Final Fantasy 1 MSX2 Translation - Tool Recommendations

[FCandChill]

I'm currently looking into Final Fantasy 1 for the MSX2. So far I cracked the compression and can insert my own font. Additionally, I located the general text writing routine, so I can dump and insert text.



Right now, I want to do some more advanced stuff. I essentially want to either expand the amount of text space or add dictionary compression. Also, I want to remove the double spacing to fill more text in the textboxes.

For NES and SNES games, I've used xkas+ to insert patches. For the FDS, I made my own tool to expand FDS files. Information on the MSX is a bit harder to come by... Can someone point me to a tool like xkas+ that supports Z80 assembly? I've come across asMSX, but it appears that compiles binaries from asm files. It doesn't look like it's for patching files.

Additionally, I want to expand files. Can someone point to a tool that can extract and create MSX disk images?

Can anyone recommend a good debugger for MSX2? Emulicious only supports MSX, BlueMSX, which I'm using right now, is limited. It only allows the creation of execution breakpoints. OpenMSX, I'm not sure how to set that up.

[minucce]

I use armips fork
https://github.com/Prof9/armips/tree/gameboy


Which I think supports full Z80 architecture
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Prof9/armips/3187f19d73668ae6ffb5ee096cc1cfbb7873f1d5/Tests/Z80/Z80%20Opcodes/Z80%20Opcodes.asm


Be careful of using ".import" for injecting binary files -- I've had bad luck with it and always ".relativeinclude off" to make it consistently work.


You can also create your own "org" macros
https://github.com/minucce-yard/Kirbys_Dream_Land_GB/raw/5879636978eaad1433d7fa3a7631910474a8357f/%40__build/helper.txt


armips does not support fancy xkas/asar macro usage though.

[FCandChill]

Ah, this looks like what I'm looking for, thank you! I noticed there isn't a binary download. Do you know where I can get one / do you think you could provide one for Windows?

[minucce]

Roughly up-to-date (rebased) with armips master
https://github.com/minucce-yard/Bugs_Bunny_Crazy_Castle_2_GB/raw/9beb86aa4ba2bfac87d21ff8d36b7b00ec28d74e/%40__build/armips.exe


Some code examples of how I used it for Gameboy
https://github.com/minucce-yard/Bugs_Bunny_Crazy_Castle_2_GB/tree/9beb86aa4ba2bfac87d21ff8d36b7b00ec28d74e
https://github.com/minucce-yard/Kirbys_Dream_Land_GB/tree/d92c16b7c4ccd5621753199604d4a64efc10e21a
https://github.com/minucce-yard/Road_Rash_GB/tree/b340609eda4a8e164dafb73529d2a2ebd89038f4
December 15, 2021, 11:41:26 PM - (Auto Merged - Double Posts are not allowed before 7 days.)
OpenMSX is only (?) one who supports memory breakpoints.
https://www.msx.org/forum/msx-talk/openmsx/breakpoint-vram-access

I have little experience with MSX and can't offer guidance.
December 15, 2021, 11:44:19 PM - (Auto Merged - Double Posts are not allowed before 7 days.)
Possible disk tools
https://openmsx.org/manual/diskmanipulator.html (export, import commands)
https://www.msx.org/downloads/dsk-and-xsa-image-utility-linux-and-windows

[FCandChill]

Thanks, mate. I'll check those links out in depth when I have time. But so far, they look very promising.