MSX Computers - Scrolling, Sprites, and Stereotypes
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 13 มิ.ย. 2024
- Crash course in the four generations of MSX computers with a focus on scrolling, sprites, media, sound, homebrew, and patches. Shed your assumptions. Know the machine.
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#MSX #Computers #retro - เกม
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Awesome video about MSX, and it’s been a pleasure being involved in the creation of it!
Wow! what were your part on the project?
@@tiaoferreira I’ve provided some informational, fact-checking and proofwatching services :). Also I shot some of the photos and helped extracting the sprites for the OR colour segment.
msux
If Laurens was involved, then you know it's a well-researched, quality video
I am a Japanese who grew up playing MSX. Thank you for spreading the wonders of MSX. At the time, Konami did a lot of great work on MSX with limited performance.
Thanks to the Japanese for creating the system that I enjoy so much as a child! (and manga, by the way) MSX was quite popular in many countries, here in Spain, for example...although we suffered many spectrum ports. In the late eighties, Japanese games only came from direct import, like my beloved Nemesis 3 cartridge. From France I have some games, like Demonia (G&G clone) and in the Soviet Union it was used in schools to learn computer science. Ah, my old Sony MSX1 still works, 36 years after releasing it, that was the good Japanese electronics!
So sad konami became what it is now.
I grew up with an MSX too, I’m from Spain.
As a Canadian, I never played MSX. To be fair, none of these systems were very popular here in Canada. We had the Atari, Coleco, Intellivision, and later came Nintendo and Sega (and it was an awesome, eye-opening experience). The most "exotic" console I ever owned was the PC Engine (TurboGrafx-16 here in North America). These days I discover a new console that existed in the 80s-90s every week or so :P
Thanks Japan for all the incredible systems and games you created over the years!
MSX was big in Spain in the 1980s!
Not even at half of the video, but I had to pause it just to commend your work right now.
I had a "5 Misconceptions About MSX" video planned, but I see it's not needed anymore. You did all the work, and a much better job at that than I would have done.
What a well made, informative and entertaining video. You rule.
Thanks, John. I say - Go for it! Don't let this video stop you from making yours.
Yes I want to see your video too!
@@AshtonCoolman That's super nice to hear! It for sure inspires me to finish it after all. Thank you.
I grew up with the MSX. I still develop for It. It is a VERY cherished machine here in Brazil.
From the depths of my soul, thank You.
Eita sério mesmo? Eu sei que o mega drive fez sucesso aqui, mas não sabia do MSX não
Foi a muito tempo. Eu tinha um Hotbit e a maioria dos meus amigos tinham ele. Uns com mais grana tinham o da Gradiente, que era mais bonito.
Did you also grow up with the TecToy Master System?
@@Nikku4211 Yep!
@@priscillaasagiri4913 Priss! (My love!)... I mean, hey there. How's it going? Ahem... You um. come here often?
MSX Turbo R sounds more like a car than a computer
CRDBRDSLV-VVVV
xr31 turbo nutter bastard
(it's a reference to a cheat code of an amiga game)
Yes, the Bentley Turbo R
@@dutchdykefinger which is a reference to Loadsamoney Harry Enfield's Ford Escort XR3i Turbo Nutter Bastard with the license plate "AR5E".
Mitsubishi
[Coury] Insanely well made video. My knowledge of the MSX was pretty basic, and this definitely gave me a whole new appreciation for the way games were made for it.
MSX, "BASIC" Coury, are you trying to get in on my pun!?!
"My Life in Gaming: MSX 101.
@@Vanessaira-Retro MSX-DOS ! 😊
What an amazing video! As a Japanese guy who grew up in 80s, heard about MSX all the time but never owned it... this whole episode was so interesting and also kind of filled one of the spots in my childhood because I was always interested in MSX... The effort that you put into this video is just beyond my imagination. Thank you so much for making this.
It's super educational, right? I had no idea region-based changes that detect your machine had such an old origin
I remember seeing pictures of Final Fantasy on MSX in magazines WAY back in the day when it first came out on the NES. I was so jealous of Japan at that time, from the screen shots, it looked like an enhanced port.
This might be my favorite video on TH-cam. Its informative, clear, and speaks to a lovable computer platform with lots of nuance. The world is a better place because this video exists
"The enemy of art is the absence of limitations."
A mantra we should all live by.
Only if you lack vision.
