MSX History , Emulator, Links

Last updated on September 8th, 2023 at 02:43 pm

The MSX computer was created by japanese company ASCII directed by one of the informatic pioneer of the Rising Sun Land , Kazuhiro “Kay” Nishi , helped by Microsoft which then provided operative system and a version of its basic , respectively : MSX-Dos and MSX-Basic .

Once upon a time, in the early 1980s, Microsoft and Kazuhiko Nishi, the director at ASCII Corporation, conceived a project to create unified standards among various home computing system manufacturers of the period. They wanted to create a single industry-standard for home computers, inspired by the success of VHS as a standard for video cassette recorders. The result was the MSX, a standardized home computer architecture announced by ASCII Corporation on June 16, 1983. The idea was that any piece of hardware or software with the MSX logo on it would be compatible with MSX products from different manufacturers.

The first MSX computer sold to the public was a Mitsubishi ML-8000, released on October 21, 1983, marking its official release date. Many Japanese electronics manufacturers, including GoldStar, Philips, and Spectravideo, built and promoted MSX computers. Major Japanese game studios such as Konami and Hudson Soft developed games for the MSX before the success of Nintendo’s Family Computer.

The MSX was a fascinating platform that aimed for the lower end of the market, which was arguably where the most interesting things were happening in the 1980s. Commodore, Atari, Sinclair Research, Texas Instruments, and Radio Shack all played in this space. For many of these companies, the MSX was their first attempt at creating a personal computer, and the system’s ultimate market framing was such that it would also prove their first toe-dipping experience into video games.

MSX survived a full decade as a supported platform, with a series of backwards-compatible upgrades, and it can be argued that the system really hit its stride with the MSX2. The MSX2 was a significant upgrade over the original MSX, with improved graphics, sound, and memory capabilities.

In conclusion, the MSX was a standardized home computer architecture that aimed to create unified standards among various home computing system manufacturers. It was a fascinating platform that survived a full decade as a supported platform, with a series of backwards-compatible upgrades. The MSX2 was a significant upgrade over the original MSX, with improved graphics, sound, and memory capabilities.

Since autumn of year 1983 the MSX computers were released by companies such as :
Canon, Casio , Fujitsu, Hitachi, JVC , Mitsubishi, NTT, Panasonic, Pioneer, Philips, Samsung, Sanyo, Schneider, Seikosha, Sharp, Sony, Toshiba, Yamaha, Yashica .

Complete Hardware List of MSX Computer at MSXNET.org

Hardware List. Mirror (provided by Nexus23.net)

Basically the MSX Computer was an 8 bit computer
with the following specifics :
CPU Zilog Z80 3,58 MHz
Ram 8kb memory
Rom 16kb memory
Audio Processor AY-3-8910 by General Instruments
1 Slot for expansion cartridges.

The Arab versions of MSX Computer enjoyed expansion on cartridges loaded
with the Sacred Quran

MSX LINKS

UZIX , UNIX FOR MSX

MSX Association (Japanese) — Current owner of the MSX trademark, Japanese distributor of MSXPlayer and the 1chipMSX.

D4 Enterprise (Japanese) — Japanese distributor of re-released MSX games.
Bazix — Partner of MSX Association and D4 Enterprise for business outside Japan.
MSX-ALL — A server exclusively dedicated to MSX. Many important MSX Web Sites are freely hosted on the MSX-ALL Web Servers, such as MSX-Pró and MSX-TOP. The MSX-ALL Team has restated the design of the MSX-ALL Web Site in November of 2007, promising exciting surprises for the 1st semester of 2008.
VARIOUS MSX LINKS