MSX

Sony MSX, Model HitBit-10-P
Type	Home computer
Release date	1983 (MSX)
Discontinued	1995 (MSXturboR)
Operating system	MSX-DOS / MSX BASIC
CPU	Zilog Z80
Memory	16-512 KB

MSX was the name of a standardized home computer architecture in the 1980s conceived by Kazuhiko Nishi, then Vice-president at Microsoft Japan and Director at ASCII Corporation. It is said that Microsoft led the project as an attempt to create unified standards among hardware makers.^[1]

Despite Microsoft's involvement, the MSX-based machines were seldom seen in the United States ^[2], but they were mostly popular in Japan, the Middle East, the USSR, the Netherlands,^{[citation needed]} Spain, Brazil and to a lesser extent, several other European countries. It is difficult to estimate how many MSX computers were sold worldwide, but eventually 5 million MSX-based units were sold in Japan alone, many of which were the later models.^[3]

Before the appearance and great success of Nintendo's Family Computer, 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.^[4]

History[link]

The Canon V-20 had 64 KB of RAM while its little brother, the V-10, had 16 KB.

In the 1980s, Japan was in the midst of an economic awakening.^[5] Large Japanese electronics firms might 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.^[6]

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,^[7] the graphics chip a Texas Instruments TMS9918 with 16 KB of dedicated VRAM, the sound and partial I/O support was provided by the AY-3-8910 chip manufactured by General Instrument (GI), and an Intel 8255 Programmable Peripheral Interface chip was used for the parallel I/O such as the keyboard. This was a choice of components that was shared by many other home computers and games consoles of the period, such as the ColecoVision home computer (an emulator was later available with which MSX systems could run some of its software), and the Sega SG-1000 video game system. To reduce overall system cost, many MSX models used a custom IC known as "MSX-Engine", which integrated glue logic, 8255 PPI, YM2149 compatible soundchip and more, sometimes even the Z80 CPU. However, almost all MSX systems used a professional keyboard instead of a chiclet keyboard, driving the price up again. Consequently, these components alongside Microsoft's MSX BASIC made the MSX a competitive, though somewhat expensive, home computer package.

Debut[link]

Yamaha YIS503II MSX Personal Computer designed for Soviet schools (notice the abbreviature "КУВТ" which means "Class of Teaching Computing Equipment)"

Yamaha CX5M MSX Music Computer

On 27 June 1983, the date considered the birthday of the MSX standard,^[8] the MSX was formally announced during a press-conference, and a slew of big Japanese firms declared their plans to introduce machines. 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. Images of a similar model, the Yamaha CX5MII/128

Adoption[link]

During the 1980s, Europe became the largest computer games (as opposed to console games) market in the world, and the extremely popular Commodore 64, Atari 8-bit, 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.^{[citation needed]}

A problem for some game software developers was that the method by which MSX-1 computers addressed their video RAM could be quite slow compared to systems that gave direct access to the video memory. This, and the fact that the completely different features the MSX-1's video chip (using the MSX Video access method) had to compensate for the slower video access were not efficiently used while porting (mostly Spectrum) software, made the MSX-1 to appear slower when running ported games.^[9][10]

Some minor compatibility issues also plagued ported Spectrum games. For example, the Toshiba HX-10 machine was unable to read certain key combinations at the same time, preventing the Spectrum "standard" of "Q, A, O, P steering", whereas machines by other manufacturers worked fine. Later (ported) games tended to use the MSX-1 joystick port or used MSX's official arrow keys and space bar, or offered the option to choose other keys with which to control the program, solving the problem.^{[citation needed]}

A larger problem was that the designers of the MSX standard bank switching protocol did not prescribe to hardware manufacturers in which banks the cartridges, but more important the RAM, should be found. Moreover, the MSX's BIOS did not provide this information either, thus requiring programmers to implement complex routines to "find" these resources. Often programmers assumed that the RAM and cartridges would be available at a "default" bank switch location; in reality some systems had their RAM or cartridge slot(s) not at the "default" location, but on another bank switch location. In those cases programs failed to run because they only "saw" 32 KB of the available memory, instead of the full 64 KB that almost all MSX-1 machines offered. With very few exceptions, except for a very early Phillips MSX-1 model, (the VG8000) and the SVI-318 almost all other mainstream MSX-1 machines offered at least the full 64 KB of RAM.

