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- Nathaniel Tolbert
- Matt Barton
Mark plays.... MSX
MSX was the name of a standardized home computer architecture in the 1980s. It was a Microsoft-led attempt to create a unified standard among computer companies. MSX-based machines were a rarity in the United States and Britain, but they were very popular in other parts of the world like Asia, Australia, Europe (especially the Netherlands and Belgium) and Brazil. - Read more to view video.
In this two part video I have connected my NMS 8250 to the TV card in my PC and created some footage of MSX1 and MSX2 games that I own. Basically non-scripted and ad hoc. On the MSX system quite a few console games came out - even ones you perhaps wouldn't expect on this platform.
The MSX platform and the Colecovision platform are actually quite similar as are other home computer systems of that era - for example the Spectravideo SV-328 machines were not 100 % MSX compatible but close cousins, although they claimed to be MSX compatible. A few computer savvy kids actually 'converted' MSX games for use on the Spectravideo systems by using floppy disks and loading a MSX bios combined with MSX game-code from those. This technique was also used on native MSX machines to load 'cracked' cartridge roms.
Spectravideo later launched the SV-728 which was a 100% MSX machine.
MSX 1
Philips MSX, Model VG-8020
* Processor: Zilog Z80A running at 3.58 MHz
* ROM: 32 KB: BIOS (16 KB) & MSX BASIC V1.0 (16 KB)
* RAM: 8 KB minimum, most machines provided either 32K or 64K, machines with 128 KB exist
* Video Display Processor: Texas Instruments TMS9918 family: Video RAM: 16 KB, Text modes: 40×24 and 32×24, Resolution: 256×192 (16 colours), Sprites: 32, 1 colour, max 4 per horizontal line.
* Sound chip: General Instrument AY-3-8910 (PSG)
MSX 2
* Processor: Zilog Z80A running at 3.58 MHz
* ROM: 48 KB: BIOS + Extended BIOS (32 KB), MSX BASIC V2.0 or V2.1 (16 KB), DiskROM (16 KB) (optional, common), MSX-Audio BIOS (32 KB), (optional, no machines are known with this BIOS built in)
* RAM: 64 KB minimum, commonly 128 KB in Europe, 64 KB on Japanese computers, machines with up to 512 KB were made, Memory mapped (4 MB (MiB)/slot max) (optional). The effect of attribute clash when using the old 256x192 Highres mode of MSX 1, (which was less severe than for example the Spectrum, but still a nuisance). Later MSX models added new video modes without this problem.
* Video Display Processor: Yamaha V9938 (a.k.a. MSX-Video) Supports all MSX video modes plus:Increased video RAM: 128 KB (sometimes 64 KB or 192 KB), New text mode: 80×24, New video modes without the attribute clash of MSX 1, (a problem shared by several other home computers of the era). See the picture on the right showing an example of the attribute clash of MSX 1, New resolutions: 512×212 (16 colours out of 512) and 256×212 (256 colours), More and more advanced sprites: 32, 16 colours, max 8 per horizontal line, Hardware acceleration for copy, line, fill, etc., Interlacing to double vertical resolution, A vertical scroll register
* Sound chip: Yamaha YM2149 (PSG)
* Clock chip: Ricoh RP5C01 (or compatible)
* 3.5" Floppy disk drive is common
Comments
Based on extensive research and monitoring of the marketplace, the only MSX computer I could find ever released in the US was from Yamaha, and that was promoted and sold as a "music" (MIDI) computer, primarily in music stores. I have several Yamaha CX5M Music Computers, which are based on the MSX1 standard. I have a Japanese Sony HB-F1XD as my MSX2 system.
It's funny, but Electronic Games, during its first run, ran a lengthy article on the MSX "invasion", which never came. Probably the US crash, rise of the Commodore 64 and release of the GUI-based systems nixed any such invasion. Obviously, with Japan not having much of a computer market and having a preference for Japanese-sourced product, MSX not only stood a chance but thrived.
Obviously Microsoft played a huge role in establishing the MSX standard, but I've always read that the Spectravideo SV-328 (again, which I have several of) was sort of the prototype for the standard, which seems to make perfect sense. Obviously since it was released before the MSX standard was established it's incompatible, but it's very, very close (the SV-318 featured less memory and a chiclet keyboard, so it's good that the big brother was used as the base model standard).
Books!
Bill Loguidice, Managing Director | Armchair Arcade, Inc.
My cousin Ron and I would get MSX games up and running on the Spectravideo SV-328, only MSX1 games though. The Spectravideo truly was the MSX1 godfather in a way.
I think because in Japan most games were sold on cartridges and also tapes the MSX systems - with their compatible joystick ports - were basically colecovision-like-consoles with a keyboard at first. Flying off the shelves. In a way they were better than the C64 and the ZX Spectrum when it came to storing information on the modern 3.5" floppy disks (only 720Kb DS or 360Kb though)
Xbox 360: Lactobacillus P | Wii: 8151 3435 8469 3138
Armchair arcade Editor | Pixellator | www.markvergeer.nl
Funny enough, the MSX1 machines had the same video processor that the TI-99/4a had, albeit one for PAL instead of NTSC. The sound chip is very similar as well, enough that one 99'er wrote a conversion program to convert music files with uncanny accuracy.