Nah the enemy of art is excessive standardization.
@@genekwagmyrsingh9433 I guess, but I think it applies perfectly even today... Any developers working on platforms with more limited resources like Nintendo, VR or mobile (or in general some indies) tend to look for more creative solutions for their limitations, the games tend to look and feel more distinct. Hardship is the mother of invention. On the other hand PC and AAA games for most platforms tend to look and feel the same. Specially with the realistic art trend. Tons and tons of samey looking games, often with samey gameplay. Unreal Engine's free Quixel stuff and the incoming lod technology in the next version will just make this more prevalent in the industry (adding lots of indies just using the same assets over and over again due to easy access...).
that's exactly what Hideo Kojima said about Metal Gear... Because MSX machines didn't supported many sprites on the same row, he did it more as a stealth than action game. If it went as an action game maybe we wouldn't have so many games from this franchise.
I’m an MSX2 kid. I played Salamander for months. Thanks for this awesome video.
It was a very popular machine here in South America. Knightmare is still up there as one of my all time favorites.
yeah i went on some brazilian sites, and they make OVERWHELMING STUFF! they made a video cartridge that lets you play an almost arcade perfect conversion of Ghosts n' Goblins (1985) on an MSX2+ or turbo R!
@@joshi_6887 that cartridge is a clone of the 1995 GFX9000 by Sunrise in Europe though! But it's great they made it, so it can be bought again.
Manuel Bilderbeek which is better then when using like a FS-A1ST or GT? GFX9000 or technobytes V9990 powergraph lite or powergraph(no longer produced :( )
@@joshi_6887 the turboR just gives the game much more CPU power to make better use of the fast V9990
Note that the author also got it working full speed on a regular MSX2 with V9990 extension: th-cam.com/video/a_MCUbquQYc/w-d-xo.html
Brilliant in-depth video! Thanks for giving the MSX some love! It was my favorite gaming system back in the 80s, so many great memories playing all those amazing games. Maze of Galious still is my favorite game. You know what, the scrolling in games like Nemesis2 and Knightmare never bothered us back in the day, to be honest we hardly noticed it as that was our only point of reference and in my opinion didn't take away from the playablitiy of these games. We had a friend in the noghbourhood who always bought the latest Konami releases, I think he had 80% of their games up until 1988. We also played a lot of games from cassette, although mostly illegal copies of earlier Konami titles like Pipols, Sky Jaquar and the whole Olympic series but a few other releases as well like Feud and Scooter. Bubble Bobble, Rastan Saga and Andorogynus were other non-konami games we loved to play.
Agreed. What a sweet video. Also, strafefox, your channel is one of my favorites for sure.
@@null_state Thanks! that's very cool to hear!
Being Dutch, I grew up on our MSX2 and I was never jealous of friends that had a NES. So many awesome memories. Ow and Salamander is one of the hardest games due to the lack of smooth scrolling - one of the few games I never finished back then. Cool vid!
Why did Japan get the coolest looking computers. That Sony MSX 2 with the red disk drive looks better then most modern PCs
Not only Japan... In the Netherlands, Spain, Belgium, France, Italy, South America, several Arabic countries, Korea and Russia we also got them :)
Sony HB -F1XD
Good thing we got the terrible beige that turns yellow in America :(
Yes, the industrial design of some MSX computers is amazing
@@ManuelBilderbeek It's an invasion...
21:31 found my new way of experiencing OG FF's music
The MSX Final Fantasy soundtrack is SO GOOD. Microcabin were absolute wizards with OPLL, and what they did with Uematsu's music is nothing short of remarkable. Check out the battle theme and the airship theme, if you get a chance -- those two in particular really show off what they can do.
That's what I came to comment on 😀
Listening to the vid and when I heard that ... real attention getter!
That and the Dragon Quest MSX games were one of the reasons I got into the MSX :)
I've heard those SONY Video Titlers that you used for home made VHS tapes were actually reskinned MSX computers. Any truth to that?
Kenny!
Some say the Pony Metal UGAIM game will be finished on this super computer.
The 9918 video chip in the MSX was a massively avalaible product back then. It featured overlaying its video output onto some other video source. So I'm pretty sure many of those video titlers had one built in. But I can't tell for sure about the products from Sony...
True, there are some SONY and Panasonic Video Titlers that are indeed "reskinned MSX computers" (but not every one of them). Because the TMS9918 had genlocking capabilities that both V9938 and V9958 inherited, you just needed a few components to make a V99x8 video titler, and the most common machine with a V99x8 VDP was the MSX...
