@@ukaszSkowerski I'm not much of a collector, either, mainly because I don't have the space. I also want all of the electronics/ mechanics I collect to be functional.
@@rommix0 For sure, absolutely a sad series of events, even beyond him losing his collection, most of the things in his collection are not made anymore for many years, some things that were probably rare or one of one many years ago when made to begin with, his collection was fairly large as well, so it's not just one less for others to collect but many thousands more than likely, a sad time for him and the community as well, although I am, and I'm sure everyone else is thankful he is ok, I'm fairly sure he is from my area too, which for some reason makes it a little closer to home in some odd way that really makes no sense to me, humans are so complicated and strange, I appreciate your time and effort! I hope everyone is having a great day or night?
In 1988 / 1989 the PC1 was sold along with the Amiga at 'Business to Business' in Makro (Like Costco but massive) UK. It was not sold as a competitor to the Amiga, but as a business machine, whereas the Amiga was sold as a games computer, hence it running game demos like 'Batman the Movie.'
We had an Olivetti typewriter in the office I used to work for. It was used constantly for almost 25 years. It was truly beautiful to look at as well as being a real "workhorse"
I love the aesthetics of many of the Japanese 80s home computers -- often a little busy but so purposeful and techy. The orange on black of that MSX is lovely.
Hi Adrian, hope you will soon be able to enjoy the FS-A1F. Some notes, apparently the capacitor situation got mixed up in my communication with Shahram, one of my friends noted that the missing color is due to not all the pins on the CXA chip being soldered to the HIC1 board. For the Gotek adapter, please make sure to connect the 26 pin ribbon cable correctly, it carries also 12V and connecting it up the wrong way might fry the Gotek and/or the mainboard, with the machine powered on you can probe where the 12V is and on the adapter board it will be on the BERG connector from the 26 pin. The upgraded ROM will remove the onboard applications, you can keep the original ROM but it can interfere with Nextor (MSX-DOS). Generally 128kB RAM (after the upgrade) is enough for playing games and running applications. Most games can be played with the keyboard. Use the cursors for directions, space for main trigger and M for secondary trigger. Some games will use Z, X, C for commands (like on PC-8801/PC-9801). MSX joysticks/joypads need 2 trigger buttons to be usable in games.
Wish the 26pin floppy adapter for A1-F was open source. Currently the only way to get one I guess to to track down the years old post about it and "message him" to send him money for one or something.
Hi from Japan! Happy to see MSX in your video! Many MSXes used to have 2 cartridge slots, and they can be used in various way just like C64 as all address/data buses were exposed to the slot, like simple RAM expansion, non-application ROM(mostly fonts), sound module like SCC from KONAMI/FM-PAC FM/NVRAM combo from Panasonic, modem/RS-232C, external floppy drive....there were so many kinds of cartridges and modern homebrew projects are still active today. Also, some games goes special mode when another specific game cart is inserted in 2nd slot.
What I really love about Olivetti is the design of their keyboards and calculators (I own two programmable Olivetti scientific calculators from the 80's). The colour coding of the function groups is well chosen, with good contrast and well legible fonts 😀.
FINALLY An Olivetti has arrived at your basement. As a collector of Olivetti computers myself the Olivetti Prodest PC1 is not yet in my collection #Olivetti
I just happened to see a video on TH-cam the other day with someone exploring an abandoned Olivetti factory in Italy and giving a bit of a history lesson.
North York or we should say its from Toronto, Ontario :) There is a Multicart for the MSX series of computers that does almost everything except upgrade to MSX2+ this is called the Carnivore and can use CF cards, use real 1.44mb floppies, memory mapper, sound etc . Its so cool how the retro community is give people this great experience other than emulation
Our first PC was an Olivetti, from the death knells era. PCS 44/C 486 SX/25 with the Sound Blaster 16 and 2x CD-ROM entertainment pack preinstalled, so a lot of Grolier and Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego. Upgraded with an AWE32, DX2/50 overdrive, and 8 MB RAM. It's where I learned about the demoscene, 3D Studio, and made tracker music. The motherboard had decent specs, I remember - Tseng ET4000 onboard, but only 512 KB RAM so a bit hampered for higher resolutions. But 3D Studio 3 had drivers for it :)
Oh hey, I have that same MSX2 machine. One of the cool things about that particular model is that you can upgrade it to MSX2+ specs, which is why I opted to get that particular machine. So now we know that there are at least 2 of these in the same metro area!
They both look amazing the design of the time is so cool. I never had an MSX Computer they where not very commen here in Germany but I always admired there design in the shop windows
The Olivetti PC1 was my first PC… love that machine! Yeah, it didn’t stand a chance against the Amiga, but at the time I didn’t know (took me a few years until I saw an Amiga), so I enjoyed gaming in it as if it was the best thing in the world. Really looking forward to watch your next video. There’s not enough content on TH-cam about this little machine…
I would love to see more of Olivetti PC1. I learned of this computer few months ago, when I was browsing some random websites, and researching various keyboard layouts. Would be nice to see more European stuff in general.
There so many cute and interesting MSX models, from tiny candy colored 16KB MSX 1 to professional grade MSX2 with digitizers, 2+ and of course the TurboR. Including tons of interesting audio chips and hw expansion. I loved programming for them.
Replying to myself: the DIN connectors are a cassete port and an analog RGB out (15 kHz). The RGB port follows the standard MSX Pinout, which you can easily find in the MSX Wiki. The batteries are for the real-time clock. I hope that the HIC1 board wasn't badly damaged by the caps, they can have some NASTY results. In the worst case scenario, I believe there is a clone board available. You can use Sega Genesis Gamepads on it, provided you build a little adapter called JoyMega, by FRS. It just reroutes some pins and uses a TTL chip to invert a signal. With it, you can even use all six buttons on compatible games.
