Introduction to MSX-C (second part)

Authors: Koji Sakurada, Tetsuto Someya
ISBN: 4-7561-0057-0
Publisher: ASCII Publications
Publication date: December 1990

The second book (green cover) of the Introduction to MSX-C applies the matter explained in the first book to the development of games for MSX2 computers. The authors developed a simple C library to handle several aspects of the MSX hardware, and provide several simple example games.

The books can be found on the Internet Archive:

• Introduction to MSX-C (first part)
• Introduction to MSX-C (second part)

Libraries

MSXALIB

Function	Description
VOID ginit();	Initialize the graphic mode
VOID calbio(unsigned ad, regs *rg);	Call bios routines with the regs struct (see below table).
VOID vpoke(unsigned ad, char dt);	Write VRAM
VOID vpeek(unsigned ad);	Read VRAM
VOID ldirvm(unsigned ds, char *sr, unsigned ln);	Block transfer to VRAM from memory
VOID ldirmv(char *ds, unsigned sr, unsigned ln);	Block transfer to memory from VRAM
VOID filvrm(unsigned ad, unsigned ln, char dt);	Fill VRAM with value
VOID boxfil(int x1, int y1, int x2, int y2, int cl , int lg);	Draw a filled box
VOID line(int x1,int y1,int x2,int y2, int cl, int lg);	Draw a line
VOID cpym2v(char *sr, int dr, int dx, int dy, int dp, int lg);	Copy RAM to VRAM
VOID cpyv2v(int x1, int y1, int x2, int y2, int sp, in dex, int dy, int dp, int lg);	Copy VRAM to VRAM
VOID palett(int pl, int r, int g, int b);	Change color palett
unsigned rnd(unsigned n);	Generate random number with a max of n, n can be 1 till 65535

Register Structure for the calbio() function.

struct regs {
    char     f;
    char     a;
    unsigned bc;
    unsigned de;
    unsigned hl;
};

MSXCLIB

Function	Description
VOID screen(int md);	Switches to given screenmode
VOID color(int fg, int bg, int bd);	Changes the screencolors
VOID inispr(int sz);	Set sprite size
VOID sprite(int no, char *dt);	Define sprite
VOID putspr(int no, int x, int y, int cl, int pt);	Put sprite on screen
VOID colspr(int no, char *dt);	Define color sprite
TINY gtstck(int no);	Returns the joystick status (0 = cursors, 1 = port 1, 2 = port 2)
TINY gttrig(int no);	Returns current trigger status (0 = spacebar, 1 = port 1, button A, 2 = port 2, button A, 3 = port 1, button B, 4 = port 2, button B)
int gtpad(int no);	Returns current touch pad status
TINY snsmat(int mt);	Returns the value of the specified line from the keyboard matrix
VOID kilbuf();	Clear keyboard buffer
VOID gicini();	Initialises PSG and sets initial value for the PLAY statement
VOID sound(int rg, int dt);	Play sound
int sgn(n);	Sign function, n can be -32768 ~ +32767, returns -1, 0, 1.
VOID srnd();	Seed random number generator.

How to create the libraries

To create the libraries the following steps are needed:

1. Copy the following files to a directory:

LIB/MSXALIB.MAC
DOS2/AMAKE.BAT
DOS2/ACHG.BAT
LIB/MSXCLIB.C
DOS2/CMAKE.BAT
DOS2/CCHG.BAT
DOS2/CC.BAT
INCLUDE/MSXALIB.H
INCLUDE/MSXCLIB.H

If you use DOS1 use the batch files from the DOS1 directory!

2. Copy the following files from your MSX-C disks:

LIB80.COM
M80.COM
MX.COM
CF.COM
CG.COM
AREL.BAT
CREL.BAT
STUDIO.H

3. Create MSXALIB.REL with

A>AMAKE

4. Create MSXCLIB.REL with

A>CMAKE

5. Use the CC.BAT command to compile the games/examples.

TODO: Explain ACHG and CCHG (examples: ACHG LINE, CCHG SCREEN)

Games

The book contains 4 games which can be found in the games directory:

• Egypt (p104)
  "Egypt" is a text-based puzzle game.Your mission is to across the desert with your vehicle "@". Your vehicle uses 1 food to move.You can load 5 foods at point "A" and deposit foods on each point. You also can reload foods where foods are already deposited. Right and left key to move.Up and down to load/deposit foods.
• Oicho Kabu (p112)
  "Oicho Kabu" is a Japanese traditional card game. Please watch the one's digit of sum of dealt cards.If your digit is greater than COM's,you will win a bet. When the number of three your cards are same,also you will win(It is called "Arashi",a hand of Oicho Kabu). But if COM has 4 and 1(Shippin) or 9 and 1(Kuppin),you'll lose.
• Tatakare Mogura, alias Mole (p122)
• Hip Man (p155)
  Pac Man Clone

Links

• Relearning MSX
  Greate series of blog posts written by Javier Lavandeira to setup your MSX-C environment and start learning MSX-C.
• Generation MSX
  Large MSX Software database.
• MSX Resource Center
  All the MSX News you need!
• MSX-DOS2 Tools
  Japanese page explaining the usages of MSX-C/MSX-DOS Tools/MSX-S BUG2
• DownDown Game
  Source code of DownDown game written in MSX-C with msxclib.