Also, there were some MSX machines with built in superimposing capabilities, so very little R&D were necessary to release those standalone MSX-based Video Titlers...
Yes, the Sony XV-J550, XV-J555, XV-J770, XV-J777 and XV-T550 video titlers were MSX2 computers in disguise.
After seeing Gaming Historian's history of the DOS Megaman port(s).. I can say that's gotta be one of the most misunderstood and unfairly maligned games ever. It wasn't "low effort".. it was a labor of love, made by exactly one person. Yeah, it shows that one person did all the work, but it's a miracle it was possible at all.
The biggest problem with the MSX family is something that is not really even its own fault, that being: Most MSX games never left Japan. It was an impressive piece of hardware with some classics that I never got to experience, but I'm not sure if I will ever get my full enjoyment out of the MSX library because of that.
MSX was popular in Europe , had no issues getting software in Belgium/Netherlands/Germany.
Fortunately there are translation patches for many popular Japanese exclusive games and more are being created all the time.
i'm a weeaboo so i like that aspect
@@visker81 as popular as Philips CDi was. no problem getting hold of one or programs, the quality on the other hand is a different story...
(unless your in Scandinavia... almost no MSX's here else from ones people have taken with em home from abroad)
Hi, I'm Korean. In the 1980s, Samsung and GoldStar (now LG) also launched MSX 1 computers in Korea. What's interesting is that the Samsung MSX model was SPC-800 and the GoldStar model was FC-80. At that time, Samsung and LG computer model numbers were often similar. The two Korean electronics companies were still competing. Daewoo launched the MSX2 computer (CPC-300 IQ-2000) and it was a dream computer for me at the time. I had a clone of Apple ][ +.
Wow, wow, wow! This is absolutely the best introduction video to MSX I have ever seen! It's comprehensive, correct, entertaining... Very impressed. Spread the word, this video is a must-watch. (And hi, Laurens!)
When I started watching the video, I raised an eyebrow...what has a North American to tell me, an European who still has his MSX1 working, of the MSX standard...but hey, let's see what this guys says. I admit it, I was competly wrong, really liked the video, found it very complete and enjoyable and I see that you have a good knowledge of my first and favourite computer system on the other side of the world. You have gained a new suscriptor from Spain. Greetings!
Yeah, you should stop assuming what people know. As an American I've had to embarrass quite a few people from the rest of the world with my extensive football knowledge. The internet has made most things accessible to most people.
This just reinforces to me what a big deal smooth scrolling was on the PC in the early 90s. People forget what a huge deal even the first Commander Keen was.
Honestly, was it? I was just beginning gaming during the period Keen 1 was released. As kids we thought it was cool that he had a helmet on his head and that it was free to play. I only learned about the "scrolling" tech decades later through iD software biographies (so can't help but wonder how much we view the past through the lens of iD's contribution). Prince of Persia was a wonder though.
@@bookoflists Commander keen wasnt free? Piracy was just so normal, nobody bought games. Everyone and their uncle after the 90's rolled around, had access to pirated games on PC and Playstation, because it required no special hardware like cartridges from likes of nintendo
@@Kyle1444 The first ep of Keen was free under Apogee's shareware model. Had to pay for 2 and 3, though some pirated them.
Smooth scrolling was even the reason id software was even founded. John Carmack developed a way to scroll graphics smoothly on the PC, and they founded id software to develop a game based on it. They first proposed to Nintendo to develop a port of SMB3 for the PC, but then developed Keen when Nintendo declined.
@@Kyle1444 Man, people really don't know what shareware is anymore?
There was another media storage for the MSX, called "Quick Disk", at least I saw them in magazines at that time. It was like a little single sided (2.8 inch) floppy who could hold 64k of data on each side. I had the same kind of drive for my Sharp MZ 800. I have 3 MSX 1 computers and 1 MSX2, and tons of good memories, so this video makes me smile :)
I actually did make a video on the MSX some time ago (not on this channel) and I did talk about the scrolling stereotype. One shooter that comes to mind when you think awesome scrolling on the MSX1 is Hype, by the Bytebusters. I actually got an MSX for my 15th birthday (it was obsolete by the time but I had an interest) with the game on it. It was an AX230 model.
