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HACHIBITTO - An MSX2 Fantasy Console

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The new user interface design looks great; MSX-DOS 2 is already working, and I've been able to run VGMPLAY MSX.
 

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Cool for fm-pac sound driver, however I liked more default sounds in v0.9. In 1.3 sounds more edgy without expansion.
Here I have a save state for v0.9 that make game freeze. Never happend that before. Interesting thing because I could load succesfully that save state only once, maybe I got more pleasent cpu registers / filled ram / vram during a gameplay to make it happen, idk. I can't repeat, replicate it again. It's only idea, but how about to add savestate backup in option menu just to make at least one .sav.bak file for savestate restore for those rare situations, but maybe that's only a fad whim.
 
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Version 1.3 is released! If you grabbed a version from yesterday that claimed to be 1.3, please re-download. I found and fixed a major MSX1 sprite glitching bug that was causing extra dark sprites to be rendered on legacy games.

https://github.com/wavemotion-dave/Hachibitto

Version 1.3 - 08-Oct-2026 by wavemotion-dave
  • Revamped UI with an icon-driven approach.
  • Fix for MSX1 sprite rendering - no more black shadow / glitches.
  • Two full cart slots + disk supported.
  • New undocumented Z80 opcodes added for improved accuracy.
  • Lots of other minor fixes and improvements under the hood.

As for bugs on 0.9... that feels like a lifetime ago. I'll try to reproduce on 1.3 which is lightyears cleaner than 0.9.

Next on my list is yet one more attempt at proper MSX-MUSIC. I'm hopeful but skeptical. Still waiting for a savior to come riding over the mountains who knows more about how audio design works.
 
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I was able to load that save state again when cart was booting, gamaplay was ok with only lack of background color on my side of table, lost one round, and next one loaded fine.
 
That's still a Verion 0.9 Save File. I've made more than 100 bug fixes since 0.9 - nobdy should be running anything but 1.3 at this point. Mentally, I can't go back several weeks to look at problems that might have existed on a buggy 0.9 version.
 
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Looks okay to me, Chris. I ensured I had the right CRC files and applied the patch myself... looks, sounds and plays great.

1791500935715.png



As an aside, I spent 12 hours today trying to improve MSX-MUSIC. I'm so tired of music drivers. Anyway, found one good bug that should help render sounds better on the DSi/XL/LL for MSX-MUSIC but it's still far from perfect. Version 1.3a is uploaded on github and I've done my best to comment the msx_music.c driver code so that maybe someone with the requisite skills will come along and make it sing :)
 
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As for me msx-music sounds same good like other emulators I found on youtube, at least for Penguin-kun Wars 2. Maybe speaking about v0.9 there was lower sampling rate therefore some samples may sound less clear but more smooth, but It's only my subjective preference. I belive there's always a way for improving, but it's fine as it is.
 
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plasturion said:
As for me msx-music sounds same good like other emulators I found on youtube, at least for Penguin-kun Wars 2. Maybe speaking about v0.9 there was lower sampling rate therefore some samples may sound less clear but more smooth, but It's only my subjective preference. I belive there's always a way for improving, but it's fine as it is.
Click to expand...
No, it doesn't sound the same at all. It's still PSG-ish, and there's room for improvement. The big question is whether it's possible to make it better on DS/DS lite or not
 
Last edited by Cris1997XX,
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DS-Lite isn't using real FM for the MSX-MUSIC. I simply can't squeeze out enough emulation cycles to do that so it's just a very rough approximation. Only the DSi/XL/LL running at 2X the CPU (so not via an R4 or 'compatible' flash cart) gets the full modulation and that's where all of the improvement will come from. Some games on the DSi are starting to sound really good with MSX-MUSIC... some are not (Blade Lords with custom instruments is the most notoriously rough sounding right now). In the last couple of builds, I've completely separated the DS-Lite/Phat/Compatibility mode MSX-MUSIC from the DSi/XL/LL 2X CPU handler. Only the latter will get improvements at this time.

Also, in order to support Cart+Cart2 + Disk possibilities, the DS-Lite/Phat/Compatibility mode will only support ROMs up to 1MB in size (if you use 2 carts, 512K each). The DSi/XL/LL will support 4MB (or 2MB each for split carts). That means Lily's Saga is off the table for DS-Lite. I might try to find the extra memory someday to support the few really good 1.25MB games on DS-Lite/Phat but that day is not today.

Over the years, I've done what I can to keep the older DS hardware relevant... but the MSX2 with advanced VDP, 12 possible sound channels and big 8-bit mega-memories is right at the cusp of what that old girl can do.

Anyway... in the meantime, 1.3c is up and it has some really improtant changes for disk handling. You can no longer switch directories when swapping disks - it was causing all kinds of discontinuity problems. That should hardly be a problem for anyone - just keep your save disks in the same directory as the game you are playing.

Also, when you Save/Load a state, it will now auto-mount the last disk you had to prevent any issues with multi-disk games.

Writing disks is more efficient - and a bug has been squashed that could incorrectly write the WRONG disk (oops!).
 
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esv_83 said:
I no longer see the “Exit Emulator” option. Is it possible to add an option to choose between NTSC and PAL?
Click to expand...
Oh yeah, I forgot the exit emulator button... I never use it so it slipped my mind.

Hachibitto is using an NTSC BIOS and is locked to the DS/DSi 60Hz refresh. PAL isn't likely to happen.

EDIT: @esv_83 okay, version 1.3d is up with the Exit Emulator icon. It balances that bottom row nicely. I've also turned down the MSX-MUSIC scaling a bit as it was overly bright and causing some clipping at the high end.
 
Last edited by wavemotion,
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