Evolution[link]

MSX spawned four generations: MSX (1983); MSX2 (1986); MSX2+ (1988); and MSX TurboR (1990). The first three were 8-bit computers based on the Z80 microprocessor, while the MSX TurboR was based on an enhanced Zilog Z800 known as the R800. The MSX TurboR 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 TurboR ended in 1993 when Panasonic decided to focus on release of 3DO.^{[citation needed]}

The MSX3 was scheduled for market in 1990. Delays in the development of its VDP—then named V9978 on the pre-release spec sheets—caused Yamaha to miss its time to market deadline.^[11] In its place, an improved MSX2+ was released as the MSX Turbo-R; features of the new R800 processor such as DMA and 24-bit addressing were disabled. The VDP was eventually delivered two years after its planned deadline, by which time the market had moved on. In an attempt to reduce its financial loss, Yamaha stripped nearly all V9958 compatibility and marketed the resulting V9990 E-VDP III as a video-chipset for PC VGA graphic cards, with moderate success. Sony also employed the V7040 RGB encoder chip on many other products. MSX-FAN Magazine also mentions the then impressive power of the V9990, being able to compete with much more expensive hardware such as the Sharp X68000.

Impact[link]

The Hotbit, developed by Sharp and marketed by Epcom, was a hit in Brazil

TALENT TPC-310 MSX2 computer, made in Argentina by Telematica (1988), based on a Daewoo design. In Spain they were sold as the "Dynata" brand (in a White case)

A Sakhr (صخر), made in Kuwait and used in Egypt and the Arab states of the Persian Gulf. It is a copy of the Yamaha AX120

MSX never became the worldwide standard that its makers had envisioned, mainly because it never took off in the U.S. and the UK. However, in Japan, South Korea, Argentina, and Brazil, MSX was the paramount home computer system in the 1980s. It was also quite popular in continental Europe, especially in the Netherlands and Spain. Classrooms full of networked Yamaha MSX were used for teaching informatics in school in some Arab countries, the Soviet Union, and Cuba, where they were wildly popular in all government education schools and centers ^[12].

As the Cuban government made a move to modernize their studies of computer systems, in 1985, Higher Pedagogical Institutes and some schools of Pre-University Education were supplied with Toshiba and Panasonic MSX systems with resident MSX Basic language, they were popularly known as "Intelligent keyboards". Once they proved useful, the Minister of Education continued the process installing similar systems throughout all Secondary (Junior High) centers and finalized it in Elementary schools, adult education institutions and newly nationwide formed “Computer and Electronic Youth Clubs” in 1987. ^[13] Forming the Computer Clubs allowed the Cuban government to interest and educate the common citizen in computer subjects since selling these systems, or any other personal private computer, to public was banned. (see: Censorship in Cuba ) ^[14]

In the 1980s, Sakhr (صخر) Computers (Developed by Al Alamyyeh, a Kuwaiti company), started the production of the first Arabic version of MSX computers. They started producing a Yamaha AX100, but also a few other models including MSX2 and MSX2+ models. The most popular and affordable model within Arab countries of the Persian Gulf was the Sakhr MSX AX170. They were also the first to Arabize BASIC and the MSX LOGO.^{[citation needed]}

Many MSX computers were used during the 1980s in Eastern European (former Eastern Bloc) countries as a tool for subtitling pirated films on VHS, or Betamax cassettes. The MSX computers were used for their simplicity and its ability to display prepared titles in real time as superimpose text on mastering tapes.^{[citation needed]}

In total, 5 million MSX computers were sold in Japan alone, 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 Apple II sold 6 million units,^[15] the Atari 8-bit sold at least 4 million units, the Amstrad CPC sold 3 million units, and the Tandy TRS-80 sold 250,000 units.^{[citation needed]}

One (Sony) MSX2 machine was even launched into space on board of a Russian MIR spacecraft ^[16]

Name[link]

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 "Microsoft eXtended BASIC" (MSX-BASIC), specifically adapted by Microsoft for the MSX system. Another suggested source for the abbreviation was Matsushita-Sony. However, according to Kazuhiko Nishi, MSX could also stand for "Machines with Software eXchangeability". Perhaps because of a general aversion to the global player Microsoft, this version was welcomed by the MSX community.^{[citation needed]} In 1985, Kazuhiko Nishi told that he named MSX after the MX missile. The MSX-DOS disk operating system had internal software mechanisms much like CP/M (so CP/M software could be ported reasonably easy), but had a file system compatible with MS-DOS, and its user commands were also similar to early MS-DOS versions. In this way, Microsoft could promote MSX for home use while promoting MS-DOS based personal computers in office environments.^{[citation needed]}

Similar systems[link]

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 in fact 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 SV-728 which completely adhered to the MSX standard.

