Msx

MSX is an 8-bit home microcomputer standard released during the 1980s and early 1990s. It was announced by Microsoft and ASCII Corporation on June 16, 1983 and introduced by Kazuhiko Nishi on June 27 of the same year in Japan. It became one of the dominators of the domestic market, ahead of the FM-7, the NEC PC-8801, the Sharp X1, among others.

It was also successful in Europe (Spain, France and the Netherlands), Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Cuba and the Soviet Union, in these last countries thousands of units were purchased by the educational authorities to equip schools. It is virtually unknown in the US and despite initially being seen as a threat to Britain's leadership in the European market, it has poor sales in the UK.

It was an attempt to unite all manufacturers under the same standard, so that, for example, you could buy peripherals from Sony and they would work on a Philips, Canon etc computer, and that the basic software and hardware complied with a series of requirements that would guarantee that programs written for the standard would work correctly on any computer. Manufacturers could add expansions as they liked to attract customers (Yamaha is perhaps the best exponent, with equipment that is marketed as musical instruments). Although most manufacturers are Japanese, there are 122 documented hardware manufacturers from all over the world who have developed some type of MSX equipment or peripheral. Some of the most prominent were Canon, Casio, Panasonic, Philips, Sony, Toshiba and Yamaha. Several more, such as Amstrad, adhere to the norm by paying the fee and waiting to see how the first generation develops. But their failure in the US and UK markets (two of the three videogame meccas at the time, along with Japan) made them give up.

Meaning of MSX

The meaning of the acronym MSX has been a topic of debate for years that its creator has been in charge of feeding at convenience.

Kazuhiko Nishi himself and numerous original sources (magazines and books) from the early years of the standard indicate, without a doubt, that the initials MSX correspond to MicroSoft eXtended in reference to the extended BASIC interpreter they come equipped with.

On the other hand, in some of the numerous statements made in this regard, Nishi would have affirmed various alternatives, changing his own version depending on the moment in which he was asked. It is said that before Bill Gates that the name of the new standard should be partly due to Microsoft.

However, in April 1997 Business Japan published the article "The Samurai of Electronic Thoughts" ("Dennou no samuraitachi"). In it it is said that when they began to negotiate with Matsushita the standard future, they called it MNX (Matsushita, Nishi and the X referred to unlimited power). But the name is registered, so Nishi changes the second letter to S for Sony (the first company to license the new standard). In each company that Nishi is going to promote the new standard to, he uses the same message, stating that the X is for said company.

During a retrocomputing convention that took place on April 21, 2001 in the Dutch city of Tilburg, Nishi made a speech in which he stated that the acronym stands for Machines with Ssoftware andXchangeability.

History

In the 1980s, Japan was in the midst of an economic awakening. Large electronics companies were successful in the computer market due to the effort invested in the 1970s. The combination of design and their technological development allowed them to produce competitive machines, but they initially ignored the home computer market and were hesitant to do business in such a market. where there were no standards.

The MSX was formally announced during a press conference on June 27, 1983 (the date considered to be the birth of the MSX standard) and many large Japanese companies made public their plans to produce them. This produced a wave of panic in the US industry. Still, Japanese companies avoided intense competition from the US home computer market, led by Commodore International. Only the Spectravideo and Yamaha companies marketed MSX machines in the United States. Spectravideo had some success, and Yamaha's CX5M model, with its MIDI interface, sold more as a digital music tool than a personal computer.

In 1985, a new version of MSX machines appeared in Japan, called MSX2. It had the same Z80A processor but improvements had been implemented, especially graphics and sound, with new video and sound chips as well as new 3 1/2 disk drives (initially with a capacity of 360Kb and then 720Kb) included in the device itself. machine frame. However, these models had quite high prices and, especially during the first two or three years, their market was limited exclusively to Japan and the Netherlands.

The power of PCs and the new generation of 16-bit home machines gradually relegated all hardware based on the old Z80. In 1988, the production of MSX in Europe ceased; Simultaneously, a new version of the standard was created in Japan, the MSX2+, which represented an important qualitative leap in terms of graphics and sound again. However, this time the machines did not leave Japan and were practically unknown in the rest of the world.

In the early 1990s, Panasonic decided to go further with the standard and became the only company to manufacture the next generation: the MSXturboR, which featured a Z80A processor still but powered by an additional 16-bit R800. An S9000 coprocessor was in charge of the coordination between both processors. The end result was a powerful machine used successfully until the end of the XX century in certain professional sectors, mainly in Japan.

During the 1980s, Europe became the world's largest market for computer games, and the extremely popular Sinclair ZX Spectrum dominated the market, followed by the Amstrad CPC and Commodore 64. By the time the MSX was released in Europe, it was already too late to successfully break into the extremely tight European market. Consequently, MSX never became the global standard that its creators envisioned, mainly because the United States and most of Europe were never conquered. In Japan and South Korea, the MSX was the main home microcomputer of the 1980s. It was also popular in the Netherlands, Spain, Argentina, Brazil, some Arab countries, and the Soviet Union, where Yamaha MSX2 networks were used in schools. to teach computer science. In Cuba, for their part, pre-university schools were equipped with MSX connected to Caribbean televisions produced in the country. Until 1992 they were still used for teaching the most basic programming in the tenth grade.

Franchisees born on MSX

The most popular and famous MSX games were written by Konami and several popular video game series were born on the MSX:

• Bomberman
• Eggerland
• Metal Gear
• Parodius
• Puyo
• Madou Monogatari

Others have various versions on the MSX, including some exclusive titles for the system or modified versions of games in other formats:

• East
• Castlevania (like) Vampire Killer)
• Contract
• Dragon Quest
• Dragon Slayer
• Final Fantasy
• Golvellius
• Gradius (Nemesis)
• Wizardry
• Xak
• Ys
• Zanac
• Pac-Land

Main features

• Microprocessor Z80: Very common 8-bit microprocessor in all systems of the time.
• It incorporated additional processors for graphics and sound, equating the audio-visual performances of the computer to those of the video games consoles.
• It was the first home computing system that did not depend on a single brand, there were multiple companies that made computers compatible with the MSX standard.
• It incorporated a programming environment: MSX BASIC 1.0 (from Microsoft), and successive versions.
• Also additionally, it supported the disk operating system: MSX-DOS, in different versions, compatible with the famous MS-DOS for IBM PC (both Microsoft). MSX-DOS could run CP/M programs by providing access to a wide existing professional and management software library.
• It used to slot memory cartridges, to load games, programs or even memory expansions, and peripherals. The "cartucho" was connected to the data bus, control, machine directions, which made it very flexible.
• In its MSX-I version, it came with a connector for cassette recorder/reproductor. That was the way to load programs and record data.
• A disk drive could be connected through a "cartucho". In recent times it supports the connection of hard drives and CD-ROMs with IDE and SCSI interface. As a sample of adaptation to new technologies, today there is also an IDE adapter to use CompactFlash cards on any MSX 2 or higher, thus having a robust, portable and silent storage system, not to mention forgetting to use an external AT power supply to the computer.
• The computer had a monitor connection (colour or monochrome green, very common at that time) and television output.
• There have been several versions of this standard: MSX-1, MSX-2, MSX-2+ and MSX-TurboR, which were increasing their power and capacity significantly. The last one, the MSX Turbo-R was equipped with a 16-bit RISC processor compatible with Z80: the R800.

Hardware

MSX

Philips MSX Model VG-8020

Sony MSX Model HB-501P

• Processor: Zilog Z80A @ 3.58 MHz
• ROM: 32 KB (32 KiB)
  • BIOS (16 KB)
  • MSX BASIC V1.0 (16 KB)
• RAM: 8 KB minimum, most machines had 32 KB or 64 KB, there were also machines with up to 128 KB
• Graphical Processing Unit: Texas Instruments TMS9918
  • VRAM: 16 KB
  • Text mode: 40×24 and 32×24
  • Screen resolution: 256×192 (16 colors)
  • Sprites: 32, 1 color, maximum 4 per horizontal line
• Sound Chip: General Instrument AY-3-8910 (PSG)

MSX 2

• Processor: Zilog Z80A @ 3.58 MHz
• ROM: 48 KB
  • BIOS + Extended BIOS (32 KB)
  • MSX BASIC V2.0 or V2.1 (16 KB)
  • DiskROM (16 KB) (optional)
  • MSX-Audio BIOS (32 KB) (optional, no machine is known with this factory BIOS)
• RAM: 64 KB minimum, normally 128 KB in Europe, 64 KB in Japanese machines, machines up to 512 KB of RAM have been manufactured
  • Mapled memory (4 MB/slot maximum) (optional)

