Okay, so today I was messing around with MSX stuff, specifically trying to get this .horsw thing running.
First off, I didn’t really know where to start. I mean, I’ve heard of MSX, but I’ve never actually used one. Turns out, it’s this old computer system from the 80s. So, I hit up the internet, trying to find some basic info.
I stumbled upon a bunch of old assembly books and documents, all about Z80, apparently, that’s the processor MSX uses. They were kinda helpful, but mostly just confusing for a newbie like me. I just wanted to see this .horsw thing work, not become a retro programming expert!
Then, I found some advice online, something about using a user guide with the actual MSX on. Seemed reasonable, but I don’t have a real MSX machine. Emulators, maybe? Yeah, that sounded like a plan.
I dug deeper and found this thing called the “MSX2 Technical Handbook”. Sounds intense, right? It’s apparently the holy grail for understanding how these old machines tick. I skimmed through it, but honestly, most of it went way over my head.
Another site talked about making a “Hello World” program on MSX. They mentioned something about disks. I guess that’s how they stored stuff back then? Anyway, that seemed a bit too involved for just running this one file.
I kept searching and found another book, “MSX-An Introduction”. This one seemed more my speed. It claimed to teach you everything you need to know to write programs on MSX. I didn’t really want to write programs, just run this one, but hey, maybe it had some clues. They mention some drawing tools and music stuff, but that wasn’t really relevant to me.
I also found a forum thread where someone was asking about tools for MSX assembly. This got me thinking about compilers and editors, like, how do you even make programs for this thing? I decided to hold off on that rabbit hole for now.
Somewhere in my searching, I came across something about Git. Now, that’s something I actually know! It’s like a super-powered save button for your code, keeps track of all your changes. But I’m not writing code here, just trying to run something, so Git wasn’t going to help me much this time.
Finally, I found a mention of “MSX BASIC”. Apparently, it’s a programming language for MSX, based on something called GW-BASIC. Maybe this was the key? Could I use BASIC to somehow run this .horsw file?
Here’s what I actually did:
- Installed an MSX emulator. I found one online that seemed pretty popular.
- Tried to load the .horsw file. The emulator had an option to load ROM files, so I figured that’s where it should go. No luck.
- Looked for instructions specific to .horsw files. Turns out, .horsw isn’t a standard MSX file type. It’s some kind of custom format. Great.
- Found a website with a bunch of .horsw files. It had some basic instructions on how to run them using their own specific loader program.
- Downloaded the loader program. It was another ROM file, so I loaded that into the emulator first.
- Used the loader to select the .horsw file. The loader had a simple menu where I could browse for files.
- It worked! The .horsw file finally started running. It was some kind of graphics demo, pretty cool for something made on such old hardware.
So, yeah, it took a while, but I finally got that .horsw thing running. It wasn’t as straightforward as I hoped, but I learned a bit about MSX along the way. I still don’t know much about MSX programming, but at least I can run these weird .horsw files now! This was a messy but fun little adventure into retro computing.