What I also wanted to mention was that here where I live, Arabia, the MSX was popular in the 80s. I asked my parents about it, my mom owned one. It's one of the machines that's dear to me.
Am I the only person here that has zero programming experience yet finds all of this content immensely entertaining?
I just watched the whole video. I never would have thought the MSX was capable of such wonders until I saw the video. Thank you for imparting this knowledge. Some of those RPGs looked pretty interesting. I might try them someday.
Wow. thank for the love for MSX. it certainly deserves such detailed and multi-faceted review!
Great video! I never played the MSX but I did have the stereotype that there was no smooth scrolling on the MSX. I was shocked how good the scrolling was in River Raid
I was shocked as well!
I think its even better than on 2600.
@@DisplacedGamers Just today I posted a comment on an entirely different subject about looking at things for years and actually _seeing_ them for the first time. River Raid having smooth scrolling is one such thing. It's this video that made me realize that it's a very old MSX1 game with, as mentioned before, smooth scrolling. Looked at it for years, seeing it only now. Well done!
Scrolling in a game like Pippols is also pretty good. Check it out!
Im from Brasil !! My childhood was MSX !! MSXORG web site still creating stuff for !!!
Brasil and Spain were 2 other places (Japan ofcourse) were MSX was a fever !!
Was created here a kind of cartridge called MEGARAM used to expand memory without to open case or to modify eletronics !!
Fantastic video !!!
I got a Hotbit MSX when I was a kid back in the 90's here in Brazil, my mother was a cleaning lady and got the machine because one of her bosses was going to trash it. Back in the days, basically no poor brazilians had contact with computers, it took some years for me and my friends actually learn how to fully use the machine and play games on it, we even learned some MSX Basic from the manual. Pretty neat stuff, that computer is the responsible for actually giving me a skill (coding) and it's what prevented me from becoming yet another nobody or criminal like a lot of kids from where I came from, it kept me away from the street life.
I still have the machine nowadays and it still works perfectly.
Olha o efeito borboleta.
this was pure joy, I live in Argentina and these machines kinda had a brief moment of success but never knew they could do so much!
I owned all MSX's back in the day except the Turbo R and watching this makes me feel nostalgic. Thanks for putting this together.
The biggest reason I got into the MSX family during lockdown was because of the OPL1/L/M/NA/NB chips. I fell in love with the sound and just started deep diving on game soundtracks which led to me trying out some games, many of them J-rpgs. Micro Cabin titles in particular with their soundtracks and how about their rather decent attempt at porting Final Fantasy to it. I found it amazing that many elements of it's arranged soundtrack because of the PSG and OP chips would find their way and influence how Uematsu to expand in his later arrangements.
This is one of the reasons why I still come to youtube. I don't know shit about hardware and software, but these factoids, examples, trivias and curiosities (like how parodius came to be) are fascinating to me. Thx man.
Thanks for this! I've never had but always wanted to collect for MSX. Some neat games on it,for sure.
17:46 - TIL that La Mulana (original / fake MSX) was referencing a real phenomenon with cartridge combinations.
Greetings from Brazil! The MSX was really popular here. It made an important part of my childhood and influenced me to pursue a career in STEM.
The video is great! Probably one of the best I've seen about the MSX, alongside the Game Sack review. Since your video is much more technical, I think the two videos complement each other nicely. The only problem with it is that it will contribute to increase MSX prices even further... ;-)
Absolute treasure trove of information in this video. I had no idea how involved the MSX rabbit hole went, and it's a system I've been meaning to dip my toes into for a while now. Excellent work.
17:50 That idea maybe inspired Sega for Sonic 3 & Knuckles for its lock-on technology, but when I heard that, my first though is Sega Lock-On. Incredible video about the MSX, as many, my information was pretty basic, but thanks to you, I have even more appreciation for the impressive hardware that encompasses it and some of its ingenious games.
Fascinating. Had no idea this thing even existed. I like this presentation as it covers the entire evolution of this platform including the numerous and impressive upgrades, improvements, and homebrews.
13:35 : THANK YOU for pointing this out! I'm sick and tired of retro fans just pixelating hires & high colour depth graphics to get some kind of faux-retro feel. The reason retro art feels retro is inherently because of the limitations of the technology back when the art was conceived and the reason why great art emerged from these limitations is because talented people can overcome limitations as long as they put work into it. Conversely, it's very easy to kill creativity and come up with dull, uninspired work if you start off with all the possibilities and capabilities at your fingertips. Limitations are amazing if you just learn to work with them!
