Some Basics 4 MSX Basic ( part 3 )

My MSX Basic tips and tricks part 3. Yes, I know more than just a few tricks.

Problem: How to generate GFX on an MSX-1, without showing how it's generated?

 
Solution: Using DEFUSR=&H41 and DEFUSR=&H44 commands
 

Example:

100 SCREEN 0
110 PRINT "This screen will be switched OFF"

120 PRINT "and switched ON after printing texts"
130 FOR T=1 TO 1600:NEXT T
140 DEFUSR=&H41: A=USR(0)
150 FOR T=1 TO 160
160 PRINT "ON on ";

170 NEXT T
180 DEFUSR=&H44:A=USR(0)
190 IF INKEY$="" THEN 190
200 CLS:END

I think I need to explain it in detail. Line 130 is just a pause (count to 1600), so you have time to read the text. In line 140 the screen will be switched OFF, you can see only the background color, but the foreground is invisible.

The lines 150 t/m 170 are just to generate some text to show what had been hidden.
Line 180 switched the screen ON and you see the generated texts for the first time.
Then another trick in line 190, this is the easiest way to wait until the user pressed a key.
However, SHIFT, CTRL, GRAPH, CODE and other special keys will not work. 

The DEFUSR trick works in any SCREEN, but in the SCREEN 4 and higher (on MSX-2 
and higher) you can use the SET PAGE command to display a nice waiting screen while generating other GFX on other pages. On SCREEN 0,1,2,3 you don't have pages and this DEFUSR trick works very well.

TnC Internet Adventures : MSX logos Part 1 - Yahoo

To find some background info or covers about MSX stuff I am blogging about, 
I use a lot of times search words with word MSX added to. And when I search for pictures 
I get lots of strange pictures that had nothing to do with MSX computers. 
The word MSX is nowadays commonly used for all kinds of things. 
From motors till Viagra pills, anything is possible. 

I decided it was interesting enough to search for MSX logos, what they mean and for which products they use the word MSX for. 
Well, I can tell you there will be no Microsoft on this list. 
They give their name to the MSX standard (well if that is true is for another post), but they totally forgot about it. 
You might say, world domination fallen with MSX, but with Windows, it worked out fine. Enough about big MS, let's see how other companies use MSX for their products.

This is a collection of MSX logo's I got with a Yahoo search ( it's mine default search engine, cause I use McAfee ), here we go in random order:

MSX was never going international, but there were plenty of countries

where MSX computers were sold. 

I think the logo was to use for all MSX groups and seemed 

to be forgotten.

Honda made a motor called MSX 125 in lots of variations, a fan made this cartoon picture.

Somebody uploade an animated MSX logo in different versions on YouTube, 

but for what use ? I could not find out. 

 

Yes, there is an MSX radiostation and no they dont play MSX music, 

but it's a fake radio-station in GTA games itself.

Check out the D&B music on big YT.

This is a logo from a graphic designer company, do they work as a trio ? 

Cant find the 3 names of these designers.

Next is a musicshop which sells CDs with sounds from real instruments. 

But why do you want so many different cymbalsounds ?.

Here is some other graphic designer company, dont know where the logo was used for.

The site was not very helpfull.

Yes, MSX energy drink !! 

If enough people at Microsoft drink it, maybe they produce 

an MSX-3 as a new X-Box game-console.

 

 

Logo for a bikersclub, for mini bikes only. Mmm, does the M in MSX stands for Mini ?

Well, some people do. 

That other logo seemed to be for another motorgang, 

for some very bad-ass MSX-ers, but the link is broken.

 

The logo of a never existing magazine, somehow I'm glad. Do I like to play Space Manbow on a MetroSexual computer ? So weird.

Another logo from a graphic desgner studio, purpose yet unknown.

I like it. Put this logo on any MSX-3 computer and I will buy it. 

Here is a company called MSX contents and uses MSX in the name of their product, 

like MSX Pressforce... Maybe handy for any magazine publisher.

Strangely their website is called: fivecom.

Does that mean they have only 5 computers and employees ?

A shop that sells outdoors stuff, I like the title MSX Mainstream, it's a good title for a new MSX blog. I dont think I need any of this stuff, I'm too lazy for that.

Well, that all for now. Next time a new search engine. BTW the original MSX logo in this post, came from a very interesting blog of Dave Voyles. In this post, he described briefly the history of MSX computers in a very good article. Take a look to his other posts.