2001 Revival[link]

1chipMSX

In 2001, Kazuhiko Nishi initiated a 'MSX Revival' around an official MSX emulator called MSXPLAYer. This is the only official MSX emulator as all MSX copyrights are maintained by the MSX Association. In 2004, a 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 was the English counterpart of this (and other) Japanese services offered by D4 Enterprise, which 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.^[17] The one chip-MSX" is similar in concept to the C-One, a Commodore 64 clone also built 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.

On June 7, 2008, the MSX Resource Center Foundation reported that the MSX trademark had moved from MSX Association to the MSX Licensing Corporation,^[18] referring to a Benelux trademark register page of MSX, which names the MSX Licensing Corporation as entitled entity till 28-10-2013.^[19] At that time, the website of the MSX Licensing Corporation that they linked to as source, had a text saying 'We are planning to revitalize MSX, the innovative computer platform.' on it. However, the website was later changed to contain only the logo of ITNY & Partners, and a link to ITNY & Partners' English and Japanese websites and has no mention of the MSX Licensing Corporation at all. O June 26, 2008, Bazix reported on their website's frontpage that they are no longer the representative of MSX Association, due to being unable to achieve their goals of "bringing about the commercial MSX Revival beyond the Japanese borders" and "the transfer of the MSX trademark from MSX Association to MSX Licensing Corporation" and "no outlook on any progress in the Western One Chip MSX project any time soon". As a result of this, WOOMB.Net is taken offline as well, with its website redirecting to the Bazix website, till "a solution free of MSX Association's contributions has been completed". According to their post, they will cooperate with D4 Enterprise and the MSX Licensing Corporation "in one or more retro gaming related projects".

On July 4, 2008, MSX Association's European contact website, which states to be the "only official contact place for MSX Association in Europe", reports that the MSX trademark and copyright has been under the MSX Licensing Corporation holding ever since 1983. It explains that MSX Association, chaired by Dr. Kazuhiko Nishi is the operational division of MSX Licensing Corporation which manages the trademarks, logo and copyrights for MSX. According to the same article, D4 Enterprise "refuse to pay royalties to MSX Association for the use of ESE Artists' Factory's work in 1chipMSX and the software licenses in Project Egg", thus they deal with Kazuhiko Nishi 'directly' through the MSX Licensing Corporation. The article mentions as well the ESE MSX System 3, on which the 1chipMSX (also known as One Chip MSX or OCM) is based.

On July 5, 2008, the MSX Association's Europe website posted an announcement reporting that D4 Enterprise was selling the 1chipMSX illegally.^[20] In the same post it is stated that Bazix no longer is their representative in Europe, due to Bazix cutting off their relationship.

Nintendo virtual console[link]

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 700 Wii Points and will become available in the middle of 2007 (for Japan only, at least initially).

Franchises established on the MSX[link]

The most popular and famous MSX games were written by Japanese software-houses such as Konami and Hudson Soft. Several popular video game franchises were initially established on the MSX:

• Aleste and Zanac (the latter developed and released alongside the original FDS version)
• Bomberman
• Penguin Adventure
• 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:

• Castlevania (as Vampire Killer)
• Contra
• Dragon Quest
• Dragon Slayer
• Final Fantasy
• Gradius (Nemesis)
• R-Type
• Wizardry
• Xak
• Ys

Manufacturers[link]

MSX

Spectravideo, Philips, Al Alamia, Sony, Sanyo, Mitsubishi, Toshiba, Hitachi, National, Panasonic, Canon, Casio, Pioneer, Fujitsu General, Yamaha, JVC, Yashica-Kyocera, GoldStar, Samsung/Fenner, Daewoo/Yeno, Gradiente, Sharp/Epcom, Talent.

MSX2

Philips, Sony, Sanyo, Samsung, Mitsubishi, Victor (a.k.a. JVC), National, Panasonic, Canon, Yamaha, Carchano*, ACVS*, DDX*, Daewoo/Yeno, NTT, Talent.

