Hope you enjoy this video - I was an MSX virgin before getting hold of this machine but got to say, absolutely love it! There will definitely be more to come on MSX :)
hey, i just wanna say once you get hold of a SD mapper, you will be able to do more than playing games and use MSX-DOS or even Nextor wich is a modern MSX-DOS kernel replacement. and MSX-DOS is defacto MS DOS backported from the 8086 to the z80 by Tim Patterson himself.
@@benoitcolson433 Interestingly enough, MSX-DOS is also fairly compatible with CP/M, and so you can run many CP/M programs on your MSX. (Though I don't know if they implemented terminal emulation in their I/O routines to allow you to run things like WordStar and SuperCalc.)
I grew up on the msx 1 hit bit from sony, then philips nms 8250, then philips nms 8280.. those were good years.. i went on to the pc from there but really learned a lot during my time with the msx.. it was *FUN*!!!
Here in Brazil we say that MSX is the most magical computer ever made. As a owner of almost 30 MSXs, I would agree. Looking for more MSX videos! PS: The SD 512 cartdrige was created by Brazilian MSX freaks, Fábio Belavenuto and Luciano Sturaro.
An interesting thing that helped to have a lot of zx spectrum titles on msx without too much time spent in efforts but also gave us a lower quality msx games (because they took the worst of both computers) was the msx bitmap mode. Tecnically it is a tiled mode vs the full bitmap mode of spectrum, but it can be configured in a way to "forget" the tiled mode and could be used as a bitmap mode. the simililarities between the video modes are below: both 256x192 pxs (so no need to worry of more or less space when converting zx->msx) both attribute/color clash: the speccy had a limit on a 8x8 cell the msx on the 8x1 cell, but this was not a showstopper in doing conversion. the physical mapping between video ram locations and pixels is somewhat different, but it is possible to convert easily from speccy layout to msx layout. So easily that most games managed in a separate cpu area the spectrum graphics and they upload to video memory doing an 'on the fly' conversion to msx video ram mapping. this allowed coders to not to rewrite gfx and sw sprites routines used on the spectrum and uploading the "zx shadow" screen on msx vram. The downside was increased processing time due to the double work required to CPU. If you sum this with the convertion needed to manage char attributes by a factor on 8 (on the msx) and due to the fact that the vram access on msx was slower than on spectrum, you realize why zx->msx conversions worked slower on msx. to get a faster game they needed to specifically code for msx. And this rarely happened. So the similarity between the video modes was both a fortunate and unfortunate coincidence : fortunate because it allowed conversion in relatively short times unfortunate because it did not take advantage of the msx hw
in general, the music of the Spectrum is in the menus, not during the game. Of course, MSXs have a dedicated sound chip and they make a big difference. On the spectrum, the Z80 had to do everything ...
@@IcyTorment Yeah it's a really weird statement for Sinclair to be making when pretty much the only home computers the Spectrum actually beat in terms of raw specs were the previous Sinclair machines. Sinclair computers were never "good" they were cheap, they offered value but not raw power.
The MSX holds a special place in my heart, as it was the very first computer I ever bought. So much so that I recently acquired a second hand MSX2 computer. I am looking forward to your next MSX video. Thanks!
As a kid I owned the Toshiba HX-10, my mother bought one and since then I was addicted to this machine, later on, I bought the Philips NMS8250 with moniter and printer and I still have it. For me, this was the beginning of my computer adventure, playing games, running bbs systems on it and a lot more. I still love MSX Hope to see more videos about MSX. Here in the Netherlands where a lot of MSX enthousiast and they still are I have subscribed, because of te video's about the MSX. Keep making videos about the MSX.
3:13 Look at all those different NEC machines sharing the same base model number: “PC-9801”. I remember helping out a fellow staff member who had a PC-9801VM2/E. Apparently the “E” stood for “Export”.
Yes, it's a really nice machine all over :) Keyboard us up there - not quite up to BBC Micro standard but not far off, and a far cry from the rubber keys of the Speccy :)
Thanks for setting Sir Clive straight! I have always been surprised at his statement. In fact, I think he was just terribly afraid of the competition from MSX. He does have a point that the graphics chip is a bit old, but it's more capable than the Spectrum's... And the prices of MSX machines were a bit high, compared to the competition, I think. Do note that for the "MSX1" there were many 'cheap' (quick and dirty) conversions of Spectrum games to the MSX. Besides they underuse the MSX graphics capabilities, there is another issue with these: because the MSX has a separate video RAM, the way these Spectrum games are programmed are not very fitting to the MSX architecture and they become a bit slow. For this Out Run port it's not too bad, but in general these are not the best MSX(1) games. For a couple of top notch MSX1 games try: The Maze of Galious, F-1 Spirit, Salamander, Gradius series, King's Valley II, Rollerball, Eggerland, Penguin Adventure, Zanac, River Raid, Bosconian, ...
Great memories of my Goldstar msx in the UK, the cartridge games of Daley Thompsons decathlon and penguin run. Replaced eventually with a spectrum + 128k. Built a printer interface on veroboard with components salvaged from old digital phone systems, borrowed an hp printer from work, wrote my first cv on a word processor program typed in from a magazine and got myself a better job 6 months later.
Hi, Just started with the MSX myself. Like you I never had much to do with this platform. I just completed building an Omega MSX II - which is a modern take on the MSX and it is awesome.
I loved my MSX and the last one I had back in the late 1980s the PCB had snapped almost in two (goodness knows how that happened). I spent a few days soldering it slowly back together and it had link / jump wires everywhere. To my amazement it actually worked!! Wonder if it's still out there?
I was probably one of the few that had an MSX machine in the United States. I already had a C64, so it wasn't for games use. Rather it was for music production, and was the Yamaha CX5m, with a built in FM synthesizer chip and a dedicated music keyboard. I also had a disk drive for this machine, which I gather was rare anywhere, and unheard of in the US. While I did write a few BASIC programs for it, mostly it was running dedicated music sequencer software from Yamaha, and I never had any other carts.
@@TheRetroShack better use flash cards nowadays.... But SCSI and IDE interfaces were made. I used SCSI myself, with 2x 1GB hard drive, MO Drive and CD ROM drive.
Just a quick note: The MSX1 wasn't able to do hardware scrolling, but MSX2 did, and because of the expandable architecture, there were video upgrade cartridges (at least planned) that upgraded the MSX1 with the MSX2 rom and video accelerator.
@@TheRetroShack MSX machines were very interesting and because they were made of off-the-shelf components is relatively easy to source the parts and build your own. Look at Sergey's Omega project if you're interested in that. :)
What a great video! Brings back memories. Thank you. I'm from the Netherlands, and the first computer I had was an MSX2 from Philips. There was also a book that came with it. The book was called MSX-BASIC, like the interpreter. It had all sorts of example code in it. BASIC is the perfect name for the language. All the basics are there: for loops, if-else statements, switch-case (called select?), all the logical operators, etc.. I remember trying a program that made the computer sound like a whistling kettle. I was amazed! This started my interest in programming and I still am a developer.
@@ManuelBilderbeek Indeed, after a quick Google search I found that QuickBASIC has the SELECT CASE, but MSX-BASIC hasn't. I've used QuickBASIC for some time too. Version 7.1 was my favorite, because it had a create .EXE function.
Well, I had an MSX back in the day (Yamaha YIS-503, the F variant, being from France), and a friend of mine used to have a Spectrum. It was only a few years ago that I read sir Clive Sinclair declare his machine superiority over the MSX. And... from what I've seen, it was clearly bogus. But then again, I wasn't sure 100% because Spectrum never interested me in the first place and I thought it was possible that it could have some tricks up on its sleeves. On the other hand, something that has always been fascinating to me is the design of those computers (MSX, 2, 2+ or Tubor-R). Some are bland as hell, but some are just gorgeous, even to this day. Thank you so much for this first video :)
I grew up in North America, and I learned of MSX through Popular Electronics magazine. It was only a paragraph in the “What’s new” section, but it was enough to interest me. And that’s all there ever was. I never heard of or saw an MSX machine then or now.
wonder if there were ever any models designed for North America power and NTSC video (assuming these MSX machines ever attempted to support standard televisions for a display)
@@TheSulross Only Spectravideo and Yamaha sold actual US models for a short period and they're quite rare now. All the Japanese models are NTSC and 100VAC though, so easy enough to import and use.
@@TheSulross Yes, Yamaha released the CX5M in North America with NTSC video (like Japan). It was built as a music computer though, aimed at musicians and sold only in music stores. Still a very nice MSX. I own its successor (the CX5MII). Since I’m from continental Europe, I’ve used MSX since I was a kid, and my family’s first MSX was a Philips.
Yamaha CX5M with the composer cartridge and external keyboard options was one of the earliest consumer music work station, had MIDI ports and might of been the first as pre-dated the Atari ST. It had a built in DX sound chip - based upon the DX5 - the smaller brother of the infamous DX7. Fun times.
If you are looking for a SVI-328 make sure you get the Expander "box" as well, its basically a multi cart holder that you can sit your monitor on, and when "fully loaded" is a practical business machine (with 80 columns, dual 5.25 floppys, comms, printer pass-thru and a few other goodies - RTC? - this is the setup in my local computer shop in Hamilton NZ in about 1985 when we got an SVI-728 + 5.25 floppy and about 3 months before the SVI-738 was released). It can still run most MSX-1 games btw. FYI: I joined an SVI users group, the most memorable thing being a young guy built a printer interface that worked over the 2x joysick ports
I still have a Sanyo MSX in the loft, I once had the matching Sanyo lightpen cartridge and a Toshiba music keyboard and sound synth cartridge... I later got a JVC MSX that had RGB scart, a real treat in 1985 when I luckily had a TV in the lounge with suitable scart socket.
