Goodbye you pouet degenerates!
category: general [glöplog]
thank u!!
/me opens random seal with bucket thread and starts photoshop
/me opens random seal with bucket thread and starts photoshop
But when he saw Jesus afar off, he ran and worshiped Him, and cried with a loud voice, and said, "What have I to do with Thee, Jesus, Thou Son of the Most High God? I adjure Thee by God that Thou torment me not!" For He had said unto him, "Come out of the man, thou unclean spirit."
And Jesus asked him, "What is thy name?" And he answered, saying, "My name is Degenerates, for we are many." And he besought Him much that He would not send them away out of the country. Now there was there nigh unto the mountains a great herd of pouet pigs feeding. And all the devils besought Him, saying, "Send us into the pouet pig, that we may enter into them."
And forthwith Jesus gave them leave. And the unclean spirits went out and entered into the pouet pig; and the herd ran violently down a steep place and into the sea (they were about three hundred, like the Spartan army), and were choked in the sea.
And Jesus asked him, "What is thy name?" And he answered, saying, "My name is Degenerates, for we are many." And he besought Him much that He would not send them away out of the country. Now there was there nigh unto the mountains a great herd of pouet pigs feeding. And all the devils besought Him, saying, "Send us into the pouet pig, that we may enter into them."
And forthwith Jesus gave them leave. And the unclean spirits went out and entered into the pouet pig; and the herd ran violently down a steep place and into the sea (they were about three hundred, like the Spartan army), and were choked in the sea.
:( No happy ending?
seriously - who is that guy? Shockwave?
Nah, my cock is much bigger than that.
No, cyberian!
come on stelthz #pouet.net again ;)
sigh... this is how most ppl react when confronted with an image which contradicts their idea of their own sexuality
oh come on.. who doesnt love ducks, ffs?!?!
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MSX
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This article is about the computer standard MSX. For other uses, see MSX (disambiguation).
Image:Msx.png
MSX
Type Home computer
Released 1983 (MSX1)
Discontinued 1995 (MSX turbo R)
Processor Zilog Z80
Memory 16KB ~ 512KB
OS MSX-DOS / MSX BASIC
Sony MSX 1, Model HitBit-10-P
Sony MSX 1, Model HitBit-10-P
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 recorders, 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 of dedicated VRAM, and the sound was provided by the AY-3-8910 chip manufactured by General Instrument (GI). These components alongside Microsoft's MSX BASIC made the MSX a competitive, though somewhat more expensive home computer package. This design closely resembled the Spectravideo SV-328 home computer, but was not completely compatible with it. Spectravideo later launched a system, the SV-728 which did 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.
Contents
[hide]
* 1 History
* 2 MSX Revival
* 3 MSX trivia
* 4 Franchises established on the MSX
* 5 Manufacturers of MSX computers
* 6 System specs
o 6.1 MSX 1
o 6.2 MSX 2
o 6.3 MSX 2+
o 6.4 MSX turbo R
* 7 Peripherals
o 7.1 MSX-Audio
o 7.2 MSX-Music
* 8 Emulators
* 9 References
* 10 See also
* 11 External links
[edit] History
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.[citation needed]
When MSX was announced and a slew of big Japanese firms announced their plans to introduce machines, it set off a wave of panic in the U.S. industry[citation needed]. 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.
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 computers 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 Commodore 64 sold 17 million units worldwide in its lifetime, the Amstrad CPC sold 3 million units, the Apple II sold 2 million units, and the Tandy TRS-80 sold 250,000 units.
[edit] MSX Revival
This article or section documents a current event in computer or video gaming.
Information may change rapidly as the event progresses.
1chipMSX
1chipMSX
* In 2001, Kazuhiko Nishi initiated an 'MSX Revival' around an official MSX emulator called MSXPLAYer. This is the only official MSX emulator. All MSX copyrights are maintained by the MSX Association.
* In 2004 Dutch company Bazix announced they had become the representatives of MSX Association in Europe, being the English contact for any questions regarding the MSX trademarks and copyrights (licensing).
* On October 17, 2006, Bazix launched WOOMB.Net, a website selling MSX games (translated to English if necessary), with a selection of 14 games. In Japan, game sales began earlier, through Project EGG. WOOMB.Net is the English counterpart of this (and other) Japanese services offered by D4 Enterprise.
* D4 Enterprise also announced (in August 2006) the launch of a new MSX2 compatible system called the "one chip-MSX", a system based on an Altera Cyclone EP1C12Q240C8 FPGA. The "one chip-MSX" is similar in concept to the C-One, a Commodore 64 clone also build on the basis of a single FPGA chip. The new MSX system is housed in a box made out of transparent blue plastic, and can be used with a standard monitor (or TV) and a PC keyboard. It has two MSX cartridge slots and supports the audio extensions MSX-MUSIC and SCC+. A SD/MMC-flashcard can be used as an external storage medium, emulating a disk drive and can be used to boot MSX-DOS. Due to its VHDL programmable hardware it is possible to give the device new hardware extensions simply by running a reconfiguration program under MSX-DOS. The "one chip-MSX" also has two USB connectors that can be used after adding some supporting VHDL code.
* In 2006 Nintendo of Japan posted on its Virtual Console webpage that MSX games will be available for Wii's Virtual Console emulator. In February 2007, it was confirmed again and announced that the games would cost 800 Wii Points and will become available in Spring 2007 (for Japan only, at least initially).
[edit] MSX trivia
* The birthday of the MSX Home Computer Standard is June 27, 1983, the day it was formally announced during a press-conference.
* MSX 1 computers were very similar to the Colecovision and Sega SG-1000 video game systems. They shared the same CPU and video processors. Their sound processors were also very similar. A Colecovision emulator for the MSX exists.
* By far, the most popular and famous MSX games were written by Japanese software-house Konami.
* As the MSX's processor, the Zilog Z80A, could only address up to 64 kB of memory, the default allocation (used in most, if not all models) was with the lower 32 kB for ROM BASIC and the upper 32 kB for RAM. Machines intended to run MSX-DOS (a CP/M-like system) had 64 kB RAM, but the lower 32 kB were disabled in order for the ROM BASIC to function. When the computer booted MSX-DOS, the ROM BASIC was disabled and all of the 64 kB address space was mapped to RAM.
* Among MSX-DOS compatible software (directly ported from CP/M) were dBase II, Turbo Pascal version 3 and Wordstar. Therefore, in the late 1980s, several Brazilian companies used an MSX system as their "corporate" computer. As an MSX 1 could display only 40×25 text, expansion kits were introduced that upgraded the display to 80×25, giving MSX a more professional appeal. MSX 2 and up were never manufactured by the main companies in Brazil (Gradiente and Sharp). Much of the market was created alone by Ademir Carchano (MSX Projetos et al) who created most of the aftermarket hardware for MSX, including the MegaRAM cartridge (a way to copy and play MegaROM games), the MSX 2.0 and 2+ conversion kits and IDE interfaces. Although cheaper IBM-PC clones eventually dominated the market, the MSX remained somewhat popular, with hardware being created and sold for substantial prices for some time afterwards.
* MSX 1 games were published mainly on cartridge and cassette. Later in the 1980s the MSX 2 was released, which generally included a 3.5" disk drive, and consequently the popular media for games and other software shifted to floppy disks.
* The MSX 3.5" floppy disks, at least those formatted under MSX-DOS 2.0, were directly compatible with MS-DOS (although some details like file undeletion and boot sector code were different). [1]
* The introduction of MSX led to a new and short-lived kind of software cracking: converting. Since the MSX games were unplayable on the SV-328 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.
* Due to the same processor (Z80), graphical resolution (256×192 pixels) and number of colors (16) of the MSX 1 systems and the Sinclair ZX Spectrum, many videogames made for the latter could easily be ported to the MSX platform by the (European) authors themselves, making both versions nearly identical. The enhanced color display possibilities of the MSX were not exploited: they did not used any hardware sprites, and the color by character style of the ZX Spectrum graphics was directly used, instead of using the MSX's more advanced facility to have a different color pair for each line in the character.
[edit] Franchises established on the MSX
Konami's Metal Gear made its debut for MSX2 before the release of its reworked counterpart for the NES.
Konami's Metal Gear made its debut for MSX2 before the release of its reworked counterpart for the NES.
Several popular video game franchises were established on the MSX:
* Bomberman
* Eggerland
* Metal Gear
* Parodius
* Puyo Puyo
Others got various installments on the MSX, including some titles unique to the system or largely reworked versions of games on other formats:
* Aleste
* Castlevania (as Vampire Killer)
* Contra
* Dragon Quest
* Dragon Slayer
* Final Fantasy
* Golvellius
* Gradius (Nemesis)
* Wizardry
* Xak
* Ys
* Zanac
[edit] Manufacturers of MSX computers
* MSX 1: Spectravideo (USA), Philips (the Netherlands), Al Alamia (Saudi Arabia), Sony, Sanyo, Mitsubishi, Toshiba, Hitachi, National, Panasonic, Canon, Casio, Pioneer, Fujitsu General, Yamaha, Yashica-Kyocera (Japan), GoldStar, Samsung/Fenner (Korea/Italy), Daewoo/Yeno (South Korea), Gradiente, Sharp/Epcom (Brazil), Talent (Argentina).
* MSX 2: Philips (the Netherlands), Sony, Sanyo, Samsung, Mitsubishi, Victor (a.k.a. JVC), National, Panasonic, Canon, Yamaha (Japan), ACVS, DDX (Brazil, upgrade kit), Daewoo/Yeno (South Korea), Talent (Argentina).
* MSX 2+: Sony, Sanyo, Panasonic (Japan), ACVS, DDX (Brazil, upgrade kit)
* MSX turbo R: Panasonic (Japan)
[edit] System specs
[edit] MSX 1
Philips MSX 1, Model VG-8020
Philips MSX 1, Model VG-8020
* Processor: Zilog Z80A running at 3.58 MHz
* ROM: 32 kB
o BIOS (16 kB)
o MSX BASIC V1.0 (16 kB)
* RAM: 8 kB minimum, up to 64 kB
* Video Display Processor: Texas Instruments TMS9918 family
o Video RAM: 16 kB
o Text modes: 40×24 and 32×24
o Resolution: 256×192 (16 colours)
o Sprites: 32, 1 colour, max 4 per horizontal line
* Sound chip: General Instrument AY-3-8910 (PSG)
o 3 channels + noise
[edit] MSX 2
* Processor: Zilog Z80A running at 3.58 MHz
* ROM: 48 kB
o BIOS + Extended BIOS (32 kB)
o MSX BASIC V2.0 (16 kB)
o DiskROM (16 kB) (optional)
o MSX-Audio BIOS (32 kB) (optional)
* RAM: commonly 128 kB (64 kB on Japanese computers, Sony HB-F700P had 256 kB)
o Memory mapped (4 MB/slot max)
* Video Display Processor: Yamaha V9938 (aka MSX-Video)
o Video RAM: 128 kB (sometimes 64 kB or 192 kB)
o Text modes: 80×24 and 32×24
o Resolution: 512×212 (16 colours out of 512) and 256×212 (256 colours)
o Sprites: 32, 16 colours, max 8 per horizontal line
o Hardware acceleration for copy, line, fill, etc.
o Interlacing to double vertical resolution
o Vertical scroll register
* Sound chip: Yamaha YM2149 (PSG)
o 3 channels + noise
* Clock chip RP5C01
[edit] MSX 2+
* Only officially released in Japan (available in Europe and Brazil via upgrades)
* Processor: Zilog Z80 compatible running at 3.58 MHz or more (5.37 MHz versions were available)
* ROM: 64 kB
o BIOS + Extended BIOS (32 kB)
o MSX BASIC V3.0 (16 kB)
o DiskROM (16 kB)
o Kun-BASIC (16 kB) (optional)
o Kanji ROM (optional)
* RAM: commonly 64 kB (on Japanese computers)
o Memory mapped (4 MB/slot max)
* Video Display Processor: Yamaha V9958 (aka MSX-Video)
o Video RAM: 128 kB
o Text modes: 80×24 and 32×24
o Resolution: 512×212 (16 colours out of 512) and 256×212 (19268 colours)
o Sprites: 32, 16 colours, max 8 per horizontal line
o Hardware acceleration for copy, line, fill, etc.
o Interlacing to double vertical resolution
o Horizontal and vertical scroll registers
* Sound chip: Yamaha YM2149 (PSG)
o 3 channels + noise
* Optional sound chip: Yamaha YM2413 (OPLL) (MSX-Music)
o 9 channels FM or 6 channels FM + 5 drums
o 15 pre-set instruments, 1 custom
* Clock chip RP5C01
[edit] MSX turbo R
* Only released in Japan
* Processor: R800 and Zilog Z80 running respectively at 29 MHz and 7.14 MHz
* ROM: 96 kB
o BIOS + Extended BIOS (48 kB)
o MSX BASIC V4.0 (16 kB)
o DiskROM (16 kB)
o Kun-BASIC (16 kB)
o Kanji ROM (256 kB)
o Firmware (4 MB)
* RAM: 256 kB (FS-A1ST) or 512 kB (FS-A1GT)
o Memory mapped (4 MB/slot max)
o Additionally 16 kB (FS-A1ST) or 32 kB (FS-A1GT) of SRAM (battery-powered)
* Video Display Processor: Yamaha V9958 (aka MSX-Video)
o Video RAM: 128 kB
o Text modes: 80×24 and 32×24
o Resolution: 512×212 (16 colours out of 512) and 256×212 (19768 colours)
o Sprites: 32, 16 colours, max 8 per horizontal line
o Hardware acceleration for copy, line, fill, etc.
o Interlacing to double vertical resolution
o Horizontal and vertical scroll registers
* Sound chip: Yamaha YM2149 (PSG)
o 3 channels + noise
* Sound chip: Yamaha YM2413 (OPLL) (MSX-Music)
o 9 channels FM or 6 channels FM + 5 drums
o 15 pre-set instruments, 1 custom
* Sound chip: PCM
o 8-bit single channel (no DMA), 16 kHz max using BIOS routines.
o Microphone built-in
* Sound chip: MIDI in/out (FS-A1GT only)
* Clock chip
[edit] Peripherals
[edit] MSX-Audio
* Yamaha Y8950, also known as:
o Panasonic: MSX-Audio (standard name)
o Philips: Music Module (no MSX-Audio BIOS)
o Toshiba: MSX FM-synthesizer Unit (no sample RAM, no MSX-Audio BIOS)
* 9 channels FM or 6 channels FM + 5 drums
* ADPCM record and play
* 32 kB of sample RAM, which can be upgraded to 256 kB
[edit] MSX-Music
* Yamaha YM2413 (OPLL), also known as:
o MSX-Music (standard name)
o Panasonic: FM-PAC
o Zemina: Music Box
o Checkmark: FM-Stereo-Pak
* 9 channels FM or 6 channels FM + 5 drums
* 15 pre-set instruments, 1 custom
* Built-in in many MSX 2+ computers and the MSX turbo R
[edit] Emulators
An MSX emulator screenshot
An MSX emulator screenshot
MSX computers are one of the most emulated platforms today.
* blueMSX (homepage): Considered by many the best MSX emulator[1]
o A fairly new MSX emulator for Windows (development started September 2003) initially based on Marat Fayzullin's fMSX
o Perfect looking emulation of MSX, MSX 2, MSX 2+, MSX turboR, Colecovision and Spectravideo
o Very accurate sound emulation
o Many unique emulation features such as ethernet emulation, video recording, digitizing, and theme based user interface
o Open source (GPL) since v2.0, which didn't use Marat Fayzullin code anymore
* BrMSX: discontinued
o The fastest MSX and MSX 2 emulator ever, written entirely in Assembly for DOS only
o BrMSX author, Ricardo Bittencourt, is now part of the blueMSX development team
* CJS MSX Emulator (homepage): discontinued
o Along with fMSX was one of the very first successful MSX emulators
o Unlike fMSX the code was not portable and is compatible only with IBM-PC running DOS
o Fast MSX and MSX 2 emulation with good sound support
* fMSX (homepage): A portable MSX emulator by Marat Fayzullin
o The first widespread MSX emulator and the most ported one
o Offers accurate MSX, MSX 2 and MSX 2+ emulation with sound
o Source is available in a commercially restricted license (free ports are allowed and encouraged)
o The majority of MSX emulators today were more or less based on the fMSX source code
* fMSX for Series 60 (homepage) by Juha Riihimäki
o Very interesting port of the famous fMSX emulator for the Nokia Series 60 based devices
* fMSXDS (homepage): A portable MSX emulator for the Nintendo DS by Nyagosu
* MSXPLAYer (Homepage) (Japanese site)
o This is the official MSX emulator.
o Outside of Japan BAZIX is the representative for MSXPLAYer [2], and is also acting as the trademark holder for the MSX logo when used in emulators [3]
o MSXPLAYer is produced by the MSX Association (Japanese site) of which Kazuhiko Nishi, (the inventor of the MSX standard) is the president.
o BAZIX is currently in the process of developing a version of MSXPLAYer for the use with mobile phones that use the Symbian 60 OS
o In Japan, a Windows and a Pocket PC version is available
* NLMSX (homepage): inactive
o A basic, fairly accurate MSX, MSX 2, MSX 2+ and turboR emulator for Windows based on fMSX 2.0b
* NO$MSX (homepage) by Martin Korth
o A decent MSX and MSX 2 emulator aimed to be more of a serious development tool than just an emulator
o Has a very useful and comfortable debugger and is written entirely in Assembly language to run smoothly on a 33 MHz PC.