Also, very informative and interesting video overall.
Thank you!
People do the same thing with chiptunes. If it sounds beepy or square wavey then good enough
@@PlasticCogLiquid Oh, absolutely! "44kHz, 16 bit, 128 voices? Yep, that's a chiptune right there!" ;). It's pretty disheartening. But hey, if one wants to be a bit more positive about it you can still get nice compositions regardless of the whole retro aesthetic. It's just strange that people would ever think that "yep, this sounds like 1983 all right - computers had CD-quality sound reproduction back in 1983, didn't they?" ;).
@Tom Ffrench That sounds great! Pushing the art forwards, inventing new expressions. Whatever is interesting - as long as it's new and does not pretend to be something that it is not.
You go into a video covering MSX expecting the reviewer to mix up the MSX versions and you end up with 31 minutes of perfectly precise coverage and obscure info (OR sprites!). Kudos. 100% perfect score.
Another thanks from Russia.
Started with MSX1 at 1986 - the machines bought to equip the computer training classes at schools and universities.
Later had a chance to try MSX2 (with the subROM and other additions)
Still have paper copy of ASCII's specs for MSX2 - about 300-400 pages
MSX/2 = That 8 Bit PC with the badass sound chip.
That's how I remember it.
I'm new to your channel but if you haven't done so yet, an episode on the incredible sound of the MSX would soothe my heart a bit.
(Nvm, you covered it here. Didn't expect that from the title! Yeesh, could have split this video but you spoil us. :3)
The MSX2 is cooler than I thought.
The C64 did both horizontal and vertical scrolling seemingly the same way as the MSX2 did horizontal scrolling, but the graphics chip would block off the borders itself, thus not wasting a sprite on it. I sure wish it had the sprite OR:ing trick though, although, you could put a black sprite as outline over a lower-res multicolour sprite.
the MSX2+ has native horizontal scrolling without the need of that trick.
Probably the most dense video about the MSX I'll watch this year
Great job
I grew up using MSX computers, and I really appreciate this thoroughly prepared video. Impressive work.
I grew up with C64, Sega Master System and Amiga and it seems MSX sure would have been a worthy addition to the collection.
Consoles since NES had strict release policy, so developers took more time to make and polish games. Console hardware was also longer on the market so programmers got more time to learn how to fully utilize it.
Computers in general were different. Each hardware had a 2-5 years lifetime and even though it was possible to target older hardware, competition was releasing new great looking games for newer hardware and it was hard to sell games supporting older hardware.
Consoles were also built to be similar to arcade machines, making ports quite easy. Computers most often were made for productivity and gaming was their secondary use. It was mostly seen in PC, where hardware features for games were very limited. CGA had nothing, but EGA and VGA had hardware scrolling which was just a simple offsetting of memory window.
Amiga had great features, but they were so much different than what was found on Sega Genesis or SNES, that console or arcade ports were mostly bad. Fortunately Amiga had great community and many groundbreaking games were developed for it. Amiga was very popular in Europe where no one is denying how great it was, but console gamers from USA think that Amiga couldn't compete against Genesis or SNES. In fact Amiga had games that PSX was the first console that had enough RAM to run them (UFO: Enemy Unknown for example).
When Amiga ended PC take it's place with 486 machines getting really good support and had their limits pushed very far. However 386 and 286 machines never really got chance to shine. 286 was abandoned really quickly with "32-bit protected mode" games that didn't even run on 286. Even though 386 could run pretty much all 486 games, they run very badly.
There's very few games that pushed the 386. One of them is Golf simulator "Links 386" that had even 386 in it's name. Game that had 640x480 256 colors graphics making use of SVGA new modes.
In recent years we got some great games that showed oldest PC XT and Tandy 1000 capabilities, and hopefully we will see some homebrew work that will make 386 shine. For example, there's a missing link between Wolfenstein 3D and Doom. Game that would had more features than Wolf 3D and run fast enough to be playable on 386.
Planet X3 for PC and Tandy 1000 is great example of what can be achieved. Tandy 1000 is a great target for homebrew. It's a platform that has 256 KB of RAM. More than 8-bit machines, but not in the 16-bit territory. It has also some unique hardware features and limitations.