My first computer was a MSX2 philips nms 8250. Added the 2 drive myself, then extra memory, turbo (8 mhz) and eventually converted to an msx2+ I had the music module from Philips and other roms and a modem at 300, later converted to 1200 baud. Spent hours on BBS sites. Wonderful machine. ♥
I' ve had this one, the Toshiba, programmed on it, and now, seeing it I fall in love with it again. Just the looks ey. I began with a zx spectrum, my first programmable thingy. Still a good computer🥰
Brazilian here. I did have 2 MSXes(?) from 2 different companies (I bought Sharp's HotBit HB-8000 and then moved to Gradiente's Expert XP-800 V 1.1) and loved them, especially the Expert.
What I always remember about the MSX were the Konami cartridges. I was a C64 owner at the time and I used to drool over Penguin Adventure on my mate's MSX.. I used to love the sound - not sure whether there was a separate sound chip inside those cartridges or not, but they were truly awesome. Has to be said though.. I never saw MSX games on cassette that compared to what I had on the C64. For all I love the SID, I really loved the sounds of the Konami cartridge games.
@@TheRetroShack Seriously - you'll be blown away. Konami did a range of games - Penguin Adventure, Salamander, Nemesis 1, 2 (possibly 3), F1 Spirit. Even Goonies was different from the C64 version. I look forward to your next episode after you source some. Of course.. you can always whet your appetite with an MSX emulator in the meantime ;-)
I loved my Brazilian Gradiente MSX back in 1986. My previous computer was a Spectrum which I really enjoyed as well, but there's really no comparison. The MSX was fantastic.
Was your previous computer a Spectrum or "our" brazillian Spectrum clone "TK 90X" from Microdigital? :D I remember my first contact with computers was with a TK-85 (ZX-81 clone) back then in 83. I got excited for that technology I've never been introduced with before.
@@FabianoMaiaFranco I only moved to Brazil in 1986 from South Africa, where I had the ZX81 and then the Speccy. I saw the clones in Rio but wasn't interested in getting something I knew already. Abracos da África do Sul!
At the UK launch I remember being blown away by a Pioneer MSX computer linked to a Pioneer Laser Disc player. The LD provided photo realistic video backgrounds with game graphics overlaid by the computer. This was similar to how some pro arcade video games like "Dragon's Lair" worked. There was an impressive Pioneer game very similar to the Star Wars attacks on the Death Star, which involved flying through trenches, but I don't recall the name.
Coincidentally I just took delivery of my MSX from Egypt a couple of weeks ago. While is had a local brand of Sakar, it was identical to a Japanese model Sanyo with a couple of exceptions. I was able to use it in the US with no conversions of any kind. It even had a US compatable power plug. I'm still thinking this is pretty much a game console with a keyboard, but I will use it some more and might change my mind.
The basic implementation is actually pretty nice, and I hear that there were floppy and hard disk interfaces for them, so that would have helped in the business arena? Looking forward to finding out myself as I go on my MSX trails :)
I have fond memories of my Spectravideo SVI-728. I had one for some time, before I got too eager to get my hands on Commodore C64. That was mostly because of the wider game selection of C64. Although, MSX had some really enjoyable titles too. For example, The Maze of Galious, F1 Spirit, Nemesis etc. I still remember playing those games until I almost had blisters on my hands. 😁
Find the Yamaha CX5M with the built in FM music synth. I had to help port electronic music composition software over to MSX, back in the day. The basic was a pretty simple version, (some versions lacked a 'MOD' instruction for example). Getting a disassembly of MSX revealed a lot of 'trick' coding, (jumps into the middle of an instruction, things like that), which made it hard to access through the ROM, though some games did it to use functions in the BASIC from machine code. It was also typically of MS Basic in being old fashioned and slow. BBC BASIC, which was a far more up to date design, simply ate it's lunch, as well as having more modern structured elements. If MSX had hit the UK before the main boom started, it would have swept the board though. The machines were quite high quality, especially compared to a Sinclair. I still have a wierd Pioneer PX7 model designed for Audio Visual work with their Laser Disc players - it has a built in interface for them.
I knew people at school with Sinclair’s, BBC, Electron, C64, VIC-20, Dragon 32, even a Tandy TRS-80. I didn’t know a single person who had an MSX. Seems odd, really. They were decent machines. Maybe a bit pricey in the day. Or, we all got machines our mates had so we could ‘borrow’ games...
Going to get some cartridges in for part two, now that the Spectrum point is out of the way we can see what these machines are capable of their own terms :)
Could Sir Clive have been refeering to the earlier SVI-318 that was released in 1983? and since I never had a MSX in the 80'ths I now have a SVI-728 in the garage waiting for a SD MegaMapper enroute from Brazil. Thanks for the video!
Even so he was wrong either way :) Bless him :) :) Can't wait to get hold of my SD Mapper so I can get stuck into some cartridge games! :) Thanks for watching!
My first computer was a Sharp HotBit HB-8000, which was sold in Brazil. I bought it secondhand, but it was magical to me at the time. I really enjoyed using that little machine.
Great vid, thanks, although a bit skimpy. I live in "Continental Europe", but I only ever saw these machines in the department stores. Never met anyone with an MSX box. BUT, I just had to pause and read that Enterprise ad you posted, and I was fascinated. I don't imagine they sold more than a dozen, but it would be wonderful if you could get your filthy paws on one to review.
I got the MSX Sony Hit Bit 75 for my 13th birthday in 1984. And I loved the machine! It was my first computer. I really loved to program in MSX basic. In later years allot of people in my village had an MSX. And for "educational purpose" it was really easy to copy a cassette tape with a HiFi set. ;-)
You hadn't tested the MSX properly: both Manic Miner and Out Run are ports from Speecy. You should've tried some games developed specifically for the MSX: Zanac, Thexder, Penguin Adventure, any Nemesis game, Salamander, etc. These are games that can't be done on a Spectrum.
That was kind of the point of the video - to show that 'even' doing a ported spectrum game - the MSX did it better :) In the next video in the series we'll look at the MSX specific stuff :) :) That was MUCH better :)
MSX was probably bigger than Sinclair here in the Netherlands because Philips (Dutch company) made quite a range of MSX and MSX2 machines for years, also because of the (more expensive) Phillips MSX2 was able to do video editing (digitising, subtitling), proving very popular with hobby and professional video enthusiasts. Sony Hit-Bit and other brands were sold plenty as well.
@@BokanoiD I had a Spectrum so they did exist here 😉 Today I have a huge collection of Spectrums (clones) from around the world (East Europe, Russia, North and South America, India, ...)
@@TheRetroShack they were excellent machines as well. I have very nice HB-75P that feels more like a high end piece of hifi equipment from the 80s than your average micro. They're probably not going cheap these days, but a Sony MSX2 machine is a nice thing to get.
Most enjoyable! Never owned an msx, would be a better battle between the msx and spectrum +2. I just love all the old 8 bits! The condition is amazing of the msx you have shown us. What kind of power supply was that you were using? Looks great
According to the book, How To Program Your MSX Computer, written by Lionel Carter and Eva Huzan, published in 1984, the Introduction reads, MSX BASIC is an extended version of BASIC, developed by Microsoft.
I had the Toshiba HX-10 and my friend had the Sony HitBit, both in the UK, so they were around, just not as common as the main players. Games wise, the carts were great. Nemesis, Antarctic Adventure, and Knightmare were superb and well worth trying to get hold of.
I think the Toshiba HX-10 is one of the great (and few) bargains left in the 8 bit retro market. You see them going for very little on ebay and compared to many of the other offerings out there they are a capable and interesting thing to play on. I got mine for 30 quid.
One of the advantages of the MSX is not so obvious: from the start (1983) it had a standard memory bank switching scheme that allowed memory to be expanded massively. The address space was divide into four 16K blocks and each block could be assigned to one of four "slots"; generally the onboard RAM, ROM and some I/O were in slot 0 (and sometimes slot 3 as well) and slots 1 and 2 were the two cartridge ports. Additionally, there was a second optional switching scheme for a 16K block in a slot that allowed switching between four more banks for those devices that wanted to provide yet more memory. Thus a single cartridge could offer up to 256 KB of RAM and/or ROM in a standard way (non-standard extensions raised this to 512 KB or more), and the system as a whole could have as much as a megabyte of memory available. Though within a few years a lot of the remaining 8-bit series of machines would be offering a standard for more than 64K of memory as a regular thing, the MSX was one of the earlier systems to do this. Designing it in from the start was pretty forward thinking!
The problem with the MSX (which was my first computer in both Philips VG8000 and VG8020 incarnations) was that most games were simply ported from the Spectrum without doing anything to take the peculiar features of the platform into account. Games developed solely with the MSX in mind were much better, especially japanese games.
Yep, that's what I wanted to show in this introductory part - how even running ported Spectrum games, it still ran them faster than the Spectrum - despite good old Sir Clive's claims :). In the next part we'll look at some of the good stuff :)
Dutch bloke here. Had a lot of time on Philips and Sony MSX machines, both the MSX and the MSX2. Vendor incompatibility even between those was kinda funny, having to poke some memory addresses to make certain software run on a specific machine.
Just a note, Clive’s interview in 1984 would have been on the verge of the MSX2 upcoming release in 1985. And at the time even the Speccy was an aging architecture. Though with the release of the MSX2 and the 128k in 1985, the difference in capability were apparent. Though, it is curious how you only showed MSX ports of Spectrum games. That’s not really a fair comparison, as the MSX had many games that were superior not only in the audio but in graphics as well. That said, although I’m from the US and never used either of these machines in my youth, I do own examples of both now. And I can say that while the MSX is a superior machine, I love both of them for what they are.
That was kind of the point of the video - to debunk Sir Clive's claims. After all, the MSX could run those Spectrum games better than the Spectrum :) We'll get onto the real MSX goodies in the next episode :)
@@TheRetroShack BTW, if you find the MSX to be a fun machine, I would highly encourage you to find a MSX2 or MSX2+. Alternatively, there is a homebrew machine that can be built, the Omega Home Computer. The games available on the 2 and 2+ are quite a bit of fun. Although there is a massive collection of games for the MSX1.