MSX2+

Sony, Sanyo, Panasonic, Carchano*, ACVS*, DDX*.

MSX TurboR

Panasonic.

Note *: Clones/Unauthorized Copies.

System specifications[link]

MSX[link]

The effect of attribute clash when using the 256×192 Highres mode of MSX 1.

• Processor: Zilog Z80A running at 3.58 MHz
• ROM: 32 KB
  • BIOS (16 KB)
  • MSX BASIC V1.0 (16 KB)
• RAM: 8 KB minimum, most machines provided either 32 or 64 KB; machines with 128 KB exist
• Video Display Processor: Texas Instruments TMS9918 family
  • Video RAM: 16 KB
  • Text modes: 40×24 and 32×24
  • Resolution: 256×192 (16 colours). In reality there are just 15 colour tints available, because, just like Sinclair Spectrum there are two versions of black. Unlike the Spectrum however, one of the blacks is actually "transparent", so the MSX video picture could be overlayed on another video signal, for example one from a video disk.
  • Sprites: 32, 1 colour, max 4 per horizontal line
• Sound chip: General Instrument AY-3-8910 (PSG)

MSX2[link]

• Processor: Zilog Z80A running at 3.58 MHz
• ROM: 48 KB
  • BIOS + Extended BIOS (32 KB)
  • MSX BASIC V2.0 or V2.1 (16 KB)
  • DiskROM (16 KB) (optional, common)
  • MSX-Audio BIOS (32 KB) (optional, no machines are known with this BIOS built in)
• RAM: 64 KB minimum, commonly 128 KB in Europe, 64 KB on Japanese computers, machines with up to 512 KB were made
  • Memory mapped (4 MB/slot max) (optional)

• Video Display Processor: Yamaha V9938 (a.k.a. MSX-Video) Supports all MSX video modes plus:
  • Increased video RAM: 128 KB (sometimes 64 or 192 KB)
  • New text mode: 80×24
  • New bitmapped video modes without the attribute clash of MSX 1
  • New resolutions: 512×212 (16 colours out of 512) and 256×212 (256 colours)
  • Increased number of, and more advanced sprites: 32, 16 colours, max 8 per horizontal line
  • Hardware acceleration for copy, line, fill, etc.
  • Interlacing to double vertical resolution
  • A vertical scroll register
  • Vertical and horizontal display offset register
• Sound chip: Yamaha YM2149 (PSG)
• Clock chip: Ricoh RP5C01 (or compatible)
• 3.5 in (89 mm) Floppy disk drive is common

MSX2+[link]

MSX2+ computer: a Panasonic FS-A1WSX

• 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 and 7.16MHz versions were available)
• ROM: 64 KB
  • BIOS + Extended BIOS (32 KB)
  • MSX BASIC V3.0 (16 KB)
  • DiskROM (16 KB) (optional, very common)
  • Kun-BASIC (16 KB) (optional)
  • Kanji ROM (optional)
• RAM: commonly 64 KB (on Japanese computers)
  • Memory mapped (4 MB/slot max)
• Video Display Processor: Yamaha V9958 (aka MSX-Video) All of MSX2's specifications plus:
  • The minimal video RAM is now 128 KB. Up to 192KB is supported.
  • a new 256×212 YJK video mode with 19268 simultaneous colors
  • a new 256×212 mixed-YJK/RGB video mode with 12499 simultaneous colors
  • a horizontal scroll register
• Sound chip: Yamaha YM2149 (PSG)
• Optional sound chip: Yamaha YM2413 (OPLL) (MSX-Music)
• Clock chip RP5C01
• 3.5 in (89 mm) Floppy disk drive is very common

MSX TurboR[link]

• Only released in Japan
• Processor: R800 and Zilog Z80A compatible
  • R800 running at 7.16 MHz (instructions use about 4x less clock ticks than the Z80, so often quoted as 28.6 MHz when comparing with the Z80)
  • Zilog Z80A compatible (embedded in the T9769C MSX-Engine) running at 3.58 MHz for backward compatibility
• ROM: 96 KB
  • BIOS + Extended BIOS (48 KB)
  • MSX BASIC V4.0 (16 KB)
  • DiskROM (16 KB)
  • Kun-BASIC (16 KB)
  • Kanji ROM (256 KB)
  • Firmware (4 MB)
• RAM: 256 KB (FS-A1ST) or 512 KB (FS-A1GT)
  • Memory mapped (4 MB/slot max)
  • Additionally 16 KB (FS-A1ST) or 32 KB (FS-A1GT) of SRAM (battery-powered)
• Video Display Processor: Yamaha V9958 (aka MSX-Video) so the same capabilities as MSX2+
• Sound chip: Yamaha YM2149 (PSG)
• Sound chip: Yamaha YM2413 (OPLL) (MSX-Music)
• Sound chip: PCM
  • 8-bit single channel (no DMA), 16 kHz max using BIOS routines.
  • Microphone built-in
• Sound chip: MIDI in/out (FS-A1GT only)
• Clock chip
• 3.5 in (89 mm) Floppy disk drive