Fan Of De Raggende Manne

Again it's time to post about some of my Dutch Music Memories. Ow, I am sorry. 
This is the Fan Of Series. Good to know.

I was always a big fan of college rock or punk rock and when I heard the song 
"Poep In Je Hoofd" on the radio, I wanted to find out more about this band "De Raggende Manne". Later I saw them playing live on TV a kind of ballad "Allemaal Voor Jou" . 

For me 2 reasons to buy the CD called "Rooie Pap". Lucky for me there were enough other great songs and lots of Dutch humor too. Like a song for the Dutch king with a duration of 10 seconds. 
Their greatest hit was "Nee's Niks" (see playlist) with a duration of say... 7 seconds, however, it was not included in any chart, cause the song had to be at least 30 seconds long. 

Another plus for "Rooie Pap" was the multimedia part. Yes, it was an audioCD and a CD-ROM together. It was made with an old version of Quicktime of Apple and so it worked on Windows and Apple computers. The multimedia part was showing different parts of the body of De Raggende Man and by clicking on each part you got a different interactive part full of bizarre Dutch humor. I liked it a lot and made a video about the intro and menus. Not showing all the content, cause that would ruin the surprise, just making all watchers curious was my goal. Check it out, here.

After "Rooie Pap" I bought their CD "Zaad". It was noisy, avant-garde music with sometimes a bit of melody and strange lyrics. I only liked 2 songs 1 was a cover from Willeke Alberti 
(by then famous Dutch female singer) "Telkens Weer" (see playlist). 
I liked the jazzy style of De Raggende Manne and the way singer Bob Fosko performs this song I decided to create a 10-hour version...Telkens Weer means Once Again. ..get it? 

Still "Zaad" was a bad buy and I bought the album they made after "Rooie Pap", called "Omschudden". Once again I didn't like most of the songs, it seems everybody was starting and stopping together at the same time but in between they go just randomly making music. 
Only the protest song "Denk Daar Eens Over Na" ( about no drilling for gas or oil in the Wadden Sea, a famous Dutch nature area) was worthy to listen too. After that I never bought anything from De Ragende Manne... except a single from Bob Fosko the lead shouter of the band...and that is the other story...("Me Vader Is Behanger")

Their live performances were the best, but did never last more than 30 minutes, after that the band and the public were exhausted. I browsed YT and created a playlist of I think the best tracks you can find of De Raggende Manne, maybe it is even better than their Best of album called "Het Rottigste van De Raggende Manne."

Like so many groups they had their own comeback, at that time I already lost interest in them. However, the lead-shouter Bob Fosko is still active in all kind of activities, check out his website.

My Music Memories: Poep In Je Hoofd - De Raggende Manne

"Poep In Je Hoofd" is the most famous song of De Raggende Manne. 
It was released on single and came from the album "Rooie Pap" ( see post Fan Of ...). 
It just a short punk-rock song with Dutch lyrics, which is very rare for a Dutch band, 
cause every Dutch band who wants to get famous use English lyrics. 

Not De Raggende Manne. "Poep In Je Hoofd" is just plain Dutch and hard to translate.
I used some online translators and it was still rubbish (or "Poep" in Dutch). 
And I tried it myself to create lyrics, so you could sing it in English but I came not far than:

"Shit in your head, shit in your head, it doesn't matter, you're already dead" 



Yeah, it should rhyme. Still, it is an ideal song to get the shit out of your head.. 
More reason to love it. 

A Japenese group N.A.T.T.O. covered the song live and that sounded very strange. Dutch is a strange langhage for  foreigners. 

I think "Poep In Je Hoofd" was the best rocksong 
De Raggende Manne ever made. 
Only Bob Fosko could create such a lyrics.

Here is an example of an online translator.
I forgot the name, but the result was always the same...

(As you can see, it's not hard to remember the lyrics, 
but you have to sing as hard as you possible can, 
without losing your voice before the song ends... )

"Poop in your head.
 
I'll have your skin beating in your mouth!
Or do you already have poop, poop in your head.



I'll make you feel well in your mouth
Or do you already have poop, poop in your head.
I'll make you feel well in your mouth
Or do you already have poop, poop in your head.
I'll make you feel well in your mouth
Or do you already have poop, poop in your head.

