 8, 2005 The files should be named as follows: MSX.ROM DISK.ROM MSX2.ROM MSX2P.ROM RS232.ROM FMPAC.ROM 884667[/snapback] Hmm... I've got all those in the BIOS directory, but it's still refusing to run in MSX2+ mode. The emulator just exits when I try to boot that way. MSX and MSX2 modes work fine, strangely. Is there perhaps one more ROM necessary? Like the Kanji ones? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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