Hi Adrian, love your video's. Brings back memories from the 80s and 90s when I fixed those computers and AV equipment. By the way, on the MSX2 computer. The connector between the printer- and the RGB connector is probably an tape recorder connector.
I love the MSX! It was very popular in Spain where it competed with the other 3 major 8-bit computers here (ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC and Commodore 64). It was truly a standard and was supported by big household appliance brands (Sony, Philips, Panasonic, Sanyo,...). In fact it was the only Japanese home computer that made it to the West (other Japanese computers which were successful in Japan were never sold outside the land of the rising sun: PC-88/98, FM-Towns, X68000,...). Although MSX was popular in many regions/countries worldwide (Europe, South America, Middle East, Japan, Korea, Russia,...) it is almost unknown in the US
Same here. I grew up with the MSX over here in the Netherlands. There doesn't seem to be much love for the MSX with TH-camrs and they don't get a lot of attention. But I have many fond memories of playing games on my MSX systems. There are a lot of fun games and the hardware seems quite reliable still. My Toshiba HX-10 still works just fine.
The first microcomputers that arrived in my country in quantity, in the first half of the 80s, were NEC series pc8100 and then pc9800. We loved the high res text and grapics. Algo most of the displays were japanese too
@@alexhofstee466 They were big in Latin America too, all those local brands popping up out of nowhere making MSX machines at really affordable prices(some even with CP/M)
Oh man! An Olivetti and an MSX2 in the same mail call video! I love my Sony HB-F1XDJ MSX2+ machine. There aren't many MSX2 users in Portland but maybe we can change that! I made up an RGB cable for mine and highly recommend it. (Or S-Video) It makes a huge difference especially in text mode. MSX-DOS is binary compatible with CP/M so you can try running some CP/M software off of the GoTek as well! I can't wait to see the main channel video!
@@anvz6 the MSX Pico provides additional RAM through a mapper so CP/M should have ample memory but getting to 128k on-board is as simple as adding a few more chips to the board. Rammy (and by extension, Adrian) have plenty of RAM chips to spare!
Here in Brazil Ollivetti is main known as typewriters (mechanical and electrical). Everyone that worked at office have one.Nice to hear that in sometimes produced computer!
Used work in a place where we created blueprints. Basically we would draw the part on a translucent kind of grease-proof paper in ink, and then you would take this down to the basement where you would lay it over a light sensitive paper and expose it to a bright light for a bit. Where the lines weren't the light sensitive paper would turn pale blue, and the lines dark blue. The slight fuzziness of the lines is caused by the bleeding of light onto the lines. Ultimately not something you wanted to leave in the sunlight, however the original drawings were kept and further blueprints from them could always be made.
Adrian checking out an Olivetti PC1 and having some classic Italian candies is like a dream come true! My father used to work at Olivetti in the late 80s and brought home a PCS 286, that's what started my passion for computers, and now there's one always sitting on my desk. Can't wait for the full video... but I didn't expect you to kill it first :D
Can't wait for the Olivetti video, the brand has a special place in my heart as my first PC was an Olivetti PCS 33 which had the weirdest power button I've ever seen. So hoping to see some wonky design decisions in a deeper dive to that machine. The strong brand design is clearly visible already in that case.
I'll be excited to see you work on the MSX2! I have one with the HIC1 daughterboard that I've needed to fix for over a year. The cap corrosion is so bad that the SMD resistors literally just fall off the board...
... oh and that hole on the MSX cartridge... It was meant so that the computer can prevent accidental insertion or removal of cartridge while power is on... (Not that I would have seen it implemented on any of my machines ever.) The other hole in bottom is to prevent that you can't insert the card wrong way around.
My opinion (not that it matters), open the car box. And then push the car around your desk making engine noises. Tire squeal noises are optional, but encouraged.
Hi Adrian, I am looking forward to see the Olivetti Prodest up and running as I used to have one back in the day! I was doing a lot of work on it with Wordstar, Lotus 123 and DBase III Plus. I had the 2 floppy Version with MSDOS 3.2. Played some CGA Games and many Point and click Adventure games Like Kings Quest, Monkey Island etc... By the way the second Floppy Slot could be populated with a Hard Disk which I could not afford at the time :) The good old days :):)
Great video as always. I'd rather prefer seeing repairs of the machines shown here than more C64s or Apples on the main channel. Mainly you already have a lot of those types of videos but few MSX or rare XT clones in comparison.
If you enjoy the MSX games, you can play them on your Nabu computer with some conversion. On the Nabu server, there is a library of available MSX titles.
Olivetti REALLY tried in Europe to compete, but they were always a year or two behind, and they were kind expensive for what you got. And Northern Europe were early adopters of Sinclair and Commodore, so Olivetti never made much of a dent in the home computer market, I do think they had some success in the word processing space until PC clones rolled in and crushed them.
Olivetti is an iconic brand in Italy and it's history is so interesting that some tv series were made (the history of the programma 101, or the way Adriano Olivetti brought the company in the modern era) … but unfortunately it really fell down hard and now there's a huge Olivetti factory that lies completely abandoned as a testimony of what once was a serious competitor for IBM or Apple that nobody remembers.