The MSX programmers really figured out how to push the video chip to its limits; the Konami games in particular were well known for it. I think the Z80 processor was a little better designed for it as well. Since it was a native 8-bit processor, it didn't have the multiplexing issues the TI has.
The Yamaha 9938/58 chips that went into the MSX2 line were actually borrowed by 99'ers to create 80-column display cards and upgrades. The Geneve 9640 upgrade also used it.
Adamantyr
The MSX machines weren't based around PAL, though Adamantyr, but NTSC. While there were PAL-based MSX systems, there were far more NTSC ones. Can you clarify what you mean?
Despite different processors, I often consider the TI-99/4a and Tomy Tutor in the same class as Spectravideo, MSX, ColecoVision/Adam and the Sega SG/SC-series because they all had such similar video and audio capabilities.
Books!
Bill Loguidice, Managing Director | Armchair Arcade, Inc.
The MSX machines weren't based around PAL, though Adamantyr, but NTSC. While there were PAL-based MSX systems, there were far more NTSC ones. Can you clarify what you mean?
Despite different processors, I often consider the TI-99/4a and Tomy Tutor in the same class as Spectravideo, MSX, ColecoVision/Adam and the Sega SG/SC-series because they all had such similar video and audio capabilities.
Books!
Bill Loguidice, Managing Director | Armchair Arcade, Inc.
There are some speed issues when running NTSC cartridges on PAL MSX machines as the timing is different. The PAL systems use a 50Hz refresh rate on screen and the NTSC machines have a 60Hz refresh rate. The CPU for both variants had about the same speed though - contrary to the differently clocked 6510 chip inside PAL and NTSC commodore 64s. Most games run on both machines but some games have issues.
The PAL PacMan (Namco) game cartridge and also the DigDug cartridge won't function properly on NTSC machines as the screen refresh isn't programmed properly. I have an NTSC MSX2+ machine - pretty rare - with a flash memory cart reader as ' hard drive' as well as a harddrive solution. I also have a basic MSX1 PAL Sony Hitbit machine and a Philips NMS8250 MSX2 PAL machine. The Phukuos NMS8250 has a speed switch allowing the CPU to run overclocked at twice the original speed which is excellent for graphics programs (viewing jpg's) and basic or MSX-dos programs.
I also have a 1Mb ram expansion cart that I use on the NMS8250.
The NTSC MSX2 machine is a wonderful device with SCC sound playback and it is actually quite hard to see it as a 8bit Z80 machine as it really sometimes feels like a 16 bit system. I could not connect it properly to my s-Video-in on my video card in my computer as DScaler refused to display a nice picture. I am working on that as I would love to show some rare 'enhanced' MSX2 Plus stuff including amazing demos and MSX2+ specific games (rare!).
Xbox 360: Lactobacillus P | Wii: 8151 3435 8469 3138
Armchair arcade Editor | Pixellator | www.markvergeer.nl
Excellent as always Mark, always liked the MSX!
Excellent as always Mark, always liked the MSX!
Thank you for the nice compliment whoever you are!
Xbox 360: Lactobacillus P | Wii: 8151 3435 8469 3138
Armchair arcade Editor | Pixellator | www.markvergeer.nl
Man, I had a MSX, and it was pure bliss... I played it non-stop for months. There were so many great games... My first videogame was an Odissey years before, but I guesse my passion for games was really established with the MSX.
Nice work, Mark! Not only fun, but filling in some major gaps in my knowledge.
I'd never heard of the MSX until I started going online and learning about retrogaming and computing. It just wasn't a factor in the U.S. as far as I know, though Bill's suggestion that it was marketed in music stores is quite interesting.
It's a shame, because I sometimes get criticized in my various writings for not paying due homage to the platform, which I think is rather unfair since it was so obscure here.
I'd never heard of the MSX until I started going online and learning about retrogaming and computing. It just wasn't a factor in the U.S. as far as I know, though Bill's suggestion that it was marketed in music stores is quite interesting.
Again, it's because the only MSX computer actually sold here was the Yamaha CX5M, which had built in MIDI before the Atari ST came out, which also featured it. Yamaha released quite a few cartridges to work with it as a MIDI computer (though to be more accurate, the base model of the CX5M did not support MIDI without an upgrade - Yamaha sold a small synthesizer add-on to work with the system without the MIDI upgrade). It may have been available mail order and in a few select other stores, but I suspect it was primarily available in music shops. I believe all that was ever "natively" released in this country (though it's still 100% MSX compatible) was the music software.
It's a shame, because I sometimes get criticized in my various writings for not paying due homage to the platform, which I think is rather unfair since it was so obscure here.
Other than the original proper version of Metal Gear - which we mention in our book, Vintage Games - there is not much specific to the MSX platform that's worth mentioning in my opinion, though it had many, many great games. For the most part, all of the software for it - and there's an extensive collection - has been ported to or from other systems, and as Mark said, it really only was a force in Japan. To me, the most interesting thing about the MSX and then later MSX 2 specification is that it fulfilled the promise shown by the ColecoVision and the Coleco Adam, since they were so closely spec'd.
Books!
Bill Loguidice, Managing Director | Armchair Arcade, Inc.