A place to discuss everything Dragon related that doesn't fall into the other categories.
robcfg
Posts: 1542 Joined: Sat Apr 04, 2009 10:16 pm
Location: Stockholm, Sweden
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by robcfg » Fri Jan 26, 2018 1:30 pm
Hello everyone!
Thanks to my friends at the spanish Classic Computing Users Association, who contacted David F. Gisbert aka Tromax, the owner of the only Dragon MSX known to exist, I got the chance to get the machine to photograph and scan it.
Yes! We now have the elusive Dragon MSX on the Archive in all its glory!
Check the
Dragon MSX page and don't forget to take a look at the
hardware pictures page to see the high quality board scans!
I think it's amazing that we now have detailed pictures and scans of all Dragon Data machines.
I hope you like it!
Pernod70
Posts: 122 Joined: Sat Apr 22, 2017 10:06 pm
Location: Croydon, UK
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by Pernod70 » Fri Jan 26, 2018 2:40 pm
Excellent! So it has the same ROMs as the Sony HB-55/HB-75, are there any notable hardware differences from the Sony?
robcfg
Posts: 1542 Joined: Sat Apr 04, 2009 10:16 pm
Location: Stockholm, Sweden
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by robcfg » Fri Jan 26, 2018 4:38 pm
I’m no MSX expert, but it seems pretty standard with nothing noticeable.
Anyway, please check the board scans just in case I missed something juicy.
Bosco
Posts: 334 Joined: Tue Mar 04, 2014 11:49 pm
Location: Nottingham, UK
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by Bosco » Mon Jan 29, 2018 2:07 pm
Nice work Rob!
So this machine is a `Dragon' in name only? A fascinating discovery none-the-less.
robcfg
Posts: 1542 Joined: Sat Apr 04, 2009 10:16 pm
Location: Stockholm, Sweden
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by robcfg » Tue Jan 30, 2018 1:20 pm
Thanks Steve, glad you like it!
It's an interesting machine because it's part of Dragon Data/Eurohard history, even if it's a fairly standard MSX1 machine, and definitely worth having it finally documented at the Archive.
Cheers,
Rob
munkeyboy
Posts: 95 Joined: Fri Mar 20, 2009 2:56 am
Location: South Wales
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by munkeyboy » Tue Jan 30, 2018 4:13 pm
Great work Rob.
A worthy addition to the archive.
Pernod70
Posts: 122 Joined: Sat Apr 22, 2017 10:06 pm
Location: Croydon, UK
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by Pernod70 » Sat May 26, 2018 2:14 am
I've been looking at the Sony HB-55/HB-75 in MAME and those use Sony Hit Bit branded firmware, and contain 3x16k ROMs whereas the Dragon MSX only has 2x16K.
So could I get the actual ROMs from the Dragon MSX to ensure I get them correct in MAME?
robcfg
Posts: 1542 Joined: Sat Apr 04, 2009 10:16 pm
Location: Stockholm, Sweden
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by robcfg » Sat May 26, 2018 8:58 am
Sure!
I've attached the roms, and also the result from MAME's romident command.
DragonMSX_Romident.png (81.23 KiB) Viewed 7863 times
Attachments
Dragon MSX (1985)(Eurohard S.A.)[!].zip
(25.65 KiB) Downloaded 340 times
Pernod70
Posts: 122 Joined: Sat Apr 22, 2017 10:06 pm
Location: Croydon, UK
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by Pernod70 » Sat May 26, 2018 11:29 am
robcfg wrote: I've attached the roms, and also the result from MAME's romident command.
Perfect thanks
What do we think the year of release was 1984 or 1985? And who should I credit in MAME's whatsnew?
robcfg
Posts: 1542 Joined: Sat Apr 04, 2009 10:16 pm
Location: Stockholm, Sweden
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by robcfg » Sat May 26, 2018 1:19 pm
I think it was 85, as references on the press on January 1985 said that they expected to start producing the machine by middle of that year.
As for the credits, I'd go for "David F. Gisbert aka Tromax, AUIC and Robcfg".
Thank you very much!