I had an HX-10 and the Konami cartridge games set the standard at the time for playability, I had a go on ping pong recently and it's still holds up today in terms of speed and control. The annoying thing, particularly with the HX-10 and was true of other machines was that it was not fully compliant in terms of memory address and some tape games would not load, they required pokes to be entered in advance of loading (which I only learned later in life). Molecule Man, Zoids, Red Moon to name but a few
To be fair the newest component design in the MSX specification was the TI TMS9918 is a Video Display Controller, and it was released in 1979. So, the tech was 5 years old. As for the more powerful claim, they have essentially the same CPU. If we try to justify the claim, we'd have to add ridiculous qualifiers like 'per cubic centimeter'.
I remember a Philips MSX 2 machine in a magazine ad video processing a Disney movie.... I wondered for years what kind of machine could process video....
I've got a Sony HitBit MSX2. In great condition other than the keyboard mylar is basically gone. Almost all of the traces are gone. Any idea how I can fix/replace that? I mean, it's gone so much that I don't think even conductive ink would help (unless maybe I find a print out of one to trace).
You could try this stuff as some people have had success with it: Conductive Wire Glue/Paint - NO Soldering Iron www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00SRIITQ4/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_fabc_CMQMNMV21MZHQ6VWDP1F
I still have the SVI728 I got for Christmas in 1987. I wrote a lot of simple Basic programs on it, and played the only game cartridge I had - Goonies. Which looks suspiciously similar too Manic Miner...
Great video! Since a lot of people are already recommending you MSX1 games by Konami, let me do something different. :) Here's two non-Konami MSX1 games that are worth checking out for technical reasons: Midnight Brothers and Grog's Revenge (the latter was sadly unbeatable for 34 years due to a bug in the final level -- more info on my longplay).
I was attracted to any smallish home computer with a decent keyboard in the early 80s, being stuck with a well worn ZX81 with wobbly ram pack until '84/85... Always looked the business in magazines at the time.. C64 looked a bit boring in comparison although I really wanted one and knew it was better than the MSX machines. I have to agree MSX were better machines than the Speccy, but a lot more expensive over here, and not that much better. Sound was the main thing. -- One of my main (of a quite a few) gripes about Sinclair was they did not exploit their own hardware enough.. They had the engineers that could have worked out, enabled and taught all the neat tricks found by clever programmers later in the Speccy's life.. Would have really pushed British software development forward too. All home computers back then should have been supplied with an Assembler + list of OS function addresses as well as Basic.. I'd have made it The Law in Britain..
@@TheRetroShack I was a microcomputer nut at the time, like most people here, so anytime I saw home computer on the telly, it really stuck in my memory.
I remember him demonstrating Rescue on Fractalus on an Atari computer. It used fractals a mathematic technique so it got itself onto ‘think of a number’
I had wondered about the MSX as a kid, but never saw one. I heard that they were used in some cabinets to control the odd laserdisc game, but that might have been wrong. Thanks for the great introduction.
I think you might be correct: Pioneer did indeed make an MSX computer that could interface directly to one of their LaserDisc players, so it is not unlikely that it would have been this combo that inhabited those arcade games.
I remember the MSX computers being for sale here in Australia when I was a kid, but I was an Apple // fan back then so wasn't really interested in the MSX. I have however since, played around with emulators for the MSX and it seems I missed out on a cool system back in it's time.
I had a Sony MSX in the UK. At my school it was more popular than the Amstrad but that was because it was rural and the local independent electrical shops sold them alongside Japanese TVs and Videos and there was no Dixon’s or large WH Smith selling computers in smaller towns. It was difficult at first to buy software as the shops selling the computers did not sell tapes but plenty was available 85-88 but mostly Spectrum conversions. I upgraded to an Atari ST in 87 when MSX magazines ended and manufacturers stopped supporting them but really the Japanese developed Konami MSX cartridge games were more playable than early ST games. Had MSX 2 been available in the UK at reasonable price I would have wanted one
With the MSX-2 it was possible to directly write and read sectors to and of a floppy. Okay, it was a disabled basic instruction but calling the not removed hook it worked. It was great to mirror a game and then edit (translate) the text in said game. I also used it later to after command.com on a PC to prevent ANSI-art formatting the hard drive. The NMS8280 I owned was capable of video digitizing and superimposing. what I used a lot. Still got the old machine, needs a recap when I find the time.
Are you sure that's MSX2 specific? I think if you connect a disk drive to an MSX1, the same is possible. Such stuff is in the disk ROM, which comes with the disk drive, and it's built-in if the MSX has a drive built-in, of course.
@@ManuelBilderbeek It was implemented in Basic as DSKI$()and DSKO$(). But it was either deemed too dangerous or there was not enough string-space. I heard both story's. ( see www.msx.org/wiki/DSKI$() )
i want an MSX so bad. thank you for making this. i am guessing your video hit on my homepage because i keep looking up MSX stuff. so hopefully others will see this as well.
Good video, I've never really played with an MSX either. I'm curious how much they were when they came out in the UK (and compared to the Speccy) as I assume they were more expensive.
Being cheap was the only advantage of the spectrum, I never understood why so many people like it, it's worse than any other 8bit computer of the time. I can't stand the ugly graphics and poor sound.
@@Blackadder75 As I've said already if that was the computer you could afford then you loved it regardless of its flaws. Better to have something than nothing I reckon. And once that is ingrained in your rose tinted specs you're always going to remember it fondly. Memories aren't all about specs.
Most of us when I was at school had either the C64 or Spectrum (I was a Spectrum user). There was one person who had an Acorn Electron and one person who had an MSX so I did get the chance to have a go with one back in the day; I seem to recall them being on display at Rumbelows. I'm sure the MSX was technically better than the Spectrum but you couldn't get the games in the same way you could the Spectrum and because they were rare there was nobody to swap games with.
I think the best games for the MSX (certainly early on) were the Japanese carts from companies like Konami which would have been expensive and tricky to get hold of here in Blighty during the mid-80s I'd imagine.
MSX didn't do well in the UK because it didn't really have a place in the market. The Speccy was cheap and had a shed load of games, the C64 was a better games platform and could be had for less than an MSX. And the more serious home users bought beebs. It also didn't help that most MSX games in the European market were speccy ports, which looked just like the Spectrum version but often ran slower because the MSX architecture did not permit the CPU to directly access video memory, it had to read and write via registers in the video chip.
I am from Germany. I have heard about MSX when I was a kid but I don't think I have ever seen one in person. I have never seen any software for that system in stores. C64 (sometimes C16) and Atari 8 bit stuff was all over the place, sometimes Amstrad 464 (known as 'Schneider CPC' in Germany).
There is no hardware scrolling on the MSX1. Hardware Sprites yes. The MSX2 has vertical scrolling and the MSX2+ / turboR has horizontal scrolling as well. I was a commodore 64 user but I have collected some Sony MSX machines just because they are beautiful and well build.
@@TheRetroShack There is a video from Displaced Games called :MSX Computers - Scrolling, Sprites, and Stereotypes from april 2020 and it will give you a lot of information about the msx system a really good watch.
@@TheRetroShack be careful.. i got very hooked and ended up with about 8 of the buggers, mostly from Japan because there was so much variety and availability.
To be fair on Speccy Outrun you did get a copy of the arcade soundtrack on side B :D The Einstein was also very similar to the MSX but unfortunately not close enough to be directly compatible.
Never had an MSX, but I do still have my Tatung Einstein which, while not an MSX machine, does have the same components. The Einstein cost £499 in 1984 and while it was never a very popular machine, it did have a good selection of games, a spectrum emulator add-on device, and could be used as a development platform for the Spectrum.
MSX was in Europe an Spectrum emulator, because all the games were ports from that machine. If you don't know MSX in deep, try Konami's games... and whatever that comes from Japan. There are good european games too, like "Temptations" and "Ale Hop!" from Topo Soft... or some titles from Netherlands, like GuttBlaster or Break In!. I had an MSX when I was kid and later i had an MSX2... For me, without doubt, the best 8 bit machine. Great video.
My first computer was a Philips MSX2 that my parents bought. I still have it and even bought some more once I moved out of my parents house. Be aware with MSX, it is a bug you can't get rid of 😜
Well, there ya go always wondered about that machine, I`ll not crap on the speccy though as it did a grand job and I always loved the look of it as the keyboard seemed to scream a world of possibilities with all those commands written on them even though it was murder to use, but then I was a kid and knew no different and then the C64 happened and that was a different world again!
Glad you enjoyed the video! And yes, the Speccy and the C64 still 'do it' for me, but I have grown to love this little machine over the past few weeks :)
I live in Denmark, and i don't think that MSX was very big here; ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, and in particular Commodore 64 ruled the roost here. I was not unaware of the MSX though, and there was one particular machine that I used to drool over: The Yamaha CX5M which could be upgraded to a full-blown synthesizer via a cartridge and a 37-key music keyboard (either one with mini keys, or one with full-size keys). Pioneer also made an interesting computer in the MSX mold: it was housed in a cabinet which resembled the units that were common in a home HiFI & Video stack at the time, and had a separate keyboard. Its most notable feature was the ability to control a LaserDisk player, which then opened up the possibility of creating games with embedded footage fetched from a LaserDisc. I am not sure how many games of this kind were released, at least I have never heard of one. Japan would probably have had a few releases though.
@@TheRetroShack Indeed; the first half of the 1980s was a very interesting period. I had a friend who had jumped on the microcomputer bandwagon at the earliest opportunity, which fostered my own interest in computing, and by reading magazines like Your Computer, we used to follow the development of that particular "scene", and we would jokingly talk about "What new machines will emerge next month?" - it was literally a monthly event for a while that new computers would see the light of day, but not many were able to gain enough followers to become staples of home computing. Most would sort of fizzle out after a few months, never to be heard of again. Also during that period, a lot of software was written by amateurs like ourselves, and would appear as printed listing in the various magazines. Typing in those listings could be a bit tedious, though, but my friend and I developed a routine whereby we would help each other: one of us would sit at the computer and type while the other read out the listing from the magazine, and at regular intervals, say 30 to 40 minutes, we would then take a smoke break and swap roles afterwards, then "rinse and repeat". This method functioned quite smoothly, I would say, and I will always remember this time with fondness. 😁
I'm certain sir Clive was referring to just one chip in the MSX, that being the Texas 9918 vdp. It was made in 1978. Even so, five year old or not, it trounced the spectrum graphics.
maybe true, but you forgot that the TMS Graphics chip had at least a 5 year technological head start to every other solution used in home computers. But yes TMS graphics chips were used in many other home computers, as it offered many advantages over other solution, it had sprites, and used no RAM space in the 64K address space of either the Z80 or any other 8-bit CPU, it had its own dedicated 16K RAM. It wasn't until the Amiga till better solutions were used.
the TMS chips was rather limited but anyway better than the Spectrum ULA in terms of gfx performances. While not having any kind of hw scrolling it provides tile mode patterns/less limited colour clash and hw sprites.
