Some Basics 4 MSX Basic ( part 4 )

Hellow again.
This example is a bit longer than earlier posts. 

I wanted to make a good example of what you can do with characters in SCREEN 1,
but colours would make the example too long.

Problem:How to get bold characters in SCREEN 1

Solution: VPOKE only the charcters you want to speed up your code
 

Example:
100 ' SB4B-04 apr/may 2018 TnC
110 SCREEN 1:WIDTH32:KEY OFF
120 PRINT "SCREEN 1: Bold Characters":PRINT: PRINT
130 '---
140 T$="ABCDEF":PRINT T$:PRINT:GOSUB 220
150 T$="123456":PRINT T$: PRINT: GOSUB 220
160 T$="abcdef":PRINT T$:PRINT:GOSUB 220
170 '---
180 PRINT:PRINT "Press any key when ready"
190 IF INKEY$="" THEN 190
200 SCREEN 0:KEY ON:END
210 '---
220 FOR T=1 TO LEN(T$)
230 A=(ASC(MID$(T$,T,1)))*8
240 FOR V=A TO (A+8)
250 VPOKE V,VPEEK(V) 0R VPEEK(V)/2
260 NEXT:NEXT
270 RETURN 

I wanted to make a good example of what you can do with characters in SCREEN 1,
but colours would make the example too long.


The clever VPOKE in line 250 does the whole trick, but you need to know the ASCII table. Then you know which characters must be bold.

For example: 

ASCII 65 = "A", 90 = "Z"

ASCII 97 = "a", 122 = "z"

ASCII 32 = space
ASCII 48 = "0", 57 = "9"


Please remember: Never use special msx chars to vpoke if you publish it online. 
Better use standard ascii characters like # or $ or ?




And after a CLS or SCREEN command, the bold characters will be normal again.

"Deep State" Theme Music - Dan Berridge (Fox TV series)

Sometimes you see a trailer on TV and you think, not too bad, another James Bond clone, whose family is being kidnapped and he had to kill someone for the last time. 
But after seeing episode 4 (Reunion, I missed the first 3) you know its more than just an old secret agent trying to stay alive and rescue his family. 

It's also about powerful people in any secret service, who have the power to change anything if they want if they get enough money to do so and let others take the blame or say its for the best of their country. 

For the intro, Dan Berridge made a really haunted version of the intro of "Once In A Lifetime" by the Simple Minds. I recorded by hand the intro with Dutch subtitles from the Fox TV, cause that intro shows really what the series is all about. Not another Rambo action series (like all official trailers of Fox networks), but this intro let you think about what happened behind the news of today. Is the news not manipulated by any secret action of any security agents?

And why did Fox TV choose the "Once In A Lifetime" song for Deep State?
I made me wonder why Swedemason took the song, speeches of president Trump and mixed them together.. 
Want more Deep State conspiracy theories, here it is.
If you just want to know more about this TV serie, check out the offical website.
Very stylish, just like the intro I recorded.

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.

TnC Internet Adventures: Lord Music Academy & Lord Vinheteiro

Lord Vinheteiro is a Brazilian piano-player who can play almost everything from Bach to Lady Gaga. He has very original ideas for his videos and has interesting things to say.
Lord Music Academy is the more serious YouTube channel, mostly in Portuguese so translation in English is very handy. The Vinheteiro channel is the more fun channel with lots of music and some English comments. He wants to show his public that classical music is not boring at all and he proved it with lots of humor.

For example try: How To Destroy Classical Music 1 and 2.
The interaction between the pianist and the drummer staring at you is a must-see.

I always look forward to the next video he uploads, cause every time he comes with a new fresh idea in which he can perform his piano skills.

More examples coming up:
- 13 Types of Pianists
- How To Make Girls Fall in Love with Music
- Happy Songs in Sad Versions
- Evolution of Music (1680 AD - 2017)
- Top 10 of EDM of the 2000s  !!!

 

Some MSX-links: RuMSX emulator of Lex Lechz

I mentioned the RuMSX emulator of Lex Lechz. It's very outdated and it works as an emulator, still, lots of features are still missing and there are no signs it will be updated ever.
Why bother then?