The two slots are for well anything you want. the MSX just have some pretty nifty memory "slots" to deal with expansions both internal and external, so you could for example add a disk drive to the system if didn't had one, could add a FM music cart, add more memory, there's even some wild bizarre cartridges that turn your MSX 1 into an MSX 2
The Zenith eazy pc is the computers I had in grade school. Little all in one computers. We had the higher end ones that came with one hdd and one floppy.
To solve the screwdriver bit problem you can with the MSX, cut a slot in the back of the screwdriver bit, you can then use a normal screwdriver to turn the bit in a deep narrow hole.
MSX standard allowed up to 4 slots and up to 4 subslots on each one. Slots just covers the 64 kb of address space of the z80 and divided in 4 banks of 16kb. The address space of 64 can be mapped with any combination of banks from the 16 possible slots. System rom and system ram are located on slots also. At least one slot is external via connector but in general there were 2 for leaving 1 for external disk drive and other for ROM software (game, language program, text editor, etc). In msx2 a memory mapper was added. This way only one slot can map an switch up to 64kb taken from a total of 1024kb max. Physical slot connectors has access to IO space and cartridges not only includes software but also hardware like sound generators, or any other devices. I'm 90's I made an EPROM programmer. If you wanted you could add a commodore SID chip there (the slot has an audio input for injecting sound that will be mixed with computer audio) In this old times, msx was like now PC compatible and commodore like apple.
At least in Germany, we had 220V until 1987. It got adjusted in steps to 230V. Since 2009 we have 230V +/- 10% at 50Hz, like most of the rest of Europe. So, all devices intended for use here have to be rated 230V, and should be able to handle up to 253V.
The "Olivetti Prodest PC1" was my first PC, it may have been a very successful machine if only Olivetti had been more courageous and had created a more modern machine ... insted they create an already obsolete machine (XT class with CGA graphics) because the case design is, as usual for Olivetti, awesome. In my opinion was a missed opportunity. At the time Olivetti owned Acorn computers, thus also his "Advanced RISC Machines" (ARM) division, so they might have imported in Italy the Archimedes that may have been a valid Amiga / Atari ST competitor ... and insted they decided to create this one, missed opportunity number two. P.S. Adrian, I really envy those t-shirts!
Adrian, the next time you need to boost your (U.S) voltage to 220-240, etc., use your Variac to lower your 122 VAC to whatever is needed to get voltages you want like the 220 VAC needed by the Olivetti.
in our schools from the second hald of the 80s to laste 90s we had lots of MSX. mainly Hitachi, Daewoo, Casio, Toshiba and Panasonic. the most common were the Panasonic CF-2700 I believe
Yeah the hole is indeed part of the MSX specification. but not many computers had an actual pin locking the cartridge. There are 2 pins on the cartridge slot that need to be shorted and together with a switch in the cartridge slot can turn off the machine during insertion or removal of the cartridge. This is used on more machines but the Panasonic FS-A1F has neither ;)
That Olivetti reminds me of the Amstrad PC20 and the Sinclair PC200 (which had a cool looking black design) that came out way too late and tried to compete with the Amiga 500 and Atari ST. A friend had the Amstrad PC20, it had GEM for a desktop environment but yeah was underpowered and only ran cga games. I think it was a good couple of hundred bucks cheaper than the Amiga 500 .
I am being donated an Olivetti TES 501. From 1976, I believe, it is a word processor utilizing 8" floppy disks and is built into a free-standing piece of furniture.
@@adriansdigitalbasement2 It's neat! It's still at the church, along with a whole bunch of stuff I'm supposed to get, and when I get it moved to Montgomery, I'll do a video on it. It powers up and appears to work, but I don't know how to work it LOL.
Our computer in middle school (1980) was an Olivetti programmable calculator. It had a big magnetic sheet (the size of a punch card) on which it stored programs. We had one game: Nim.
@@adriansdigitalbasement2 Or, it was that release from Olivetti that made rapid improvements possible. While I don't like to talk smack about companies, Olivetti seemed to not understand the computer market from the 80s forward. Just how Commodore stalled in the early 90s. Company culture does play a huge rile in innovation and risk taking.
So happy your enjoy f1 just like I do, my dad watched f1 on Anderstorp here in sweden in the 1976, they rolled out one car with 6 weels, great content as always!!
Yeah I've been into watching it for about 20 years now and it's amazing to see the pinnacle of motorsports racing. It's at least getting more popular in the US (with 3 races per season happening here now) so that's nice at least!
@adriansdigitalbasement2 I think the most important thing is that you get a decent driver a couple of years with a good personality, it is great with iconic racetracks like the one in Texas but a driver can rally the hole country for decades. Looking forward to the Panasonic computer on your main channel!
Yeah, I was going to say the same; it sounded just like electrical arcing. I don't know if at 120 V it sounds different and that's why Adrian didn't recognize it (or if he's never made sketchy connections himself) 😅.
I remember watching those races in the 1980s also as a teenn I got to ride in a race car formula B car and back then as a family we went to a lot races for stock and dragsters !
Over here in Germany, my house still runs on 220V measured in an outlet. Officially its 230V, but that might just be a spec change to allow the 240VAC of Great Britain and that's all there ever was.
Those Galatine sweets look and sound very like the Milk Bottles we have in England, very nice indeed. The goleador look like a variation on Cola Bottles we have in the UK, which are really nice and addictive.
Yes, and no: cola bottles are very similar to goleadors, but the latter have a harder consistency. Still chewy, but not soft. They also sell them in a fruit variation (green and red coloured, I reckon lime/strawberry) and in many other flavours, including licorice.