@@martindejong3974 Not really. The TMS chip was marginally ahead of its time but didn't support bitmapped graphics. All transfers to/from graphics memory are via a single byte data register and another control register. This makes the update of backgrounds slow. The other problemis that it only supported single colour sprites and you could have no more than four on any one scan line otherwise the extra ones would disappear. This would complomise any game design. Also there's no sideways scrolling of backgrounds at less than 8 pixels. This made sideways scrolling games slow and very jerky. So, by the time that MSX came out the C64 was ageneration or two ahead and the bit-mapped graphics on the Spectrum allowed far more flexibility.
I had Spectrum compatible, C64 and MSX (HitBit). By far, I loved and found MSX better than the others. Pity that Spectrum and C64 had more software library than MSX, but MSX I found to be a far better and powerful machine and system by far.
@Rooflesoft Games This is my personal opinion. Is how I perceived C64 and MSX. For C64 I had only the datasette; for MSX I had 720kb floppy and a regular tape recorder. For C64 I had games, for MSX I had Pascal, Microsoft Basic that was 98% QBasic. Both had Assembler but I knew some assembly from Spectrum (Z80) and was easier than C64. If I remember correctly, C64 and Spectrum relied heavily on PEEKs and POKEs, on MSX I didn´t used them (it was a CALL for asm subroutines?). On MSX I made a Norton Commander clone and a PSpice like program. Also I managed ADC, DAC´s, a custom home-made data acquisition board, that gave me a voltmeter, frequency-meter and a controlled power source. The colors were brighter on MSX than on C64 or Spectrum. As I said, C64 MAY have been better than MSX 1 for everyone, but I found MSX 1 Better than C64.
@@TheRetroShack The main problem is that the original peripherals are extremely hard to find. I had a 9 dot-matrix printer, 720k floppy. My HitBit was model 75P.
I've never had an MSX, but I do have an SVI-318, which is one of the precursors to the MSX! EDIT: I've 'upgraded' mine so it should be compatible with the SVI-328, which you do mention in the video. :)
funny to see a Videopac/Odessey2 add between the 8-bit computer adds. Since it is a games console. Not a 8 bit computer, at least not without a basic expansion. I have great memories playing on the MSX. A friend of mine had a Philips MSX 1, he had a few cartridges liek Nemesis, Vampire killer, F1-spirit and Metal Gear. Played it a lot. Now i have few MSX1/2 computers and it is one of my favourite systems.
You missed a good one, but in Europe it was only popular in the Netherlands and Spain. A shame, it was supposed to the the PC equivalent for Home computers. Yesterday I received my 5th MSX!, a Sony HB-75P to add to my collection, one of the few, not sure in the only MSX1 with a SCART out.
Forget the 512k mapper, if you can stretch to a Carnivore2, it has 1024k of useable RAM, built in sound cards FM-PAC and SCC, and a CF slot, far more useful, and works fine with the Toshiba MSX, I have tried it!
In Brazil the MSX was sold as 'Expert XP-800' by a local company called 'Gradiente'. it had even the keyboard separated from the CPU: pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expert_XP-800 I had the luck of having one in the 80's! and yes, it was far better than my friend's sinclair ;-)
I've been a fan of ZX Spectrum since childhood and I love the hardware features and the platform's game library. But there is no possible comparison between a standard ZX Spectrum with 48k of RAM and a standard MSX 1 with 64k. A typical MSX runs any Spectrum game easily. The worst thing that happened, in conversions of titles from Spectrum to MSX, was that the adapted games were often a little slower due to the lack of optimization. However, the graphics and sounds of the conversions were the same or better than what was seen in Speccy. However, a Spectrum would simply never be able to run anything that even resembles the best games originally made for MSX, such as "Nemesis", "The Goonies", "Knightmare", "Zanac" or "The Castle". I love both platforms, but the hardware superiority of MSX is undeniable.
Hope you enjoy this video - I was an MSX virgin before getting hold of this machine but got to say, absolutely love it! There will definitely be more to come on MSX :)
I mean, how can you NOT love a system that has such beautiful machines?!? it.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Yashica-YC64-IMG_0308.JPG
hey, i just wanna say once you get hold of a SD mapper, you will be able to do more than playing games and use MSX-DOS or even Nextor wich is a modern MSX-DOS kernel replacement. and MSX-DOS is defacto MS DOS backported from the 8086 to the z80 by Tim Patterson himself.
@@benoitcolson433 Interestingly enough, MSX-DOS is also fairly compatible with CP/M, and so you can run many CP/M programs on your MSX. (Though I don't know if they implemented terminal emulation in their I/O routines to allow you to run things like WordStar and SuperCalc.)
They both have their flaws and weaknesses. But spectrum is the less complex design since Nobody makes the video chips anymore.
I grew up on the msx 1 hit bit from sony, then philips nms 8250, then philips nms 8280.. those were good years.. i went on to the pc from there but really learned a lot during my time with the msx.. it was *FUN*!!!
Here in Brazil we say that MSX is the most magical computer ever made. As a owner of almost 30 MSXs, I would agree.
Looking for more MSX videos!
PS: The SD 512 cartdrige was created by Brazilian MSX freaks, Fábio Belavenuto and Luciano Sturaro.
Yes especially when it suddenly vanished
I'm certainly loving this machine :)
Most European msx games were poorly ported from the spectrum, that's probably the root of Sinclair claim.
msx2 was where it's at though. that little upgrae, small as it might have been mae it just that much better.
An interesting thing that helped to have a lot of zx spectrum titles on msx without too much time spent in efforts but also gave us a lower quality msx games (because they took the worst of both computers) was the msx bitmap mode.
Tecnically it is a tiled mode vs the full bitmap mode of spectrum, but it can be configured in a way to "forget" the tiled mode and could be used as a bitmap mode. the simililarities between the video modes are below:
both 256x192 pxs (so no need to worry of more or less space when converting zx->msx)
both attribute/color clash: the speccy had a limit on a 8x8 cell the msx on the 8x1 cell, but this was not a showstopper in doing conversion.
the physical mapping between video ram locations and pixels is somewhat different, but it is possible to convert easily from speccy layout to msx layout. So easily that most games managed in a separate cpu area the spectrum graphics and they upload to video memory doing an 'on the fly' conversion to msx video ram mapping. this allowed coders to not to rewrite gfx and sw sprites routines used on the spectrum and uploading the "zx shadow" screen on msx vram. The downside was increased processing time due to the double work required to CPU. If you sum this with the convertion needed to manage char attributes by a factor on 8 (on the msx) and due to the fact that the vram access on msx was slower than on spectrum, you realize why zx->msx conversions worked slower on msx. to get a faster game they needed to specifically code for msx. And this rarely happened.
So the similarity between the video modes was both a fortunate and unfortunate coincidence :
fortunate because it allowed conversion in relatively short times
unfortunate because it did not take advantage of the msx hw
Very interesting indeed!
That Outrun music comparison is hilarious! :D
Glad you picked up on that :) :)
Should've done Agent-X, but I doubt they did an MSX version.
in general, the music of the Spectrum is in the menus, not during the game. Of course, MSXs have a dedicated sound chip and they make a big difference. On the spectrum, the Z80 had to do everything ...
So to summarize: MSX > Spectrum. Well, that's something we the MSX users knew since 1983 or so. 😄
Pistols at dawn! :) :)
I love both. :) Not everything needs to be a dichotomy. Not everything needs to be compared and fought over.
@@IcyTorment Yeah it's a really weird statement for Sinclair to be making when pretty much the only home computers the Spectrum actually beat in terms of raw specs were the previous Sinclair machines. Sinclair computers were never "good" they were cheap, they offered value but not raw power.
The MSX holds a special place in my heart, as it was the very first computer I ever bought. So much so that I recently acquired a second hand MSX2 computer.
I am looking forward to your next MSX video. Thanks!
Glad you enjoyed it :)
As a kid I owned the Toshiba HX-10, my mother bought one and since then I was addicted to this machine, later on, I bought the Philips NMS8250 with moniter and printer and I still have it.
For me, this was the beginning of my computer adventure, playing games, running bbs systems on it and a lot more.
I still love MSX
Hope to see more videos about MSX.
Here in the Netherlands where a lot of MSX enthousiast and they still are
I have subscribed, because of te video's about the MSX.
Keep making videos about the MSX.
3:13 Look at all those different NEC machines sharing the same base model number: “PC-9801”. I remember helping out a fellow staff member who had a PC-9801VM2/E. Apparently the “E” stood for “Export”.
I think they were quite nice looking machines! :)
Looks like a win in the keyboard stakes too!
Yes, it's a really nice machine all over :) Keyboard us up there - not quite up to BBC Micro standard but not far off, and a far cry from the rubber keys of the Speccy :)
Mostly depends on the model. Many MSX keyboards are almost as bad as Sinclair's. But some are really nice.
Had a friend with an MSX. Nemesis & Penguin Adventure were both great games.
Been playing Penguin Adventure and what a game! :)
I played both games a lot!
@@TheRetroShack The very first game mr. Hideo Kojima worked on.
Thanks for setting Sir Clive straight! I have always been surprised at his statement. In fact, I think he was just terribly afraid of the competition from MSX. He does have a point that the graphics chip is a bit old, but it's more capable than the Spectrum's... And the prices of MSX machines were a bit high, compared to the competition, I think.
