How can I let most of the MSX1 software work on MSX2 machines/what is the universal slot-select-correct POKE?
The universal poke to do this is: POKE -1,1.0625*(NOT(PEEK(-1))AND&HF0) The same POKE, but a bit shorter: POKE -1,(15-PEEK(-1)\16)*17 Try this in case a program gives trouble. Always use this universal poke if you put it in a (BASIC) loader, never use POKE -1,170 or POKE -1,255! This will guarantee the program will work on all MSX computers. If you are trying to run a program on your MSX2 and the MSX resets right after running the loader, you can check whether the loader contains one of the aforementioned non-universal pokes. Replace it with the universal poke and try again. If this doesn’t work to get the (MSX1) software running, you can also try to boot the MSX with the CTRL-key pressed. This lets the MSX not reserve memory for a second diskdrive and gives you a little more memory. Since most MSX1 games were on cassette, the programs don’t expect that memory was reserved for diskdrives and disabling one might just give you enough memory to run the program. Another thing that might he