@@cristianpavan3071 Ahh ok thanks for the correction, interesting that things do vary a little from nation to nation. I nearly said the other fruit bag in the video was like Opal Fruits, but I could see they were different after a closer look.
@EgoShredder fruit-tella has a "juicy chews" version, which is similar to opal fruits/starburst. Not my favourite, though! I believe they sell them in every UK supermarket for around £1/1.50
I rescued a M24 motherboard about a year ago. Is waiting for restoration. Didnt found the videocard , nor the backplane but I think any ISA raiser will do
Today it may seem a bit weird that many MSX computers had more than one expansion slot as we have today all these "all in one" cards and this model has even internal disk drive, but back in time it was common that you had ie. SCSI or IDE in one slot, music expansion in another, then maybe RS-232, MIDI, RAM expansion or another sound card on third slot and so on... and if you wanted to play a cartridge game it many times meant you needed to first disconnect something, if you didn't have a free slot. Even the card you have divides the slot logically to 4 slots to fit all the functionality in... So practically all the reasons were same as with some PC:s that had more than one ISA-slot although i.e. external video cards were never really popular on MSX. Anyway the standard allows you to i.e. plug up to 4 disk controllers with up to 8 drives to the system at a same time. The little difference is that slots on MSX are numbered, so you don't need to play with dip switches as is the case with PCs.
The lines and grass on the F1 car box floor look like pole position graphics. It's better with those in place. Don't separate it from that, even if you do open it.
Recently I saw myself squinting on a zoom call and I realized it was time to get my eyes checked. What a world of difference! It's with nothing but love and respect that I suggest you do the same.
Oh I see the eye doctor every year -- my issue is shooting video my top down camera is large and in front of my face, so I have to sit pretty far back from the monitor which makes it harder to read fine text.
Got a really quick glance at the video and with that microphone pulling the neck line of the shirt down and the white t-shirt, for a second looked like a clerical collar! Rev Black, back with the Super Mini MailCall!
Yep. You nailed the pronunciation for Galatine. They are kind of an acquired taste though. 😀 I don't think I have seen anything similar around the world. Also, the Function keys on the Olivetti came in that shadow of yellow from the factory.
shadow => shade 'shadow' what you get when something blocks the light; A 'shade' (of a colour) is a small variation in it, such as light green to olive green. It doesn't necessarily mean darker. [to be confusing You can be 'in the shade', meaning you are within a shadow cast by something else]
indeed. I had the feeling that something was off when I wrote the comment. On the other hand, English is only the third language I learned, so I'm sure there is still room for improvement.
![Adrian's Digital Basement ][](http://yt3.ggpht.com/ytc/AIdro_k7CrQRe71qN6c0Ua7A1P_I8KkxjqLa70u0zYeCvdvnKw=s48-c-k-c0x00ffffff-no-rj)
"I'm really not into collectibles" says the man hoarding computers and fixing them 😅
Wellllll. At least he ain't Clint.
I still feel bad for what happened to his collection after the hurricane.
Computers are not (just) collectibles!
@@ukaszSkowerski I'm not much of a collector, either, mainly because I don't have the space. I also want all of the electronics/ mechanics I collect to be functional.
@@douro20 as we all do :)
@@rommix0 For sure, absolutely a sad series of events, even beyond him losing his collection, most of the things in his collection are not made anymore for many years, some things that were probably rare or one of one many years ago when made to begin with, his collection was fairly large as well, so it's not just one less for others to collect but many thousands more than likely, a sad time for him and the community as well, although I am, and I'm sure everyone else is thankful he is ok, I'm fairly sure he is from my area too, which for some reason makes it a little closer to home in some odd way that really makes no sense to me, humans are so complicated and strange, I appreciate your time and effort! I hope everyone is having a great day or night?
In 1988 / 1989 the PC1 was sold along with the Amiga at 'Business to Business' in Makro (Like Costco but massive) UK. It was not sold as a competitor to the Amiga, but as a business machine, whereas the Amiga was sold as a games computer, hence it running game demos like 'Batman the Movie.'
This grew into my favorite channel in no time.
We had an Olivetti typewriter in the office I used to work for. It was used constantly for almost 25 years. It was truly beautiful to look at as well as being a real "workhorse"
I love the aesthetics of many of the Japanese 80s home computers -- often a little busy but so purposeful and techy. The orange on black of that MSX is lovely.
Hi Adrian, hope you will soon be able to enjoy the FS-A1F. Some notes, apparently the capacitor situation got mixed up in my communication with Shahram, one of my friends noted that the missing color is due to not all the pins on the CXA chip being soldered to the HIC1 board. For the Gotek adapter, please make sure to connect the 26 pin ribbon cable correctly, it carries also 12V and connecting it up the wrong way might fry the Gotek and/or the mainboard, with the machine powered on you can probe where the 12V is and on the adapter board it will be on the BERG connector from the 26 pin. The upgraded ROM will remove the onboard applications, you can keep the original ROM but it can interfere with Nextor (MSX-DOS). Generally 128kB RAM (after the upgrade) is enough for playing games and running applications.
Most games can be played with the keyboard. Use the cursors for directions, space for main trigger and M for secondary trigger. Some games will use Z, X, C for commands (like on PC-8801/PC-9801). MSX joysticks/joypads need 2 trigger buttons to be usable in games.
Wish the 26pin floppy adapter for A1-F was open source. Currently the only way to get one I guess to to track down the years old post about it and "message him" to send him money for one or something.
How nice is the Panasonic. The GUI is lovely. Looking forward to seeing the Olivetti too.
Carts in MSX were basically on separate IO addresses so you could use them to expand the hardware.