Do note that for the "MSX1" there were many 'cheap' (quick and dirty) conversions of Spectrum games to the MSX. Besides they underuse the MSX graphics capabilities, there is another issue with these: because the MSX has a separate video RAM, the way these Spectrum games are programmed are not very fitting to the MSX architecture and they become a bit slow. For this Out Run port it's not too bad, but in general these are not the best MSX(1) games.
For a couple of top notch MSX1 games try: The Maze of Galious, F-1 Spirit, Salamander, Gradius series, King's Valley II, Rollerball, Eggerland, Penguin Adventure, Zanac, River Raid, Bosconian, ...
You're welcome :)
Would you say it to his face though?
@@universal70 Darn right I would!
@@TheRetroShack Well CS is still alive so its not to late!
I often tell Microsoft I dont like there software
Great memories of my Goldstar msx in the UK, the cartridge games of Daley Thompsons decathlon and penguin run. Replaced eventually with a spectrum + 128k. Built a printer interface on veroboard with components salvaged from old digital phone systems, borrowed an hp printer from work, wrote my first cv on a word processor program typed in from a magazine and got myself a better job 6 months later.
Fantastic! Love that ingenuity :)
Hi, Just started with the MSX myself. Like you I never had much to do with this platform. I just completed building an Omega MSX II - which is a modern take on the MSX and it is awesome.
The Omega MSX 2 is already on the production slate for later in the year and I must admit I can’t wait! Thanks for watching!
I loved my MSX and the last one I had back in the late 1980s the PCB had snapped almost in two (goodness knows how that happened). I spent a few days soldering it slowly back together and it had link / jump wires everywhere. To my amazement it actually worked!! Wonder if it's still out there?
You did well soldering it back together! Good job!
I was probably one of the few that had an MSX machine in the United States. I already had a C64, so it wasn't for games use. Rather it was for music production, and was the Yamaha CX5m, with a built in FM synthesizer chip and a dedicated music keyboard. I also had a disk drive for this machine, which I gather was rare anywhere, and unheard of in the US. While I did write a few BASIC programs for it, mostly it was running dedicated music sequencer software from Yamaha, and I never had any other carts.
Mission Accepted: Find a hard disk for the MSX :) :)
@@TheRetroShack I imagine Chris was referring to a floppy.
@@TheRetroShack better use flash cards nowadays.... But SCSI and IDE interfaces were made. I used SCSI myself, with 2x 1GB hard drive, MO Drive and CD ROM drive.
Just a quick note: The MSX1 wasn't able to do hardware scrolling, but MSX2 did, and because of the expandable architecture, there were video upgrade cartridges (at least planned) that upgraded the MSX1 with the MSX2 rom and video accelerator.
Thanks for the info - I've got my eye on some MSX2 models now too... Got the bug!
@@TheRetroShack MSX machines were very interesting and because they were made of off-the-shelf components is relatively easy to source the parts and build your own. Look at Sergey's Omega project if you're interested in that. :)
@@Stormbolter It’s already on the production slate :) :)
Games that attempted to scroll, looked awful. That couldn't have helped the platform.
@@ivuldivul There are patches available now for some of the Nemesis games that'll give it smooth scrolling. It looks very impressive.
What a great video! Brings back memories. Thank you. I'm from the Netherlands, and the first computer I had was an MSX2 from Philips. There was also a book that came with it. The book was called MSX-BASIC, like the interpreter. It had all sorts of example code in it. BASIC is the perfect name for the language. All the basics are there: for loops, if-else statements, switch-case (called select?), all the logical operators, etc.. I remember trying a program that made the computer sound like a whistling kettle. I was amazed! This started my interest in programming and I still am a developer.
Thanks very much! Glad you enjoyed it :)
Whistling kettles have come far -- they're now referred to as "Steam" and "The Cloud" and "Cup of Tea". Well, 2/3 ain't bad.
Unfortunately it didn't have switch-case....
@@ManuelBilderbeek Indeed, after a quick Google search I found that QuickBASIC has the SELECT CASE, but MSX-BASIC hasn't. I've used QuickBASIC for some time too. Version 7.1 was my favorite, because it had a create .EXE function.
Well, I had an MSX back in the day (Yamaha YIS-503, the F variant, being from France), and a friend of mine used to have a Spectrum. It was only a few years ago that I read sir Clive Sinclair declare his machine superiority over the MSX. And... from what I've seen, it was clearly bogus. But then again, I wasn't sure 100% because Spectrum never interested me in the first place and I thought it was possible that it could have some tricks up on its sleeves.
On the other hand, something that has always been fascinating to me is the design of those computers (MSX, 2, 2+ or Tubor-R). Some are bland as hell, but some are just gorgeous, even to this day.
Thank you so much for this first video :)
Absolutely agree - I think this Tosh is too notch in the beauty stakes :)
I grew up in North America, and I learned of MSX through Popular Electronics magazine. It was only a paragraph in the “What’s new” section, but it was enough to interest me. And that’s all there ever was. I never heard of or saw an MSX machine then or now.
Whoosh! What was that? That was MSX? Oh, should I care - I've got a c64? Not really? :) :) :)
wonder if there were ever any models designed for North America power and NTSC video (assuming these MSX machines ever attempted to support standard televisions for a display)
@@TheSulross Only Spectravideo and Yamaha sold actual US models for a short period and they're quite rare now. All the Japanese models are NTSC and 100VAC though, so easy enough to import and use.
@@TheSulross Yes, Yamaha released the CX5M in North America with NTSC video (like Japan). It was built as a music computer though, aimed at musicians and sold only in music stores. Still a very nice MSX. I own its successor (the CX5MII). Since I’m from continental Europe, I’ve used MSX since I was a kid, and my family’s first MSX was a Philips.
The amstrad cpc 464 is my favourite retro system....this is a close second now. I really love the looks on this.
Thanks for the great video
Glad you enjoyed it!
Wow - you packed a lot into 11 minutes!
Oh wow. One of the car channels I watch posting a message on one of the retro computer channels I watch. Small world, this TH-cam!
@DJ Steve Jennings 😂
Thanks - it felt like it would a lot longer video when I was making it, but it edited together really nicely :)
Yamaha CX5M with the composer cartridge and external keyboard options was one of the earliest consumer music work station, had MIDI ports and might of been the first as pre-dated the Atari ST.
It had a built in DX sound chip - based upon the DX5 - the smaller brother of the infamous DX7.
Fun times.
Absolutely - I had the DX21 I think? Not sure if that was the bigger or smaller brother of the DX5 but I loved it none the less :)
If you are looking for a SVI-328 make sure you get the Expander "box" as well, its basically a multi cart holder that you can sit your monitor on, and when "fully loaded" is a practical business machine (with 80 columns, dual 5.25 floppys, comms, printer pass-thru and a few other goodies - RTC? - this is the setup in my local computer shop in Hamilton NZ in about 1985 when we got an SVI-728 + 5.25 floppy and about 3 months before the SVI-738 was released). It can still run most MSX-1 games btw.
FYI: I joined an SVI users group, the most memorable thing being a young guy built a printer interface that worked over the 2x joysick ports
I still have a Sanyo MSX in the loft, I once had the matching Sanyo lightpen cartridge and a Toshiba music keyboard and sound synth cartridge... I later got a JVC MSX that had RGB scart, a real treat in 1985 when I luckily had a TV in the lounge with suitable scart socket.
RGB in 1985 when I was still trying to make out the foreground from the background on RF cables :) :) Lucky boy!
My first computer was a MSX2 philips nms 8250. Added the 2 drive myself, then extra memory, turbo (8 mhz) and eventually converted to an msx2+
I had the music module from Philips and other roms and a modem at 300, later converted to 1200 baud. Spent hours on BBS sites. Wonderful machine. ♥
Got an episode coming up on the Philips NMS 8250 :) :) Lovely looking machine :)
I' ve had this one, the Toshiba, programmed on it, and now, seeing it I fall in love with it again. Just the looks ey. I began with a zx spectrum, my first programmable thingy. Still a good computer🥰
Grab one while they're going cheap! :) :)
Brazilian here. I did have 2 MSXes(?) from 2 different companies (I bought Sharp's HotBit HB-8000 and then moved to Gradiente's Expert XP-800 V 1.1) and loved them, especially the Expert.
Sharp's HotBit - Sounds awfully like Sony's HitBit :) :) Thanks for watching all the way over there in Brazil!
@@TheRetroShack they were heavily... "influenced" by models from outside Brazil that's for sure, not just in name.
What I always remember about the MSX were the Konami cartridges. I was a C64 owner at the time and I used to drool over Penguin Adventure on my mate's MSX.. I used to love the sound - not sure whether there was a separate sound chip inside those cartridges or not, but they were truly awesome. Has to be said though.. I never saw MSX games on cassette that compared to what I had on the C64. For all I love the SID, I really loved the sounds of the Konami cartridge games.
That's interesting, and certainly possible - I'll do some digging :)
@@TheRetroShack Seriously - you'll be blown away. Konami did a range of games - Penguin Adventure, Salamander, Nemesis 1, 2 (possibly 3), F1 Spirit. Even Goonies was different from the C64 version. I look forward to your next episode after you source some. Of course.. you can always whet your appetite with an MSX emulator in the meantime ;-)
I loved my Brazilian Gradiente MSX back in 1986. My previous computer was a Spectrum which I really enjoyed as well, but there's really no comparison. The MSX was fantastic.
Was your previous computer a Spectrum or "our" brazillian Spectrum clone "TK 90X" from Microdigital? :D
I remember my first contact with computers was with a TK-85 (ZX-81 clone) back then in 83. I got excited for that technology I've never been introduced with before.
@@FabianoMaiaFranco I only moved to Brazil in 1986 from South Africa, where I had the ZX81 and then the Speccy. I saw the clones in Rio but wasn't interested in getting something I knew already. Abracos da África do Sul!
@@donaldklopper Agora eu entendi! Rs
Abração! :D
@@FabianoMaiaFranco Até a próxima vez meu amigo
That's a very grand name - The Gradiente! Nice :)
At the UK launch I remember being blown away by a Pioneer MSX computer linked to a Pioneer Laser Disc player. The LD provided photo realistic video backgrounds with game graphics overlaid by the computer. This was similar to how some pro arcade video games like "Dragon's Lair" worked. There was an impressive Pioneer game very similar to the Star Wars attacks on the Death Star, which involved flying through trenches, but I don't recall the name.
