We are presenting a new version of the Yamanooto core that provides support for storage in Nextor. (codename Ziggy cores)
Once you have the new core, you can flash a provided customized Nextor driver that allows you to mount both a rom image (immutable file-system) or a SD card (for cartridges with SD card slot). Note that the SD card slot may be added to some Yamanooto cartridges or custom-ordered (ask your dealer).
Everything you need to upgrade is provided in the repository:
- new core version
- Nextor image (driver)
- boot selector image
- updated flash tool to flash combined images (not yet)
Using the Yamanooto with an SD card makes it to function very much like other all-in-one storage cartridges for MSX. You can boot your MSX computer without other storage devices either from a rom file-system or the SD card to msxdos (Nextor) and still use a game which is flashed along the driver and other parts. A new boot-key is used to avoid the game to start and boot to msxdos.
Press STOP to avoid any game flashed after the storage driver to start
Making of the flash image
You can assemble a flash image using the provided pieces to install storage support in the Yamanooto. Bringing the pieces together you create an image in single file that you can flash using the legacy Yamanooto flasher utility.
You have to include two required pieces and you MAY add two optional images after them to create a single image file (in the following order):
- The boot selector (required), 64 kByte
- The Nextor driver (required), 128 kByte
- The disk rom file-system image (optional), usually 720 kByte
- The game image (optional)
The game image will boot as usual as if there were no prepending pieces to provide the storage support. To avoid the game to start and boot to msxdos, press STOP.
As you can see, you have approx. 192 Kbyte plus any diskrom you include occupied at the beginning of the flash space which reduce the maximum size of the game you can flash.
To make a single file from the pieces, you can use any manner. In example, you can use COPY /B (msdos) or CONCAT /B (msxdos).
Ensure that your disk rom image size (if included) is a multiple of 64 kByte. Otherwise you'll need to pad it with zeros to make it bigger until the next 64 kByte boundary.
COPY /B BOOTSEL.ROM+NEXTORYM.ROM+ROMDISK.IMG+NEMESIS2.ROM IM_NEM2.ROM
For simplicity, you can use BOOT+NEXTOR as a single file, already concatenated because those files are always prepended together: BOOT_NEXTORYM.ROM. That way, you'll use:
COPY /B BOOT_NEXTORYM.ROM+ROMDISK.IMG+NEMESIS2.ROM
Or, if you don't want to use a disk rom image:
COPY /B BOOT_NEXTORYM.ROM+NEMESIS2.ROM
The resulting image may be flashed with the legacy flasher, which completely replaces the cartridge flash contents.
Ziggy core changes recap
- Added SD card slot support
- Added double offset support for system
- Fixed reset issues with Sony HB10/20P