* openMSX (homepage): The MSX emulator that aims for perfection
o Open source (GPL) MSX emulator with some unique features (script based operation, command interface via pipes/socket, etc.)
o Extremely accurate MSX, MSX 2, MSX 2+ and turboR emulation
* paraMSX: fMSX port by Yeongman Seo
o Was one of the best fMSX ports for Windows in its time
* RuMSX (homepage): Turbo-R emulator for Windows
o One of the older MSX, MSX 2, MSX 2+ and turboR emulators
o Had very nice sound support for its time
o Very intuitive user interface
o The first MSX emulator with turboR support
* RedMSX (homepage): blueMSX derivative
o Started out as a hack on blueMSX to add zipped ROM support and the SCALE2X [4] graphical enhancement algorithm
o Added support for zipped DSK (disk images), lightguns and drag-and-drop launching of zip files
o While blueMSX compiles only with Microsoft Visual Studio .Net, RedMSX will compile with Microsoft Visual C/C++ 6.
o RedMSX's CPU load is very low (even less than blueMSX) making it run fast and accurately even in older, inexpensive hardware
* Virtual Console on the Wii
[edit] References
1. ^ The MSX Resource Center Foundation has published a comparison of various prominent MSX emulators
[edit] See also
* History of computing hardware
* Zemmix MSX compatible console
* List of MSX games
* Canon T90 - this advanced SLR camera had an optional Data Memory Back storing shot data on photos taken. It interfaced only with the MSX, probably because Canon Inc. sold a MSX computer.
* SymbOS - A free multitasking operating system for Z80 based 8-bit computer systems supporting the MSX2, MSX2+ and MSX turbo R.
[edit] External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to:
MSX
* MSX Pro is one of the biggest MSX sites in Brazil
* Tabajara Labs has many interesting MSX pages and is always adding more
* One Chip MSX
* 1chipMSX wiki (in Japanese)
* MSX Resource Center
* The MSX Files
* The Ultimate MSX FAQ
* Generation MSX
* MSX Association
* ASCII Corporation
* Sunrise Foundation — The main hardware producer and software distributor for MSX, which amongst others made and sells the famous Moonsound and Graphics9000 boards. Also creator of the popular CompactFlash IDE interface.
* MSX Projetos — Brazilian site (Portuguese language). Still produces MSX hardware, including accelerated MSX 2+ motherboards (ACE001@10 MHz). Has an ongoing project called CIEL 3++ for a new, and far more powerful, generation of MSX hardware.
* HispaMSX BBS — MSX support BBS over TCP/IP. Operate on the BBS from any computer system, even your MSX. Telnet to bbs.hispamsx.org to get access, or get read-only documents via Gopher.
* MSX Posse forum — One of the most interesting forums about MSX.
* Karoshi's Development Board — A MSX forum mainly about programming.
* MSX.bas — A Portuguese website focusing completely on development in MSX-BASIC.
* MSX page on Meilink.net — A fan page about MSX and Konami Games on MSX.
* MSX User Association in Spain — Two user meetings per year
* MSX Assembly Page - Website for MSX assembly programmers
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MSX"
Categories: Articles with unsourced statements since February 2007 | All articles with unsourced statements | Current video game events | MSX | Home computers | Retrocomputing
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</script></div> <h1 class="firstHeading">MSX</h1>
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<h3 id="siteSub">From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia</h3>
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<div class="dablink"><i>This article is about the computer standard <b>MSX</b>. For other uses, see <a href="/wiki/MSX_%28disambiguation%29" title="MSX (disambiguation)">MSX (disambiguation)</a>.</i></div>
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<td colspan="2" align="center"><a href="/wiki/Image:Msx.png" class="image" title="Image:Msx.png"><img src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/ea/Msx.png" alt="Image:Msx.png" width="250" height="98" longdesc="/wiki/Image:Msx.png" /></a></td>
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<th colspan="2" align="center">MSX</th>
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<td width="50px" style="background-color:#ddeeff"><b>Type</b></td>
<td width="228px" style="background-color:#E7EBF5"><a href="/wiki/Home_computer" title="Home computer">Home computer</a></td>
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<td style="background-color:#ddeeff"><b>Released</b></td>
<td style="background-color:#E7EBF5">1983 (MSX1)</td>
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<td style="background-color:#ddeeff"><b>Discontinued</b></td>
<td style="background-color:#E7EBF5">1995 (MSX turbo R)</td>
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<td style="background-color:#ddeeff"><b>Processor</b></td>
<td style="background-color:#E7EBF5"><a href="/wiki/Zilog_Z80" title="Zilog Z80">Zilog Z80</a></td>
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<td style="background-color:#ddeeff"><b>Memory</b></td>
<td style="background-color:#E7EBF5">16KB ~ 512KB</td>
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<td style="background-color:#ddeeff"><b>OS</b></td>
<td style="background-color:#E7EBF5"><a href="/wiki/MSX-DOS" title="MSX-DOS">MSX-DOS</a> / <a href="/wiki/MSX_BASIC" title="MSX BASIC">MSX BASIC</a></td>
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<div class="thumbinner" style="width:272px;"><a href="/wiki/Image:Sony_hitbit_10p.jpg" class="internal" title="Sony MSX 1, Model HitBit-10-P"><img src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/7/7a/Sony_hitbit_10p.jpg/270px-Sony_hitbit_10p.jpg" alt="Sony MSX 1, Model HitBit-10-P" width="270" height="152" longdesc="/wiki/Image:Sony_hitbit_10p.jpg" class="thumbimage" /></a>
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Sony MSX 1, Model HitBit-10-P</div>
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<p><b>MSX</b> was the name of a standardized <a href="/wiki/Home_computer" title="Home computer">home computer</a> architecture in the <a href="/wiki/1980s" title="1980s">1980s</a>. It was a <a href="/wiki/Microsoft" title="Microsoft">Microsoft</a>-led attempt to create unified standards among hardware makers, conceived by one-time <a href="/wiki/Microsoft_Japan" title="Microsoft Japan">Microsoft Japan</a> executive <a href="/wiki/Kazuhiko_Nishi" title="Kazuhiko Nishi">Kazuhiko Nishi</a>. 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.</p>
<p>Nishi proposed MSX as an attempt to create a single industry standard for <a href="/wiki/Home_computers" title="Home computers">home computers</a>. Inspired by the success of <a href="/wiki/VHS" title="VHS">VHS</a> as a standard for <a href="/wiki/Video_cassette_recorder" title="Video cassette recorder">video cassette recorders</a>, many Japanese electronic manufacturers along with <a href="/wiki/LG_Group" title="LG Group">Goldstar</a>, <a href="/wiki/Philips" title="Philips">Philips</a> and <a href="/wiki/Spectravideo" title="Spectravideo">Spectravideo</a> 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.</p>
<p>Nishi's standard consisted primarily of several <a href="/wiki/Off_the_shelf" title="Off the shelf">off-the-shelf</a> parts; the main CPU was a 3.58 MHz <a href="/wiki/Zilog_Z80" title="Zilog Z80">Zilog Z80</a>, the <a href="/wiki/Video_Display_Controller" title="Video Display Controller">graphics chip</a> a <a href="/wiki/Texas_Instruments" title="Texas Instruments">Texas Instruments</a> <a href="/wiki/Texas_Instruments_TMS9918" title="Texas Instruments TMS9918">TMS9918</a> with 16 <a href="/wiki/Kilobyte" title="Kilobyte">KB</a> of dedicated <a href="/wiki/Video_RAM" title="Video RAM">VRAM</a>, and the sound was provided by the <a href="/wiki/AY-3-8910" title="AY-3-8910">AY-3-8910</a> chip manufactured by <a href="/wiki/General_Instrument" title="General Instrument">General Instrument</a> (GI). These components alongside <a href="/wiki/Microsoft" title="Microsoft">Microsoft</a>'s <a href="/wiki/MSX_BASIC" title="MSX BASIC">MSX BASIC</a> made the MSX a competitive, though somewhat more expensive home computer package. This design closely resembled the <a href="/wiki/Spectravideo" title="Spectravideo">Spectravideo</a> <a href="/wiki/SV-328" title="SV-328">SV-328</a> home computer, but was not completely compatible with it. Spectravideo later launched a system, the <a href="/wiki/SV-728" title="SV-728">SV-728</a> which did adhere to the MSX standard.</p>
<p>Before the appearance and great success of the <a href="/wiki/Nintendo_Entertainment_System" title="Nintendo Entertainment System">Nintendo Famicom</a>, MSX was the platform for which major Japanese game studios, such as <a href="/wiki/Konami" title="Konami">Konami</a> and <a href="/wiki/Hudson_Soft" title="Hudson Soft">Hudson Soft</a>, produced their titles. The <i><a href="/wiki/Metal_Gear_%28series%29" title="Metal Gear (series)">Metal Gear</a></i> series was originally written for MSX hardware.</p>
<table id="toc" class="toc" summary="Contents">
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<div id="toctitle">
<h2>Contents</h2>
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<ul>
<li class="toclevel-1"><a href="#History"><span class="tocnumber">1</span> <span class="toctext">History</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-1"><a href="#MSX_Revival"><span class="tocnumber">2</span> <span class="toctext">MSX Revival</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-1"><a href="#MSX_trivia"><span class="tocnumber">3</span> <span class="toctext">MSX trivia</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-1"><a href="#Franchises_established_on_the_MSX"><span class="tocnumber">4</span> <span class="toctext">Franchises established on the MSX</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-1"><a href="#Manufacturers_of_MSX_computers"><span class="tocnumber">5</span> <span class="toctext">Manufacturers of MSX computers</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-1"><a href="#System_specs"><span class="tocnumber">6</span> <span class="toctext">System specs</span></a>
<ul>
<li class="toclevel-2"><a href="#MSX_1"><span class="tocnumber">6.1</span> <span class="toctext">MSX 1</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-2"><a href="#MSX_2"><span class="tocnumber">6.2</span> <span class="toctext">MSX 2</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-2"><a href="#MSX_2.2B"><span class="tocnumber">6.3</span> <span class="toctext">MSX 2+</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-2"><a href="#MSX_turbo_R"><span class="tocnumber">6.4</span> <span class="toctext">MSX turbo R</span></a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="toclevel-1"><a href="#Peripherals"><span class="tocnumber">7</span> <span class="toctext">Peripherals</span></a>
<ul>
<li class="toclevel-2"><a href="#MSX-Audio"><span class="tocnumber">7.1</span> <span class="toctext">MSX-Audio</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-2"><a href="#MSX-Music"><span class="tocnumber">7.2</span> <span class="toctext">MSX-Music</span></a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="toclevel-1"><a href="#Emulators"><span class="tocnumber">8</span> <span class="toctext">Emulators</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-1"><a href="#References"><span class="tocnumber">9</span> <span class="toctext">References</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-1"><a href="#See_also"><span class="tocnumber">10</span> <span class="toctext">See also</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-1"><a href="#External_links"><span class="tocnumber">11</span> <span class="toctext">External links</span></a></li>
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<h2><span class="editsection">[<a href="/w/index.php?title=MSX&action=edit§ion=1" title="Edit section: History">edit</a>]</span> <span class="mw-headline">History</span></h2>
<p>In the 1980s <a href="/wiki/Japan" title="Japan">Japan</a> 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 <a href="/wiki/1970s" title="1970s">1970s</a>. 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.<sup class="noprint">[<a href="/wiki/Wikipedia:Citing_sources" title="Wikipedia:Citing sources"><i><span title="This claim needs references to reliable sources" style="white-space: nowrap;">citation needed</span></i></a>]</sup></p>
<p>When MSX was announced and a slew of big Japanese firms announced their plans to introduce machines, it set off a wave of panic in the <a href="/wiki/United_States" title="United States">U.S.</a> industry<sup class="noprint">[<a href="/wiki/Wikipedia:Citing_sources" title="Wikipedia:Citing sources"><i><span title="This claim needs references to reliable sources" style="white-space: nowrap;">citation needed</span></i></a>]</sup>. However, the Japanese companies avoided the intensely competitive U.S. home computer market, which was in the throes of a <a href="/wiki/Commodore_International" title="Commodore International">Commodore</a>-led <a href="/wiki/Price_war" title="Price war">price war</a>. 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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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 <a href="/wiki/South_Korea" title="South Korea">South Korea</a>, MSX was the paramount home computer system in the <a href="/wiki/1980s" title="1980s">1980s</a>. It was also popular in <a href="/wiki/The_Netherlands" title="The Netherlands">The Netherlands</a>, <a href="/wiki/Spain" title="Spain">Spain</a>, <a href="/wiki/Brazil" title="Brazil">Brazil</a>, some <a href="/wiki/Arab" title="Arab">Arab</a> countries and the <a href="/wiki/Soviet_Union" title="Soviet Union">Soviet Union</a>.</p>
<p>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-<a href="/wiki/BASIC_programming_language" title="BASIC programming language">BASIC programming language</a>, 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 <a href="/wiki/MSX-DOS" title="MSX-DOS">MSX-DOS</a> <a href="/wiki/Disk_operating_system" title="Disk operating system">disk operating system</a> had <a href="/wiki/File_system" title="File system">file system</a> compatibility with <a href="/wiki/CP/M" title="CP/M">CP/M</a> and was similar to <a href="/wiki/MS-DOS" title="MS-DOS">MS-DOS</a>. In this way, Microsoft could promote MSX for home use while promoting <a href="/wiki/MS-DOS" title="MS-DOS">MS-DOS</a> based <a href="/wiki/Personal_computer" title="Personal computer">personal computers</a> in office environments.</p>
<p>MSX spawned four generations: MSX 1 (<a href="/wiki/1983" title="1983">1983</a>), MSX 2 (<a href="/wiki/1986" title="1986">1986</a>), MSX 2+ (<a href="/wiki/1988" title="1988">1988</a>) and MSX turbo R (<a href="/wiki/1990" title="1990">1990</a>). The first three were 8-bit computers based on the Z80 <a href="/wiki/Microprocessor" title="Microprocessor">microprocessor</a>, while the MSX turbo R was based on an enhanced <a href="/wiki/Zilog_Z800" title="Zilog Z800">Zilog Z800</a> known as the <a href="/wiki/R800" title="R800">R800</a>. The Turbo R was introduced in <a href="/wiki/1990" title="1990">1990</a> but was unsuccessful due to a lack of support and the rise in popularity of the by then well-established <a href="/wiki/IBM_PC_Compatible" title="IBM PC Compatible">IBM PC Compatible</a> market. Production of the Turbo R ended in <a href="/wiki/1995" title="1995">1995</a>.</p>
<p>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 <a href="/wiki/Commodore_64" title="Commodore 64">Commodore 64</a> sold 17 million units worldwide in its lifetime, the <a href="/wiki/Amstrad_CPC" title="Amstrad CPC">Amstrad CPC</a> sold 3 million units, the <a href="/wiki/Apple_II" title="Apple II">Apple II</a> sold 2 million units, and the Tandy <a href="/wiki/TRS-80" title="TRS-80">TRS-80</a> sold 250,000 units.</p>
<p><a name="MSX_Revival" id="MSX_Revival"></a></p>