I think I remember that but like you can't remember the name - anyone?
Coincidentally I just took delivery of my MSX from Egypt a couple of weeks ago. While is had a local brand of Sakar, it was identical to a Japanese model Sanyo with a couple of exceptions. I was able to use it in the US with no conversions of any kind. It even had a US compatable power plug. I'm still thinking this is pretty much a game console with a keyboard, but I will use it some more and might change my mind.
The basic implementation is actually pretty nice, and I hear that there were floppy and hard disk interfaces for them, so that would have helped in the business arena? Looking forward to finding out myself as I go on my MSX trails :)
Never had an MSX, but I think the keyboards with the keys having different colors and separate cursor keys are awesome.
Yeah - take note Amstrad - this is how you do coloured keys! :) :)
I have fond memories of my Spectravideo SVI-728. I had one for some time, before I got too eager to get my hands on Commodore C64.
That was mostly because of the wider game selection of C64.
Although, MSX had some really enjoyable titles too. For example, The Maze of Galious, F1 Spirit, Nemesis etc. I still remember playing those games until I almost had blisters on my hands. 😁
*looking up games* Thanks!
Find the Yamaha CX5M with the built in FM music synth.
I had to help port electronic music composition software over to MSX, back in the day. The basic was a pretty simple version, (some versions lacked a 'MOD' instruction for example). Getting a disassembly of MSX revealed a lot of 'trick' coding, (jumps into the middle of an instruction, things like that), which made it hard to access through the ROM, though some games did it to use functions in the BASIC from machine code. It was also typically of MS Basic in being old fashioned and slow. BBC BASIC, which was a far more up to date design, simply ate it's lunch, as well as having more modern structured elements.
If MSX had hit the UK before the main boom started, it would have swept the board though. The machines were quite high quality, especially compared to a Sinclair.
I still have a wierd Pioneer PX7 model designed for Audio Visual work with their Laser Disc players - it has a built in interface for them.
I'll certainly keep an eye out for one as they sound like interesting machines!
I knew people at school with Sinclair’s, BBC, Electron, C64, VIC-20, Dragon 32, even a Tandy TRS-80. I didn’t know a single person who had an MSX. Seems odd, really. They were decent machines. Maybe a bit pricey in the day. Or, we all got machines our mates had so we could ‘borrow’ games...
I’d just like to state that every game I have ever owned has been legally and honestly obtained... *cough*
In the Netherlands it was mostly C64 & MSX - the other stuff was much rarer.
I had a Sanyo MSX (UK) - good memories of some Konami games. I remember playing Nemesis a lot.
Going to get some cartridges in for part two, now that the Spectrum point is out of the way we can see what these machines are capable of their own terms :)
@@TheRetroShack Looking forward to part two!
Could Sir Clive have been refeering to the earlier SVI-318 that was released in 1983? and since I never had a MSX in the 80'ths I now have a SVI-728 in the garage waiting for a SD MegaMapper enroute from Brazil. Thanks for the video!
Even so he was wrong either way :) Bless him :) :) Can't wait to get hold of my SD Mapper so I can get stuck into some cartridge games! :) Thanks for watching!
My first computer was a Sharp HotBit HB-8000, which was sold in Brazil. I bought it secondhand, but it was magical to me at the time. I really enjoyed using that little machine.
A very brief and interesting comparison, I had an Arabic version of MSX, glad that you mentioned middle east for MSX market.
Motaz from Sudan
Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it :)
Great vid, thanks, although a bit skimpy. I live in "Continental Europe", but I only ever saw these machines in the department stores. Never met anyone with an MSX box. BUT, I just had to pause and read that Enterprise ad you posted, and I was fascinated. I don't imagine they sold more than a dozen, but it would be wonderful if you could get your filthy paws on one to review.
You have no idea how many of those Enterprise's I've just missed out on - it's my White Whale... I will catch one, one day!
@@TheRetroShack Thar she blows!
I got the MSX Sony Hit Bit 75 for my 13th birthday in 1984. And I loved the machine! It was my first computer. I really loved to program in MSX basic. In later years allot of people in my village had an MSX. And for "educational purpose" it was really easy to copy a cassette tape with a HiFi set. ;-)
HitBit is the best name for a computer :) :)
You hadn't tested the MSX properly: both Manic Miner and Out Run are ports from Speecy. You should've tried some games developed specifically for the MSX: Zanac, Thexder, Penguin Adventure, any Nemesis game, Salamander, etc.
These are games that can't be done on a Spectrum.
That was kind of the point of the video - to show that 'even' doing a ported spectrum game - the MSX did it better :) In the next video in the series we'll look at the MSX specific stuff :) :) That was MUCH better :)
MSX was probably bigger than Sinclair here in the Netherlands because Philips (Dutch company) made quite a range of MSX and MSX2 machines for years, also because of the (more expensive) Phillips MSX2 was able to do video editing (digitising, subtitling), proving very popular with hobby and professional video enthusiasts. Sony Hit-Bit and other brands were sold plenty as well.
It was the opposite of the UK experience in the Netherlands; I have never seen any Spectrums as a kid but MSXes were everywhere.
@@BokanoiD I had a Spectrum so they did exist here 😉
Today I have a huge collection of Spectrums (clones) from around the world (East Europe, Russia, North and South America, India, ...)
I love the name "Hit-Bit" - so cool!
@@TheRetroShack they were excellent machines as well. I have very nice HB-75P that feels more like a high end piece of hifi equipment from the 80s than your average micro. They're probably not going cheap these days, but a Sony MSX2 machine is a nice thing to get.
Most enjoyable! Never owned an msx, would be a better battle between the msx and spectrum +2.
I just love all the old 8 bits!
The condition is amazing of the msx you have shown us.
What kind of power supply was that you were using? Looks great
If you’re an MSX fan - keep an eye on the channel this festive season ;) ;)
According to the book, How To Program Your MSX Computer, written by Lionel Carter and Eva Huzan, published in 1984, the Introduction reads, MSX BASIC is an extended version of BASIC, developed by Microsoft.
That sounds like a vote for MicroSoft eXtended to me :) :)
I had the Toshiba HX-10 and my friend had the Sony HitBit, both in the UK, so they were around, just not as common as the main players.
Games wise, the carts were great. Nemesis, Antarctic Adventure, and Knightmare were superb and well worth trying to get hold of.
Sony HitBit - now that's a cool name for a computer!
@@TheRetroShack it was pretty cool. It had some office tools built in to the ROM as I recall. Calculator, spreadsheet, etc.
I keep getting blown away 🤯 seeing manuals in English - my introduction to the MSX computers was a Panasonic MSX2+.
Look out for our MSX2 build coming soon :)
I think the Toshiba HX-10 is one of the great (and few) bargains left in the 8 bit retro market. You see them going for very little on ebay and compared to many of the other offerings out there they are a capable and interesting thing to play on. I got mine for 30 quid.
Bargain indeed!!!
One of the advantages of the MSX is not so obvious: from the start (1983) it had a standard memory bank switching scheme that allowed memory to be expanded massively.
The address space was divide into four 16K blocks and each block could be assigned to one of four "slots"; generally the onboard RAM, ROM and some I/O were in slot 0 (and sometimes slot 3 as well) and slots 1 and 2 were the two cartridge ports. Additionally, there was a second optional switching scheme for a 16K block in a slot that allowed switching between four more banks for those devices that wanted to provide yet more memory. Thus a single cartridge could offer up to 256 KB of RAM and/or ROM in a standard way (non-standard extensions raised this to 512 KB or more), and the system as a whole could have as much as a megabyte of memory available.
Though within a few years a lot of the remaining 8-bit series of machines would be offering a standard for more than 64K of memory as a regular thing, the MSX was one of the earlier systems to do this. Designing it in from the start was pretty forward thinking!
When you say the Earl's Court event in 84, do you mean the PCW show in the autumn? I'm wondering as that's the one I went to.
It was this one: archive.org/details/EarlsCourtComputerFair1984/mode/2up?view=theater
@@TheRetroShack thanks for the clarification. I didn't know shots that one.
The problem with the MSX (which was my first computer in both Philips VG8000 and VG8020 incarnations) was that most games were simply ported from the Spectrum without doing anything to take the peculiar features of the platform into account. Games developed solely with the MSX in mind were much better, especially japanese games.
Yep, that's what I wanted to show in this introductory part - how even running ported Spectrum games, it still ran them faster than the Spectrum - despite good old Sir Clive's claims :). In the next part we'll look at some of the good stuff :)
Dutch bloke here. Had a lot of time on Philips and Sony MSX machines, both the MSX and the MSX2. Vendor incompatibility even between those was kinda funny, having to poke some memory addresses to make certain software run on a specific machine.
Looking forward to getting my hands on an MSX2 for the channel!
@@TheRetroShack I'd recommend a desktop model. Generally better upgrade options on those.
Just a note, Clive’s interview in 1984 would have been on the verge of the MSX2 upcoming release in 1985. And at the time even the Speccy was an aging architecture. Though with the release of the MSX2 and the 128k in 1985, the difference in capability were apparent. Though, it is curious how you only showed MSX ports of Spectrum games. That’s not really a fair comparison, as the MSX had many games that were superior not only in the audio but in graphics as well.
That said, although I’m from the US and never used either of these machines in my youth, I do own examples of both now. And I can say that while the MSX is a superior machine, I love both of them for what they are.
That was kind of the point of the video - to debunk Sir Clive's claims. After all, the MSX could run those Spectrum games better than the Spectrum :) We'll get onto the real MSX goodies in the next episode :)
@@TheRetroShack BTW, if you find the MSX to be a fun machine, I would highly encourage you to find a MSX2 or MSX2+. Alternatively, there is a homebrew machine that can be built, the Omega Home Computer. The games available on the 2 and 2+ are quite a bit of fun. Although there is a massive collection of games for the MSX1.