RuMSX has just one feature that all other MSX emulators are missing, a complete interactive reference of all MSX Basic commands with examples and lots of information for experienced MSX-ers, like VDP registers etc.

When you click on Help and MSX help you see the page above with almost everything
you want to know about MSX (if you interested in programming of course)
Many times its information got me on the right track to solve my MSX-Basic problems.

Get it if you want to start programming in MSX-Basic, now !!!
 

TnC Internet Adventures: Online Image Editor and Gif Maker

On regular basis, my son had to make some Powerpoint presentations for speeches or overviews for books. And he needs a lot of pictures, but there are always problems like, 
it's too big or too small or it must be transparent to fit on the page, etc. etc. 

Yes yes, there are many many free image editors online, but they all have limitations and you have to pay to get these limitations removed. Not this one.

http://www.online-image-editor.com/ 

Does what it promissed, just a lot of wizards and tools you always wanted to try out on 
your images or photo's. It may be look like an ordinair image editor, it has alway great fun features for photo's. And it's totally free !
I use the transparantcy tool often, it works okay but it takes some time to get the best result.
Well, it's much easier and cheaper than using Photoshop, any way !!!

But wait, there is more.
By accident I clicked on Animation button and discovered another treasure:

http://www.online-image-editor.com/gifmaker/ 

It is so simple to create an animated GIF with this tool, you will not believe it.
Just upload your pictures (make sure they have the same resolution), change the transition (delay between showing the pictures), choose from different transitions by clicking on the box and click on create animation. Then the animated GIF will be made in seconds and by clicking with rightmousebutton, you can save the GIF with your own chosen name. 

I used the GIF maker a lot of times in the latest posts, for me a new way to show more pictures without messing with the texts.

 

Some Basics 4 MSX Basic ( Introduction)

I am not proud to present a new series of posts. 

My  Introduction of the Wordstore+ Picture Demo's series was longer than I expected, 

due to some technical details about the files on the disk I wrote about. 

It seemed to me like long boring stories and remove the too technical issues. 

Then I got the idea to share some of  my MSX Basic tips and tricks, I used the software 

I wrote for the Wordstore+ Picture Demos. Now I am not planning to create a complete course of MSX Basic programming, there is enough for you to find at msx.org. 

I just take simple tricks I use often, explain it with an example. Nothing fancy. I learned MSX Basic with the manual on disk Wegwijs op uw MSX ( it had also some games, 

see my 112 posts about Hexapion) and the MSX Handbook of Albert Sickler (???), 

which was not really a study book, more a reference book with good examples. I used the book so much, lots of pages got lose and I throw it away. 
Nowadays I use RuMSX as my MSX handbook when I want to know how to use an MSX Basic command. I will create a post for RuMSX later.

Well, back to the subject now.

The tricks and tips I want to post about will work on any MSX unless I mention it. 

However, I don't own a TURBO-R or an MSX-2+ ( I sold my Sanyo to an MSXer called Peter Schellekens so he could play MSX-2+ games - we used to go together to any MSX Fair, he rarely bought something,  I bought way too many ;-), so most tips will be MSX -1/2. 

I don't have much experience in MSX Basic programming,  I mostly modify existing software and write simple stuff like all kinds of menus. Stil, I believe my tips and tricks can be helpful, but remember there are multiple solutions for the same problem. So my solutions are just one of the many possibilities. 

First I will post about the tips and tricks I used in the 112 series, Wordstore+ Picture demos and the Fourseasons MSX disk. When I am out of ideas I have some old note books written by me, where I wrote all kinds of useful info ( like cheats for games and high scores) . 

There are some very clever tricks written down in it.
 

Have a look at the posts and leave a comment with your version of the solution to my problem.

Each post will have the same layout:

- Problem
- Solution
- Example

 So from now follow this series to get a couple of tricks to use in your MSX Basic programs.

My Music Momories / TnC House Classics presents : Flashdance - Deep Dish

I was not sure if this song belongs to My Music Memories or TnC House Classics, 

cause I never owned this track. 
It is a kind of dance track, so here it is in 
both series.

The track is a sort of cross-over between rock and dance, a bit repetitive and very hypnotic, the rock-riff stays in your head 
for days.