<h2><span class="editsection">[<a href="/w/index.php?title=MSX&action=edit§ion=2" title="Edit section: MSX Revival">edit</a>]</span> <span class="mw-headline">MSX Revival</span></h2>
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<td><a href="/wiki/Image:Currentcvg.svg" class="image" title=""><img src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/30/Currentcvg.svg/75px-Currentcvg.svg.png" alt="" width="75" height="40" longdesc="/wiki/Image:Currentcvg.svg" /></a></td>
<td>This article or section documents a <b><a href="/wiki/Portal:Current_events/Video_gaming" title="Portal:Current events/Video gaming">current event</a></b> in computer or video gaming.<br />
<small>Information may change rapidly as the event progresses.</small></td>
</tr>
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<div class="thumb tright">
<div class="thumbinner" style="width:282px;"><a href="/wiki/Image:OCM_007.jpg" class="internal" title="1chipMSX"><img src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/b/bb/OCM_007.jpg/280px-OCM_007.jpg" alt="1chipMSX" width="280" height="210" longdesc="/wiki/Image:OCM_007.jpg" class="thumbimage" /></a>
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<a href="/wiki/1chipMSX" title="1chipMSX">1chipMSX</a></div>
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<ul>
<li>In <a href="/wiki/2001" title="2001">2001</a>, Kazuhiko Nishi initiated an 'MSX Revival' around an official MSX <a href="/wiki/Emulator" title="Emulator">emulator</a> called <a href="http://www.bazix.nl/msxa.html" class="external text" title="http://www.bazix.nl/msxa.html" rel="nofollow">MSXPLAYer</a>. This is the only official MSX emulator. All MSX <a href="/wiki/Copyright" title="Copyright">copyrights</a> are maintained by the <a href="http://www.msxa.org/" class="external text" title="http://www.msxa.org/" rel="nofollow">MSX Association</a>.</li>
<li>In 2004 Dutch company <a href="http://www.bazix.nl/" class="external text" title="http://www.bazix.nl/" rel="nofollow">Bazix</a> announced they had become the representatives of MSX Association in <a href="/wiki/Europe" title="Europe">Europe</a>, being the English contact for any questions regarding the MSX trademarks and copyrights (licensing).</li>
<li>On October 17, 2006, Bazix launched <a href="http://www.woomb.net/" class="external text" title="http://www.woomb.net/" rel="nofollow">WOOMB.Net</a>, a website selling MSX games (translated to English if necessary), with a selection of 14 games. In Japan, game sales began earlier, through <a href="http://www.amusement-center.com/project/egg/" class="external text" title="http://www.amusement-center.com/project/egg/" rel="nofollow">Project EGG</a>. <i>WOOMB.Net</i> is the English counterpart of this (and other) Japanese services offered by <a href="http://www.d4e.co.jp/" class="external text" title="http://www.d4e.co.jp/" rel="nofollow">D4 Enterprise</a>.</li>
<li>D4 Enterprise also announced (in August 2006) the launch of a new MSX2 compatible system called the <a href="http://www.msx.org/One-Chip-MSX-MKII.newspost3805.html" class="external text" title="http://www.msx.org/One-Chip-MSX-MKII.newspost3805.html" rel="nofollow">"one chip-MSX"</a>, a system based on an <a href="/wiki/Altera" title="Altera">Altera</a> Cyclone EP1C12Q240C8 <a href="/wiki/FPGA" title="FPGA">FPGA</a>. The "<a href="/wiki/1chipMSX" title="1chipMSX">one chip-MSX</a>" is similar in concept to the <a href="/wiki/C-One" title="C-One">C-One</a>, a <a href="/wiki/Commodore_64" title="Commodore 64">Commodore 64</a> clone also build on the basis of a single FPGA chip. The new MSX system is housed in a box made out of transparent blue plastic, and can be used with a standard monitor (or TV) and a PC keyboard. It has two MSX cartridge slots and supports the audio extensions <a href="/wiki/Yamaha_YM2413" title="Yamaha YM2413">MSX-MUSIC</a> and <a href="/wiki/Konami_Sound_Cartridge" title="Konami Sound Cartridge">SCC+</a>. A <a href="/wiki/Memory_card" title="Memory card">SD/MMC-flashcard</a> can be used as an external storage medium, emulating a <a href="/wiki/Disk_storage" title="Disk storage">disk drive</a> and can be used to boot <a href="/wiki/MSX-DOS" title="MSX-DOS">MSX-DOS</a>. Due to its <a href="/wiki/VHDL" title="VHDL">VHDL</a> programmable hardware it is possible to give the device new hardware extensions simply by running a reconfiguration program under MSX-DOS. The "one chip-MSX" also has two <a href="/wiki/USB" title="USB">USB</a> connectors that can be used after adding some supporting VHDL code.</li>
<li>In 2006 <a href="/wiki/Nintendo" title="Nintendo">Nintendo of Japan</a> posted on its <a href="/wiki/Virtual_Console" title="Virtual Console">Virtual Console</a> webpage that MSX games will be available for <a href="/wiki/Wii" title="Wii">Wii</a>'s Virtual Console emulator. In February 2007, it was confirmed again and announced that the games would cost 800 <a href="/wiki/Wii_Points" title="Wii Points">Wii Points</a> and will become available in Spring 2007 (for Japan only, at least initially).</li>
</ul>
<p><a name="MSX_trivia" id="MSX_trivia"></a></p>
<h2><span class="editsection">[<a href="/w/index.php?title=MSX&action=edit§ion=3" title="Edit section: MSX trivia">edit</a>]</span> <span class="mw-headline">MSX trivia</span></h2>
<ul>
<li>The birthday of the MSX Home Computer Standard is <a href="/wiki/June_27" title="June 27">June 27</a>, <a href="/wiki/1983" title="1983">1983</a>, the day it was formally announced during a press-conference.</li>
<li>MSX 1 computers were very similar to the <a href="/wiki/Colecovision" title="Colecovision">Colecovision</a> and <a href="/wiki/Sega_SG-1000" title="Sega SG-1000">Sega SG-1000</a> video game systems. They shared the same CPU and video processors. Their sound processors were also very similar. A Colecovision emulator for the MSX exists.</li>
<li>By far, the most popular and famous MSX games were written by Japanese software-house <a href="/wiki/Konami" title="Konami">Konami</a>.</li>
<li>As the MSX's processor, the Zilog Z80A, could only address up to 64 kB of memory, the default allocation (used in most, if not all models) was with the lower 32 kB for ROM BASIC and the upper 32 kB for RAM. Machines intended to run MSX-DOS (a CP/M-like system) had 64 kB RAM, but the lower 32 kB were disabled in order for the ROM BASIC to function. When the computer booted MSX-DOS, the ROM BASIC was disabled and all of the 64 kB <a href="/wiki/Address_space" title="Address space">address space</a> was mapped to RAM.</li>
<li>Among MSX-DOS compatible software (directly ported from CP/M) were <a href="/wiki/DBase" title="DBase">dBase</a> II, <a href="/wiki/Turbo_Pascal" title="Turbo Pascal">Turbo Pascal</a> version 3 and <a href="/wiki/Wordstar" title="Wordstar">Wordstar</a>. Therefore, in the late 1980s, several Brazilian companies used an MSX system as their "corporate" computer. As an MSX 1 could display only 40×25 text, expansion kits were introduced that upgraded the display to 80×25, giving MSX a more professional appeal. MSX 2 and up were never manufactured by the main companies in Brazil (Gradiente and Sharp). Much of the market was created alone by Ademir Carchano (MSX Projetos et al) who created most of the aftermarket hardware for MSX, including the MegaRAM cartridge (a way to copy and play MegaROM games), the MSX 2.0 and 2+ conversion kits and IDE interfaces. Although cheaper IBM-PC clones eventually dominated the market, the MSX remained somewhat popular, with hardware being created and sold for substantial prices for some time afterwards.</li>
<li>MSX 1 games were published mainly on cartridge and <a href="/wiki/Compact_Cassette" title="Compact Cassette">cassette</a>. Later in the 1980s the MSX 2 was released, which generally included a 3.5" disk drive, and consequently the popular media for games and other software shifted to floppy disks.</li>
<li>The MSX 3.5" <a href="/wiki/Floppy_disk" title="Floppy disk">floppy disks</a>, at least those formatted under MSX-DOS 2.0, were directly compatible with MS-DOS (although some details like <a href="/wiki/Undeletion" title="Undeletion">file undeletion</a> and <a href="/wiki/Boot_sector" title="Boot sector">boot sector</a> code were different). <a href="http://www.faq.msxnet.org/dos2.html" class="external autonumber" title="http://www.faq.msxnet.org/dos2.html" rel="nofollow">[1]</a></li>
<li>The introduction of MSX led to a new and short-lived kind of <a href="/wiki/Software_cracking" title="Software cracking">software cracking</a>: <i>converting</i>. Since the MSX games were unplayable on the <a href="/wiki/SV-328" title="SV-328">SV-328</a> 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 <a href="/wiki/BIOS" title="BIOS">BIOS</a> to the SV-328 from tape or floppy disk.</li>
<li>Due to the same processor (Z80), graphical resolution (256×192 pixels) and number of colors (16) of the MSX 1 systems and the <a href="/wiki/Sinclair_ZX_Spectrum" title="Sinclair ZX Spectrum">Sinclair ZX Spectrum</a>, many videogames made for the latter could easily be ported to the MSX platform by the (European) authors themselves, making both versions nearly identical. The enhanced color display possibilities of the MSX were not exploited: they did not used any hardware sprites, and the <i>color by character</i> style of the ZX Spectrum graphics was directly used, instead of using the MSX's more advanced facility to have a different color pair for each line in the character.</li>
</ul>
<p><a name="Franchises_established_on_the_MSX" id="Franchises_established_on_the_MSX"></a></p>
<h2><span class="editsection">[<a href="/w/index.php?title=MSX&action=edit§ion=4" title="Edit section: Franchises established on the MSX">edit</a>]</span> <span class="mw-headline">Franchises established on the MSX</span></h2>
<div class="thumb tright">
<div class="thumbinner" style="width:274px;"><a href="/wiki/Image:Mgear.png" class="internal" title="Konami's Metal Gear made its debut for MSX2 before the release of its reworked counterpart for the NES."><img src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/24/Mgear.png" alt="Konami's Metal Gear made its debut for MSX2 before the release of its reworked counterpart for the NES." width="272" height="228" longdesc="/wiki/Image:Mgear.png" class="thumbimage" /></a>
<div class="thumbcaption">
<div class="magnify" style="float:right"><a href="/wiki/Image:Mgear.png" class="internal" title="Enlarge"><img src="/skins-1.5/common/images/magnify-clip.png" width="15" height="11" alt="" /></a></div>
Konami's <i><a href="/wiki/Metal_Gear_%28video_game%29" title="Metal Gear (video game)">Metal Gear</a></i> made its debut for MSX2 before the release of its reworked counterpart for the <a href="/wiki/Nintendo_Entertainment_System" title="Nintendo Entertainment System">NES</a>.</div>
</div>
</div>
<p>Several popular <a href="/wiki/Video_game_franchise" title="Video game franchise">video game franchises</a> were established on the MSX:</p>
<ul>
<li><i><a href="/wiki/Bomberman" title="Bomberman">Bomberman</a></i></li>
<li><i><a href="/wiki/Eggerland_series" title="Eggerland series">Eggerland</a></i></li>
<li><i><a href="/wiki/Metal_Gear_%28series%29" title="Metal Gear (series)">Metal Gear</a></i></li>
<li><i><a href="/wiki/Parodius" title="Parodius">Parodius</a></i></li>
<li><i><a href="/wiki/Puyo_Puyo" title="Puyo Puyo">Puyo Puyo</a></i></li>
</ul>
<p>Others got various installments on the MSX, including some titles unique to the system or largely reworked versions of games on other formats:</p>
<ul>
<li><i><a href="/wiki/Aleste" title="Aleste">Aleste</a></i></li>
<li><i><a href="/wiki/Castlevania" title="Castlevania">Castlevania</a></i> (as <i><a href="/wiki/Vampire_Killer" title="Vampire Killer">Vampire Killer</a></i>)</li>
<li><i><a href="/wiki/Contra" title="Contra">Contra</a></i></li>
<li><i><a href="/wiki/Dragon_Quest" title="Dragon Quest">Dragon Quest</a></i></li>
<li><i><a href="/wiki/Dragon_Slayer" title="Dragon Slayer">Dragon Slayer</a></i></li>
<li><i><a href="/wiki/Final_Fantasy" title="Final Fantasy">Final Fantasy</a></i></li>
<li><i><a href="/wiki/Golvellius" title="Golvellius">Golvellius</a></i></li>
<li><i><a href="/wiki/Gradius" title="Gradius">Gradius</a></i> (<i>Nemesis</i>)</li>
<li><i><a href="/wiki/Wizardry" title="Wizardry">Wizardry</a></i></li>
<li><i><a href="/wiki/Xak" title="Xak">Xak</a></i></li>
<li><i><a href="/wiki/Ys_%28video_game%29" title="Ys (video game)">Ys</a></i></li>
<li><i><a href="/wiki/Zanac" title="Zanac">Zanac</a></i></li>
</ul>
<p><a name="Manufacturers_of_MSX_computers" id="Manufacturers_of_MSX_computers"></a></p>
<h2><span class="editsection">[<a href="/w/index.php?title=MSX&action=edit§ion=5" title="Edit section: Manufacturers of MSX computers">edit</a>]</span> <span class="mw-headline">Manufacturers of MSX computers</span></h2>
<ul>
<li>MSX 1: <a href="/wiki/Spectravideo" title="Spectravideo">Spectravideo</a> (USA), <a href="/wiki/Philips" title="Philips">Philips</a> (the Netherlands), <a href="/w/index.php?title=Al_Alamia&action=edit" class="new" title="Al Alamia">Al Alamia</a> (Saudi Arabia), <a href="/wiki/Sony" title="Sony">Sony</a>, <a href="/wiki/Sanyo" title="Sanyo">Sanyo</a>, <a href="/wiki/Mitsubishi" title="Mitsubishi">Mitsubishi</a>, <a href="/wiki/Toshiba" title="Toshiba">Toshiba</a>, <a href="/wiki/Hitachi%2C_Ltd." title="Hitachi, Ltd.">Hitachi</a>, <a href="/wiki/National_%28brand%29" title="National (brand)">National</a>, <a href="/wiki/Panasonic" title="Panasonic">Panasonic</a>, <a href="/wiki/Canon_Inc." title="Canon Inc.">Canon</a>, <a href="/wiki/Casio" title="Casio">Casio</a>, <a href="/wiki/Pioneer_Corporation" title="Pioneer Corporation">Pioneer</a>, <a href="/wiki/Fujitsu" title="Fujitsu">Fujitsu General</a>, <a href="/wiki/Yamaha_Corporation" title="Yamaha Corporation">Yamaha</a>, Yashica-<a href="/wiki/Kyocera" title="Kyocera">Kyocera</a> (Japan), <a href="/wiki/GoldStar" title="GoldStar">GoldStar</a>, <a href="/wiki/Samsung" title="Samsung">Samsung</a>/Fenner (Korea/Italy), <a href="/wiki/Daewoo" title="Daewoo">Daewoo/Yeno</a> (South Korea), <a href="/wiki/Gradiente" title="Gradiente">Gradiente</a>, <a href="/wiki/Sharp_Corporation" title="Sharp Corporation">Sharp</a>/Epcom (Brazil), Talent (Argentina).</li>
<li>MSX 2: <a href="/wiki/Philips" title="Philips">Philips</a> (the Netherlands), <a href="/wiki/Sony" title="Sony">Sony</a>, <a href="/wiki/Sanyo" title="Sanyo">Sanyo</a>, <a href="/wiki/Samsung" title="Samsung">Samsung</a>, <a href="/wiki/Mitsubishi" title="Mitsubishi">Mitsubishi</a>, <a href="/wiki/Victor" title="Victor">Victor</a> (a.k.a. <a href="/wiki/JVC" title="JVC">JVC</a>), <a href="/wiki/National_%28brand%29" title="National (brand)">National</a>, <a href="/wiki/Panasonic" title="Panasonic">Panasonic</a>, <a href="/wiki/Canon_%28company%29" title="Canon (company)">Canon</a>, <a href="/wiki/Yamaha_Corporation" title="Yamaha Corporation">Yamaha</a> (Japan), ACVS, DDX (Brazil, upgrade kit), <a href="/wiki/Daewoo" title="Daewoo">Daewoo/Yeno</a> (South Korea), Talent (Argentina).</li>
<li>MSX 2+: <a href="/wiki/Sony" title="Sony">Sony</a>, <a href="/wiki/Sanyo" title="Sanyo">Sanyo</a>, <a href="/wiki/Panasonic" title="Panasonic">Panasonic</a> (Japan), ACVS, DDX (Brazil, upgrade kit)</li>
<li>MSX turbo R: <a href="/wiki/Panasonic" title="Panasonic">Panasonic</a> (Japan)</li>
</ul>
<p><a name="System_specs" id="System_specs"></a></p>
<h2><span class="editsection">[<a href="/w/index.php?title=MSX&action=edit§ion=6" title="Edit section: System specs">edit</a>]</span> <span class="mw-headline">System specs</span></h2>
<p><a name="MSX_1" id="MSX_1"></a></p>
<h3><span class="editsection">[<a href="/w/index.php?title=MSX&action=edit§ion=7" title="Edit section: MSX 1">edit</a>]</span> <span class="mw-headline">MSX 1</span></h3>
<div class="thumb tright">