@@RetroDepot Already on the production slate :) Couldn’t resist it! :)
Interesting comparing. Thank you
Thanks for watching!
I had an HX-10 and the Konami cartridge games set the standard at the time for playability, I had a go on ping pong recently and it's still holds up today in terms of speed and control. The annoying thing, particularly with the HX-10 and was true of other machines was that it was not fully compliant in terms of memory address and some tape games would not load, they required pokes to be entered in advance of loading (which I only learned later in life). Molecule Man, Zoids, Red Moon to name but a few
To be fair the newest component design in the MSX specification was the TI TMS9918 is a Video Display Controller, and it was released in 1979. So, the tech was 5 years old. As for the more powerful claim, they have essentially the same CPU. If we try to justify the claim, we'd have to add ridiculous qualifiers like 'per cubic centimeter'.
True enough - but '2-3 times faster' - Hmmmm.... Dubious at best :)
Good short review thank you.
I never had an MSX either but, I have to admit they did look kinda cool.
Thanks for watching!
Nice video! MSX (1 and 2) where my first 8-bit computers. Nice stuff!
Can you please share line 10 and 20 of your BASIC program to calculate primes?
Pulled from a 2013 post here: sinclairzxworld.com/viewtopic.php?t=1067. Works unchanged in MSX Basic.
I remember a Philips MSX 2 machine in a magazine ad video processing a Disney movie.... I wondered for years what kind of machine could process video....
Thanks for that - I'll have to look that up :)
Welcome to the wonderful world of MSX!
I've got 5 MSX machines, with the Philips NMS 8250 MSX2 as my favourite.
Get one of those, you'll love it.
Think these things are going to be like Pokemon - gotta catch ‘em all! :)
My grandfather did had the MSX2 Philips NMS 8280. Played a lot of games on it.
I've got a Sony HitBit MSX2. In great condition other than the keyboard mylar is basically gone. Almost all of the traces are gone. Any idea how I can fix/replace that? I mean, it's gone so much that I don't think even conductive ink would help (unless maybe I find a print out of one to trace).
You could try this stuff as some people have had success with it: Conductive Wire Glue/Paint - NO Soldering Iron www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00SRIITQ4/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_fabc_CMQMNMV21MZHQ6VWDP1F
Maybe someone on the forums at www.msx.org has a solution for you.
I still have the SVI728 I got for Christmas in 1987. I wrote a lot of simple Basic programs on it, and played the only game cartridge I had - Goonies. Which looks suspiciously similar too Manic Miner...
Lol - I just had a look at Goonies and you're right!
Great video! Since a lot of people are already recommending you MSX1 games by Konami, let me do something different. :) Here's two non-Konami MSX1 games that are worth checking out for technical reasons: Midnight Brothers and Grog's Revenge (the latter was sadly unbeatable for 34 years due to a bug in the final level -- more info on my longplay).
I'll check it out! Thanks :)
@@TheRetroShack Oh, almost forgot! Check out Red Zone, as well. It's from 1985 and has 3D-like visuals that are not just wireframes.
I was attracted to any smallish home computer with a decent keyboard in the early 80s, being stuck with a well worn ZX81 with wobbly ram pack until '84/85... Always looked the business in magazines at the time.. C64 looked a bit boring in comparison although I really wanted one and knew it was better than the MSX machines. I have to agree MSX were better machines than the Speccy, but a lot more expensive over here, and not that much better. Sound was the main thing.
--
One of my main (of a quite a few) gripes about Sinclair was they did not exploit their own hardware enough.. They had the engineers that could have worked out, enabled and taught all the neat tricks found by clever programmers later in the Speccy's life.. Would have really pushed British software development forward too. All home computers back then should have been supplied with an Assembler + list of OS function addresses as well as Basic.. I'd have made it The Law in Britain..
Me too! I even paid out for a DKTronics keyboard for my Spectrum 48k that was about half the price of a new machine!
I remember watching an MSX demonstrated on Johnny Ball's "Think of a Number". I was quite impressed (although I might have misremembered it)
Johnny Ball! There's a blast from the past! :)
@@TheRetroShack I was a microcomputer nut at the time, like most people here, so anytime I saw home computer on the telly, it really stuck in my memory.
I remember him demonstrating Rescue on Fractalus on an Atari computer. It used fractals a mathematic technique so it got itself onto ‘think of a number’
@@JesterEric that was it! It wasn't MSX! Funny how your memory changes things
I had wondered about the MSX as a kid, but never saw one. I heard that they were used in some cabinets to control the odd laserdisc game, but that might have been wrong. Thanks for the great introduction.
I think you might be correct: Pioneer did indeed make an MSX computer that could interface directly to one of their LaserDisc players, so it is not unlikely that it would have been this combo that inhabited those arcade games.
Interesting!
I remember the MSX computers being for sale here in Australia when I was a kid, but I was an Apple // fan back then so wasn't really interested in the MSX. I have however since, played around with emulators for the MSX and it seems I missed out on a cool system back in it's time.
Me too - go grab one now :) :)
For me as a German that japanese MSX promotion video felt a little bit awkward :S
They were raising their hands in class! They were raising their hands in class!!!! :) :) :) Darn, now I can't unsee it either!!!! :)
I had a Sony MSX in the UK. At my school it was more popular than the Amstrad but that was because it was rural and the local independent electrical shops sold them alongside Japanese TVs and Videos and there was no Dixon’s or large WH Smith selling computers in smaller towns. It was difficult at first to buy software as the shops selling the computers did not sell tapes but plenty was available 85-88 but mostly Spectrum conversions.
I upgraded to an Atari ST in 87 when MSX magazines ended and manufacturers stopped supporting them but really the Japanese developed Konami MSX cartridge games were more playable than early ST games. Had MSX 2 been available in the UK at reasonable price I would have wanted one
Now's the time to get one - they're pretty reasonable prices at the moment :)
I am from Brazil and my MSX is up and running!
With the MSX-2 it was possible to directly write and read sectors to and of a floppy. Okay, it was a disabled basic instruction but calling the not removed hook it worked. It was great to mirror a game and then edit (translate) the text in said game. I also used it later to after command.com on a PC to prevent ANSI-art formatting the hard drive.
The NMS8280 I owned was capable of video digitizing and superimposing. what I used a lot. Still got the old machine, needs a recap when I find the time.
Are you sure that's MSX2 specific? I think if you connect a disk drive to an MSX1, the same is possible. Such stuff is in the disk ROM, which comes with the disk drive, and it's built-in if the MSX has a drive built-in, of course.
@@ManuelBilderbeek It was implemented in Basic as DSKI$()and DSKO$(). But it was either deemed too dangerous or there was not enough string-space. I heard both story's.
( see www.msx.org/wiki/DSKI$() )
I've said it before - I'm going to be addicted to collecting these things now!!! :)
@@fiskurtjorn Yeah, so that's disk BASIC, which is in the disk ROM, as I described.
i want an MSX so bad. thank you for making this. i am guessing your video hit on my homepage because i keep looking up MSX stuff. so hopefully others will see this as well.
Thanks very much - and glad you're enjoying the channel :)
Good video, I've never really played with an MSX either. I'm curious how much they were when they came out in the UK (and compared to the Speccy) as I assume they were more expensive.
The HX-10 was £279 at launch in 1985 (in the UK) so considerably more than the Spectrum :)
Being cheap was the only advantage of the spectrum, I never understood why so many people like it, it's worse than any other 8bit computer of the time. I can't stand the ugly graphics and poor sound.
@@Blackadder75 As I've said already if that was the computer you could afford then you loved it regardless of its flaws. Better to have something than nothing I reckon. And once that is ingrained in your rose tinted specs you're always going to remember it fondly. Memories aren't all about specs.
@@TheRetroShack later prices dropped considerably according "What MSX?" issue 4, to about £99 if I remember correctly.
Most of us when I was at school had either the C64 or Spectrum (I was a Spectrum user). There was one person who had an Acorn Electron and one person who had an MSX so I did get the chance to have a go with one back in the day; I seem to recall them being on display at Rumbelows. I'm sure the MSX was technically better than the Spectrum but you couldn't get the games in the same way you could the Spectrum and because they were rare there was nobody to swap games with.
I kind of wish I'd had one now, but like so many machines back then - I only got to see them in magazines :(
I think the best games for the MSX (certainly early on) were the Japanese carts from companies like Konami which would have been expensive and tricky to get hold of here in Blighty during the mid-80s I'd imagine.
MSX didn't do well in the UK because it didn't really have a place in the market. The Speccy was cheap and had a shed load of games, the C64 was a better games platform and could be had for less than an MSX. And the more serious home users bought beebs. It also didn't help that most MSX games in the European market were speccy ports, which looked just like the Spectrum version but often ran slower because the MSX architecture did not permit the CPU to directly access video memory, it had to read and write via registers in the video chip.
@@elyuw There would have been the whole NTSC vs PAL issue to deal with as well, even assuming you could get your hands on imported carts at the time.
@@JeremyLevi Ah yes, good point.
Fantastic content, as always 👌
Glad you enjoyed it
The MSX, or more specifically the MSX2, gave us Metal Gear. That alone is enough to love it. :D
True Dat!
I am from Germany. I have heard about MSX when I was a kid but I don't think I have ever seen one in person. I have never seen any software for that system in stores.
C64 (sometimes C16) and Atari 8 bit stuff was all over the place, sometimes Amstrad 464 (known as 'Schneider CPC' in Germany).
Thanks for checking in - I can cross Germany off the 'MSX was here!' list :)
There is no hardware scrolling on the MSX1. Hardware Sprites yes. The MSX2 has vertical scrolling and the MSX2+ / turboR has horizontal scrolling as well.
I was a commodore 64 user but I have collected some Sony MSX machines just because they are beautiful and well build.
I'm definitely hooked on these things now! I'll correct my scrolling faux pas in the next episode in the series :) Thanks for watching!
@@TheRetroShack There is a video from Displaced Games called :MSX Computers - Scrolling, Sprites, and Stereotypes from april 2020 and it will give you a lot of information about the msx system a really good watch.