Peripherals[link]

Cartridges[link]

MSX standard requires at least 1 cartridge slot, most MSX models have 2. These slots^[21] are interchangeable, so in most cases it makes no difference in which slot a cartridge is inserted. The physical connector is a 50 pin (2 x 25 contacts), standard 2.54 mm (0.1 inch) pitch edge connector. Using these cartridge slots, a wide variety of peripherals could be connected.

Regular game cartridges are about the size of an audio cassette (so-called "Konami size"). Despite their higher cost, this was a popular format due to its reliability and ease of use.

Around 1985, Hudson Soft released the credit card-sized BeeCard, which was meant as a cheaper and more convenient alternative to ROM cartridges. But it was a commercial failure, and very few titles were released on the format.

Floppy disk drives[link]

MSX systems generally did not have a built-in disk drive, so games were published mainly on cartridge and cassette tape.^[6] Sony created a battery backed RAM cartridge the HBI-55 "data cartridge" for a few computers of their "Hit-Bit" line of MSX systems, that could be used to store programs or data as an alternative to cassette tapes. ^[22]

Floppy disk drives were available for MSX however, in the form of a cartridge containing the disk interface electronics and a BIOS extension ROM (the floppy disk drive interface), connected to an external case with the drive. In South-America, many of these systems used a 5.25 in (133 mm) floppy disk drive, but in Europe, mostly the 3.5 in (89 mm) drives were popular. In Japan, some MSX1 systems included a built-in 3.5" disk drive, like Panasonic (earlier named Matsushita) CF-3000. In Europe, a whole range of Philips MSX2 systems NMS 8230, 8235, 8245, 8250 and up features either 360 or 720 Kb 3.5" floppy drives.

In 1985, the MSX2 was released, which systems often (but not always) included a built-in 3.5" disk drive too, and consequently the popular media for games and other software shifted to floppy disks.

The MSX 3.5" floppy disks are directly compatible with MS-DOS (although some details like file undeletion and boot sector code were different). Like MS-DOS 1, MSX disks (formatted) under MSX-DOS 1 have no support for subdirectories.^[23]

MSX-Audio[link]

• Yamaha Y8950, also known as:
  • Panasonic: MSX-Audio (standard name)
  • Philips: Music Module (no MSX-Audio BIOS)
  • 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, with [[Hardware accel/ref>

Some minor compatibility issues also plagued ported Spectrum games. For example, the Toshiba HX-10 machine was unable to read certain key combinations at the same time, preventing the Spectrum "standard" of "Q, A, O, P steering", whereas machines by other manufacturers worked fine. Later (ported) games tended to use the MSX-1 joystick port or used MSX's official arrow keys and space bar, or offered the option to choose other keys with which to control the program, solving the problem.^{[citation needed]}

A larger problem was that the designers of the MSX standard bank switching protocol did not prescribe to hardware manufacturers in which banks the cartridges, but more important the RAM, should be found. Moreover, the MSX's BIOS did not provide this information either, thus requiring programmers to implement complex routines to "find" these resources. Often programmers assumed that the RAM and cartridges would be available at a "default" bank switch location; in reality some systems had their RAM or cartridge slot(s) not at the "default" location, but on another bank switch location. In those cases programs failed to run because they only "saw" 32eration]]

• 32 KB of sample RAM, which can be upgraded to 256 KB

MSX-Music[link]

• Yamaha YM2413 (OPLL), also known as:
  • MSX-Music (standard name)
  • Panasonic: FM-PAC
  • Zemina: Music Box
  • Checkmark: FM-Stereo-Pak
• 9 channels FM or 6 channels FM + 5 drums
• 15 pre-set instruments, 1 custom
• Built-in as new standard on MSX2+ and MSX TurboR computers

Emulation[link]

MSX computers are emulated on many platforms today. Most MSX emulators are (or were) based on the code of the pioneer fMSX, a portable MSX emulator by Marat Fayzullin. fMSX source code license is not free and many emulators removed Fayzullin's Z80 emulation code entirely in later versions to avoid legal problems.

