2 stage tape loader for MSX

This is a simple 2 stage tape loader for MSX 8-bit microcomputers.

• Stage 1: loader with an APLIB compressed SC2 image.
• Stage 2: the actual program to load.

It can handle up to 48K (it is a bit less, actually; see limitations).

License

• rasm: MIT "expat" licensed
• apultra: CC0 licensed
• mkcas: MIT licensed
• aplib.z80 PD (distributed by apultra)

Check each project source code for further details.

Everything else is PD by Juan J. Martinez (@reidrac).

Requirements

Common tools:

• Python 3
• GNU make (or any make tool, probably)
• gcc (optional if you're going to build rasm and apultra)

Less common tools:

• rasm assembler: http://www.roudoudou.com/rasm/index.php
• apultra compressor: https://github.com/emmanuel-marty/apultra
• mkcas: https://github.com/reidrac/mkcas

All three are open source and a copy is included in here for your convenience.

Limitations

The loading screen must be an image in SC2 format.

The final program, if 32K:

• load address: 0x8000
• exec address: 0x8000
• max length: 29468 bytes

For 48K:

• load address: 0x4000
• exec address: 0x4000
• max length: 45852 bytes

The stage 2 loader is currently limited to 100 bytes.

Usage

Add an screen.sc2 file to the data directory and run make.

Then build your cas file, for example for 32K:

tools/mkcas/mkcas.py --name mygame mygame.cas ascii loader/loader.bas
tools/mkcas/mkcas.py --add --name loading --addr 0x8000 --exec 0x8000 mygame.cas binary loader/loader.bin
tools/mkcas/mkcas.py --add --addr 0x8000 mygame.cas custom-header mygame.bin

For 48K, use --addr 0x4000 for your game (last line in the example).

You can try that cas file with any MSX emulator.