MSX
MSX is a standardized home computer architecture, announced by ASCII Corporation on June 16, 1983.[1][2] It was initially conceived by Microsoft as a product for the Eastern sector, and jointly marketed by Kazuhiko Nishi, the director at ASCII Corporation.[3] Microsoft and Nishi conceived the project as an attempt to create unified standards among various home computing system manufacturers of the period, in the same fashion as the VHS standard for home video tape machines.[4][5] The first MSX computer sold to the public was a Mitsubishi ML-8000, released on October 21, 1983, thus marking its official release date.[6]
For other uses, see MSX (disambiguation).Developer
October 21, 1983 (MSX)
1993 (MSX turboR)
- 8–64 KB maximum (MSX1)
- 64-512 KB, expandable to up to 4 MB via memory mapper cartridge (MSX2 and higher)
- TMS9918 or equivalent (MSX1)
- Yamaha V9938 (MSX2)
- Yamaha V9958 (MSX2+ and Turbo R)
MSX systems were popular in Japan and several other countries. There are differing accounts of MSX sales. One source claims 9 million MSX units were sold worldwide, including 7 million in Japan alone,[7] whereas ASCII corporation founder Kazuhiko Nishi claims that 3 million were sold in Japan, and 1 million overseas.[8] Despite Microsoft's involvement, few MSX-based machines were released in the United States.[9]
The meaning of the acronym MSX remains a matter of debate. In 2001, Kazuhiko Nishi recalled that many assumed that it was derived from "Microsoft Extended", referring to the built-in Microsoft Extended BASIC (MSX BASIC). Others believed that it stood for "Matsushita-Sony". Nishi said that the team's original definition was "Machines with Software eXchangeability",[10] although in 1985 he said it was named after the MX missile.[11] According to his book in 2020, he considered the name of the new standard should consist of three letters, like VHS. He felt "MSX" was fit because it means "the next of Microsoft", and it also contains the first letters of Matsushita (Panasonic) and Sony.[12]
Before the success of Nintendo's Family Computer, the MSX was the platform that major Japanese game studios such as Konami and Hudson Soft developed for. The Metal Gear series, for example, was first written for MSX hardware.[13]
Similar systems[edit]
The system MSX most closely resembled was the Spectravideo SV-328 home computer (Spectravideo even claimed to be "MSX compatible" in advertisements before the actual launch of MSX systems, but it was not completely compatible with it). This 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) games to make them work on the SV-328. In most cases, this included downloading the MSX BIOS to the SV-328 from tape or floppy disk. Spectravideo later launched the SVI-728 which completely adhered to the MSX standard.
The Sega SG-1000, the Memotech MTX, the Tatung Einstein, and the ColecoVision all have many similarities with the MSX1 standard, but none are fully compatible with it. Porting games between those systems is somewhat easy. It was also very common to port games from the ZX Spectrum to the MSX, since both have the same CPU, the Spectrum 128 had the same soundchip, and the ZX Spectrum's graphic mode could be easily emulated on the MSX's screen-2 mode.
Localization[edit]
By default, MSX machines have a hardcoded character set and keyboard scan code handling algorithm. While MSX has full application software compatibility at the firmware (BIOS) level, due to minor hardware differences, replacement of the BIOS with another from a different computer may return incorrect scan code translations and result in incorrect behaviour of the keyboard subsystem for the application software.
In 2011, AGE Labs introduced Language Pack firmware, aiming to make each model support several localizations. In AGE Labs' GR8BIT kit, the Language Pack is installed by default in place of the Kanji-ROM. It allows changing the character set and keyboard layout of the machine at startup between Japanese, Russian, International and Portuguese locales. It also gives the ability to change locales during machine operation using the newly introduced LANG command in BASIC.[26] The selected locale setting is stored into the unused RTC NVRAM memory space.
Several popular video game franchises were established on the MSX:
Others received various installments on the MSX, including several titles unique to the system or largely reworked versions of games on other formats: