BlueMSX - Insert Special Cartridge

Hi,

The standalone BlueMSX emulator has an option to Insert a “Special Cartridge” in Cartridge Slot 1 or Cartridge Slot 2. See attached picture.

So for example one could insert an “empty” SCC cartridge in slot 2, such that the Konami Sound chip can be used in scene demo’s or for example used for one of the many enhanced / patched games.

One specific case is that recently a number of Konami games have been patched with a lot of cool features. One of them is added voice synthesis to Salamander and Nemesis games (you can hear them when you pick-up a weapon) see for example these:

But for the voices to work one has to insert an SCC cartridge in the second slot. In the Libretro implementation this can unfortunately not be done right now, so no cool voiceset for us :cry:

I was wondering whether someone capable of this could implement the “insert special cartridge” as a core option? I imagine the functionality is already there in the blueMSX code, but it needs to be hooked up.

@Tatsuya79 Possibly this is something you could look into?

Here are two example videos where the voice set can be heard:

These patched konami games with the voice synthesis are so cool, we need them to work in the Libretro core also :heart_eyes:

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I have no experience with multiple disks/carts or the new sub-system way to load stuff.
Can’t say I can do that.

I’m not sure how it loads the SCC in slot 2, it could well be that SCC and SCC+ are baked into the bluemsx code? i.e. that it just applies a memory mapper with SCC in slot 2 when booting up?

If on the other hand full second slot loading would be supported, that would be the best as it would also allow for loading cart combinations to give special gameplay as mentioned here for all Konami cart combinations:

Konami Cartridges Combinations List

If for example you would load Salamander in slot 1 and Nemesis 2 in slot 2 then Operation 3+ will be enabled in the game (info taken from Bifi’s Salamander page ) :

Operation 3+ (crush vemon) will only appear if you have Nemesis 2 in another slot and you’ve got the crystal breeze. The stage is much like the last stage of Nemesis 2, though it’ll have an extra enemy at the end. If you’ve completed this stage, you’ll get the correct end demo. i.e. If you don’t, the end demo will be that the entire operation has failed.

I hope Real multi slot will be supported in Libretro someday, such that we can enjoy all these perks…

The only way is preconfigure SCC on slot 2 at config.ini

My config.ini on system/Machines/MSXTurboR

[Video]
version=V9958
vram size=128kB

[CMOS]
Enable CMOS=1
Battery Backed=1

[Subslotted Slots]
slot 0=1
slot 1=0
slot 2=1
slot 3=1

[External Slots]
slot A=1 0
slot B=2 0


[FDC]
Count=2
[CPU]
Z80 Frequency=3579545Hz
R800 Frequency=7159090Hz
[Board]
type=MSX-T9769C
[Slots]
0 0 0 0 24 "Machines/Shared Roms/KANJI.ROM" ""
0 0 0 0 58 "" ""
0 0 0 0 33 "" ""
0 0 0 0 59 "" ""
0 0 0 0 60 "" ""
0 0 0 0 80 "" ""
0 0 0 0 84 "" ""
0 0 0 0 90 "" ""
0 0 0 0 79 "Machines/Shared Roms/MOONSOUND.rom" ""
0 0 0 0 88 "" ""
0 0 0 4 141 "Machines/Shared Roms/MSXTR.ROM" ""
0 2 2 2 78 "Machines/Shared Roms/MSXTRMUS.ROM" ""
0 3 2 2 42 "Machines/Shared Roms/MSXTROPT.ROM" ""
2 0 2 4 3 "C:\RA185\SCC.ROM" ""
2 2 2 2 43 "" ""
3 0 0 64 22 "" ""
3 1 0 2 141 "Machines/Shared Roms/MSXTREXT.ROM" ""
3 1 2 4 141 "Machines/Shared Roms/MSXKANJI.ROM" ""
3 2 2 4 143 "Machines/Shared Roms/MSXDOS23.ROM" ""
3 3 2 2 42 "Machines/Shared Roms/XBASIC2.rom" ""