@@TheRetroShack be careful.. i got very hooked and ended up with about 8 of the buggers, mostly from Japan because there was so much variety and availability.
To be fair on Speccy Outrun you did get a copy of the arcade soundtrack on side B :D
The Einstein was also very similar to the MSX but unfortunately not close enough to be directly compatible.
I remember the days when you got a soundtrack to play along with the game! :) :)
Never had an MSX, but I do still have my Tatung Einstein which, while not an MSX machine, does have the same components. The Einstein cost £499 in 1984 and while it was never a very popular machine, it did have a good selection of games, a spectrum emulator add-on device, and could be used as a development platform for the Spectrum.
That’s really interesting! I don’t know the Einstein had a Spectrum Emulator device - ‘goes into research mode’ :)
@@TheRetroShack Yes, the Speculator!
they always looked quite cool machines - quality case and keyboard.I always wanted the Sony music one.
I presume you meant the Yamaha.
Think a Sony HitBit is next on my list :) :)
oops yes I meant Yamaha cx5m
MSX was in Europe an Spectrum emulator, because all the games were ports from that machine.
If you don't know MSX in deep, try Konami's games... and whatever that comes from Japan.
There are good european games too, like "Temptations" and "Ale Hop!" from Topo Soft... or some titles from Netherlands, like GuttBlaster or Break In!.
I had an MSX when I was kid and later i had an MSX2... For me, without doubt, the best 8 bit machine.
Great video.
Thanks for the tips!
My first computer was a Philips MSX2 that my parents bought. I still have it and even bought some more once I moved out of my parents house. Be aware with MSX, it is a bug you can't get rid of 😜
Too late! I've been bitten :) :)
Well, there ya go always wondered about that machine, I`ll not crap on the speccy though as it did a grand job and I always loved the look of it as the keyboard seemed to scream a world of possibilities with all those commands written on them even though it was murder to use, but then I was a kid and knew no different and then the C64 happened and that was a different world again!
Glad you enjoyed the video! And yes, the Speccy and the C64 still 'do it' for me, but I have grown to love this little machine over the past few weeks :)
at 09:45 You mention that the MSX could do hardware scrolling, but they do NOT have hardware scrolling.....
Yep - been corrected on that one a few times :) The MSX2 could, but not the MSX 1 :)
I like the pastel colours of MSX, all those systems with the TI graphics look pretty comfy.
I live in Denmark, and i don't think that MSX was very big here; ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, and in particular Commodore 64 ruled the roost here.
I was not unaware of the MSX though, and there was one particular machine that I used to drool over: The Yamaha CX5M which could be upgraded to a full-blown synthesizer via a cartridge and a 37-key music keyboard (either one with mini keys, or one with full-size keys).
Pioneer also made an interesting computer in the MSX mold: it was housed in a cabinet which resembled the units that were common in a home HiFI & Video stack at the time, and had a separate keyboard. Its most notable feature was the ability to control a LaserDisk player, which then opened up the possibility of creating games with embedded footage fetched from a LaserDisc. I am not sure how many games of this kind were released, at least I have never heard of one. Japan would probably have had a few releases though.
There were a couple, like 10 or so. Pretty rare and expensive nowadays.
Gotta love the innovation going on at this point in computing history :)
@@TheRetroShack Indeed; the first half of the 1980s was a very interesting period. I had a friend who had jumped on the microcomputer bandwagon at the earliest opportunity, which fostered my own interest in computing, and by reading magazines like Your Computer, we used to follow the development of that particular "scene", and we would jokingly talk about "What new machines will emerge next month?" - it was literally a monthly event for a while that new computers would see the light of day, but not many were able to gain enough followers to become staples of home computing. Most would sort of fizzle out after a few months, never to be heard of again.
Also during that period, a lot of software was written by amateurs like ourselves, and would appear as printed listing in the various magazines. Typing in those listings could be a bit tedious, though, but my friend and I developed a routine whereby we would help each other: one of us would sit at the computer and type while the other read out the listing from the magazine, and at regular intervals, say 30 to 40 minutes, we would then take a smoke break and swap roles afterwards, then "rinse and repeat". This method functioned quite smoothly, I would say, and I will always remember this time with fondness. 😁
I'm certain sir Clive was referring to just one chip in the MSX, that being the Texas 9918 vdp. It was made in 1978. Even so, five year old or not, it trounced the spectrum graphics.
And out of context with the conversation, which if I recall was about cassette tapes? :) :)
I think Clive Sinclair was using the date of the TMS graphics chip, which was released in 1979 and used in the TI99/4
maybe true, but you forgot that the TMS Graphics chip had at least a 5 year technological head start to every other solution used in home computers. But yes TMS graphics chips were used in many other home computers, as it offered many advantages over other solution, it had sprites, and used no RAM space in the 64K address space of either the Z80 or any other 8-bit CPU, it had its own dedicated 16K RAM. It wasn't until the Amiga till better solutions were used.
the TMS chips was rather limited but anyway better than the Spectrum ULA in terms of gfx performances. While not having any kind of hw scrolling it provides tile mode patterns/less limited colour clash and hw sprites.
@@martindejong3974 Not really. The TMS chip was marginally ahead of its time but didn't support bitmapped graphics. All transfers to/from graphics memory are via a single byte data register and another control register. This makes the update of backgrounds slow.
The other problemis that it only supported single colour sprites and you could have no more than four on any one scan line otherwise the extra ones would disappear. This would complomise any game design.
Also there's no sideways scrolling of backgrounds at less than 8 pixels. This made sideways scrolling games slow and very jerky.
So, by the time that MSX came out the C64 was ageneration or two ahead and the bit-mapped graphics on the Spectrum allowed far more flexibility.
Maybe he was - but he was still wrong :) :) Gotta love the salesman :)
The MSX had the TMS9918A, which was the newer revision from 1981 and added the 2 new graphic modes that the plain TMS9918 hadn't.
Looking forward for more MSX videos
More to come!
7:18
Though that this was a breadboard for a moment...
It's a specially designed vent to aid in dropping cups of tea onto power supplies... very clever ;)
And that video was released in the same week that Adrian Black received Middle East variant of MSX in mail call:)
Good week for MSX fans :)
I had Spectrum compatible, C64 and MSX (HitBit). By far, I loved and found MSX better than the others. Pity that Spectrum and C64 had more software library than MSX, but MSX I found to be a far better and powerful machine and system by far.
@Rooflesoft Games This is my personal opinion. Is how I perceived C64 and MSX. For C64 I had only the datasette; for MSX I had 720kb floppy and a regular tape recorder. For C64 I had games, for MSX I had Pascal, Microsoft Basic that was 98% QBasic. Both had Assembler but I knew some assembly from Spectrum (Z80) and was easier than C64. If I remember correctly, C64 and Spectrum relied heavily on PEEKs and POKEs, on MSX I didn´t used them (it was a CALL for asm subroutines?).
On MSX I made a Norton Commander clone and a PSpice like program. Also I managed ADC, DAC´s, a custom home-made data acquisition board, that gave me a voltmeter, frequency-meter and a controlled power source.
The colors were brighter on MSX than on C64 or Spectrum.
As I said, C64 MAY have been better than MSX 1 for everyone, but I found MSX 1 Better than C64.
I find myself wanting a HitBit and I'm 90% sure it's just because it sounds cool! :)
@@TheRetroShack The main problem is that the original peripherals are extremely hard to find. I had a 9 dot-matrix printer, 720k floppy. My HitBit was model 75P.
I've never had an MSX, but I do have an SVI-318, which is one of the precursors to the MSX!
EDIT: I've 'upgraded' mine so it should be compatible with the SVI-328, which you do mention in the video. :)
Very nice!
@@TheRetroShack Almost forgot I posted an Imgur album of it a while back: imgur.com/gallery/xFdUo
funny to see a Videopac/Odessey2 add between the 8-bit computer adds. Since it is a games console. Not a 8 bit computer, at least not without a basic expansion.
I have great memories playing on the MSX. A friend of mine had a Philips MSX 1, he had a few cartridges liek Nemesis, Vampire killer, F1-spirit and Metal Gear. Played it a lot.
Now i have few MSX1/2 computers and it is one of my favourite systems.
Check out the C7420 Home Computer Module :)
You missed a good one, but in Europe it was only popular in the Netherlands and Spain. A shame, it was supposed to the the PC equivalent for Home computers.
Yesterday I received my 5th MSX!, a Sony HB-75P to add to my collection, one of the few, not sure in the only MSX1 with a SCART out.
Think I may end up addicted to collecting these - is there an emotional support group for us? :)
@@TheRetroShack Yep. Msx.org
Forget the 512k mapper, if you can stretch to a Carnivore2, it has 1024k of useable RAM, built in sound cards FM-PAC and SCC, and a CF slot, far more useful, and works fine with the Toshiba MSX, I have tried it!
That may have to wait a while until the funds are there, but adding it to the shopping list definitely :)
In Brazil the MSX was sold as 'Expert XP-800' by a local company called 'Gradiente'. it had even the keyboard separated from the CPU: pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expert_XP-800 I had the luck of having one in the 80's! and yes, it was far better than my friend's sinclair ;-)
Thanks for watching and yes, I've become quite the fan :)
I've been a fan of ZX Spectrum since childhood and I love the hardware features and the platform's game library. But there is no possible comparison between a standard ZX Spectrum with 48k of RAM and a standard MSX 1 with 64k. A typical MSX runs any Spectrum game easily. The worst thing that happened, in conversions of titles from Spectrum to MSX, was that the adapted games were often a little slower due to the lack of optimization. However, the graphics and sounds of the conversions were the same or better than what was seen in Speccy. However, a Spectrum would simply never be able to run anything that even resembles the best games originally made for MSX, such as "Nemesis", "The Goonies", "Knightmare", "Zanac" or "The Castle". I love both platforms, but the hardware superiority of MSX is undeniable.
But, what about, no - wait, give me a second... How about... Nah, I got nuthin :) :)
I cut my programming & gaming chops on a Toshiba HX-10 back in the day. It did me fine on my way to a Computer Science degree. 10yo me loved it.