The original came from the soundtrack of Flashdance (...What a feeling..) and was called "He's a dream" by Shandi Sinnamon.
 I listen to it, but the whole song was ruïned 
by the producers, it started okay, then in the middle...you better listen for yourself...

So Deep Disk took the best parts of the song, hired a better singer and WHAM !!!

Whole Flashdance track is 
so simple, so lots of remixes made their own versions.

Most of them could not add more interesting stuff for having an excuse creating long remixes of Flashdance with a duration 9 minutes or longer.

But some remixes are not bad at all, check these out.

There was a DJ Sultan who made an interesting cross-over remix with Money for Nothing of Dire Straits and Flashdance of Deep Dish, called "Flash for Nothing"

Lately, I was searching for Icebaer remixes and a guy called Sim0ne remixed it just in the style of Deep Fish Flashdance, but more monotone.

More Wordstore+ Picture Demo : Tug Of Peace - Paul McCartney

Here is the 5th and last Picture Demo, called Tug Of Peace. 

If you know more about the Loup Picture Demo's, check this.

Tug of Peace is a kinda funk version with bits and pieces from Tug Of War song
and the Pipes Of Peace (the Xmas) song. Well, the lyrics are.
And if you search for the message behind the song, good luck to you.

But I like the song from the Pipes Of Peace album a little better than Hey Hey
from the same album, it's just less boring.

Now I think, I said enough about the Pipes Of Peace album, I was very disappointed.
If Paul had recorded more songs in the same style, it could save the whole album.

Somehow I still believe a lot of songs on Pipes of Peace were left-overs from 
the Tug of War sessions.

Any way.
Enjoy the intro in Wordstore+ and listen to the full length of the song in slowly nature animation

More Wordstore+ Picture Demo : Old Siam Sir - Wings

Another song of Back To the Egg Album, the last album of Wings.

It's a solid rock song, and had a great intro which I sampled it in Wordstore+.
When I was listening to the whole song, I was missing something.
 

The song keep repeating itself, so in the end it's quite boring.
If Old Siam Sir had more lyrics or some great guitarsolo's...

The new Wings members were just recruited session musicians, 

so not much input from them.They just play as they told to.

Well I found a nice medley of the best songs of Back To The Egg, 

with a video made from the TV-special to promote Back To The Egg album.

This YouTuber rockchick2112 did a great job.

Enough said about Back To The Egg album, but I found more other interviews
from Steve Holly and Laurence Juber, the newest ex-members of Wings.

Interview with the drummer Steve Holly, the last Wings drummer.
An audio interview with Steve and Laurence

The reason of the end of Wings was of course the cancelled tournee in Japan, cause Paul McCartney got arrested with some soft-drugs.

More Wordstore+ Picture Demo: Reception - Wings

This is already the 3rd Picture Demo I post about.

Reception was the first song of the Back To the Egg album of Wings.
It's a short instrumental, which should have been a great intro for
a funky song. Maybe with even a rappin' Paul in it ?
But no, lucky for us it was edited, cause the long version I found
was more boring than the original.

Did they just record a radio playing in the background ?

There is not much to talk about Reception, the song, so I continue
with my thoughts about the Back To the Egg album.

Back To The Egg was the last Wings album I bought, and it was almost
my favorite album of Paul McCartney and Wings.
But that was before I heard songs like After The Ball, Million Miles,
Love Awake, Winter Rose, and The Broadcast.

Those songs should be perfect on McCartney II, not on a Wings group album.
It seems to me that Paul had not enough songs to record with Wings.
So side 1 "Sunny Side up" was okay, side 2 "Over easy" was a big disappontment.

In some songs Paul sang like he was yelling the whole night before.
Listening at the songs, I can help that some of them are just leftovers
or just other versions of the songs from London Town.

Later I found out Paul was smoking during the recording period.

It sounds good when he have to rock, but when it's a ballad he sounds a bit off-tune.

My favorite songs were Spin It On, Old Siam Sir, Rockestra Theme, To You,
So Glad To See You Here, still not enough to like the whole album.

I found an interesting interview with Laurence Juber, ex-Wings guitarist,
who was playing on most recording of Wings in the period.