PC 386 is for more advanced programmers, since pushing it's limits requires to use advanced math in making 3D graphics. 2D graphics is trivial on 386. It's great in what it can do, but smooth parallax scrolling isn't viable(with some clever tricks it is!). 386 CPUs were much faster than what consoles had. Add 2-4 MB of RAM and you have a machine that is stuck between 16-bit and 32-bit era.
Retro hardware still has plenty of opportunities to amaze us and in 10-30 years many great things will happen.
I don't think EGA and VGA had direct HW scrolling. Both (and CGA as well) had bitmapped graphics, if you see any kind of scroll on any DOS game it is software, not hardware.
@@tvalenca Just look for specification or find EGA/VGA programming articles. Hardware scrolling was simply done by offsetting the framebuffer. This allowed to just update edges, like on NES. However on consoles you had to update tile map and on PC you had to redraw on framebuffer. This was still very fast.
VGA had additional features, like split-screen which allowed to draw bottom part of the screen from another VRAM location.
Epic Pinball is a great example how to use VGA hardware features. It stores full pinball tables in VRAM and then scrolls the window, achieving solid 70 FPS (VHA had 70 Hz output at 400p) on slow hardware. It also uses VGA split-screen to display bottom bar.
Lemmings 1 and 2 show how much of a difference VGA hardware features makes. Lemmings 1 has choppy scrolling, while Lemmings 2 are super smooth 70 FPS game.
VGA had also other features, like writing 4 bytes in VRAM with single byte write. This was used in Wolfenstein 3D for quickly clear the screen or in Another World to fill polygons. This was so fast that Another World had lower hardware requirements in the end than developers aimed for.
However this features weren't used that often. Developers started implementing them in 1991, but very soon 486 PCs with VLB graphics cards become a standard which were fast enough to just draw everything in software. In other words, speed gains from hardware features weren't worth the additional code complexity and limitations they introduced.
Great video! As a kid, 25+ years ago, I used to have a Brazilain MSX 1 computer modified into a MSX 2+ and I loved that system. So many great memories of games, painting software, and prgramming on that machine. The MSX, and MSX 2 via hardware mods of MSX 1 machines, were very popular in Brazil for many years; I had many friends with those systems. I was in Japan last year and saw many MSX machines in retro computer stores in Akihabara, and one day I want to own a Turbo R and play all the games that didn't make it to Brazil!
Interesting video full of stuff I don't need to know 😜
lol
I could never quite understand why the MSX seems overlooked in the gaming community, and now I understand: an unfortunate mixture of ignorance and prejudice. This video makes an excellent job in trying to fix this historical injustice.
Because of the importing restrictions in Brazil up until the early 90's, the MSX (and other similar home computers) were the most common gaming choices around here. I got an MSX 1 machine from my dad around 1988 or 1989, and it was for me more or less what the NES was for an 80's kid in the US. I *loved* that thing, not only because I played loads of games in it, but also because I learnt programming in it, thanks for the native BASIC interpreter. That machine was so fundamental in my life that I wrote and recorded a song about it ("Eme Ésse Xis", which you can check out in my channel--lyrics are in Portuguese).
What an MSX video there, fantastic work.
The MSX introduced me to video games and computer things back in 86.
Thanks for showing the world MSX is way more than just choppy scrolling!!! ;-)
Thanks so much for the video, know a little MSX1 VDP stuff but didn't know much how MSX2 sprites were created, the way new colors are made explains a lot. And the MSX2 scrolling method, quite interesting evolution. They were unique, more 8-bit systems should have had two cart slots, and I kind of wish they had come out in my region. :D
Greetings from Russia! Thank you so much for the video. Here in Russia, MSX is a fairly little-known system, despite the fact that it was purchased for computer classes for training. Personally, I always thought that MSX is quite a weak system, with a small set of worthwhile video games, significantly inferior to the same NES. However, thanks to your video, I changed my mind, and now I also want to add it to my collection. Continue to make good and interesting videos about retro gaming systems, I wish you success in your creative work!
Awesome! Glad I could change your mind. Thank you for your comments.
russian 🇷🇺 nazis killing civilians in Ukraine
Never had any games for my MSX, but the BASIC screen you showed gave me ab huge nostalgia flash
Great video, thanks! In the Netherlands, we called ZX Spectrum games who were converted to the MSX having the 'English disease'. Poorly coloured graphics and most of them did not even add support for the cursor keys on the MSX.
Ouch!