As an Olivetti M20 and M200 fan, I’m happy to see an Olivetti computer on your bench!
Hi from Japan! Happy to see MSX in your video!
Many MSXes used to have 2 cartridge slots, and they can be used in various way just like C64 as all address/data buses were exposed to the slot,
like simple RAM expansion, non-application ROM(mostly fonts), sound module like SCC from KONAMI/FM-PAC FM/NVRAM combo from Panasonic,
modem/RS-232C, external floppy drive....there were so many kinds of cartridges and modern homebrew projects are still active today.
Also, some games goes special mode when another specific game cart is inserted in 2nd slot.
Oh my god! I still have today a olivetti pc1 dual diskette drives. My very first computer in 1992. Still working today!
What I really love about Olivetti is the design of their keyboards and calculators (I own two programmable Olivetti scientific calculators from the 80's). The colour coding of the function groups is well chosen, with good contrast and well legible fonts 😀.
FINALLY An Olivetti has arrived at your basement. As a collector of Olivetti computers myself the Olivetti Prodest PC1 is not yet in my collection #Olivetti
I don't know why but I'm so so happy Adrian is an F1 fan.
I smiled too when he mentioned that he watched it all including sprints and practices etc. My wife thinks I'm the only person to do so lol
Me too!
@@KarlDavies-dn3eghey one more here, I also watch all, including free practices. Looks like we are not alone 😂
And me : ) followed since the nigel Mansel era. V10s and Schumacher are my favourite times.
I just happened to see a video on TH-cam the other day with someone exploring an abandoned Olivetti factory in Italy and giving a bit of a history lesson.
North York or we should say its from Toronto, Ontario :) There is a Multicart for the MSX series of computers that does almost everything except upgrade to MSX2+ this is called the Carnivore and can use CF cards, use real 1.44mb floppies, memory mapper, sound etc . Its so cool how the retro community is give people this great experience other than emulation
Our first PC was an Olivetti, from the death knells era. PCS 44/C 486 SX/25 with the Sound Blaster 16 and 2x CD-ROM entertainment pack preinstalled, so a lot of Grolier and Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego. Upgraded with an AWE32, DX2/50 overdrive, and 8 MB RAM. It's where I learned about the demoscene, 3D Studio, and made tracker music. The motherboard had decent specs, I remember - Tseng ET4000 onboard, but only 512 KB RAM so a bit hampered for higher resolutions. But 3D Studio 3 had drivers for it :)
Olivetti has been an icon of industrial design since the end of the war.
Their office products look years ahead of when they were manufactured…
If you Google "Olivetti showroom" and look at the images, it's like looking at today's Apple stores, but in black and white.
Yes, the MSX-Pico emulates all of the sound addons made for the MSX (Dual PSG, FM-PAC and Konami SCC).
Oh hey, I have that same MSX2 machine. One of the cool things about that particular model is that you can upgrade it to MSX2+ specs, which is why I opted to get that particular machine.
So now we know that there are at least 2 of these in the same metro area!
They both look amazing the design of the time is so cool. I never had an MSX Computer they where not very commen here in Germany but I always admired there design in the shop windows
The Olivetti PC1 was my first PC… love that machine! Yeah, it didn’t stand a chance against the Amiga, but at the time I didn’t know (took me a few years until I saw an Amiga), so I enjoyed gaming in it as if it was the best thing in the world. Really looking forward to watch your next video. There’s not enough content on TH-cam about this little machine…
I would love to see more of Olivetti PC1. I learned of this computer few months ago, when I was browsing some random websites, and researching various keyboard layouts. Would be nice to see more European stuff in general.
There so many cute and interesting MSX models, from tiny candy colored 16KB MSX 1 to professional grade MSX2 with digitizers, 2+ and of course the TurboR. Including tons of interesting audio chips and hw expansion. I loved programming for them.
Great to see an MSX! I have the predecessor of your machine (FS-A1), it is a great, reliable little computer.
Replying to myself: the DIN connectors are a cassete port and an analog RGB out (15 kHz). The RGB port follows the standard MSX Pinout, which you can easily find in the MSX Wiki.
The batteries are for the real-time clock. I hope that the HIC1 board wasn't badly damaged by the caps, they can have some NASTY results. In the worst case scenario, I believe there is a clone board available.
You can use Sega Genesis Gamepads on it, provided you build a little adapter called JoyMega, by FRS. It just reroutes some pins and uses a TTL chip to invert a signal. With it, you can even use all six buttons on compatible games.
I love these unboxing videos and am quite excited to see the main channel videos on both of these computers!!
Love the range of MSX computers, havent got one my self, looking forward to see you fixing it.
Excellent SMMC with the MSX, and now looking forward to the main channel detailed video on the MSX!
Loved to see a MSX... It was quite popular in Brazil. Try playing King's Valley. Love that game. Regards from your fan in Curitiba, 🇧🇷! 😊
Love to see more of the Olivetti PC1
Hi Adrian, love your video's. Brings back memories from the 80s and 90s when I fixed those computers and AV equipment. By the way, on the MSX2 computer. The connector between the printer- and the RGB connector is probably an tape recorder connector.
I love the MSX! It was very popular in Spain where it competed with the other 3 major 8-bit computers here (ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC and Commodore 64). It was truly a standard and was supported by big household appliance brands (Sony, Philips, Panasonic, Sanyo,...). In fact it was the only Japanese home computer that made it to the West (other Japanese computers which were successful in Japan were never sold outside the land of the rising sun: PC-88/98, FM-Towns, X68000,...). Although MSX was popular in many regions/countries worldwide (Europe, South America, Middle East, Japan, Korea, Russia,...) it is almost unknown in the US
Same here. I grew up with the MSX over here in the Netherlands. There doesn't seem to be much love for the MSX with TH-camrs and they don't get a lot of attention. But I have many fond memories of playing games on my MSX systems. There are a lot of fun games and the hardware seems quite reliable still. My Toshiba HX-10 still works just fine.