<div class="thumbinner" style="width:282px;"><a href="/wiki/Image:MSX_Philips_VG8020.jpg" class="internal" title="Philips MSX 1, Model VG-8020"><img src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/31/MSX_Philips_VG8020.jpg/280px-MSX_Philips_VG8020.jpg" alt="Philips MSX 1, Model VG-8020" width="280" height="141" longdesc="/wiki/Image:MSX_Philips_VG8020.jpg" class="thumbimage" /></a>
<div class="thumbcaption">
<div class="magnify" style="float:right"><a href="/wiki/Image:MSX_Philips_VG8020.jpg" class="internal" title="Enlarge"><img src="/skins-1.5/common/images/magnify-clip.png" width="15" height="11" alt="" /></a></div>
Philips MSX 1, Model VG-8020</div>
</div>
</div>
<ul>
<li>Processor: <a href="/wiki/Zilog_Z80" title="Zilog Z80">Zilog Z80A</a> running at 3.58 MHz</li>
<li><a href="/wiki/Read-only_memory" title="Read-only memory">ROM</a>: 32 kB
<ul>
<li><a href="/wiki/BIOS" title="BIOS">BIOS</a> (16 kB)</li>
<li><a href="/wiki/MSX_BASIC" title="MSX BASIC">MSX BASIC</a> V1.0 (16 kB)</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a href="/wiki/Random_access_memory" title="Random access memory">RAM</a>: 8 kB minimum, up to 64 kB</li>
<li><a href="/wiki/Video_Display_Controller" title="Video Display Controller">Video Display Processor</a>: <a href="/wiki/Texas_Instruments_TMS9918" title="Texas Instruments TMS9918">Texas Instruments TMS9918</a> family
<ul>
<li>Video RAM: 16 kB</li>
<li>Text modes: 40×24 and 32×24</li>
<li>Resolution: 256×192 (16 colours)</li>
<li>Sprites: 32, 1 colour, max 4 per horizontal line</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Sound chip: <a href="/wiki/General_Instrument_AY-3-8910" title="General Instrument AY-3-8910">General Instrument AY-3-8910</a> (PSG)
<ul>
<li>3 channels + noise</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<p><a name="MSX_2" id="MSX_2"></a></p>
<h3><span class="editsection">[<a href="/w/index.php?title=MSX&action=edit§ion=8" title="Edit section: MSX 2">edit</a>]</span> <span class="mw-headline">MSX 2</span></h3>
<ul>
<li>Processor: <a href="/wiki/Zilog_Z80" title="Zilog Z80">Zilog Z80A</a> running at 3.58 MHz</li>
<li><a href="/wiki/Read-only_memory" title="Read-only memory">ROM</a>: 48 kB
<ul>
<li><a href="/wiki/BIOS" title="BIOS">BIOS</a> + Extended BIOS (32 kB)</li>
<li><a href="/wiki/MSX_BASIC" title="MSX BASIC">MSX BASIC</a> V2.0 (16 kB)</li>
<li>DiskROM (16 kB) (optional)</li>
<li>MSX-Audio BIOS (32 kB) (optional)</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a href="/wiki/Random_access_memory" title="Random access memory">RAM</a>: commonly 128 kB (64 kB on Japanese computers, Sony HB-F700P had 256 kB)
<ul>
<li><a href="/wiki/Memory_map" title="Memory map">Memory mapped</a> (4 MB/slot max)</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Video Display Processor: <a href="/wiki/Yamaha_V9938" title="Yamaha V9938">Yamaha V9938</a> (aka MSX-Video)
<ul>
<li>Video RAM: 128 kB (sometimes 64 kB or 192 kB)</li>
<li>Text modes: 80×24 and 32×24</li>
<li>Resolution: 512×212 (16 colours out of 512) and 256×212 (256 colours)</li>
<li>Sprites: 32, 16 colours, max 8 per horizontal line</li>
<li><a href="/wiki/Hardware_acceleration" title="Hardware acceleration">Hardware acceleration</a> for copy, line, fill, etc.</li>
<li><a href="/wiki/Interlace" title="Interlace">Interlacing</a> to double vertical resolution</li>
<li>Vertical scroll register</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Sound chip: <a href="/wiki/General_Instrument_AY-3-8910" title="General Instrument AY-3-8910">Yamaha YM2149</a> (PSG)
<ul>
<li>3 channels + noise</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Clock chip RP5C01</li>
</ul>
<p><a name="MSX_2.2B" id="MSX_2.2B"></a></p>
<h3><span class="editsection">[<a href="/w/index.php?title=MSX&action=edit§ion=9" title="Edit section: MSX 2+">edit</a>]</span> <span class="mw-headline">MSX 2+</span></h3>
<ul>
<li>Only officially released in Japan (available in Europe and Brazil via upgrades)</li>
<li>Processor: Zilog Z80 compatible running at 3.58 MHz or more (5.37 MHz versions were available)</li>
<li>ROM: 64 kB
<ul>
<li>BIOS + Extended BIOS (32 kB)</li>
<li><a href="/wiki/MSX_BASIC" title="MSX BASIC">MSX BASIC</a> V3.0 (16 kB)</li>
<li>DiskROM (16 kB)</li>
<li>Kun-BASIC (16 kB) (optional)</li>
<li>Kanji ROM (optional)</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>RAM: commonly 64 kB (on Japanese computers)
<ul>
<li>Memory mapped (4 MB/slot max)</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Video Display Processor: <a href="/wiki/Yamaha_V9958" title="Yamaha V9958">Yamaha V9958</a> (aka MSX-Video)
<ul>
<li>Video RAM: 128 kB</li>
<li>Text modes: 80×24 and 32×24</li>
<li>Resolution: 512×212 (16 colours out of 512) and 256×212 (19268 colours)</li>
<li>Sprites: 32, 16 colours, max 8 per horizontal line</li>
<li>Hardware acceleration for copy, line, fill, etc.</li>
<li>Interlacing to double vertical resolution</li>
<li>Horizontal and vertical scroll registers</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Sound chip: Yamaha YM2149 (PSG)
<ul>
<li>3 channels + noise</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Optional sound chip: <a href="/wiki/Yamaha_YM2413" title="Yamaha YM2413">Yamaha YM2413 (OPLL)</a> (MSX-Music)
<ul>
<li>9 channels FM or 6 channels FM + 5 drums</li>
<li>15 pre-set instruments, 1 custom</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Clock chip RP5C01</li>
</ul>
<p><a name="MSX_turbo_R" id="MSX_turbo_R"></a></p>
<h3><span class="editsection">[<a href="/w/index.php?title=MSX&action=edit§ion=10" title="Edit section: MSX turbo R">edit</a>]</span> <span class="mw-headline">MSX turbo R</span></h3>
<ul>
<li>Only released in Japan</li>
<li>Processor: <a href="/wiki/R800" title="R800">R800</a> and Zilog Z80 running respectively at 29 MHz and 7.14 MHz</li>
<li>ROM: 96 kB
<ul>
<li>BIOS + Extended BIOS (48 kB)</li>
<li><a href="/wiki/MSX_BASIC" title="MSX BASIC">MSX BASIC</a> V4.0 (16 kB)</li>
<li>DiskROM (16 kB)</li>
<li>Kun-BASIC (16 kB)</li>
<li>Kanji ROM (256 kB)</li>
<li>Firmware (4 MB)</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>RAM: 256 kB (FS-A1ST) or 512 kB (FS-A1GT)
<ul>
<li>Memory mapped (4 MB/slot max)</li>
<li>Additionally 16 kB (FS-A1ST) or 32 kB (FS-A1GT) of <a href="/wiki/Static_Random_Access_Memory" title="Static Random Access Memory">SRAM</a> (battery-powered)</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Video Display Processor: <a href="/wiki/Yamaha_V9958" title="Yamaha V9958">Yamaha V9958</a> (aka MSX-Video)
<ul>
<li>Video RAM: 128 kB</li>
<li>Text modes: 80×24 and 32×24</li>
<li>Resolution: 512×212 (16 colours out of 512) and 256×212 (19768 colours)</li>
<li>Sprites: 32, 16 colours, max 8 per horizontal line</li>
<li>Hardware acceleration for copy, line, fill, etc.</li>
<li>Interlacing to double vertical resolution</li>
<li>Horizontal and vertical scroll registers</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Sound chip: Yamaha YM2149 (PSG)
<ul>
<li>3 channels + noise</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Sound chip: <a href="/wiki/Yamaha_YM2413" title="Yamaha YM2413">Yamaha YM2413 (OPLL)</a> (MSX-Music)
<ul>
<li>9 channels FM or 6 channels FM + 5 drums</li>
<li>15 pre-set instruments, 1 custom</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Sound chip: <a href="/wiki/Pulse-code_modulation" title="Pulse-code modulation">PCM</a>
<ul>
<li>8-bit single channel (no DMA), 16 kHz max using BIOS routines.</li>
<li>Microphone built-in</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Sound chip: MIDI in/out (FS-A1GT only)</li>
<li>Clock chip</li>
</ul>
<p><a name="Peripherals" id="Peripherals"></a></p>
<h2><span class="editsection">[<a href="/w/index.php?title=MSX&action=edit§ion=11" title="Edit section: Peripherals">edit</a>]</span> <span class="mw-headline">Peripherals</span></h2>
<p><a name="MSX-Audio" id="MSX-Audio"></a></p>
<h3><span class="editsection">[<a href="/w/index.php?title=MSX&action=edit§ion=12" title="Edit section: MSX-Audio">edit</a>]</span> <span class="mw-headline">MSX-Audio</span></h3>
<ul>
<li><a href="/w/index.php?title=Yamaha_Y8950&action=edit" class="new" title="Yamaha Y8950">Yamaha Y8950</a>, also known as:
<ul>
<li>Panasonic: MSX-Audio (standard name)</li>
<li>Philips: Music Module (no MSX-Audio BIOS)</li>
<li>Toshiba: MSX FM-synthesizer Unit (no sample RAM, no MSX-Audio BIOS)</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>9 channels <a href="/wiki/FM" title="FM">FM</a> or 6 channels FM + 5 drums</li>
<li><a href="/wiki/ADPCM" title="ADPCM">ADPCM</a> record and play</li>
<li>32 kB of sample RAM, which can be upgraded to 256 kB</li>
</ul>
<p><a name="MSX-Music" id="MSX-Music"></a></p>
<h3><span class="editsection">[<a href="/w/index.php?title=MSX&action=edit§ion=13" title="Edit section: MSX-Music">edit</a>]</span> <span class="mw-headline">MSX-Music</span></h3>
<ul>
<li><a href="/wiki/Yamaha_YM2413" title="Yamaha YM2413">Yamaha YM2413 (OPLL)</a>, also known as:
<ul>
<li>MSX-Music (standard name)</li>
<li>Panasonic: FM-PAC</li>
<li>Zemina: Music Box</li>
<li>Checkmark: FM-Stereo-Pak</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>9 channels <a href="/wiki/FM" title="FM">FM</a> or 6 channels FM + 5 drums</li>
<li>15 pre-set instruments, 1 custom</li>
<li>Built-in in many MSX 2+ computers and the MSX turbo R</li>
</ul>
<p><a name="Emulators" id="Emulators"></a></p>
<h2><span class="editsection">[<a href="/w/index.php?title=MSX&action=edit§ion=14" title="Edit section: Emulators">edit</a>]</span> <span class="mw-headline">Emulators</span></h2>
<div class="thumb tright">
<div class="thumbinner" style="width:282px;"><a href="/wiki/Image:Bluemsx1.jpg" class="internal" title="An MSX emulator screenshot"><img src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/a/ab/Bluemsx1.jpg/280px-Bluemsx1.jpg" alt="An MSX emulator screenshot" width="280" height="224" longdesc="/wiki/Image:Bluemsx1.jpg" class="thumbimage" /></a>
<div class="thumbcaption">
<div class="magnify" style="float:right"><a href="/wiki/Image:Bluemsx1.jpg" class="internal" title="Enlarge"><img src="/skins-1.5/common/images/magnify-clip.png" width="15" height="11" alt="" /></a></div>
An MSX emulator screenshot</div>
</div>
</div>
<p>MSX computers are one of the most <a href="/wiki/Emulators" title="Emulators">emulated</a> platforms today.</p>
<ul>
<li><b><a href="/wiki/BlueMSX" title="BlueMSX">blueMSX</a></b> (<a href="http://www.bluemsx.com/" class="external text" title="http://www.bluemsx.com/" rel="nofollow">homepage</a>): Considered by many the best MSX emulator<sup id="_ref-MSXorg_0" class="reference"><a href="#_note-MSXorg" title="">[1]</a></sup>
<ul>
<li>A fairly new MSX emulator for <a href="/wiki/Microsoft_Windows" title="Microsoft Windows">Windows</a> (development started September 2003) initially based on Marat Fayzullin's fMSX</li>
<li>Perfect looking emulation of MSX, MSX 2, MSX 2+, MSX turboR, Colecovision and Spectravideo</li>
<li>Very accurate sound emulation</li>
<li>Many unique emulation features such as ethernet emulation, video recording, digitizing, and theme based user interface</li>
<li><a href="/wiki/Open_source" title="Open source">Open source</a> (GPL) since v2.0, which didn't use Marat Fayzullin code anymore</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><b><a href="/wiki/BrMSX" title="BrMSX">BrMSX</a></b>: <i>discontinued</i>
<ul>
<li>The fastest MSX and MSX 2 emulator ever, written entirely in <a href="/wiki/Assembly_language" title="Assembly language">Assembly</a> for DOS only</li>
<li>BrMSX author, Ricardo Bittencourt, is now part of the blueMSX development team</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><b>CJS MSX Emulator</b> (<a href="http://ftp.castel.nl/msx/" class="external text" title="http://ftp.castel.nl/msx/" rel="nofollow">homepage</a>): <i>discontinued</i>
<ul>
<li>Along with fMSX was one of the very first successful MSX emulators</li>
<li>Unlike fMSX the code was not portable and is compatible only with <a href="/wiki/IBM-PC" title="IBM-PC">IBM-PC</a> running DOS</li>
<li>Fast MSX and MSX 2 emulation with good sound support</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><b><a href="/wiki/FMSX" title="FMSX">fMSX</a></b> (<a href="http://fms.komkon.org/fMSX/" class="external text" title="http://fms.komkon.org/fMSX/" rel="nofollow">homepage</a>): A portable MSX emulator by Marat Fayzullin
<ul>
<li>The first widespread MSX emulator and the most ported one</li>
<li>Offers accurate MSX, MSX 2 and MSX 2+ emulation with sound</li>
<li>Source is available in a commercially restricted license (<a href="/wiki/Free_port" title="Free port">free ports</a> are allowed and encouraged)</li>
<li>The majority of MSX emulators today were more or less based on the fMSX source code</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><b>fMSX for Series 60</b> (<a href="http://personal.inet.fi/private/riihimaki/s60/" class="external text" title="http://personal.inet.fi/private/riihimaki/s60/" rel="nofollow">homepage</a>) by Juha Riihimäki
<ul>
<li>Very interesting port of the famous fMSX emulator for the <a href="/wiki/Nokia" title="Nokia">Nokia</a> <a href="/wiki/Series_60" title="Series 60">Series 60</a> based devices</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><b>fMSXDS</b> (<a href="http://www.imasy.or.jp/~ngs/emu/" class="external text" title="http://www.imasy.or.jp/~ngs/emu/" rel="nofollow">homepage</a>): A portable MSX emulator for the <a href="/wiki/Nintendo_DS" title="Nintendo DS">Nintendo DS</a> by Nyagosu</li>
<li><b>MSXPLAYer</b> (<a href="http://www.msxa.org/player/about.html" class="external text" title="http://www.msxa.org/player/about.html" rel="nofollow">Homepage</a>) (Japanese site)
<ul>
<li>This is the official MSX emulator.</li>
<li>Outside of Japan BAZIX is the representative for MSXPLAYer <a href="http://www.bazix.nl/index.html" class="external autonumber" title="http://www.bazix.nl/index.html" rel="nofollow">[2]</a>, and is also acting as the trademark holder for the MSX logo when used in emulators <a href="http://www.bazix.nl/msx-logo-policy.html" class="external autonumber" title="http://www.bazix.nl/msx-logo-policy.html" rel="nofollow">[3]</a></li>
<li>MSXPLAYer is produced by the <a href="http://www.msxa.org/index.html" class="external text" title="http://www.msxa.org/index.html" rel="nofollow">MSX Association</a> (Japanese site) of which <a href="/wiki/Kazuhiko_Nishi" title="Kazuhiko Nishi">Kazuhiko Nishi</a>, (the inventor of the MSX standard) is the president.</li>
<li>BAZIX is currently in the process of developing a version of MSXPLAYer for the use with mobile phones that use the <a href="/wiki/Symbian" title="Symbian">Symbian 60 OS</a></li>
<li>In Japan, a Windows and a Pocket PC version is available</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><b>NLMSX</b> (<a href="http://nlmsx.generation-msx.nl" class="external text" title="http://nlmsx.generation-msx.nl" rel="nofollow">homepage</a>): <i>inactive</i>
<ul>
<li>A basic, fairly accurate MSX, MSX 2, MSX 2+ and turboR emulator for Windows based on fMSX 2.0b</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><b>NO$MSX</b> (<a href="http://www.work.de/nocash/msx.htm" class="external text" title="http://www.work.de/nocash/msx.htm" rel="nofollow">homepage</a>) by Martin Korth
<ul>
<li>A decent MSX and MSX 2 emulator aimed to be more of a serious <a href="/wiki/Programming_tool" title="Programming tool">development tool</a> than just an emulator</li>
<li>Has a very useful and comfortable debugger and is written entirely in Assembly language to run smoothly on a 33 MHz PC.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><b><a href="/wiki/OpenMSX" title="OpenMSX">openMSX</a></b> (<a href="http://openmsx.sourceforge.net/" class="external text" title="http://openmsx.sourceforge.net/" rel="nofollow">homepage</a>): <i>The MSX emulator that aims for perfection</i>
<ul>
<li>Open source (GPL) MSX emulator with some unique features (script based operation, command interface via pipes/socket, etc.)</li>
