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MSX was the name of a standardized Home Computer architecture in the 1980s . It was a Microsoft -led attempt to create unified standards among hardware makers, conceived by one-time Microsoft Japan executive Kazuhiko Nishi . Despite Microsoft's involvement, MSX-based machines were seldom seen in the United States but were hugely popular in other markets. Eventually 5 million MSX-based units were sold world-wide. Nishi proposed MSX as an attempt to create a single industry standard for Home Computers . Inspired by the success of VHS as a standard for Video Cassette Recorder s, many Japanese electronic manufacturers along with Goldstar , Philips and Spectravideo built and promoted MSX computers. Any piece of hardware or software with the MSX logo on it was compatible with MSX products of other manufacturers. In particular, the expansion cartridge form and function were part of the standard; any MSX expansion or game cartridge would work in any MSX computer. Nishi's standard consisted primarily of several Off-the-shelf parts; the main CPU was a 3.58 MHz Zilog Z80 , the Graphics Chip a Texas Instruments TMS9918 with 16 KB ( KiB ) of dedicated VRAM , and the sound was provided by the AY-3-8910 chip manufactured by General Instrument (GI). And an Intel 8255 Programmable Peripheral Interface chip was used for the parallel I/O such as the keyboard (and partly by the I/O ports provided by the AY-3-8910). This was a choice of components that was shared by many other home computers and games consoles of the period, such as the Colecovision home computer, (an emulator was later available with which MSX 1 systems could run some of its software) and the Sega SG-1000 video game system. Most MSX systems soon starting to integrate not only the common " Glue Logic " components but also the Z80 CPU, the sound chip, the 8255 PIO and the Video Display Processor into a single chip, called an MSX-Engine chip. The result was that to build a MSX system you only needed a MSX-Engine chip and some ROM and RAM memory chips to create a basic MSX system, which greatly reduced production costs. However, almost all MSX systems used a professional keyboard, not a Chicklet Keyboard , which drove the price up again. These components alongside Microsoft 's MSX BASIC made the MSX a competitive, though somewhat expensive home computer package. The system MSX most closely resembled was the the computer, SV-328 crackers developed a method of modifying the (MSX 1) games to make them work on the SV-328. In most cases this included downloading the MSX BIOS to the SV-328 from tape or floppy disk. Spectravideo later launched a system, the SV-728 which did completely adhere to the MSX standard. Before the appearance and great success of the Nintendo Famicom , MSX was the platform for which major Japanese game studios, such as Konami and Hudson Soft , produced their titles. The '' Metal Gear '' series was originally written for MSX hardware. HISTORY had 64K of RAM while its little brother, the V-10 , had 16K.]] In the 1980s Japan was in the midst of an economic awakening. Large Japanese electronics firms may have been successful in the early computer market had they made a concerted effort in the late 1970s . Their combined design and manufacturing power could have allowed them to produce competitive machines, but they initially ignored the home computer market and appear to have been hesitant to do business in a market where no industry standard existed. The MSX was formally announced during a press-conference in June 27, 1983 (a date that is considered the birthday of the MSX standard) and a slew of big Japanese firms declared their plans to introduce machines. This set off a wave of panic in the U.S. industry . However, the Japanese companies avoided the intensely competitive U.S. home computer market, which was in the throes of a Commodore -led Price War . Only Spectravideo and Yamaha briefly marketed MSX machines in the U.S. Spectravideo's MSX enjoyed very little success, and Yamaha's CX5M model, built to interface with various types of MIDI equipment, was billed more as a digital music tool than a standard personal computer. During the 1980s Europe became the largest computer games (as opposed to console games) market in the world, and the extremely popular Commodore 64 and Sinclair ZX Spectrum computers dominated. By the time the MSX launched in Europe several more popular 8-bit home computers had also arrived, and it was far too late to capture the extremely crowded European 8-bit computer market. Consequently, MSX never became the worldwide standard that its makers had envisioned, mainly because it never took off in the United States or most of Europe. In Japan and South Korea , MSX was the paramount home computer system in the 1980s . It was also popular in The Netherlands , Spain , Brazil , some Arab countries and the Soviet Union , where classes of networked Yamaha MSX 2 were used for teaching Informatics in school. , developed by Sharp and marketed by Epcom , was a hit in Brazil .]] The exact meaning of the 'MSX' abbreviation remains a matter of debate. At the time, most people seemed to agree it meant 'MicroSoft eXtended', referring to the built-in MSX- BASIC Programming Language , specifically adapted by Microsoft for the MSX system. However, according to Kazuhiko Nishi during a recent visit to Tilburg in the Netherlands, MSX stands for 'Machines with Software eXchangeability'. The MSX-DOS Disk Operating System had File System compatibility with CP/M and was similar to MS-DOS . In this way, Microsoft could promote MSX for home use while promoting MS-DOS based Personal Computer s in office environments. MSX spawned four generations: MSX 1 ( 1983 ), MSX 2 ( 1986 ), MSX 2+ ( 1988 ) and MSX turbo R ( 1990 ). The first three were 8-bit computers based on the Z80 Microprocessor , while the MSX turbo R was based on an enhanced Zilog Z800 known as the R800 . The Turbo R was introduced in 1990 but was unsuccessful due to a lack of support and the rise in popularity of the by then well-established IBM PC Compatible market. Production of the Turbo R ended in 1995 . In total, 5 million MSX computers were sold, which made it relatively popular but not the global standard it was intended to be. For a comparison with rival 8-bit computers, the sold 3 million units, and the Tandy TRS-80 sold 250,000 units. MSX REVIVAL ]]
FRANCHISES ESTABLISHED ON THE MSX '' made its debut for MSX2 before the release of its reworked counterpart for the NES .]] The most popular and famous MSX games were written by Japanese software-house Konami and several popular Video Game Franchise s were established on the MSX:
Others got various installments on the MSX, including some titles unique to the system or largely reworked versions of games on other formats:
MANUFACTURERS OF MSX COMPUTERS
SYSTEM SPECS MSX 1
MSX 2
when using the 256x192 Highres mode of MSX 1]]
MSX 2+ FS-A1WSX.]]
MSX turbo R
PERIPHERALS Floppy disk drives MSX1 systems generally did not have a built-in disk drive, so games were published mainly on cartridge and cassette tape. Floppy Disk drives were available for MSX1 however, in the form of a cartridge containing the disk interface electronics and a BIOS extension ROM (the floppy disk drive interface), connected to an external case with the drive. In South-America, many of these systems used a 5¼" floppy disk drives, but in Europe, mostly the 3.5" drives were popular. Later in the 1980s the MSX2 was released, which systems often (but not always) included a built-in 3.5" disk drive, and consequently the popular media for games and other software shifted to floppy disks. The MSX 3.5" floppy disks are directly compatible with MS-DOS (although some details like File Undeletion and Boot Sector code were different). Like MS-DOS 1, MSX disks (formatted) under MSX-DOS 1 have no support for subdirectories. {Link without Title} MSX-Audio
MSX-Music
EMULATION See Also: List of MSX emulators MSX computers are one of the most . fMSX source code license isn't free and many emulators removed Fayzullin's Z80 emulation code entirely in later versions to avoid legal problems. The official MSX emulator is MSXPLAYer ( Homepage ) (Japanese site) produced by the MSX Association (Japanese site) of which MSX standard inventor, Kazuhiko Nishi , is the president. MSX is also emulated in the Nintendo Wii 's Virtual Console , with games available for download officially (in Japan only). SEE ALSO
REFERENCES EXTERNAL LINKS
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