More like "Spanish disease", I'm afraid. Many (all?) of these conversions (even of UK games) were done in Spain, as there were the developers who had the know-how to produce these quick conversions. Mainly due to there being much more MSX machines in Spain than in the UK, I suppose.
At the time I was just pleased to have any games available. It was not a particularly popular system in the U.K. To port a Spectrum game developers like Gremlin Graphics just needed to change the video display routines, add joystick support and emulate the Spectrum bleeper. I remember reading in retro gamer magazine that the game Jack the Nipper was ported to MSX in an afternoon on Gremlins development system.
This term was actually coined by the Dutch MSX Computer Magazine, I think.
"Green Beret" had the "English disease"
Growing up with MSX early 90s was probably the best time of my life.
Wow, I never knew what the deal was with the secret ROM combinations in La-Mulana - now it makes perfect sense!
As an European my own first computer ever was actually a MSX 1 from Sony. Though C64s were more popular I liked the machine quite much - it looked so much cooler (I'm in my 40s now but back than I was a "typical" 80s kid which has become a cliche somehow) and since it had a way better BASIC language implementation I learned to program on this machine. The C64 BASIC was just cheap and nowhere near as good (both were from Microsoft I know - it's a story of its own. MSX was quite much supported by MS and they put much more effort in it.). Nevertheless - BASIC had its limits and so I actually learned Z80-Assembler ...
Nowaday british developers of my age might refer to the Sinclair as the machine were they learned their stuff - I did it on a MSX. Without this machine in my childhood I might never have become a software developer. This machine has still a place in my heart and I really regret that I never got my hands on a (Sony) MSX 2. I remember ads for it and I really had wanted one, I had dreamed of it. But at the end it was an Amiga 500 that replaced it, the other amazing machine. Forgive me. But as far as I know and remember the MSX standard back than had the potential to stop the almighty IBM PC platform at the borders of Europe and Japan, it could have been become an alternative, somewhat open platform like the IBM PC. The IBM PC standard was more kind of an "accident" whilst the MSX had been actually shaped by MS and a lot of manufacturers from Japan and Europe.
Thank you for this vid! I really liked to watch it and it makes me want getting this Sony MSX 2 ... finally.
Yeah, fuck IBM for pushing business-oriented computers as the standard and holding back America on personal computer technology.
Through about 1990 MSX2 didn't need to stop the IBM PC in Japan: in that decade the PC had no hope of making any headway against the PC-9801, which dominated the business market. And without higher resolution graphics capable of a good kanji display, the MSX could compete only in the home and gaming markets, against NEC's PC-8801 and Fujitsu and Sharp. It did fairly well there, though.
The PC didn't really start to make any progress in Japan until the 1990s, when DOS/V (DOS PCs with VGA displays and kanji support) systems became available. It was during the change from DOS to Windows that the PC-9801 series finally faded away.
By far the most comprehensive MSX video out there! just amazing. And if this is just scratcging the surface, please do more!
I have to admit that I used to think about the MSX in the stereotypical way, having little to no exposure to it here in the US. This is the single most informative bit of work about the MSX family that I've ever seen. Great job! Makes me want to dive into the platform sooner rather than later.
From a Sega Master System gamer, I now have much respect for the MSX.
Glad to see the MSX is getting more interest in the US, Many Americans have missed out, I was born in the Netherlands where this was a popular home computer.
They should do it again. If Philips and MS joined to create a all-round system with a a rom Basic interface, I would instantly buy it.
Here in North America, consoles were king because they were cheaper and easier to use, although home computers like the Commodore 64, Apple II, and Atari 8-bit family did quite well especially as their prices fell. The NES, Atari 2600, and Atari 7800 dominated until the Sega Genesis and Super NES came out.
The beauty of the MSX system is in the improvisation. I was among those who tried to achieve smooth scrolling as well as multi layered scrolling back in the days using a myriad of cheats. INT 7E was super fun. There were also 41 and 44 that let you stop the screen refresh and hide what’s being updated.
Psycho World deserves a little more credit IMO, not only for the smooth scrolling, but for attempting that in Mode 7 while also somehow, crank out 256 on screen colors at the same time by means of refresh rate manipulation.
Thank you for this nostalgic video.
Very rare to see such a nice video about this system. Please do more as it was a pleasure to watch.
Well done video, I still enjoy the games you showcased on my MSX Turbo-R and my One-Chip MSX here in California...