<li>Extremely accurate MSX, MSX 2, MSX 2+ and turboR emulation</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><b>paraMSX</b>: fMSX port by Yeongman Seo
<ul>
<li>Was one of the best fMSX ports for Windows in its time</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><b>RuMSX</b> (<a href="http://www.lexlechz.at/msx/RuMSX.html" class="external text" title="http://www.lexlechz.at/msx/RuMSX.html" rel="nofollow">homepage</a>): Turbo-R emulator for Windows
<ul>
<li>One of the older MSX, MSX 2, MSX 2+ and turboR emulators</li>
<li>Had very nice sound support for its time</li>
<li>Very intuitive user interface</li>
<li>The first MSX emulator with turboR support</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><b>RedMSX</b> (<a href="http://www.icongames.com.br/msxfiles/redmsx/about.htm" class="external text" title="http://www.icongames.com.br/msxfiles/redmsx/about.htm" rel="nofollow">homepage</a>): blueMSX derivative
<ul>
<li>Started out as a hack on blueMSX to add <a href="/wiki/ZIP_%28file_format%29" title="ZIP (file format)">zipped</a> ROM support and the SCALE2X <a href="http://scale2x.sourceforge.net/" class="external autonumber" title="http://scale2x.sourceforge.net/" rel="nofollow">[4]</a> graphical enhancement algorithm</li>
<li>Added support for zipped DSK (<a href="/wiki/Disk_image" title="Disk image">disk images</a>), lightguns and <a href="/wiki/Drag-and-drop" title="Drag-and-drop">drag-and-drop</a> launching of zip files</li>
<li>While blueMSX compiles only with <a href="/wiki/Microsoft_Visual_Studio" title="Microsoft Visual Studio">Microsoft Visual Studio</a> .Net, RedMSX will compile with Microsoft Visual C/C++ 6.</li>
<li>RedMSX's CPU load is very low (even less than blueMSX) making it run fast and accurately even in older, inexpensive hardware</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><b><a href="/wiki/Virtual_Console" title="Virtual Console">Virtual Console</a> on the <a href="/wiki/Wii" title="Wii">Wii</a></b></li>
</ul>
<p><a name="References" id="References"></a></p>
<h2><span class="editsection">[<a href="/w/index.php?title=MSX&action=edit§ion=15" title="Edit section: References">edit</a>]</span> <span class="mw-headline">References</span></h2>
<ol class="references">
<li id="_note-MSXorg"><b><a href="#_ref-MSXorg_0" title="">^</a></b> <a href="http://www.msx.org/" class="external text" title="http://www.msx.org/" rel="nofollow">The MSX Resource Center Foundation</a> has published a <a href="http://www.msx.org/MSX-Emulator-Comparison.articlepage8.html" class="external text" title="http://www.msx.org/MSX-Emulator-Comparison.articlepage8.html" rel="nofollow">comparison</a> of various prominent MSX emulators</li>
</ol>
<p><a name="See_also" id="See_also"></a></p>
<h2><span class="editsection">[<a href="/w/index.php?title=MSX&action=edit§ion=16" title="Edit section: See also">edit</a>]</span> <span class="mw-headline">See also</span></h2>
<ul>
<li><a href="/wiki/History_of_computing_hardware" title="History of computing hardware">History of computing hardware</a></li>
<li><i><a href="/wiki/Zemmix" title="Zemmix">Zemmix</a></i> MSX compatible <a href="/wiki/Video_game_console" title="Video game console">console</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/List_of_MSX_games" title="List of MSX games">List of MSX games</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/Canon_T90" title="Canon T90">Canon T90</a> - this advanced <a href="/wiki/Single-lens_reflex" title="Single-lens reflex">SLR</a> <a href="/wiki/Camera" title="Camera">camera</a> had an optional Data Memory Back storing shot data on photos taken. It interfaced only with the MSX, probably because <a href="/wiki/Canon_Inc." title="Canon Inc.">Canon Inc.</a> sold a MSX computer.</li>
<li><a href="/wiki/SymbOS" title="SymbOS">SymbOS</a> - A free <a href="/wiki/Computer_multitasking" title="Computer multitasking">multitasking</a> <a href="/wiki/Operating_system" title="Operating system">operating system</a> for Z80 based 8-bit computer systems supporting the MSX2, MSX2+ and MSX turbo R.</li>
</ul>
<p><a name="External_links" id="External_links"></a></p>
<h2><span class="editsection">[<a href="/w/index.php?title=MSX&action=edit§ion=17" title="Edit section: External links">edit</a>]</span> <span class="mw-headline">External links</span></h2>
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<div class="floatleft"><span><a href="/wiki/Image:Commons-logo.svg" class="image" title=""><img src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg/50px-Commons-logo.svg.png" alt="" width="50" height="67" longdesc="/wiki/Image:Commons-logo.svg" /></a></span></div>
<div style="margin-left: 60px;"><a href="/wiki/Wikimedia_Commons" title="Wikimedia Commons">Wikimedia Commons</a> has media related to:
<div style="margin-left: 10px;"><i><b><a href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:MSX" class="extiw" title="commons:Category:MSX">MSX</a></b></i></div>
</div>
</div>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.msxpro.com" class="external text" title="http://www.msxpro.com" rel="nofollow">MSX Pro is one of the biggest MSX sites in Brazil</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.tabajara-labs.com.br" class="external text" title="http://www.tabajara-labs.com.br" rel="nofollow">Tabajara Labs has many interesting MSX pages and is always adding more</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.bazix.nl/onechipmsx.html" class="external text" title="http://www.bazix.nl/onechipmsx.html" rel="nofollow">One Chip MSX</a></li>
<li><a href="http://free.flop.jp/1chipmsx/" class="external text" title="http://free.flop.jp/1chipmsx/" rel="nofollow">1chipMSX wiki (in Japanese)</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.msx.org/" class="external text" title="http://www.msx.org/" rel="nofollow">MSX Resource Center</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.icongames.com.br/msxfiles/" class="external text" title="http://www.icongames.com.br/msxfiles/" rel="nofollow">The MSX Files</a></li>
<li><a href="http://faq.msxnet.org/" class="external text" title="http://faq.msxnet.org/" rel="nofollow">The Ultimate MSX FAQ</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.generation-msx.nl/" class="external text" title="http://www.generation-msx.nl/" rel="nofollow">Generation MSX</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.msxa.org/" class="external text" title="http://www.msxa.org/" rel="nofollow">MSX Association</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.ascii.co.jp/" class="external text" title="http://www.ascii.co.jp/" rel="nofollow">ASCII Corporation</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.msx.ch/sunformsx/" class="external text" title="http://www.msx.ch/sunformsx/" rel="nofollow">Sunrise Foundation</a> — The main hardware producer and <a href="/wiki/Software_Distributor" title="Software Distributor">software distributor</a> for MSX, which amongst others made and sells the famous <a href="/wiki/Moonsound" title="Moonsound">Moonsound</a> and Graphics9000 boards. Also creator of the popular <a href="/wiki/CompactFlash" title="CompactFlash">CompactFlash</a> IDE interface.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.msxprojetos.com.br/" class="external text" title="http://www.msxprojetos.com.br/" rel="nofollow">MSX Projetos</a> — Brazilian site (<a href="/wiki/Portuguese_language" title="Portuguese language">Portuguese language</a>). Still produces MSX hardware, including accelerated MSX 2+ motherboards (ACE001@10 MHz). Has an ongoing project called <a href="/w/index.php?title=CIEL_3%2B%2B&action=edit" class="new" title="CIEL 3++">CIEL 3++</a> for a new, and far more powerful, generation of MSX hardware.</li>
<li><a href="http://bbs.hispamsx.org:81/" class="external text" title="http://bbs.hispamsx.org:81/" rel="nofollow">HispaMSX BBS</a> — MSX support BBS over <a href="/wiki/Internet_protocol_suite" title="Internet protocol suite">TCP/IP</a>. Operate on the BBS from any computer system, even your MSX. <a href="telnet://bbs.hispamsx.org" class="external text" title="telnet://bbs.hispamsx.org" rel="nofollow">Telnet to bbs.hispamsx.org</a> to get access, or <a href="gopher://bbs.hispamsx.org" class="external text" title="gopher://bbs.hispamsx.org" rel="nofollow">get read-only documents</a> via <a href="/wiki/Gopher_%28protocol%29" title="Gopher (protocol)">Gopher</a>.</li>
<li><a href="http://msxposse.com/" class="external text" title="http://msxposse.com/" rel="nofollow">MSX Posse forum</a> — One of the most interesting forums about MSX.</li>
<li><a href="http://karoshi.msxgamesbox.com/" class="external text" title="http://karoshi.msxgamesbox.com/" rel="nofollow">Karoshi's Development Board</a> — A MSX forum mainly about programming.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.basic.msxall.com/" class="external text" title="http://www.basic.msxall.com/" rel="nofollow">MSX.bas</a> — A Portuguese website focusing completely on development in MSX-BASIC.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.meilink.net/index.php?page=msxpage" class="external text" title="http://www.meilink.net/index.php?page=msxpage" rel="nofollow">MSX page on Meilink.net</a> — A fan page about MSX and Konami Games on MSX.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.aamsx.com/" class="external text" title="http://www.aamsx.com/" rel="nofollow">MSX User Association in Spain</a> — Two user meetings per year</li>
<li><a href="http://map.tni.nl/" class="external text" title="http://map.tni.nl/" rel="nofollow">MSX Assembly Page</a> - Website for MSX assembly programmers</li>
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</script></div> <h1 class="firstHeading">MSX</h1>
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<h3 id="siteSub">From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia</h3>
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<div class="dablink"><i>This article is about the computer standard <b>MSX</b>. For other uses, see <a href="/wiki/MSX_%28disambiguation%29" title="MSX (disambiguation)">MSX (disambiguation)</a>.</i></div>
<table class="infobox" width="280px" style="text-align: left;">
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<td colspan="2" align="center"><a href="/wiki/Image:Msx.png" class="image" title="Image:Msx.png"><img src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/ea/Msx.png" alt="Image:Msx.png" width="250" height="98" longdesc="/wiki/Image:Msx.png" /></a></td>
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<tr style="background-color:#0066cc; color:#ffffff">
<th colspan="2" align="center">MSX</th>
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<tr>
<td width="50px" style="background-color:#ddeeff"><b>Type</b></td>
<td width="228px" style="background-color:#E7EBF5"><a href="/wiki/Home_computer" title="Home computer">Home computer</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="background-color:#ddeeff"><b>Released</b></td>
<td style="background-color:#E7EBF5">1983 (MSX1)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="background-color:#ddeeff"><b>Discontinued</b></td>
<td style="background-color:#E7EBF5">1995 (MSX turbo R)</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="background-color:#ddeeff"><b>Processor</b></td>
<td style="background-color:#E7EBF5"><a href="/wiki/Zilog_Z80" title="Zilog Z80">Zilog Z80</a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="background-color:#ddeeff"><b>Memory</b></td>
<td style="background-color:#E7EBF5">16KB ~ 512KB</td>
</tr>
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<td style="background-color:#ddeeff"><b>OS</b></td>
<td style="background-color:#E7EBF5"><a href="/wiki/MSX-DOS" title="MSX-DOS">MSX-DOS</a> / <a href="/wiki/MSX_BASIC" title="MSX BASIC">MSX BASIC</a></td>
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<div class="thumbinner" style="width:272px;"><a href="/wiki/Image:Sony_hitbit_10p.jpg" class="internal" title="Sony MSX 1, Model HitBit-10-P"><img src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/7/7a/Sony_hitbit_10p.jpg/270px-Sony_hitbit_10p.jpg" alt="Sony MSX 1, Model HitBit-10-P" width="270" height="152" longdesc="/wiki/Image:Sony_hitbit_10p.jpg" class="thumbimage" /></a>
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Sony MSX 1, Model HitBit-10-P</div>
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</div>
<p><b>MSX</b> was the name of a standardized <a href="/wiki/Home_computer" title="Home computer">home computer</a> architecture in the <a href="/wiki/1980s" title="1980s">1980s</a>. It was a <a href="/wiki/Microsoft" title="Microsoft">Microsoft</a>-led attempt to create unified standards among hardware makers, conceived by one-time <a href="/wiki/Microsoft_Japan" title="Microsoft Japan">Microsoft Japan</a> executive <a href="/wiki/Kazuhiko_Nishi" title="Kazuhiko Nishi">Kazuhiko Nishi</a>. 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.</p>
<p>Nishi proposed MSX as an attempt to create a single industry standard for <a href="/wiki/Home_computers" title="Home computers">home computers</a>. Inspired by the success of <a href="/wiki/VHS" title="VHS">VHS</a> as a standard for <a href="/wiki/Video_cassette_recorder" title="Video cassette recorder">video cassette recorders</a>, many Japanese electronic manufacturers along with <a href="/wiki/LG_Group" title="LG Group">Goldstar</a>, <a href="/wiki/Philips" title="Philips">Philips</a> and <a href="/wiki/Spectravideo" title="Spectravideo">Spectravideo</a> 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.</p>
<p>Nishi's standard consisted primarily of several <a href="/wiki/Off_the_shelf" title="Off the shelf">off-the-shelf</a> parts; the main CPU was a 3.58 MHz <a href="/wiki/Zilog_Z80" title="Zilog Z80">Zilog Z80</a>, the <a href="/wiki/Video_Display_Controller" title="Video Display Controller">graphics chip</a> a <a href="/wiki/Texas_Instruments" title="Texas Instruments">Texas Instruments</a> <a href="/wiki/Texas_Instruments_TMS9918" title="Texas Instruments TMS9918">TMS9918</a> with 16 <a href="/wiki/Kilobyte" title="Kilobyte">KB</a> of dedicated <a href="/wiki/Video_RAM" title="Video RAM">VRAM</a>, and the sound was provided by the <a href="/wiki/AY-3-8910" title="AY-3-8910">AY-3-8910</a> chip manufactured by <a href="/wiki/General_Instrument" title="General Instrument">General Instrument</a> (GI). These components alongside <a href="/wiki/Microsoft" title="Microsoft">Microsoft</a>'s <a href="/wiki/MSX_BASIC" title="MSX BASIC">MSX BASIC</a> made the MSX a competitive, though somewhat more expensive home computer package. This design closely resembled the <a href="/wiki/Spectravideo" title="Spectravideo">Spectravideo</a> <a href="/wiki/SV-328" title="SV-328">SV-328</a> home computer, but was not completely compatible with it. Spectravideo later launched a system, the <a href="/wiki/SV-728" title="SV-728">SV-728</a> which did adhere to the MSX standard.</p>
<p>Before the appearance and great success of the <a href="/wiki/Nintendo_Entertainment_System" title="Nintendo Entertainment System">Nintendo Famicom</a>, MSX was the platform for which major Japanese game studios, such as <a href="/wiki/Konami" title="Konami">Konami</a> and <a href="/wiki/Hudson_Soft" title="Hudson Soft">Hudson Soft</a>, produced their titles. The <i><a href="/wiki/Metal_Gear_%28series%29" title="Metal Gear (series)">Metal Gear</a></i> series was originally written for MSX hardware.</p>
<table id="toc" class="toc" summary="Contents">
<tr>
<td>
<div id="toctitle">
<h2>Contents</h2>
</div>
<ul>
