Appendix H
Where to get the hardware

This appendix is for readers who want to run TATARA and TANREN on a real MSX and need to know what to add to it. Several small makers build cartridges for the MSX today, and some of them give it everything the tools need.

H.1 What the tools need

Besides an MSX2, MSX2+ or MSX turbo R, the tools need three things:

• MSX-DOS2, or Nextor, which runs the programs written for MSX-DOS2. MSX-DOS2 gives the tools the memory of the mapper (appendix G).
• A memory mapper with enough free memory. Appendix G recommends 512 KB (section G.3).
• Somewhere to keep the files. A floppy disk is enough for small programs, but a larger program, such as the tools themselves (chapter 35), is much easier to work with on an SD or CompactFlash card or a hard disk.

Most MSX2 and MSX2+ computers have a mapper of only 64 or 128 KB, and only the MSX turbo R has the MSX-DOS2 kernel built in. A single cartridge can supply all three.

H.2 The cartridges

Table H.1 lists cartridges that supply them, and what each one gives an MSX.

The SD-512, the MegaFlashRom SCC+ SD (with its mapper module) and the Carnivore2 each give an MSX2 all three things on their own. The MEGA-MAPPER and the 16 MB cartridge add only memory, for an MSX that already has MSX-DOS2 and somewhere to keep the files, or that gets them from another cartridge.

The 16 MB cartridge has a slot expander inside it, and shows MSX-DOS2 four mappers of 4 MB, each in a slot of its own. MSX-DOS2 uses all of them, so the tools see 16 MB, less what MSX-DOS2 takes for itself.

ASCII’s MSX-DOS2 cartridge is no longer made, but it is still found second-hand. Its 128 KB are enough to run the tools only for small programs (table G.1).

H.3 The makers and where to buy

8bits4ever

makes the SD-512 and the MEGA-MAPPER, and sells the Carnivore2:
https://www.8bits4ever.net/product-page/sd-512

MSX Cartridge Shop

makes the MegaFlashRom SCC+ SD:
https://www.msxcartridgeshop.com

RBSC

(Russian Bear Service Crew) designs the Carnivore2 and its newer version, the Carnivore2+, which is another option:
https://rbsc.su/en/completed_projects/
https://rbsc.su/en/projects_in_development/

Classic PC Club

(クラシックPC研究会) makes the 16 MB memory cartridge V3, made by a team of Kobayashi, Hanashima, Inoue, Suzuki and Azukino. It has been tested on the Sony HB-F1XDJ and HB-F1XV and on the Panasonic FS-A1, FS-A1ST and FS-A1GT:
https://classicpc.org

RBSC does not sell the Carnivore2 itself, but through resellers in several countries:

• 8bits4ever (Spain): https://www.8bits4ever.net/product-page/carnivore2
• HobbyRetro (Spain): https://hobbyretro.com/en/retro/carnivore-2
• Retro Game Restore (Taiwan): https://retrogamerestore.com/store/carnivore2/
• The Retro Hacker Store (Brazil): https://www.theretrohacker.com/product/rbsc-carnivore2-msx-flashrom-scc-fmpac-ide-cf-ram/
• Denjhang’s Retro Hardware (China): https://denjhang.com/products/carnivore2-msx-multifunctional-cartridge
• Maxiol (Russia), which also sells the Carnivore2+: https://radioshop.maxiol.com/product/carnivore-2-for-msx

H.4 Availability

These cartridges are made by small makers, in small numbers, and they come and go from the shops as each batch is made and sold. A cartridge that is not listed today, as the MEGA-MAPPER was when this manual was written, may be back with the next batch, and the web addresses may change. The makers’ own sites are the best place to ask.

Without any of them, an emulator such as openMSX can emulate an MSX with MSX-DOS2, a mapper of any size and a hard disk, and the tools run there as they do on a real MSX.