The attribute clash effect when using MSX's 256x192 high resolution mode 1. To avoid this, the V9918 processor incorporates 32 additional (sprites) elements that can be superimposed at 32 levels over others

• Video Processor: Yamaha V9938 (MSX-Video) Supports all video modes of MSX 1 plus:
  • Greatest 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.
  • New resolutions: 512×212 (16 colors) and 256×212 (256 colors)
  • More advanced sprites: 32, 16 colors, maximum 8 per horizontal line.
  • Hardware acceleration for: copy, line, fill, etc.
  • Interlaced to fold the vertical resolution.
  • A vertical scroll record.
• Sound Chip: Yamaha YM2149 (PSG)
• Clock: RP5C01
• They usually wore a 3.5" deck.

MSX 2+

MSX2+ Computer: a Panasonic FS-A1WSX.

• It was only officially launched in Japan (available in Europe and Brazil by updates)
• Processor: Compatible with Zilog Z80 running at 3,58 MHz or more (there were versions of 5,37 MHz available)
• ROM: 64 KB
  • BIOS + Extended BIOS (32 KB)
  • MSX BASIC V3.0 (16 KB)
  • DiskROM (16 KB) (optional, very common)
  • Kun-BASIC (16 KB) (optional)
  • Kanji ROM (optional)
• RAM: Usually 64 KB (on Japanese computers)
  • Mapled memory (4 MB/slot max)
• Video Display Processor: Yamaha V9958 (aka MSX-Video) All MSX 2 specifications plus:
  • the video RAM is now always 128 KB
  • a new video mode of 256×212 with 19268 colors
  • a horizontal scroll record
• Sound Chip: Yamaha YM2149 (PSG)
• Optional sound chip: Yamaha YM2413 (OPLL) (MSX-Music)
• Watch Chip RP5C01
• Flexible disk drive 3.5" is very common

MSX turbo R

• He just left in Japan.
• Processor: R800 and Zilog Z80A compatible.
  • R800 works at 7.16 MHz (the instructions use about about 4x clock cycles less than the Z80, so it is often cited as of 28.6 MHz when compared to the Z80).
  • Compatible Zilog Z80A (integrated in T9769C MSX-Engine) operating at 3.58 MHz for backward compatibility.
• ROM: 96 KB
  • BIOS + extended BIOS(48 KB)
  • MSX BASIC V4.0 (16 KB)
  • DiskROM (16 KB)
  • Kun-BASIC (16 KB)
  • Kanji ROM (256 KB)
  • Firmware (4 MB)
• RAM: 256 KB (FS-A1ST) or 512 KB (FS-A1GT).
  • Memory mapped (4 MB/slot max).
  • Additionally 16 KB (FS-A1ST) or 32 KB (FS-A1GT) of SRAM (charged by battery).
• Video Display Processor: Yamaha V9958 (also called MSX-Video) with the same possibilities as a MSX 2+
• Sound Chip: Yamaha YM2149 (PSG).
• Sound Chip: Yamaha YM2413 (OPLL) (MSX-Music).
• Sound Chip: PCM.
  • 8-bit single channel (not DMA), 16 kHz maximum using BIOS routines.
  • Built-in microphone.
• Sound Chip: MIDI in/out (only FS-A1GT).
• Watch chip.
• Disquette unit of 3.5".

Clonics and derivatives

In South Korea, Daewoo made a range of consoles compatible with MSX computer software and peripherals. These consoles were grouped under the Zenmix brand and were not covered by the standard, so they do not display the MSX logo. The Zenmix have continued to be manufactured until 2020 and the latest models are based on a Raspberri Pi card with additional circuitry to be able to connect the original MSX peripherals, including the cartridge software.

In 2006, ASCII licensed a new model of MSX called 1chipMSX and based on an FPGA board. The system was only compatible with MSX2 computers, although an update was later released to extend it to MSX2+.

In 2019 a group of hobbyists developed the so-called MSX Mini Replica. It is a 1:50 scale reproduction of the Philips VG-8020 compatible with the MSX, MSX2, MSX2+ and Turbo R software. It incorporates 2 USB ports, an HDMI video output and internally it uses the same hardware as the C64 Mini by connecting a An additional peripheral, called the MSX Player, can run original games on ROM cartridges.

MSXVR is a computer released in 2020 and compatible with the MSX family of computers. Like the latest Zenmix, it is also based on a Raspberry Pi card with additional circuitry to be able to connect the original MSX peripherals.

Brands and models (incomplete list)