The first microcomputers that arrived in my country in quantity, in the first half of the 80s, were NEC series pc8100 and then pc9800. We loved the high res text and grapics.
Algo most of the displays were japanese too
Maybe next weeK I ll be buying a Phiilips MSX2
@@alexhofstee466 They were big in Latin America too, all those local brands popping up out of nowhere making MSX machines at really affordable prices(some even with CP/M)
I did not know you are a F1 fan. That's cool. Been a fan myself for 40 years now
Oh man! An Olivetti and an MSX2 in the same mail call video! I love my Sony HB-F1XDJ MSX2+ machine. There aren't many MSX2 users in Portland but maybe we can change that! I made up an RGB cable for mine and highly recommend it. (Or S-Video) It makes a huge difference especially in text mode. MSX-DOS is binary compatible with CP/M so you can try running some CP/M software off of the GoTek as well! I can't wait to see the main channel video!
The Panasonic FS-A1F has the same 8 pin DIN connector for RGB as the Sony HB-F1XDJ. BTW the other 8 pin DIN is for a cassette interface.
CP/M will need the ram to be upgraded to at least 128kb
@@anvz6 the MSX Pico provides additional RAM through a mapper so CP/M should have ample memory but getting to 128k on-board is as simple as adding a few more chips to the board. Rammy (and by extension, Adrian) have plenty of RAM chips to spare!
Here in Brazil Ollivetti is main known as typewriters (mechanical and electrical). Everyone that worked at office have one.Nice to hear that in sometimes produced computer!
I'm glad you loved Galatine - the only downside is that they're addictive 😁
Used work in a place where we created blueprints. Basically we would draw the part on a translucent kind of grease-proof paper in ink, and then you would take this down to the basement where you would lay it over a light sensitive paper and expose it to a bright light for a bit. Where the lines weren't the light sensitive paper would turn pale blue, and the lines dark blue. The slight fuzziness of the lines is caused by the bleeding of light onto the lines.
Ultimately not something you wanted to leave in the sunlight, however the original drawings were kept and further blueprints from them could always be made.
Adrian checking out an Olivetti PC1 and having some classic Italian candies is like a dream come true! My father used to work at Olivetti in the late 80s and brought home a PCS 286, that's what started my passion for computers, and now there's one always sitting on my desk. Can't wait for the full video... but I didn't expect you to kill it first :D
Loved the video
Can't wait for the Olivetti video, the brand has a special place in my heart as my first PC was an Olivetti PCS 33 which had the weirdest power button I've ever seen. So hoping to see some wonky design decisions in a deeper dive to that machine. The strong brand design is clearly visible already in that case.
heyo from Texas back at ya.
I'll be excited to see you work on the MSX2! I have one with the HIC1 daughterboard that I've needed to fix for over a year. The cap corrosion is so bad that the SMD resistors literally just fall off the board...
... oh and that hole on the MSX cartridge... It was meant so that the computer can prevent accidental insertion or removal of cartridge while power is on... (Not that I would have seen it implemented on any of my machines ever.) The other hole in bottom is to prevent that you can't insert the card wrong way around.
The BMW M12 motor in the Brabham BT55 was pushing almost 1500hp in quali trim. Four cylinder turbo monster.
My opinion (not that it matters), open the car box. And then push the car around your desk making engine noises. Tire squeal noises are optional, but encouraged.
I'm really eager to see a video about the KC85 coming soon!
Hi Adrian, I am looking forward to see the Olivetti Prodest up and running as I used to have one back in the day! I was doing a lot of work on it with Wordstar, Lotus 123 and DBase III Plus.
I had the 2 floppy Version with MSDOS 3.2. Played some CGA Games and many Point and click Adventure games Like Kings Quest, Monkey Island etc... By the way the second Floppy Slot could be populated with a Hard Disk which I could not afford at the time :) The good old days :):)
Looking forwards seeing that msx2 computer restored! And how the pi Pico cartridge performs!
Olivetti branded systems were also sold in Australia. Aunty had one in the 90s. It wasn't cheap if I recall correctly.
Great video as always.
I'd rather prefer seeing repairs of the machines shown here than more C64s or Apples on the main channel. Mainly you already have a lot of those types of videos but few MSX or rare XT clones in comparison.
If you enjoy the MSX games, you can play them on your Nabu computer with some conversion. On the Nabu server, there is a library of available MSX titles.
37:31 the connector between printer and RGB is labelled kasetto in katakana, so it's most likely for a cassette drive
Olivetti REALLY tried in Europe to compete, but they were always a year or two behind, and they were kind expensive for what you got. And Northern Europe were early adopters of Sinclair and Commodore, so Olivetti never made much of a dent in the home computer market, I do think they had some success in the word processing space until PC clones rolled in and crushed them.
I love the chunky, techy 80s aesthetic of that MSX. Goes right in line with my nostalgia for blocky squarebody pickup trucks and G1 Transformers. ✌️
Olivetti is an iconic brand in Italy and it's history is so interesting that some tv series were made (the history of the programma 101, or the way Adriano Olivetti brought the company in the modern era) … but unfortunately it really fell down hard and now there's a huge Olivetti factory that lies completely abandoned as a testimony of what once was a serious competitor for IBM or Apple that nobody remembers.
The two slots are for well anything you want. the MSX just have some pretty nifty memory "slots" to deal with expansions both internal and external, so you could for example add a disk drive to the system if didn't had one, could add a FM music cart, add more memory, there's even some wild bizarre cartridges that turn your MSX 1 into an MSX 2
Loving the design on both of these computers! Can't wait to see them get all fixed up in main channel vids!
The Zenith eazy pc is the computers I had in grade school. Little all in one computers. We had the higher end ones that came with one hdd and one floppy.
To solve the screwdriver bit problem you can with the MSX, cut a slot in the back of the screwdriver bit, you can then use a normal screwdriver to turn the bit in a deep narrow hole.
MSX standard allowed up to 4 slots and up to 4 subslots on each one. Slots just covers the 64 kb of address space of the z80 and divided in 4 banks of 16kb.
The address space of 64 can be mapped with any combination of banks from the 16 possible slots.
System rom and system ram are located on slots also.
At least one slot is external via connector but in general there were 2 for leaving 1 for external disk drive and other for ROM software (game, language program, text editor, etc).
In msx2 a memory mapper was added. This way only one slot can map an switch up to 64kb taken from a total of 1024kb max.
Physical slot connectors has access to IO space and cartridges not only includes software but also hardware like sound generators, or any other devices. I'm 90's I made an EPROM programmer.
If you wanted you could add a commodore SID chip there (the slot has an audio input for injecting sound that will be mixed with computer audio)
In this old times, msx was like now PC compatible and commodore like apple.
At least in Germany, we had 220V until 1987. It got adjusted in steps to 230V. Since 2009 we have 230V +/- 10% at 50Hz, like most of the rest of Europe. So, all devices intended for use here have to be rated 230V, and should be able to handle up to 253V.
Thanks for the information
The "Olivetti Prodest PC1" was my first PC, it may have been a very successful machine if only Olivetti had been more courageous and had created a more modern machine ... insted they create an already obsolete machine (XT class with CGA graphics) because the case design is, as usual for Olivetti, awesome. In my opinion was a missed opportunity.
At the time Olivetti owned Acorn computers, thus also his "Advanced RISC Machines" (ARM) division, so they might have imported in Italy the Archimedes that may have been a valid Amiga / Atari ST competitor ... and insted they decided to create this one, missed opportunity number two.
P.S. Adrian, I really envy those t-shirts!
Adrian, the next time you need to boost your (U.S) voltage to 220-240, etc., use your Variac to lower your 122 VAC to whatever is needed to get voltages you want like the 220 VAC needed by the Olivetti.
in our schools from the second hald of the 80s to laste 90s we had lots of MSX. mainly Hitachi, Daewoo, Casio, Toshiba and Panasonic. the most common were the Panasonic CF-2700 I believe
the hole is necessary for some msx machines, it's for locking the cart in while powered on or for cutting the power if you remove it while powered up
Yeah the hole is indeed part of the MSX specification. but not many computers had an actual pin locking the cartridge. There are 2 pins on the cartridge slot that need to be shorted and together with a switch in the cartridge slot can turn off the machine during insertion or removal of the cartridge. This is used on more machines but the Panasonic FS-A1F has neither ;)
That Olivetti reminds me of the Amstrad PC20 and the Sinclair PC200 (which had a cool looking black design) that came out way too late and tried to compete with the Amiga 500 and Atari ST. A friend had the Amstrad PC20, it had GEM for a desktop environment but yeah was underpowered and only ran cga games. I think it was a good couple of hundred bucks cheaper than the Amiga 500 .
4:26 Who else misses the candy reviews???
If you put the primary mains winding in parallel (they're currently in series) then it should function as 120V.
You must have enjoyed Max's drive in the wet in Brazil last weekend. It was great to see the Alpine drivers on the podium as well.
I'm looking forward to the videos featuring this msx and it's Pico board. Something new for us to sink out proverbial teeth into.
The PAUSE button might be accessed by pressing Ctrl+SCROLL LOCK (it says BREAK on it), or perhaps with Ctrl+NUM LOCK.
I am being donated an Olivetti TES 501. From 1976, I believe, it is a word processor utilizing 8" floppy disks and is built into a free-standing piece of furniture.
And I bet the word processor and the furniture was extremely stylish and awesome looking!
@@adriansdigitalbasement2 It's neat! It's still at the church, along with a whole bunch of stuff I'm supposed to get, and when I get it moved to Montgomery, I'll do a video on it. It powers up and appears to work, but I don't know how to work it LOL.
Our computer in middle school (1980) was an Olivetti programmable calculator. It had a big magnetic sheet (the size of a punch card) on which it stored programs. We had one game: Nim.
Super Mini Mail Call: Wedge Edition. 😉
Olivetti sold PCs in Australia too. I can't remember the model but one of them with a 1.44" floppy drive was able to format DD discs as HD (1.44).
The PC1 was my first computer
I've heard that pop-pop-pop you had when undoing the screws on the Panasonic.
Time to get yourself some JIS screwdrivers!
Quite incredible to think Olivetti owned and controlled ARM until the mid 90s, and then they let it go.
Yeah just amazing to think where ARM is now. Certainly a huge lost opportunity!
@@adriansdigitalbasement2 Or, it was that release from Olivetti that made rapid improvements possible. While I don't like to talk smack about companies, Olivetti seemed to not understand the computer market from the 80s forward. Just how Commodore stalled in the early 90s. Company culture does play a huge rile in innovation and risk taking.