<li class="toclevel-1"><a href="#History"><span class="tocnumber">1</span> <span class="toctext">History</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-1"><a href="#MSX_Revival"><span class="tocnumber">2</span> <span class="toctext">MSX Revival</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-1"><a href="#MSX_trivia"><span class="tocnumber">3</span> <span class="toctext">MSX trivia</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-1"><a href="#Franchises_established_on_the_MSX"><span class="tocnumber">4</span> <span class="toctext">Franchises established on the MSX</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-1"><a href="#Manufacturers_of_MSX_computers"><span class="tocnumber">5</span> <span class="toctext">Manufacturers of MSX computers</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-1"><a href="#System_specs"><span class="tocnumber">6</span> <span class="toctext">System specs</span></a>
<ul>
<li class="toclevel-2"><a href="#MSX_1"><span class="tocnumber">6.1</span> <span class="toctext">MSX 1</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-2"><a href="#MSX_2"><span class="tocnumber">6.2</span> <span class="toctext">MSX 2</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-2"><a href="#MSX_2.2B"><span class="tocnumber">6.3</span> <span class="toctext">MSX 2+</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-2"><a href="#MSX_turbo_R"><span class="tocnumber">6.4</span> <span class="toctext">MSX turbo R</span></a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="toclevel-1"><a href="#Peripherals"><span class="tocnumber">7</span> <span class="toctext">Peripherals</span></a>
<ul>
<li class="toclevel-2"><a href="#MSX-Audio"><span class="tocnumber">7.1</span> <span class="toctext">MSX-Audio</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-2"><a href="#MSX-Music"><span class="tocnumber">7.2</span> <span class="toctext">MSX-Music</span></a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li class="toclevel-1"><a href="#Emulators"><span class="tocnumber">8</span> <span class="toctext">Emulators</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-1"><a href="#References"><span class="tocnumber">9</span> <span class="toctext">References</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-1"><a href="#See_also"><span class="tocnumber">10</span> <span class="toctext">See also</span></a></li>
<li class="toclevel-1"><a href="#External_links"><span class="tocnumber">11</span> <span class="toctext">External links</span></a></li>
</ul>
</td>
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<h2><span class="editsection">[<a href="/w/index.php?title=MSX&action=edit§ion=1" title="Edit section: History">edit</a>]</span> <span class="mw-headline">History</span></h2>
<p>In the 1980s <a href="/wiki/Japan" title="Japan">Japan</a> 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 <a href="/wiki/1970s" title="1970s">1970s</a>. 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.<sup class="noprint">[<a href="/wiki/Wikipedia:Citing_sources" title="Wikipedia:Citing sources"><i><span title="This claim needs references to reliable sources" style="white-space: nowrap;">citation needed</span></i></a>]</sup></p>
<p>When MSX was announced and a slew of big Japanese firms announced their plans to introduce machines, it set off a wave of panic in the <a href="/wiki/United_States" title="United States">U.S.</a> industry<sup class="noprint">[<a href="/wiki/Wikipedia:Citing_sources" title="Wikipedia:Citing sources"><i><span title="This claim needs references to reliable sources" style="white-space: nowrap;">citation needed</span></i></a>]</sup>. However, the Japanese companies avoided the intensely competitive U.S. home computer market, which was in the throes of a <a href="/wiki/Commodore_International" title="Commodore International">Commodore</a>-led <a href="/wiki/Price_war" title="Price war">price war</a>. 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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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 <a href="/wiki/South_Korea" title="South Korea">South Korea</a>, MSX was the paramount home computer system in the <a href="/wiki/1980s" title="1980s">1980s</a>. It was also popular in <a href="/wiki/The_Netherlands" title="The Netherlands">The Netherlands</a>, <a href="/wiki/Spain" title="Spain">Spain</a>, <a href="/wiki/Brazil" title="Brazil">Brazil</a>, some <a href="/wiki/Arab" title="Arab">Arab</a> countries and the <a href="/wiki/Soviet_Union" title="Soviet Union">Soviet Union</a>.</p>
<p>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-<a href="/wiki/BASIC_programming_language" title="BASIC programming language">BASIC programming language</a>, 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 <a href="/wiki/MSX-DOS" title="MSX-DOS">MSX-DOS</a> <a href="/wiki/Disk_operating_system" title="Disk operating system">disk operating system</a> had <a href="/wiki/File_system" title="File system">file system</a> compatibility with <a href="/wiki/CP/M" title="CP/M">CP/M</a> and was similar to <a href="/wiki/MS-DOS" title="MS-DOS">MS-DOS</a>. In this way, Microsoft could promote MSX for home use while promoting <a href="/wiki/MS-DOS" title="MS-DOS">MS-DOS</a> based <a href="/wiki/Personal_computer" title="Personal computer">personal computers</a> in office environments.</p>
<p>MSX spawned four generations: MSX 1 (<a href="/wiki/1983" title="1983">1983</a>), MSX 2 (<a href="/wiki/1986" title="1986">1986</a>), MSX 2+ (<a href="/wiki/1988" title="1988">1988</a>) and MSX turbo R (<a href="/wiki/1990" title="1990">1990</a>). The first three were 8-bit computers based on the Z80 <a href="/wiki/Microprocessor" title="Microprocessor">microprocessor</a>, while the MSX turbo R was based on an enhanced <a href="/wiki/Zilog_Z800" title="Zilog Z800">Zilog Z800</a> known as the <a href="/wiki/R800" title="R800">R800</a>. The Turbo R was introduced in <a href="/wiki/1990" title="1990">1990</a> but was unsuccessful due to a lack of support and the rise in popularity of the by then well-established <a href="/wiki/IBM_PC_Compatible" title="IBM PC Compatible">IBM PC Compatible</a> market. Production of the Turbo R ended in <a href="/wiki/1995" title="1995">1995</a>.</p>
<p>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 <a href="/wiki/Commodore_64" title="Commodore 64">Commodore 64</a> sold 17 million units worldwide in its lifetime, the <a href="/wiki/Amstrad_CPC" title="Amstrad CPC">Amstrad CPC</a> sold 3 million units, the <a href="/wiki/Apple_II" title="Apple II">Apple II</a> sold 2 million units, and the Tandy <a href="/wiki/TRS-80" title="TRS-80">TRS-80</a> sold 250,000 units.</p>
<p><a name="MSX_Revival" id="MSX_Revival"></a></p>
<h2><span class="editsection">[<a href="/w/index.php?title=MSX&action=edit§ion=2" title="Edit section: MSX Revival">edit</a>]</span> <span class="mw-headline">MSX Revival</span></h2>
<table class="messagebox current" style="width: auto;">
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<td><a href="/wiki/Image:Currentcvg.svg" class="image" title=""><img src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/30/Currentcvg.svg/75px-Currentcvg.svg.png" alt="" width="75" height="40" longdesc="/wiki/Image:Currentcvg.svg" /></a></td>
<td>This article or section documents a <b><a href="/wiki/Portal:Current_events/Video_gaming" title="Portal:Current events/Video gaming">current event</a></b> in computer or video gaming.<br />
<small>Information may change rapidly as the event progresses.</small></td>
</tr>
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<div class="thumb tright">
<div class="thumbinner" style="width:282px;"><a href="/wiki/Image:OCM_007.jpg" class="internal" title="1chipMSX"><img src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/b/bb/OCM_007.jpg/280px-OCM_007.jpg" alt="1chipMSX" width="280" height="210" longdesc="/wiki/Image:OCM_007.jpg" class="thumbimage" /></a>
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<a href="/wiki/1chipMSX" title="1chipMSX">1chipMSX</a></div>
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<ul>
<li>In <a href="/wiki/2001" title="2001">2001</a>, Kazuhiko Nishi initiated an 'MSX Revival' around an official MSX <a href="/wiki/Emulator" title="Emulator">emulator</a> called <a href="http://www.bazix.nl/msxa.html" class="external text" title="http://www.bazix.nl/msxa.html" rel="nofollow">MSXPLAYer</a>. This is the only official MSX emulator. All MSX <a href="/wiki/Copyright" title="Copyright">copyrights</a> are maintained by the <a href="http://www.msxa.org/" class="external text" title="http://www.msxa.org/" rel="nofollow">MSX Association</a>.</li>
<li>In 2004 Dutch company <a href="http://www.bazix.nl/" class="external text" title="http://www.bazix.nl/" rel="nofollow">Bazix</a> announced they had become the representatives of MSX Association in <a href="/wiki/Europe" title="Europe">Europe</a>, being the English contact for any questions regarding the MSX trademarks and copyrights (licensing).</li>
<li>On October 17, 2006, Bazix launched <a href="http://www.woomb.net/" class="external text" title="http://www.woomb.net/" rel="nofollow">WOOMB.Net</a>, a website selling MSX games (translated to English if necessary), with a selection of 14 games. In Japan, game sales began earlier, through <a href="http://www.amusement-center.com/project/egg/" class="external text" title="http://www.amusement-center.com/project/egg/" rel="nofollow">Project EGG</a>. <i>WOOMB.Net</i> is the English counterpart of this (and other) Japanese services offered by <a href="http://www.d4e.co.jp/" class="external text" title="http://www.d4e.co.jp/" rel="nofollow">D4 Enterprise</a>.</li>
<li>D4 Enterprise also announced (in August 2006) the launch of a new MSX2 compatible system called the <a href="http://www.msx.org/One-Chip-MSX-MKII.newspost3805.html" class="external text" title="http://www.msx.org/One-Chip-MSX-MKII.newspost3805.html" rel="nofollow">"one chip-MSX"</a>, a system based on an <a href="/wiki/Altera" title="Altera">Altera</a> Cyclone EP1C12Q240C8 <a href="/wiki/FPGA" title="FPGA">FPGA</a>. The "<a href="/wiki/1chipMSX" title="1chipMSX">one chip-MSX</a>" is similar in concept to the <a href="/wiki/C-One" title="C-One">C-One</a>, a <a href="/wiki/Commodore_64" title="Commodore 64">Commodore 64</a> clone also build on the basis of a single FPGA chip. The new MSX system is housed in a box made out of transparent blue plastic, and can be used with a standard monitor (or TV) and a PC keyboard. It has two MSX cartridge slots and supports the audio extensions <a href="/wiki/Yamaha_YM2413" title="Yamaha YM2413">MSX-MUSIC</a> and <a href="/wiki/Konami_Sound_Cartridge" title="Konami Sound Cartridge">SCC+</a>. A <a href="/wiki/Memory_card" title="Memory card">SD/MMC-flashcard</a> can be used as an external storage medium, emulating a <a href="/wiki/Disk_storage" title="Disk storage">disk drive</a> and can be used to boot <a href="/wiki/MSX-DOS" title="MSX-DOS">MSX-DOS</a>. Due to its <a href="/wiki/VHDL" title="VHDL">VHDL</a> programmable hardware it is possible to give the device new hardware extensions simply by running a reconfiguration program under MSX-DOS. The "one chip-MSX" also has two <a href="/wiki/USB" title="USB">USB</a> connectors that can be used after adding some supporting VHDL code.</li>
<li>In 2006 <a href="/wiki/Nintendo" title="Nintendo">Nintendo of Japan</a> posted on its <a href="/wiki/Virtual_Console" title="Virtual Console">Virtual Console</a> webpage that MSX games will be available for <a href="/wiki/Wii" title="Wii">Wii</a>'s Virtual Console emulator. In February 2007, it was confirmed again and announced that the games would cost 800 <a href="/wiki/Wii_Points" title="Wii Points">Wii Points</a> and will become available in Spring 2007 (for Japan only, at least initially).</li>
</ul>
<p><a name="MSX_trivia" id="MSX_trivia"></a></p>
<h2><span class="editsection">[<a href="/w/index.php?title=MSX&action=edit§ion=3" title="Edit section: MSX trivia">edit</a>]</span> <span class="mw-headline">MSX trivia</span></h2>
<ul>
<li>The birthday of the MSX Home Computer Standard is <a href="/wiki/June_27" title="June 27">June 27</a>, <a href="/wiki/1983" title="1983">1983</a>, the day it was formally announced during a press-conference.</li>
<li>MSX 1 computers were very similar to the <a href="/wiki/Colecovision" title="Colecovision">Colecovision</a> and <a href="/wiki/Sega_SG-1000" title="Sega SG-1000">Sega SG-1000</a> video game systems. They shared the same CPU and video processors. Their sound processors were also very similar. A Colecovision emulator for the MSX exists.</li>
<li>By far, the most popular and famous MSX games were written by Japanese software-house <a href="/wiki/Konami" title="Konami">Konami</a>.</li>
<li>As the MSX's processor, the Zilog Z80A, could only address up to 64 kB of memory, the default allocation (used in most, if not all models) was with the lower 32 kB for ROM BASIC and the upper 32 kB for RAM. Machines intended to run MSX-DOS (a CP/M-like system) had 64 kB RAM, but the lower 32 kB were disabled in order for the ROM BASIC to function. When the computer booted MSX-DOS, the ROM BASIC was disabled and all of the 64 kB <a href="/wiki/Address_space" title="Address space">address space</a> was mapped to RAM.</li>
<li>Among MSX-DOS compatible software (directly ported from CP/M) were <a href="/wiki/DBase" title="DBase">dBase</a> II, <a href="/wiki/Turbo_Pascal" title="Turbo Pascal">Turbo Pascal</a> version 3 and <a href="/wiki/Wordstar" title="Wordstar">Wordstar</a>. Therefore, in the late 1980s, several Brazilian companies used an MSX system as their "corporate" computer. As an MSX 1 could display only 40×25 text, expansion kits were introduced that upgraded the display to 80×25, giving MSX a more professional appeal. MSX 2 and up were never manufactured by the main companies in Brazil (Gradiente and Sharp). Much of the market was created alone by Ademir Carchano (MSX Projetos et al) who created most of the aftermarket hardware for MSX, including the MegaRAM cartridge (a way to copy and play MegaROM games), the MSX 2.0 and 2+ conversion kits and IDE interfaces. Although cheaper IBM-PC clones eventually dominated the market, the MSX remained somewhat popular, with hardware being created and sold for substantial prices for some time afterwards.</li>
<li>MSX 1 games were published mainly on cartridge and <a href="/wiki/Compact_Cassette" title="Compact Cassette">cassette</a>. Later in the 1980s the MSX 2 was released, which generally included a 3.5" disk drive, and consequently the popular media for games and other software shifted to floppy disks.</li>
<li>The MSX 3.5" <a href="/wiki/Floppy_disk" title="Floppy disk">floppy disks</a>, at least those formatted under MSX-DOS 2.0, were directly compatible with MS-DOS (although some details like <a href="/wiki/Undeletion" title="Undeletion">file undeletion</a> and <a href="/wiki/Boot_sector" title="Boot sector">boot sector</a> code were different). <a href="http://www.faq.msxnet.org/dos2.html" class="external autonumber" title="http://www.faq.msxnet.org/dos2.html" rel="nofollow">[1]</a></li>
<li>The introduction of MSX led to a new and short-lived kind of <a href="/wiki/Software_cracking" title="Software cracking">software cracking</a>: <i>converting</i>. Since the MSX games were unplayable on the <a href="/wiki/SV-328" title="SV-328">SV-328</a> 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 <a href="/wiki/BIOS" title="BIOS">BIOS</a> to the SV-328 from tape or floppy disk.</li>
<li>Due to the same processor (Z80), graphical resolution (256×192 pixels) and number of colors (16) of the MSX 1 systems and the <a href="/wiki/Sinclair_ZX_Spectrum" title="Sinclair ZX Spectrum">Sinclair ZX Spectrum</a>, many videogames made for the latter could easily be ported to the MSX platform by the (European) authors themselves, making both versions nearly identical. The enhanced color display possibilities of the MSX were not exploited: they did not used any hardware sprites, and the <i>color by character</i> style of the ZX Spectrum graphics was directly used, instead of using the MSX's more advanced facility to have a different color pair for each line in the character.</li>
</ul>
<p><a name="Franchises_established_on_the_MSX" id="Franchises_established_on_the_MSX"></a></p>
