Gaming Bits: The MSX

In the early 1980s, Microsoft Japan was working on a universal standard for Japanese computers. You see Japan for the longest time had proprietary PC Standards, Like the NEC's PC-88/PC-98 series, Sharp's X68000, and Fujitsu's FM Towns, but that's an post or two on it's own. Kazuhiku Nishi commissioned the MSX standard to Microsoft, But what came of it? What's the rest of it's history? What made it a liable gaming platform? What impact did it have today? Well...

Microsoft agreed, so they sent their idea to companies like Panasonic, Canon, Casio, Yamaha, Pioneer, and Sanyo. After a while of testing it they came up with the MSX, It could run all your software that was compatible with the system, no matter who made your machine. So you and your grandma could run same version of your spreadsheet software or whatever and have 2 completely different machines. It debuted on June 27 1983. It was so popular in Japan that it came to Europe where the Computer Game Market was more intense than it was in US of A (where it was going through with a games crash around the same time). About the MSX as a game platform, Yeah we'll get back to that in a sec... It later evolved to the MSX2, with better graphics, a better processor, more RAM.  2 more versions came out of it, the MSX2+ in 1988, and the TurboR in 1995, while having better pretty much everything, they was much too expensive to be profitable and lacked software to use on it...

It wasn't the breakout success in a lot of the world as they hoped, and didn't come out in the USA (at least not in the form they got), it was popular in Japan, South Korea, parts of South America, among other countries. It was preferred childhood platform of most kids who grew up in the 1980s in said countries. Along with consoles such as the NES/Famicom and the Sega Master System/Mark III. That was thanks to it's cheap cost, universal software, and it's great games including games from such companies like...

Konami Released ports of their NES Classics and fresh new finds like Metal Gear, Parodius, and Penguin adventure.

Compile,Who released Spaceship Shooters Aleste and Zanac along with puzzle game Puyo Puyo. They made 2 of the many great Spaceship Shooters for the MSX...

Puyo Puyo wasn't the only Puzzler on the MSX, There was also Bomberman and Eggerland.




The MSX had it's own share of RPGs like Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest, but I'll talk about others when we talk about the world of Japanese Retro Computers.


Most of the games were Puzzlers, RPGs (like SD Snatcher), and shooters (like R-Type and Space Manbow).



It had software similar to the Colecovision and the SG-1000 at first, then it had software that topped over the NES in graphics. The games were on Cartridges, sometimes Floppies and Cassettes. The Later versions used mostly disks. Some believe 9 million MSX Machines were sold,  but there have been revivals and emulators over the years, the most famous being BlueMSX, but if you're going to recreate or emulate a machine, why not do it to something that can do stuff, but Import MSX's are decently common and a little pricey, but it should be worth it when you get it plus some games, or you could just emulate it, your choice. I know what I choose... *Opens MSX Emulator*, What,? I'm broke...




NEXT TIME...

IT'S FAKE, JUST FYI... BUT I WILL BE TALKING IF METROID 64 WAS MADE...

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