Poop in your head, poop in your head.
What does it matter if you believe.
Poop in your head, poop in your head.
What does it matter?
 
I'll make you feel well in your mouth
Or do you already have poop, poop in your head.
I'll make you feel well in your mouth
Or do you already have poop, poop in your head.
I'll make you feel well in your mouth
Or do you already have poop, poop in your head.
I'll make you feel well in your mouth

Nice, tasty, yesaaaaaa (Solo)

Poop in your head, poop in your head.
What does it matter if you believe.
Poop in your head, poop in your head.


What does it matter?
 
I'll make you feel well in your mouth
Or do you already have poop, poop in your head.
I'll make you feel well in your mouth
Or do you already have poop, poop in your head.
I'll make you feel well in your mouth
Or do you already have poop, poop in your head.

I'll be fine, you're aaaaaaaaah
Poop in your head."

I made 2 silly jokes with De Raggende Manne first hit "Nee's Niks" and "Poep In Je Hoofd" called:  "Nee, Da's Niks" and "Nee's Niks An"
Be annoyed, be very annoyed !!!

TnC GameMusic Selection: Micro Machines 2 Turbo Tournament

Yesterday I listened to an very old cassettetape (converted to mp3), which was the first tape I made with CD-tracks from CD-ROMs (mostly games). I used tracks from an unknown Pinball game, a Kaleidoscope program and Micro Machines 2 Turbo Tournament. 

When the tape was ready, I didnt listen very often, cause a lot of tracks were clipping or should I say the recordings were too loud. However I liked the idea of creating tapes with the best CD-tracks of a lot of games I played, that I started recording the Pinball and Race Track tapes.

Back to that first tape, it was called "CD-Rom Noises 1", which was also the last one.
And the best tracks of that tape were the ones from Micro Machines 2 Turbo Tournament.

I used one track to start the tape and recorded all 5 of them. Why ?

It were the best instrumental rocksongs I ever heard with a great solo-guitarist.
He plays all the classic rock-tricks in his solo's, but when you hear those tracks 
you want to play this game or any other racegame.

Sometimes the tracks seems to repeat itself too often, but most races last longer than 
3 minutes, right ?

Check them our here

If you want to see the gameplay (with more good rock music in the menu's), go here
I always remember the game, cause the controls were very difficult to handle.
 

Some Basics 4 MSX Basic ( part 2 )

Here is already part 2 of my tips and tricks. Have fun !

Problem: Test if the right disk is in the drive

 
Solution: Using FILES and ON ERROR GOTO instead of DSKI$
 

Example:

100 PRINT " Check disk with HELLO.BAS"110 ON ERROR GOTO 150
120 FILES "HELLO.BAS"
130 PRINT "Disk okay"
140 GOTO 180
150 IF ERL=120  AND ERR=53 THEN 190
160 PRINT ERR,ERL

170 ON ERROR GOTO 0
180 END
190 PRINT "Wrong Disk"
200 RESUME 170

As you can see, it just checks of the file HELLO.BAS exist on the disk. 

If not if and there is a disk inserted, it prints that it's the "Wrong Disk". 

When other errors happened, like no disk in drive, it just prints the error + error line 

and stops. I use ERL=120 to check where the error starts (in the line with FILES)  

and ERR=53 (File not found) to be sure I test only if HELLO.BAS exists.

I used this trick in the mainmenu's of the WORDSTORE Picture Demo's 
to check if the demo was on the inserted disk or not.

Some Basics 4 MSX Basic ( part 1)

And here is part 1 of my programming tips and trick, in the serie Some Basics 4 MSX Basic. 

Problem: Checking firebuttons

Solution: Using IF THEN and GOTO, instead of ON STRIG GOSUB and STRIG ON
 

Example:
 

10 PRINT "Press FIRE"
20 IF STRIG(0) OR STRIG (1) THEN 40
30 GOTO 20
40 PRINT "FIRE !!!!"
50 END

This solution is easier than using ON STRIG, but if you use this routine more than once, 

you must insert a short sleep routine, like:

50 FOR T=1 TO 200: NEXT

Just to make sure it also wait the 2nd time for the fire button, otherwise it will skip the 2nd test and go on.

I use this trick often in the last posted 112 MSX Basic games, cause I wanted to play those games without pressing any key on the keyboard.

The routine checks only the spacebar (0) and firebutton 1 of joystick 1 (1), which is mostly
enough for all single player games.