<h2><span class="editsection">[<a href="/w/index.php?title=MSX&action=edit§ion=4" title="Edit section: Franchises established on the MSX">edit</a>]</span> <span class="mw-headline">Franchises established on the MSX</span></h2>
<div class="thumb tright">
<div class="thumbinner" style="width:274px;"><a href="/wiki/Image:Mgear.png" class="internal" title="Konami's Metal Gear made its debut for MSX2 before the release of its reworked counterpart for the NES."><img src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/24/Mgear.png" alt="Konami's Metal Gear made its debut for MSX2 before the release of its reworked counterpart for the NES." width="272" height="228" longdesc="/wiki/Image:Mgear.png" class="thumbimage" /></a>
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Konami's <i><a href="/wiki/Metal_Gear_%28video_game%29" title="Metal Gear (video game)">Metal Gear</a></i> made its debut for MSX2 before the release of its reworked counterpart for the <a href="/wiki/Nintendo_Entertainment_System" title="Nintendo Entertainment System">NES</a>.</div>
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</div>
<p>Several popular <a href="/wiki/Video_game_franchise" title="Video game franchise">video game franchises</a> were established on the MSX:</p>
<ul>
<li><i><a href="/wiki/Bomberman" title="Bomberman">Bomberman</a></i></li>
<li><i><a href="/wiki/Eggerland_series" title="Eggerland series">Eggerland</a></i></li>
<li><i><a href="/wiki/Metal_Gear_%28series%29" title="Metal Gear (series)">Metal Gear</a></i></li>
<li><i><a href="/wiki/Parodius" title="Parodius">Parodius</a></i></li>
<li><i><a href="/wiki/Puyo_Puyo" title="Puyo Puyo">Puyo Puyo</a></i></li>
</ul>
<p>Others got various installments on the MSX, including some titles unique to the system or largely reworked versions of games on other formats:</p>
<ul>
<li><i><a href="/wiki/Aleste" title="Aleste">Aleste</a></i></li>
<li><i><a href="/wiki/Castlevania" title="Castlevania">Castlevania</a></i> (as <i><a href="/wiki/Vampire_Killer" title="Vampire Killer">Vampire Killer</a></i>)</li>
<li><i><a href="/wiki/Contra" title="Contra">Contra</a></i></li>
<li><i><a href="/wiki/Dragon_Quest" title="Dragon Quest">Dragon Quest</a></i></li>
<li><i><a href="/wiki/Dragon_Slayer" title="Dragon Slayer">Dragon Slayer</a></i></li>
<li><i><a href="/wiki/Final_Fantasy" title="Final Fantasy">Final Fantasy</a></i></li>
<li><i><a href="/wiki/Golvellius" title="Golvellius">Golvellius</a></i></li>
<li><i><a href="/wiki/Gradius" title="Gradius">Gradius</a></i> (<i>Nemesis</i>)</li>
<li><i><a href="/wiki/Wizardry" title="Wizardry">Wizardry</a></i></li>
<li><i><a href="/wiki/Xak" title="Xak">Xak</a></i></li>
<li><i><a href="/wiki/Ys_%28video_game%29" title="Ys (video game)">Ys</a></i></li>
<li><i><a href="/wiki/Zanac" title="Zanac">Zanac</a></i></li>
</ul>
<p><a name="Manufacturers_of_MSX_computers" id="Manufacturers_of_MSX_computers"></a></p>
<h2><span class="editsection">[<a href="/w/index.php?title=MSX&action=edit§ion=5" title="Edit section: Manufacturers of MSX computers">edit</a>]</span> <span class="mw-headline">Manufacturers of MSX computers</span></h2>
<ul>
<li>MSX 1: <a href="/wiki/Spectravideo" title="Spectravideo">Spectravideo</a> (USA), <a href="/wiki/Philips" title="Philips">Philips</a> (the Netherlands), <a href="/w/index.php?title=Al_Alamia&action=edit" class="new" title="Al Alamia">Al Alamia</a> (Saudi Arabia), <a href="/wiki/Sony" title="Sony">Sony</a>, <a href="/wiki/Sanyo" title="Sanyo">Sanyo</a>, <a href="/wiki/Mitsubishi" title="Mitsubishi">Mitsubishi</a>, <a href="/wiki/Toshiba" title="Toshiba">Toshiba</a>, <a href="/wiki/Hitachi%2C_Ltd." title="Hitachi, Ltd.">Hitachi</a>, <a href="/wiki/National_%28brand%29" title="National (brand)">National</a>, <a href="/wiki/Panasonic" title="Panasonic">Panasonic</a>, <a href="/wiki/Canon_Inc." title="Canon Inc.">Canon</a>, <a href="/wiki/Casio" title="Casio">Casio</a>, <a href="/wiki/Pioneer_Corporation" title="Pioneer Corporation">Pioneer</a>, <a href="/wiki/Fujitsu" title="Fujitsu">Fujitsu General</a>, <a href="/wiki/Yamaha_Corporation" title="Yamaha Corporation">Yamaha</a>, Yashica-<a href="/wiki/Kyocera" title="Kyocera">Kyocera</a> (Japan), <a href="/wiki/GoldStar" title="GoldStar">GoldStar</a>, <a href="/wiki/Samsung" title="Samsung">Samsung</a>/Fenner (Korea/Italy), <a href="/wiki/Daewoo" title="Daewoo">Daewoo/Yeno</a> (South Korea), <a href="/wiki/Gradiente" title="Gradiente">Gradiente</a>, <a href="/wiki/Sharp_Corporation" title="Sharp Corporation">Sharp</a>/Epcom (Brazil), Talent (Argentina).</li>
<li>MSX 2: <a href="/wiki/Philips" title="Philips">Philips</a> (the Netherlands), <a href="/wiki/Sony" title="Sony">Sony</a>, <a href="/wiki/Sanyo" title="Sanyo">Sanyo</a>, <a href="/wiki/Samsung" title="Samsung">Samsung</a>, <a href="/wiki/Mitsubishi" title="Mitsubishi">Mitsubishi</a>, <a href="/wiki/Victor" title="Victor">Victor</a> (a.k.a. <a href="/wiki/JVC" title="JVC">JVC</a>), <a href="/wiki/National_%28brand%29" title="National (brand)">National</a>, <a href="/wiki/Panasonic" title="Panasonic">Panasonic</a>, <a href="/wiki/Canon_%28company%29" title="Canon (company)">Canon</a>, <a href="/wiki/Yamaha_Corporation" title="Yamaha Corporation">Yamaha</a> (Japan), ACVS, DDX (Brazil, upgrade kit), <a href="/wiki/Daewoo" title="Daewoo">Daewoo/Yeno</a> (South Korea), Talent (Argentina).</li>
<li>MSX 2+: <a href="/wiki/Sony" title="Sony">Sony</a>, <a href="/wiki/Sanyo" title="Sanyo">Sanyo</a>, <a href="/wiki/Panasonic" title="Panasonic">Panasonic</a> (Japan), ACVS, DDX (Brazil, upgrade kit)</li>
<li>MSX turbo R: <a href="/wiki/Panasonic" title="Panasonic">Panasonic</a> (Japan)</li>
</ul>
<p><a name="System_specs" id="System_specs"></a></p>
<h2><span class="editsection">[<a href="/w/index.php?title=MSX&action=edit§ion=6" title="Edit section: System specs">edit</a>]</span> <span class="mw-headline">System specs</span></h2>
<p><a name="MSX_1" id="MSX_1"></a></p>
<h3><span class="editsection">[<a href="/w/index.php?title=MSX&action=edit§ion=7" title="Edit section: MSX 1">edit</a>]</span> <span class="mw-headline">MSX 1</span></h3>
<div class="thumb tright">
<div class="thumbinner" style="width:282px;"><a href="/wiki/Image:MSX_Philips_VG8020.jpg" class="internal" title="Philips MSX 1, Model VG-8020"><img src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/31/MSX_Philips_VG8020.jpg/280px-MSX_Philips_VG8020.jpg" alt="Philips MSX 1, Model VG-8020" width="280" height="141" longdesc="/wiki/Image:MSX_Philips_VG8020.jpg" class="thumbimage" /></a>
<div class="thumbcaption">
<div class="magnify" style="float:right"><a href="/wiki/Image:MSX_Philips_VG8020.jpg" class="internal" title="Enlarge"><img src="/skins-1.5/common/images/magnify-clip.png" width="15" height="11" alt="" /></a></div>
Philips MSX 1, Model VG-8020</div>
</div>
</div>
<ul>
<li>Processor: <a href="/wiki/Zilog_Z80" title="Zilog Z80">Zilog Z80A</a> running at 3.58 MHz</li>
<li><a href="/wiki/Read-only_memory" title="Read-only memory">ROM</a>: 32 kB
<ul>
<li><a href="/wiki/BIOS" title="BIOS">BIOS</a> (16 kB)</li>
<li><a href="/wiki/MSX_BASIC" title="MSX BASIC">MSX BASIC</a> V1.0 (16 kB)</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a href="/wiki/Random_access_memory" title="Random access memory">RAM</a>: 8 kB minimum, up to 64 kB</li>
<li><a href="/wiki/Video_Display_Controller" title="Video Display Controller">Video Display Processor</a>: <a href="/wiki/Texas_Instruments_TMS9918" title="Texas Instruments TMS9918">Texas Instruments TMS9918</a> family
<ul>
<li>Video RAM: 16 kB</li>
<li>Text modes: 40×24 and 32×24</li>
<li>Resolution: 256×192 (16 colours)</li>
<li>Sprites: 32, 1 colour, max 4 per horizontal line</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Sound chip: <a href="/wiki/General_Instrument_AY-3-8910" title="General Instrument AY-3-8910">General Instrument AY-3-8910</a> (PSG)
<ul>
<li>3 channels + noise</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<p><a name="MSX_2" id="MSX_2"></a></p>
<h3><span class="editsection">[<a href="/w/index.php?title=MSX&action=edit§ion=8" title="Edit section: MSX 2">edit</a>]</span> <span class="mw-headline">MSX 2</span></h3>
<ul>
<li>Processor: <a href="/wiki/Zilog_Z80" title="Zilog Z80">Zilog Z80A</a> running at 3.58 MHz</li>
<li><a href="/wiki/Read-only_memory" title="Read-only memory">ROM</a>: 48 kB
<ul>
<li><a href="/wiki/BIOS" title="BIOS">BIOS</a> + Extended BIOS (32 kB)</li>
<li><a href="/wiki/MSX_BASIC" title="MSX BASIC">MSX BASIC</a> V2.0 (16 kB)</li>
<li>DiskROM (16 kB) (optional)</li>
<li>MSX-Audio BIOS (32 kB) (optional)</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><a href="/wiki/Random_access_memory" title="Random access memory">RAM</a>: commonly 128 kB (64 kB on Japanese computers, Sony HB-F700P had 256 kB)
<ul>
<li><a href="/wiki/Memory_map" title="Memory map">Memory mapped</a> (4 MB/slot max)</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Video Display Processor: <a href="/wiki/Yamaha_V9938" title="Yamaha V9938">Yamaha V9938</a> (aka MSX-Video)
<ul>
<li>Video RAM: 128 kB (sometimes 64 kB or 192 kB)</li>
<li>Text modes: 80×24 and 32×24</li>
<li>Resolution: 512×212 (16 colours out of 512) and 256×212 (256 colours)</li>
<li>Sprites: 32, 16 colours, max 8 per horizontal line</li>
<li><a href="/wiki/Hardware_acceleration" title="Hardware acceleration">Hardware acceleration</a> for copy, line, fill, etc.</li>
<li><a href="/wiki/Interlace" title="Interlace">Interlacing</a> to double vertical resolution</li>
<li>Vertical scroll register</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Sound chip: <a href="/wiki/General_Instrument_AY-3-8910" title="General Instrument AY-3-8910">Yamaha YM2149</a> (PSG)
<ul>
<li>3 channels + noise</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Clock chip RP5C01</li>
</ul>
<p><a name="MSX_2.2B" id="MSX_2.2B"></a></p>
<h3><span class="editsection">[<a href="/w/index.php?title=MSX&action=edit§ion=9" title="Edit section: MSX 2+">edit</a>]</span> <span class="mw-headline">MSX 2+</span></h3>
<ul>
<li>Only officially released in Japan (available in Europe and Brazil via upgrades)</li>
<li>Processor: Zilog Z80 compatible running at 3.58 MHz or more (5.37 MHz versions were available)</li>
<li>ROM: 64 kB
<ul>
<li>BIOS + Extended BIOS (32 kB)</li>
<li><a href="/wiki/MSX_BASIC" title="MSX BASIC">MSX BASIC</a> V3.0 (16 kB)</li>
<li>DiskROM (16 kB)</li>
<li>Kun-BASIC (16 kB) (optional)</li>
<li>Kanji ROM (optional)</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>RAM: commonly 64 kB (on Japanese computers)
<ul>
<li>Memory mapped (4 MB/slot max)</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Video Display Processor: <a href="/wiki/Yamaha_V9958" title="Yamaha V9958">Yamaha V9958</a> (aka MSX-Video)
<ul>
<li>Video RAM: 128 kB</li>
<li>Text modes: 80×24 and 32×24</li>
<li>Resolution: 512×212 (16 colours out of 512) and 256×212 (19268 colours)</li>
<li>Sprites: 32, 16 colours, max 8 per horizontal line</li>
<li>Hardware acceleration for copy, line, fill, etc.</li>
<li>Interlacing to double vertical resolution</li>
<li>Horizontal and vertical scroll registers</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Sound chip: Yamaha YM2149 (PSG)
<ul>
<li>3 channels + noise</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Optional sound chip: <a href="/wiki/Yamaha_YM2413" title="Yamaha YM2413">Yamaha YM2413 (OPLL)</a> (MSX-Music)
<ul>
<li>9 channels FM or 6 channels FM + 5 drums</li>
<li>15 pre-set instruments, 1 custom</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Clock chip RP5C01</li>
</ul>
<p><a name="MSX_turbo_R" id="MSX_turbo_R"></a></p>
<h3><span class="editsection">[<a href="/w/index.php?title=MSX&action=edit§ion=10" title="Edit section: MSX turbo R">edit</a>]</span> <span class="mw-headline">MSX turbo R</span></h3>
<ul>
<li>Only released in Japan</li>
<li>Processor: <a href="/wiki/R800" title="R800">R800</a> and Zilog Z80 running respectively at 29 MHz and 7.14 MHz</li>
<li>ROM: 96 kB
<ul>
<li>BIOS + Extended BIOS (48 kB)</li>
<li><a href="/wiki/MSX_BASIC" title="MSX BASIC">MSX BASIC</a> V4.0 (16 kB)</li>
<li>DiskROM (16 kB)</li>
<li>Kun-BASIC (16 kB)</li>
<li>Kanji ROM (256 kB)</li>
<li>Firmware (4 MB)</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>RAM: 256 kB (FS-A1ST) or 512 kB (FS-A1GT)
<ul>
<li>Memory mapped (4 MB/slot max)</li>
<li>Additionally 16 kB (FS-A1ST) or 32 kB (FS-A1GT) of <a href="/wiki/Static_Random_Access_Memory" title="Static Random Access Memory">SRAM</a> (battery-powered)</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Video Display Processor: <a href="/wiki/Yamaha_V9958" title="Yamaha V9958">Yamaha V9958</a> (aka MSX-Video)
<ul>
<li>Video RAM: 128 kB</li>
<li>Text modes: 80×24 and 32×24</li>
<li>Resolution: 512×212 (16 colours out of 512) and 256×212 (19768 colours)</li>
<li>Sprites: 32, 16 colours, max 8 per horizontal line</li>
<li>Hardware acceleration for copy, line, fill, etc.</li>
<li>Interlacing to double vertical resolution</li>
<li>Horizontal and vertical scroll registers</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Sound chip: Yamaha YM2149 (PSG)
<ul>
<li>3 channels + noise</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Sound chip: <a href="/wiki/Yamaha_YM2413" title="Yamaha YM2413">Yamaha YM2413 (OPLL)</a> (MSX-Music)
<ul>
<li>9 channels FM or 6 channels FM + 5 drums</li>
<li>15 pre-set instruments, 1 custom</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Sound chip: <a href="/wiki/Pulse-code_modulation" title="Pulse-code modulation">PCM</a>
<ul>
<li>8-bit single channel (no DMA), 16 kHz max using BIOS routines.</li>
<li>Microphone built-in</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>Sound chip: MIDI in/out (FS-A1GT only)</li>
<li>Clock chip</li>
</ul>
<p><a name="Peripherals" id="Peripherals"></a></p>
<h2><span class="editsection">[<a href="/w/index.php?title=MSX&action=edit§ion=11" title="Edit section: Peripherals">edit</a>]</span> <span class="mw-headline">Peripherals</span></h2>
<p><a name="MSX-Audio" id="MSX-Audio"></a></p>
<h3><span class="editsection">[<a href="/w/index.php?title=MSX&action=edit§ion=12" title="Edit section: MSX-Audio">edit</a>]</span> <span class="mw-headline">MSX-Audio</span></h3>
<ul>
<li><a href="/w/index.php?title=Yamaha_Y8950&action=edit" class="new" title="Yamaha Y8950">Yamaha Y8950</a>, also known as:
<ul>
<li>Panasonic: MSX-Audio (standard name)</li>
<li>Philips: Music Module (no MSX-Audio BIOS)</li>
<li>Toshiba: MSX FM-synthesizer Unit (no sample RAM, no MSX-Audio BIOS)</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>9 channels <a href="/wiki/FM" title="FM">FM</a> or 6 channels FM + 5 drums</li>
<li><a href="/wiki/ADPCM" title="ADPCM">ADPCM</a> record and play</li>
<li>32 kB of sample RAM, which can be upgraded to 256 kB</li>
</ul>
<p><a name="MSX-Music" id="MSX-Music"></a></p>
<h3><span class="editsection">[<a href="/w/index.php?title=MSX&action=edit§ion=13" title="Edit section: MSX-Music">edit</a>]</span> <span class="mw-headline">MSX-Music</span></h3>
<ul>
<li><a href="/wiki/Yamaha_YM2413" title="Yamaha YM2413">Yamaha YM2413 (OPLL)</a>, also known as:
<ul>
<li>MSX-Music (standard name)</li>
<li>Panasonic: FM-PAC</li>
<li>Zemina: Music Box</li>
<li>Checkmark: FM-Stereo-Pak</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>9 channels <a href="/wiki/FM" title="FM">FM</a> or 6 channels FM + 5 drums</li>
<li>15 pre-set instruments, 1 custom</li>
<li>Built-in in many MSX 2+ computers and the MSX turbo R</li>
</ul>
<p><a name="Emulators" id="Emulators"></a></p>
<h2><span class="editsection">[<a href="/w/index.php?title=MSX&action=edit§ion=14" title="Edit section: Emulators">edit</a>]</span> <span class="mw-headline">Emulators</span></h2>
<div class="thumb tright">
<div class="thumbinner" style="width:282px;"><a href="/wiki/Image:Bluemsx1.jpg" class="internal" title="An MSX emulator screenshot"><img src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/a/ab/Bluemsx1.jpg/280px-Bluemsx1.jpg" alt="An MSX emulator screenshot" width="280" height="224" longdesc="/wiki/Image:Bluemsx1.jpg" class="thumbimage" /></a>
<div class="thumbcaption">
<div class="magnify" style="float:right"><a href="/wiki/Image:Bluemsx1.jpg" class="internal" title="Enlarge"><img src="/skins-1.5/common/images/magnify-clip.png" width="15" height="11" alt="" /></a></div>
An MSX emulator screenshot</div>
</div>
</div>
<p>MSX computers are one of the most <a href="/wiki/Emulators" title="Emulators">emulated</a> platforms today.</p>
<ul>
<li><b><a href="/wiki/BlueMSX" title="BlueMSX">blueMSX</a></b> (<a href="http://www.bluemsx.com/" class="external text" title="http://www.bluemsx.com/" rel="nofollow">homepage</a>): Considered by many the best MSX emulator<sup id="_ref-MSXorg_0" class="reference"><a href="#_note-MSXorg" title="">[1]</a></sup>
<ul>
<li>A fairly new MSX emulator for <a href="/wiki/Microsoft_Windows" title="Microsoft Windows">Windows</a> (development started September 2003) initially based on Marat Fayzullin's fMSX</li>
<li>Perfect looking emulation of MSX, MSX 2, MSX 2+, MSX turboR, Colecovision and Spectravideo</li>
<li>Very accurate sound emulation</li>
<li>Many unique emulation features such as ethernet emulation, video recording, digitizing, and theme based user interface</li>
<li><a href="/wiki/Open_source" title="Open source">Open source</a> (GPL) since v2.0, which didn't use Marat Fayzullin code anymore</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><b><a href="/wiki/BrMSX" title="BrMSX">BrMSX</a></b>: <i>discontinued</i>
<ul>
<li>The fastest MSX and MSX 2 emulator ever, written entirely in <a href="/wiki/Assembly_language" title="Assembly language">Assembly</a> for DOS only</li>
<li>BrMSX author, Ricardo Bittencourt, is now part of the blueMSX development team</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><b>CJS MSX Emulator</b> (<a href="http://ftp.castel.nl/msx/" class="external text" title="http://ftp.castel.nl/msx/" rel="nofollow">homepage</a>): <i>discontinued</i>
<ul>
<li>Along with fMSX was one of the very first successful MSX emulators</li>
<li>Unlike fMSX the code was not portable and is compatible only with <a href="/wiki/IBM-PC" title="IBM-PC">IBM-PC</a> running DOS</li>
<li>Fast MSX and MSX 2 emulation with good sound support</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><b><a href="/wiki/FMSX" title="FMSX">fMSX</a></b> (<a href="http://fms.komkon.org/fMSX/" class="external text" title="http://fms.komkon.org/fMSX/" rel="nofollow">homepage</a>): A portable MSX emulator by Marat Fayzullin
<ul>
<li>The first widespread MSX emulator and the most ported one</li>
<li>Offers accurate MSX, MSX 2 and MSX 2+ emulation with sound</li>
<li>Source is available in a commercially restricted license (<a href="/wiki/Free_port" title="Free port">free ports</a> are allowed and encouraged)</li>
<li>The majority of MSX emulators today were more or less based on the fMSX source code</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><b>fMSX for Series 60</b> (<a href="http://personal.inet.fi/private/riihimaki/s60/" class="external text" title="http://personal.inet.fi/private/riihimaki/s60/" rel="nofollow">homepage</a>) by Juha Riihimäki
<ul>
<li>Very interesting port of the famous fMSX emulator for the <a href="/wiki/Nokia" title="Nokia">Nokia</a> <a href="/wiki/Series_60" title="Series 60">Series 60</a> based devices</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><b>fMSXDS</b> (<a href="http://www.imasy.or.jp/~ngs/emu/" class="external text" title="http://www.imasy.or.jp/~ngs/emu/" rel="nofollow">homepage</a>): A portable MSX emulator for the <a href="/wiki/Nintendo_DS" title="Nintendo DS">Nintendo DS</a> by Nyagosu</li>
<li><b>MSXPLAYer</b> (<a href="http://www.msxa.org/player/about.html" class="external text" title="http://www.msxa.org/player/about.html" rel="nofollow">Homepage</a>) (Japanese site)
<ul>
<li>This is the official MSX emulator.</li>
<li>Outside of Japan BAZIX is the representative for MSXPLAYer <a href="http://www.bazix.nl/index.html" class="external autonumber" title="http://www.bazix.nl/index.html" rel="nofollow">[2]</a>, and is also acting as the trademark holder for the MSX logo when used in emulators <a href="http://www.bazix.nl/msx-logo-policy.html" class="external autonumber" title="http://www.bazix.nl/msx-logo-policy.html" rel="nofollow">[3]</a></li>
<li>MSXPLAYer is produced by the <a href="http://www.msxa.org/index.html" class="external text" title="http://www.msxa.org/index.html" rel="nofollow">MSX Association</a> (Japanese site) of which <a href="/wiki/Kazuhiko_Nishi" title="Kazuhiko Nishi">Kazuhiko Nishi</a>, (the inventor of the MSX standard) is the president.</li>
<li>BAZIX is currently in the process of developing a version of MSXPLAYer for the use with mobile phones that use the <a href="/wiki/Symbian" title="Symbian">Symbian 60 OS</a></li>
<li>In Japan, a Windows and a Pocket PC version is available</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><b>NLMSX</b> (<a href="http://nlmsx.generation-msx.nl" class="external text" title="http://nlmsx.generation-msx.nl" rel="nofollow">homepage</a>): <i>inactive</i>
<ul>
<li>A basic, fairly accurate MSX, MSX 2, MSX 2+ and turboR emulator for Windows based on fMSX 2.0b</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><b>NO$MSX</b> (<a href="http://www.work.de/nocash/msx.htm" class="external text" title="http://www.work.de/nocash/msx.htm" rel="nofollow">homepage</a>) by Martin Korth
<ul>
<li>A decent MSX and MSX 2 emulator aimed to be more of a serious <a href="/wiki/Programming_tool" title="Programming tool">development tool</a> than just an emulator</li>
<li>Has a very useful and comfortable debugger and is written entirely in Assembly language to run smoothly on a 33 MHz PC.</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><b><a href="/wiki/OpenMSX" title="OpenMSX">openMSX</a></b> (<a href="http://openmsx.sourceforge.net/" class="external text" title="http://openmsx.sourceforge.net/" rel="nofollow">homepage</a>): <i>The MSX emulator that aims for perfection</i>
<ul>
<li>Open source (GPL) MSX emulator with some unique features (script based operation, command interface via pipes/socket, etc.)</li>
<li>Extremely accurate MSX, MSX 2, MSX 2+ and turboR emulation</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><b>paraMSX</b>: fMSX port by Yeongman Seo
<ul>
<li>Was one of the best fMSX ports for Windows in its time</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><b>RuMSX</b> (<a href="http://www.lexlechz.at/msx/RuMSX.html" class="external text" title="http://www.lexlechz.at/msx/RuMSX.html" rel="nofollow">homepage</a>): Turbo-R emulator for Windows
<ul>
<li>One of the older MSX, MSX 2, MSX 2+ and turboR emulators</li>
<li>Had very nice sound support for its time</li>
<li>Very intuitive user interface</li>
<li>The first MSX emulator with turboR support</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><b>RedMSX</b> (<a href="http://www.icongames.com.br/msxfiles/redmsx/about.htm" class="external text" title="http://www.icongames.com.br/msxfiles/redmsx/about.htm" rel="nofollow">homepage</a>): blueMSX derivative
<ul>
<li>Started out as a hack on blueMSX to add <a href="/wiki/ZIP_%28file_format%29" title="ZIP (file format)">zipped</a> ROM support and the SCALE2X <a href="http://scale2x.sourceforge.net/" class="external autonumber" title="http://scale2x.sourceforge.net/" rel="nofollow">[4]</a> graphical enhancement algorithm</li>
<li>Added support for zipped DSK (<a href="/wiki/Disk_image" title="Disk image">disk images</a>), lightguns and <a href="/wiki/Drag-and-drop" title="Drag-and-drop">drag-and-drop</a> launching of zip files</li>
<li>While blueMSX compiles only with <a href="/wiki/Microsoft_Visual_Studio" title="Microsoft Visual Studio">Microsoft Visual Studio</a> .Net, RedMSX will compile with Microsoft Visual C/C++ 6.</li>
<li>RedMSX's CPU load is very low (even less than blueMSX) making it run fast and accurately even in older, inexpensive hardware</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li><b><a href="/wiki/Virtual_Console" title="Virtual Console">Virtual Console</a> on the <a href="/wiki/Wii" title="Wii">Wii</a></b></li>
</ul>
<p><a name="References" id="References"></a></p>
<h2><span class="editsection">[<a href="/w/index.php?title=MSX&action=edit§ion=15" title="Edit section: References">edit</a>]</span> <span class="mw-headline">References</span></h2>
<ol class="references">
<li id="_note-MSXorg"><b><a href="#_ref-MSXorg_0" title="">^</a></b> <a href="http://www.msx.org/" class="external text" title="http://www.msx.org/" rel="nofollow">The MSX Resource Center Foundation</a> has published a <a href="http://www.msx.org/MSX-Emulator-Comparison.articlepage8.html" class="external text" title="http://www.msx.org/MSX-Emulator-Comparison.articlepage8.html" rel="nofollow">comparison</a> of various prominent MSX emulators</li>
</ol>
<p><a name="See_also" id="See_also"></a></p>
<h2><span class="editsection">[<a href="/w/index.php?title=MSX&action=edit§ion=16" title="Edit section: See also">edit</a>]</span> <span class="mw-headline">See also</span></h2>
<ul>
<li><a href="/wiki/History_of_computing_hardware" title="History of computing hardware">History of computing hardware</a></li>
<li><i><a href="/wiki/Zemmix" title="Zemmix">Zemmix</a></i> MSX compatible <a href="/wiki/Video_game_console" title="Video game console">console</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/List_of_MSX_games" title="List of MSX games">List of MSX games</a></li>
<li><a href="/wiki/Canon_T90" title="Canon T90">Canon T90</a> - this advanced <a href="/wiki/Single-lens_reflex" title="Single-lens reflex">SLR</a> <a href="/wiki/Camera" title="Camera">camera</a> had an optional Data Memory Back storing shot data on photos taken. It interfaced only with the MSX, probably because <a href="/wiki/Canon_Inc." title="Canon Inc.">Canon Inc.</a> sold a MSX computer.</li>
<li><a href="/wiki/SymbOS" title="SymbOS">SymbOS</a> - A free <a href="/wiki/Computer_multitasking" title="Computer multitasking">multitasking</a> <a href="/wiki/Operating_system" title="Operating system">operating system</a> for Z80 based 8-bit computer systems supporting the MSX2, MSX2+ and MSX turbo R.</li>
</ul>
<p><a name="External_links" id="External_links"></a></p>
<h2><span class="editsection">[<a href="/w/index.php?title=MSX&action=edit§ion=17" title="Edit section: External links">edit</a>]</span> <span class="mw-headline">External links</span></h2>
<div class="infobox sisterproject">
<div class="floatleft"><span><a href="/wiki/Image:Commons-logo.svg" class="image" title=""><img src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg/50px-Commons-logo.svg.png" alt="" width="50" height="67" longdesc="/wiki/Image:Commons-logo.svg" /></a></span></div>
<div style="margin-left: 60px;"><a href="/wiki/Wikimedia_Commons" title="Wikimedia Commons">Wikimedia Commons</a> has media related to:
<div style="margin-left: 10px;"><i><b><a href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:MSX" class="extiw" title="commons:Category:MSX">MSX</a></b></i></div>
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<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.msxpro.com" class="external text" title="http://www.msxpro.com" rel="nofollow">MSX Pro is one of the biggest MSX sites in Brazil</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.tabajara-labs.com.br" class="external text" title="http://www.tabajara-labs.com.br" rel="nofollow">Tabajara Labs has many interesting MSX pages and is always adding more</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.bazix.nl/onechipmsx.html" class="external text" title="http://www.bazix.nl/onechipmsx.html" rel="nofollow">One Chip MSX</a></li>
<li><a href="http://free.flop.jp/1chipmsx/" class="external text" title="http://free.flop.jp/1chipmsx/" rel="nofollow">1chipMSX wiki (in Japanese)</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.msx.org/" class="external text" title="http://www.msx.org/" rel="nofollow">MSX Resource Center</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.icongames.com.br/msxfiles/" class="external text" title="http://www.icongames.com.br/msxfiles/" rel="nofollow">The MSX Files</a></li>
<li><a href="http://faq.msxnet.org/" class="external text" title="http://faq.msxnet.org/" rel="nofollow">The Ultimate MSX FAQ</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.generation-msx.nl/" class="external text" title="http://www.generation-msx.nl/" rel="nofollow">Generation MSX</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.msxa.org/" class="external text" title="http://www.msxa.org/" rel="nofollow">MSX Association</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.ascii.co.jp/" class="external text" title="http://www.ascii.co.jp/" rel="nofollow">ASCII Corporation</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.msx.ch/sunformsx/" class="external text" title="http://www.msx.ch/sunformsx/" rel="nofollow">Sunrise Foundation</a> — The main hardware producer and <a href="/wiki/Software_Distributor" title="Software Distributor">software distributor</a> for MSX, which amongst others made and sells the famous <a href="/wiki/Moonsound" title="Moonsound">Moonsound</a> and Graphics9000 boards. Also creator of the popular <a href="/wiki/CompactFlash" title="CompactFlash">CompactFlash</a> IDE interface.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.msxprojetos.com.br/" class="external text" title="http://www.msxprojetos.com.br/" rel="nofollow">MSX Projetos</a> — Brazilian site (<a href="/wiki/Portuguese_language" title="Portuguese language">Portuguese language</a>). Still produces MSX hardware, including accelerated MSX 2+ motherboards (ACE001@10 MHz). Has an ongoing project called <a href="/w/index.php?title=CIEL_3%2B%2B&action=edit" class="new" title="CIEL 3++">CIEL 3++</a> for a new, and far more powerful, generation of MSX hardware.</li>
<li><a href="http://bbs.hispamsx.org:81/" class="external text" title="http://bbs.hispamsx.org:81/" rel="nofollow">HispaMSX BBS</a> — MSX support BBS over <a href="/wiki/Internet_protocol_suite" title="Internet protocol suite">TCP/IP</a>. Operate on the BBS from any computer system, even your MSX. <a href="telnet://bbs.hispamsx.org" class="external text" title="telnet://bbs.hispamsx.org" rel="nofollow">Telnet to bbs.hispamsx.org</a> to get access, or <a href="gopher://bbs.hispamsx.org" class="external text" title="gopher://bbs.hispamsx.org" rel="nofollow">get read-only documents</a> via <a href="/wiki/Gopher_%28protocol%29" title="Gopher (protocol)">Gopher</a>.</li>
<li><a href="http://msxposse.com/" class="external text" title="http://msxposse.com/" rel="nofollow">MSX Posse forum</a> — One of the most interesting forums about MSX.</li>
<li><a href="http://karoshi.msxgamesbox.com/" class="external text" title="http://karoshi.msxgamesbox.com/" rel="nofollow">Karoshi's Development Board</a> — A MSX forum mainly about programming.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.basic.msxall.com/" class="external text" title="http://www.basic.msxall.com/" rel="nofollow">MSX.bas</a> — A Portuguese website focusing completely on development in MSX-BASIC.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.meilink.net/index.php?page=msxpage" class="external text" title="http://www.meilink.net/index.php?page=msxpage" rel="nofollow">MSX page on Meilink.net</a> — A fan page about MSX and Konami Games on MSX.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.aamsx.com/" class="external text" title="http://www.aamsx.com/" rel="nofollow">MSX User Association in Spain</a> — Two user meetings per year</li>
<li><a href="http://map.tni.nl/" class="external text" title="http://map.tni.nl/" rel="nofollow">MSX Assembly Page</a> - Website for MSX assembly programmers</li>
</ul>
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hey that guy pissing on a duck is a cool pic.
This thread needs more ducks!!!
YO NIGGAZ
become a legend