A Quick Look At openMSX

It has been a while since I last checked out the OpenMSX emulator and it is high time I did it again. With the Catapult frond-end it is a very usable emulator and it is highly configurable.
This video is me checking out all the feature in my typical ad-hoc style. Enjoy… or not 😛

If you haven’t heard of MSX, this is your lucky day as I will try to explain in the text below. MSX is a standardized computer platform that is an evolution of the earlier SpectraVideo computer platform using off the shelf computer components. The Ti99, Colecovision and the Sega Master system are actually using the same type of components.
CPU: Z80 3.58Mhz
Graphics: Ti TMS9918 16Kb videoram
Sound & IO: AY-3-8910
Keyboard: Intel 8255

To reduce costs this ‘chipset’ was converted into a single IC called the ‘MSX-engine’ and it can be found in many of the MSX computers.

Bill Gates himself promoted the MSX standard as a consumer solution to the IBM-PC compatibles that were too expensive for home users. It’s operating system MSX-DOS is very similar to CP/M and MS-DOS in its syntax. It is in fact possible to read and write to MSX-disks on PCs as the format is very similar.

The system was very popular in Argentina, Brazil, Europe, Japan, Middle East, Australia. It never became very popular in the US.

The MSX standard was revised with a backwards compatible MSX2.0 standard in 1985 and in 1988 it was succeeded with the MSX2+ standard. They all were backwards compatible with the original MSX1.0 standard but allowed new features like better sprites, higher resolution graphics and betters sound, smooth scrolling and all the stuff a games machine really needed.

The final incarnation of the MSX, the MSX TurboR was never released outside of Japan and it features an enhanced graphics and sound chipset as well as an enhanced Z80 compatible CPU called the R800. It’s V9990 Video processor chip was unrivaled and some say it could compete with PC VGA cards and the Sharp X68000 computers.

In the 1980s, Sakhr (صخر) Computers started the production of the first Arabic version of MSX computers. In this video I fire up the emulated version of an Arabic Machine I happen to own myself (AX-170)

In the EU a lot of software was released on tape. But software is also available on cartridge and 3.5″ floppy. A great computer system that has a ton of great games on it. Quite a few franchises had their first outings on the MSX, like Metal Gear, Aleste, Bomberman, Puyo Puyo.

Must haves – if you like shmups – are:
Parodius, Gradius (Nemesis), R-Type, but other genres include Contra, Castlevania (Vampire Killer), Dragon Quest, Dragon Slayer, Final Fantasy and Ys.