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The MSX was an an early attempt to establish a single standard in home computing.
It was designed by a company called ASCII in Co-operation with Microsoft who provided a
firmware extended version of Microsoft BASIC. Popular in Asian, South America and some
parts of Europe. It Could be exanded with many hardware devices which are common today
such as color printers, hard-disk controllers, modems, sound cartridges, MIDI interfaces,
video capturers, scanners, light-pens, pads, track-balls and RS232 interfaces. It also
had good graphical capabilites and sound which made it an ideal games platform.
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MSX 1 1983
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Sony HB-10P MSX 1 Shown
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The first versions of the msx was built by around 35 different companies including Sony,
Sony, Panasonic, Sanyo, JVC (Victor), Spectravideo, Toshiba, Canon, Casio,Fujitsu, Hitachi,
Pioneer, Mitsubishi, NEC, Philips, Oric and Radofin. Software came on disks, tapes,
soft cards and cartridges.
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MSX Standard 1
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CPU
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Zilog Z80A 3,579 MHz (8-bit)
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OS
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MicroSoft eXtended BASIC version 1.0
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DISPLAY
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256×192, 32 Sprites, 16kB Ram
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SOUND
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3 sound channels
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MSX 2 1985
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Sony HB-F1 MSX 2 Shown
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At the time the MSX 2 had some of the best features for any Home-computer.
With a new Video Display Processor the Yamaha V9938 and a resolution of 512x424 it
had some great graphics and found use as both a games machine and a decent graphics station.
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MSX Standard 2
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CPU
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Zilog Z80A 3,579 MHz (8-bit)
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OS
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MSX BASIC version 2.0 or 2.1
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DISPLAY
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512×212
Yamaha V9938
B backward compatible
64kB - 128kB
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SOUND
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3 sound channels
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NOTES
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Most MSX2 machines had built in disk drive
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MSX 2+ 1988
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MSX-2+ Panasonic A1-WX
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After 1986, Microsoft stopped supporting the MSX standard.
Interest in europe and other parts of the world was decreasing
so the MSX2+ was never manufactured and sold outside Japan.
Using all available MSX slots, you could have up to 48Mb RAM.
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MSX Standard 2+ |
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CPU
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Zilog Z80A 3,579 MHz (8-bit)
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OS
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MSX BASIC version 3.0
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DISPLAY
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256x212
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SOUND
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Yamaha V9958
9 channel FM synthesizer (8-bit). Not defined in the standard.
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MSX-2+ Panasonic A1-WX
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The MSX Turbo R is the last official MSX version produced.
Featured two CPUs the Z80(8 bits) and the R800 (16 bits).
Several Models were released by Panasonic who then dumped
the standard for another failed one the 3DO. Software developers
deserted to Nintendo Famicom systems.
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MSX Standard Turbo-R |
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CPU
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Z80 8bit 3.58MHz & R800 16bit 14.38 MHz
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OS
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MSX-DOS2 internally on ROM.
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DISPLAY
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Yamaha V9958
256×212
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SOUND
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12 channels sound processor, an auxiliar sound
processor.
Yamaha YM-2413 OPLL
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NOTES
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No tape recorder port
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MSX Games
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The MSX was quote a popular games machine with many games such as Metal Gear Solid 1 making
there first appearnce on the machine. Games came on a variety of formats including tape, disk,
carts and even laser disk.
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MSX GunFright
Ultimate Play the Game
The classic Spectrum Western Gun slinger with pantomine hourses
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Panasonic MSX Cart game Pairs. Box shown.
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