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TITLE

	fMSX Amiga 0.7

AUTHOR

	Hans Guijt (h.guijt@inter.nl.net)

DESCRIPTION

	fMSX Amiga emulates an MSX computer on an Amiga. Features include:

	- Full emulation of the MSX1 system.
	- Partial emulation of the MSX2 system (to be expanded in the future).
	- Support for reading/writing MSX disks.
	- Support for the SCC sound system.
	- Support for MSX memory sizes of up to 4Mb.

	(for those not in the know: MSX is an 8-bit computer system, similar
	to the C64)

	Software is not included with the package, but many packages (mostly
	games) can be found on FTP sites:

		ftp.saitama-u.ac.jp			/pub/msx/
		stargate.imagine.com		/pub/MSX/
		ftp.funet.fi				/pub/msx/
		riaph.irkutsk.su			/pub/

	Currently some 147 ROMs, 10 MegaROMs, and over 250 disk-based games
	have been uploaded!

	Of course fMSX Amiga is fully multitasking, runs in an intuition
	screen, and has a font-sensitive user interface.

NEW FEATURES

	This version features a complete rewrite of the Z80 emulation that
	runs at the core of fMSX. The new version is slightly slower than the
	old one for many tasks, but it has one big advantage: it completely
	eliminates the need for 16Kb block copies. This means that booting
	with MSX2 ROMs takes about 9 seconds (instead of 45), MSX-DOS becomes
	usable, and megaROMs run at much greater speed than before!

	Another new feature is support for the SCC sound system. SCC was used
	in some Konami games, and it looks somewhat similar to normal Amiga
	sound (with sample length limited to 32 bytes). SCC emulation is not
	yet complete, currently it only emulates 4 channels rather than 5
	channels and PSG (PSG is the native MSX soundchip, it is turned off
	while emulating SCC).

	Many MSX2 features were added. It is now possible to boot directly
	in MSX2 mode (no external ROMs required), but only screens 5 and 6
	are supported, as is screen 0 (80 columns). Support for screens 5 and
	6 is very limited: no sprites, partial blitter implementation, no
	line interrupts, etc.

	A very special new feature is support for Amiga OS 2.0. Past
	versions of fMSX required OS 3.0, but this restriction has been
	eliminated, making fMSX accessible to a much wider public.

	In addition to all this it has a special mode in which it acts like
	a PlaySID-like music player (it still emulates a complete MSX but it
	does not draw any graphics, great for MSX sound demos).

SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS

	Required are:

	- Amiga OS 2.0
	- 68020 processor
	- 350 kilobytes chip ram
	- 600 kilobytes other ram

	Recommended:

	- 68030 processor, at least 25MHz
	- Those 600 kilobytes of 'other' ram had better be fast ram!

	Note that fMSX Amiga does *not* require the AGA chipset. In fact
	it runs on any chipset upto and including graphics cards!

AVAILABILITY

	fMSX Amiga 0.7 is available from any aminet site, such as:

	ftp://ftp.wustl.edu/pub/aminet/misc/emu/fmsx_0.7.lha (114682)

PRICE

	It's free.

DISTRIBUTABILITY

	fMSX Amiga 0.7 is publically supported freeware. If you are
	interested in the source, and you're not afraid of function
	pointers and huge amounts of assembly intermixed with C, you
	can request it from me.

	If someone wants to do a special version (and I can think of
	several possibilities, such as a version that uses the MMU
	for optimized Z80 emulation, or a version that has been optimized
	for the CyberGfx system), contact me.

--
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