Amazing to see the tricks programmers used for graphics and consider how difficult it was just to draw multicolor sprites. I grew up in this era and somehow never heard of MSX. Great video!
Wow! That's quite impressive! MSX has been with me ever since my childhod in the 80s and teenages in the 90s. And later on, to this day as well. That thing about the sprite limitations always confused me. But now, finally, after these many years, I got to understand it. Thank you very much!!! And it's amazing to see that the community still holds on! MSX Forever!!!
Best MSX video ever !!! Congratulations.
Annnd subbed! When he mentions a lack of hardware based scrolling and showed an example I thought "Ah right, like my beloved ColecoVision!" 😜😎
Man you consistently keeps delivering the best and highest quality breakdown of technicalities when it's comes to gaming, controllers or even video outputs. This one is just as excepcional, I barely knew anything about the MSX but now it's kinda of a very neat plataform.
The MSX was the only Japanese home computer that made it to the West. Curiously it is virtually unknown in the US. It had moderate success in Europe, mainly in The Netherlands and Spain. In these two countries it was very popular. It was also very popular in Japan and South Korea, in some South American countries (especially in Brazil but also well known in Argentina) and in the Arab countries. It was truly a global standard and pioneer in the adoption of 3.5 inch floppy disk drives. As each and every single MSX machine came with at least one cartridge slot, it was a very popular format for games and peripherals (true plug and play with zero loading times). In regards to compatibility and interchangeability of software and hardware it was far ahead for its time. Some sort of a mix between a PC and a video game console
Really cool video. I am currently teaching myself Japanese, and a big reason is a large interest in classic Japanese 8 and 16bit computer systems and games (Mainly RPGs).
incredibly underrated channel
Very informative. Thanks for this. The Game Sack video on the MSX was a good primer, but your video really delves deep into the system.
You got the best technical videos man. Thanks!
That's cool that so many countries have fond memories of a system I had never learned about until today. This looks like it would have created some epic gamer memories back then
Best MSX video ever seen!!! congratulations and keep going!
This video was recommended by TH-cam and I took a look.
What a surprise it was not disappointing, but informative and really cool! Nice job!
Oh wow, had no idea about the Ghost prequel. And it looks like I’m going to be looking up yet another variant of the Castlevania and Final Fantasy OSTs today...
Man I miss that 80’s/early-90’s anime aesthetic. Thanks for giving me overwhelming nostalgia for a platform I never had access to. :)
This channel is like education for snerds (Super Nintendo nerds). There is more to classic gaming than playing halfway through Super Mario World.
Thanks for one of the best videos about the MSX!
Fantastic video that clarifies the different variants.
What a fantastic video.
I came in with only a basic understanding of the MSX, and I left having learnt a lot about the Platform.
The combination of Konami carts was really interesting, and as someone who grew up playing the Spectrum, thank you for pronouncing ZX Spectrum correctly 👍🏻
I am truly overwhelmed. Thank you Sir for giving me all this knowledge about my most beloved system.
Nice video, a few links showing us where to find some of the said patches and more info would have been nice but i guess thats what google is for. Thanks for your hard work and info.
I actually didn't know nothing about MSX. Yeah, I heard something about the old PC stuff and recognize some games, but jesus, this video is awsome.
Thanks for this dive in the MSX world. Excelent work!
Thanks!
It’s difficult to feel overwhelmed when it’s so well explained.
Very good work, nice to see my Uridium and the SCC voice player in it. Thanks!
Thank you for Uridium!
I've played so much La-Mulana that I enjoyed hearing all the reused sound clips
This is one of the videos that I watch over and over..... because damn, your videos are awesome.
This is probably one of the best MSX videos to date. Explains everything and kills the myth of the MSX "bad scrolling". Nicely done!
Excellent video and probably the best retrospective about the system on youtube. Keep up the good work!
I love how informative your videos are. I'm glad i discovered your channel.
The whole unlocking easter eggs with more than one cartridge is amazing.
you've got something for everyone in this video. thanks so much for going in-depth -- I enjoyed the whole thing, but was particularly interested in sound sources. excellent job!
I know that amazing MSX ! thanks for the sweet memories !
Just like to add :
MSX is a standardized home computer architecture, announced by Microsoft and ASCII on June 16, 1983.
It was conceived and marketed by Kazuhiko Nishi, then vice-president at Microsoft and director at ASCII Corporation.
I love the MSX laserdisc games.