I recently acquired a Korean MSX2 (Daewoo CPC-400) and learned pretty quickly that little non-Korean floppy disk software is compatible with this machine. As per msx.org, it has its own proprietary MSX1 backwards compatibility circuitry rather than the industry-standard MSX-Engine IC. So I went ahead and picked up a Carnivore2 cartridge to see how successful I would be with cartridge software.
Now, there are a few hurdles to overcome, and the learning curve is pretty steep for a newcomer to MSX.
When it comes to flashing the firmware, the first hurdle is the programmer hardware and software. As recommended in the documentation, I picked up an Altera USB Blaster (clone) from a random eBay seller. Then, there was the software. To cut to the chase: If you're a 64 bin Windows 10 user, you must absolutely without exception use v13 of the Altera Quartus software suite from 2013. Releases since the Intel takeover of Altera in 2015 are horribly borked for legacy programmers and FPGA chips. At least the 64 bit Windows device drivers are. You will suffer absolutely debilitating BSODs the moment the drivers are activated.
Once you know this trick the rest should be smooth sailing, with the Carnivore2 documentation providing very helpful step by step instructions to flash the onboard Cyclone II FPGA chip.
Onto the next step: Unlike most flash cartridge solutions, the Carnivore2 requires you to partition and format the CF card from MSX2 DOS directly. You can't do this from a modern computer. Unfortunately for me, the embedded version of MSX fdisk that comes with the Carnivore2 firmware seems to crash instantly. I suspect CF card compatibility since my Apacer Industrial CF5 256MB CF cards are not represented on the compatibility matrix. New CF cards are now ordered, and hoping that this will clear the next hurdle.
Now, there are a few hurdles to overcome, and the learning curve is pretty steep for a newcomer to MSX.
- Flash the latest Carnivore2 firmware
- Format the CF card
- Prepare a compatible Boot Menu
When it comes to flashing the firmware, the first hurdle is the programmer hardware and software. As recommended in the documentation, I picked up an Altera USB Blaster (clone) from a random eBay seller. Then, there was the software. To cut to the chase: If you're a 64 bin Windows 10 user, you must absolutely without exception use v13 of the Altera Quartus software suite from 2013. Releases since the Intel takeover of Altera in 2015 are horribly borked for legacy programmers and FPGA chips. At least the 64 bit Windows device drivers are. You will suffer absolutely debilitating BSODs the moment the drivers are activated.
Once you know this trick the rest should be smooth sailing, with the Carnivore2 documentation providing very helpful step by step instructions to flash the onboard Cyclone II FPGA chip.
Onto the next step: Unlike most flash cartridge solutions, the Carnivore2 requires you to partition and format the CF card from MSX2 DOS directly. You can't do this from a modern computer. Unfortunately for me, the embedded version of MSX fdisk that comes with the Carnivore2 firmware seems to crash instantly. I suspect CF card compatibility since my Apacer Industrial CF5 256MB CF cards are not represented on the compatibility matrix. New CF cards are now ordered, and hoping that this will clear the next hurdle.