38:48 even Yamaha, the synthesizer company made MSX computers. They were used for midi sequencing before the Atari ST took over that market.
Olivetti were used for television on screen titling of sports events
So happy your enjoy f1 just like I do, my dad watched f1 on Anderstorp here in sweden in the 1976, they rolled out one car with 6 weels, great content as always!!
Yeah I've been into watching it for about 20 years now and it's amazing to see the pinnacle of motorsports racing. It's at least getting more popular in the US (with 3 races per season happening here now) so that's nice at least!
@adriansdigitalbasement2 I think the most important thing is that you get a decent driver a couple of years with a good personality, it is great with iconic racetracks like the one in Texas but a driver can rally the hole country for decades. Looking forward to the Panasonic computer on your main channel!
that scratching noise could simply be loose connection under that electrical tape, it was probably twisted and taped and oxidized.
Yeah, I was going to say the same; it sounded just like electrical arcing. I don't know if at 120 V it sounds different and that's why Adrian didn't recognize it (or if he's never made sketchy connections himself) 😅.
Watch out, those Galatine cause addiction.
Yeah -- they are gone, that was the first package of candy to be eaten entirely. :-)
@@adriansdigitalbasement2 I swear I heard you shout, "Buonissimo!"
Oh, olivetti. A lot of the dot matrix printers used in retail and accounting (invoices and stuff) were olivetti ones here up until mid 2000s.
A school I went to used to have Olivetti (mostly) and a couple of AT&T (re-badges Olivetti's)
I remember watching those races in the 1980s also as a teenn I got to ride in a race car formula B car and back then as a family we went to a lot races for stock and dragsters !
Over here in Germany, my house still runs on 220V measured in an outlet.
Officially its 230V, but that might just be a spec change to allow the 240VAC of Great Britain and that's all there ever was.
Those Galatine sweets look and sound very like the Milk Bottles we have in England, very nice indeed.
The goleador look like a variation on Cola Bottles we have in the UK, which are really nice and addictive.
Yes, and no: cola bottles are very similar to goleadors, but the latter have a harder consistency. Still chewy, but not soft. They also sell them in a fruit variation (green and red coloured, I reckon lime/strawberry) and in many other flavours, including licorice.
@@cristianpavan3071 Ahh ok thanks for the correction, interesting that things do vary a little from nation to nation. I nearly said the other fruit bag in the video was like Opal Fruits, but I could see they were different after a closer look.
@EgoShredder fruit-tella has a "juicy chews" version, which is similar to opal fruits/starburst. Not my favourite, though! I believe they sell them in every UK supermarket for around £1/1.50
The Yamaha V6355D video controller can control either an LCD or a CRT.
The Olivetti M24 (And commodore pc10) was my entry into the PC world
I have an AT&T 6300 I need to get onto the main channel too. So really I have two Olivettis in the house!
I rescued a M24 motherboard about a year ago. Is waiting for restoration. Didnt found the videocard , nor the backplane but I think any ISA raiser will do
When you get candy from Europe, check the back of the bag! Quite often there is an ingredients list in English.
Today it may seem a bit weird that many MSX computers had more than one expansion slot as we have today all these "all in one" cards and this model has even internal disk drive, but back in time it was common that you had ie. SCSI or IDE in one slot, music expansion in another, then maybe RS-232, MIDI, RAM expansion or another sound card on third slot and so on... and if you wanted to play a cartridge game it many times meant you needed to first disconnect something, if you didn't have a free slot. Even the card you have divides the slot logically to 4 slots to fit all the functionality in... So practically all the reasons were same as with some PC:s that had more than one ISA-slot although i.e. external video cards were never really popular on MSX. Anyway the standard allows you to i.e. plug up to 4 disk controllers with up to 8 drives to the system at a same time. The little difference is that slots on MSX are numbered, so you don't need to play with dip switches as is the case with PCs.
I’d love to see Adrian get into Japanese PCs. There’s a lot of dead X68000s out there that need repairs!
The lines and grass on the F1 car box floor look like pole position graphics. It's better with those in place. Don't separate it from that, even if you do open it.
Recently I saw myself squinting on a zoom call and I realized it was time to get my eyes checked. What a world of difference! It's with nothing but love and respect that I suggest you do the same.
Oh I see the eye doctor every year -- my issue is shooting video my top down camera is large and in front of my face, so I have to sit pretty far back from the monitor which makes it harder to read fine text.
I have a Prodest PC1, I only really wanted it for the case, but never got around to taking it a part, I'll probably try and upgrade it some how
Got a really quick glance at the video and with that microphone pulling the neck line of the shirt down and the white t-shirt, for a second looked like a clerical collar! Rev Black, back with the Super Mini MailCall!
Hahaha! No it's just it's getting colder so I'm starting to put on layers of clothes to stay warm :-)
22:00 big agree on hating useless ai features
Yep. You nailed the pronunciation for Galatine. They are kind of an acquired taste though. 😀
I don't think I have seen anything similar around the world.
Also, the Function keys on the Olivetti came in that shadow of yellow from the factory.
shadow => shade
'shadow' what you get when something blocks the light;
A 'shade' (of a colour) is a small variation in it, such as light green to olive green. It doesn't necessarily mean darker.
[to be confusing You can be 'in the shade', meaning you are within a shadow cast by something else]
indeed. I had the feeling that something was off when I wrote the comment. On the other hand, English is only the third language I learned, so I'm sure there is still room for improvement.
Well, if you don't keep up with the Commodore, the Commodore is DEFINITELY going to keep up with you.