F1 Spirit 3D Special Cable
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F1 Spirit 3D Special Cable
The Konami game F1 Spirit 3D Special which was released for the MSX2+ has a nice feature: two MSX2+ computers can be linked via the second joystick port. This cable was sold separately, called the JE700 Multiplayer link cable.
You can make this cable yourself. Note that this information comes from reverse-engineering the game. There are two routines on disk B, at sector 38h and 39h. One is for establishing the link and to determine which computer will send packets first (the master) and which secondly (the slave). The other routine sends and receives 6 bytes during game play.
Note that F1 Spirit 3D Special is an MSX2+ game, so you'll need two MSX2+ computers or higher to use this cable. You'll also need two copies of the game (or at least two copies of disk B). You can run the game on a MSX2, but the screen will be garbled.
You need two male 9 pins AMD connectors and a cable with at least 7 connections. Connect pin 9 to pin 9 (ground). Connect pin 6 to pin 1, 7 to 2 and 8 to 3 (both ways). Put the cable in the second joystick port of both computers.
At the start of the game, choose battle. Select the same circuit. The other player on the other computer must do the same. When you are ready, a message will appear: "waiting for other player". If the cable is hooked up correctly the game proceeds. If during the game the cable is disconnected, on both computers the car stops moving. Put the cable back in and the players are instantly on the right spot again.