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::|CONTENTS

1. Tools
2. Restrictions on submit
3. Playback (for voting)
4. See also

The MSXplus format is for the MSX home computer's primary soundchip (the AY-3-8910/YM2419 found in BotB's AYM format) plus one or more expansion chips used on the MSX. This is similar to the NSFplus format in that it allows for a lot of different configurations, with the only mandatory part being the use of an expansion chip.

These MSX expansion chips, all popular in their day, are legal for the format:
- Y8950, a chip available only in the MSX-AUDIO (the MSX's first sound expansion) and a couple early arcade machines.
- OPLL, a chip which became the standard FM soundchip expansion for the system with MSX-MUSIC, and later was packaged with MSX2+ and Turbo-R models.
- SCC and SCC+, chips which were only used on the MSX, included various Konami cartridges and used by other software when these cartridges were plugged on the console.
- Turbo-R PCM, an 8-bit 16khz PCM synthesizer chip on the Turbo-R models, suported by various sound drivers.

Tools

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On PC:
- mgsdrv

- an MML driver that can be edited and played back in your browser

. It's the main tool used in the Japanese scene. It supports OPLL and SCC/+.
- MML2VGM

- a compiler for various .vgm soundchips. It supports a wide variety of soundchips including OPLL, Y8950 and SCC/+.
- 0CC-LLtracker

- for OPLL only
- Deflemask - for OPLL only
- Furnace - The popular modern Swiss army knife chiptune tracker. By exporting to .vgm, it supports AY-3-8910/YM2419, Y8950, OPLL, and SCC/+ (but not Turbo-R PCM).

On MSX hardware or in emulator:
- TriloTracker

- supports SCC and OPLL but not multichip.
- Realfun 3 Tracker

- supports SCC.
- FAC Soundtracker

- an old tool that supports OPLL and Y8950 (no PCM) but not multichip.
- ADXP

and XEDT

- a sound driver and MML editor for OPLL, Y8950, SCC+ and Turbo-R PCM.
- The MSX Basic's internal MML syntax, which can be expanded for OPLL and Y8950.

Restrictions on submit

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Submission should be playable on hardware or in an emulator.
Regardless of the method, at least one expansion chip (Y8950, OPLL, SCC, SCC+, Turbo-R PCM) must be used; this differentiates the format from the AYM format.

Use of the AY-3-8910/YM2419 (the stock 3-channel MSX soundchip) is not strictly required, much like the NES's 2A03 chip in NSFplus.

If you've used native trackers/drivers for your song, you can either submit a .DSK file with the player and module or log the song using OpenMSX and a script (read here

).

Playback (for voting)

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- .kss is like the NSF file format for MSX. It contains driver and song data.
Many general chiptune players supports it, including chipamp and foo_gep.
On Hardware/Emulator it can be played with KSSPLAY

.

- .mgs is the format for songs made using MGSDRV, the most popular sound driver for the platform;
It can be played back on windows with in_msx

on Winamp.
It can also be played back on the browser on msxplay.com

On Hardware/Emulator you can find the driver here

.

- .vgm can be opened in many tools, for example VGMPlay

On Hardware/Emulator you can use VGMPlay MSX

, playback restricted by the available RAM.

- .dsk is the FDD format for the MSX; people can put the song data and driver on it so one can play it on hardware/emulator. Hardware tracker and driver files can be submitted using this format.

MSX Emulators:
blueMSX

(Windows): No support for Turbo-R PCM.
openMSX

(Multi): very complicated to set up, but supports pretty much everything and has script support for vgm logging.
fMSX

(Multi): No support for Y8950(?).
WebMSX

(Browser): doesn't support Y8950 or Turbo-R PCM.

See also

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- aym (format)
- MML
- mml (format)