The official MSX emulator MSXPLAYer (Japanese) is produced by the MSX Association, of which MSX standard inventor Kazuhiko Nishi is the president.

Some MSX titles are emulated in the Nintendo Wii's Japanese Virtual Console.

See also[link]

• History of computing hardware
• List of MSX compatible computers
• List of MSX games
• Moonsound
• SymbOS
• Zemmix
• Canon T90

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: MSX

• MSX at the Open Directory Project
• The MSX Resource Center

Solid Snake (ソリッド・スネーク, Soriddo Sunēku^?), real name David (デイビッド, Deibiddo^?),^[2][3] is a fictional character and the protagonist of Konami's Metal Gear series. Created by Hideo Kojima, Snake is introduced in the first game of the series, Metal Gear from 1987. Snake has appeared in the majority of subsequent games and spin-offs. Japanese voice actor Akio Ōtsuka voices Snake in Japanese, while actor and screenwriter David Hayter provides the English voice of the character.

Introduced in Metal Gear, Solid Snake is a combination of spy, special operations soldier, and mercenary commando of FOXHOUND – a black operations and espionage unit. He is tasked with disarming and destroying the latest incarnation of Metal Gear, a bipedal nuclear weapon-armed mecha. Controlled by the player, Solid Snake must act alone, supported via radio by commanding officers and specialists. While during his first two appearances Snake's designs were references to Hollywood films, by Metal Gear Solid he was given a consistent design by artist Yoji Shinkawa alongside an established personality.

The character of Solid Snake has been well-received by critics to the point he appeared in several lists of best characters in gaming history. His development in the series has been praised although his accelerated aging in Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots resulted in mixed reactions.

Description[link]

This section may contain original research. Please improve it by verifying the claims made and adding references. Statements consisting only of original research may be removed. More details may be available on the talk page. (December 2010)

While during his debut appearances, Solid Snake's visual appearances were references to popular actors, he was given his own consistent design in Metal Gear Solid. Such design shows him as a an brown haired adult wearing dark sneaking suit as well as a bandana. This appearance suffered little changes in the sequel besides the fact Snake was older but during the beginning of the Plant Chapter he disguises himself wearing a uniform and bleaches his hair. By Metal Gear Solid 4, Solid Snake suffered a notable change as a result of his accelerated aging which makes him look like an elder. Nevertheless, he still wears his sneaking suit for missions and has access to different disguises to look like other characters as well as his younger self.

Solid Snake has been on the battlefield for most of his life,^[4] a hardened veteran, he has his emotions buried very deep inside himself. Every one of his missions has different motives.^[5] He is immediately shown as a loner^[6][7] and with no intentions of taking orders from anyone anymore,^[8] he shows no sign of longing for the army or the country he was part of.^[9]

Along with these traits he has a more human side, being flirtatious,^[10] self-sacrificing^[11] and with a strong belief that even on a battlefield friendship^[12] and love^[13] can flourish, and that violence is not glorious.^[14] Although the last bit is debatable due to statements from his enemies and at least one of his allies that he might enjoy all the killing, and even being labelled as being truly evil at one point.^[15][16][17]

[edit] Metal Gear series

[edit] Metal Gear games

Metal Gear, initially released in 1987, introduces Solid Snake, the rookie recruit of the elite special-forces unit FOXHOUND. Snake is sent by team leader Big Boss into the rogue nation Outer Heaven to rescue his missing teammate Gray Fox and discover who or what the "METAL GEAR" mentioned is.^[18][19] As his mission progresses he finds out that he has been set up; the leader of Outer Heaven is actually Big Boss, who intends to use Metal Gear—an experimental, nuclear-armed mecha—to establish Outer Heaven as a nuclear power.^[20] After destroying the Metal Gear itself, he then confronts Big Boss and defeats him.^[21]

In the sequel, titled Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake and initially released only in Japan for the MSX2, follows after the original Metal Gear rather than Snake's Revenge; indeed, all later games ignore the events of Snake's Revenge.^[22]

Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake sees Solid Snake once again called up to infiltrate a heavily fortified enemy base, this time in Zanzibarland. Zanzibarland has aggravated an international oil crisis and declared themselves a nuclear power by kidnapping Dr. Kio Marv, the creator of a bio-engineered algae that produces an oil substitute, and Dr. Pettrovich Madnar, the developer of the original Metal Gear.^[23] Snake infiltrates the base and discovers that Pettrovich and his former comrade Gray Fox have defected to Zanzibar Land, and that Zanzibar Land is led by Big Boss.^[24] Snake destroys their new Metal Gear D, and defeats his former comrades Gray Fox and Big Boss.^[25][26]

[edit] Metal Gear Solid games

Metal Gear Solid sees Solid Snake pulled out of retirement by Colonel Campbell in a mission to deal with FOXHOUND. Under the leadership of Liquid Snake, FOXHOUND has gone rogue, seizing Shadow Moses Island, an isolated American nuclear weapons disposal facility.^[27] Snake infiltrates the base and meets up with Meryl Silverburgh, a rookie soldier, and Dr. Hal "Otacon" Emmerich, the designer of Metal Gear REX. Snake defeats each member of FOXHOUND one by one, destroys Metal Gear REX, and confronts Liquid. Liquid reveals that he and Solid are twin brothers artificially conceived from Big Boss' genes during a government project designed to create the perfect soldier titled "Les Enfants Terribles", in which one brother was genetically modified to be superior over the other.^[28] Liquid harbors a strong resentment towards Snake since his brother was given their father's dominant "soldier genes" and Liquid was cast aside. After a grueling series of battles, Liquid dies from the Fox-Die virus that was previously implanted into Snake in order to wipe out FOXHOUND without risking any damage to Metal Gear REX and the Genome soldiers' bodies for retrieval.^[29] In the end, it is revealed that Liquid got Big Boss' superior "soldier genes", not Solid.^[30]

Solid Snake is the playable character of the extensive prologue sequence of Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, in which he is sent by the anti-proliferation organization Philanthropy to infiltrate a cargo tanker and photograph Metal Gear RAY, the latest Metal Gear model.^[31] During the operation, however, the Metal Gear RAY is hijacked and the tanker destroyed, with the apparently dead Snake framed for the deed.^[32] The remainder of Sons of Liberty follows the actions of the rookie FOXHOUND agent Raiden (the character now controlled by the player), who has been assigned to rescue the U.S. President and a number of other government officials being held hostage at a remote offshore oil shell facility. Solid Snake, who survived the explosion in the prologue, appears throughout the main portion of the game (initially adopting the pseudonym Iroquois Pliskin (イロコィ・プリスキン , Irokoi Purisukin^?), as a non-playable character who assists Raiden.^[33]

The PlayStation 3 game Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots features an aged Snake, once again the main protagonist and identified as Old Snake (オールド・スネーク, Ōrudo Sunēku^?) by the game. On account of his genetic code being a potential threat if it fell into enemy hands, he was designed with a short life span; as such, while Snake is only 42 years old, he has the body of an old man.^[34] In the game, he wears a sneaking suit outfitted with "Octocamo" technology, which allows him to blend with his environment, as well as a face mask which alters his appearance.^[35] Snake is once again enlisted by Campbell to defeat Revolver Ocelot who is following Big Boss' by taking control of the Patriots' A.I.s.^[36] Snake and his allies are forced to destroy the Patriots' A.I.s to stop Ocelot, and fights most of his soldiers, until killing Ocelot. Having learned that his rapid aging can cause an epidemic because of the FOXDIE virus mutating, Snake tries to commit suicide but changes his mind and is then confronted by the surviving Big Boss who reveals he can spend the rest of his life peacefully. After making up with Big Boss, Snake decides to live out the remainder of his life in peace.^[37]

In spinoffs[link]

Three Metal Gear spinoffs, which do not follow the storyline of the main Kojima-directed series, were directed by Shinta Nojiri.^[38] The first of these games is the Game Boy Color version of Metal Gear Solid (released in Japan as Metal Gear: Ghost Babel). In Ghost Babel, Solid Snake infiltrates a rebuilt Outer Heaven (now called Galuade) to defeat a FOXHOUND-like team of rogue agents called Black Chamber and destroy a stolen Metal Gear prototype, Gander. While the promotional art for the game was drawn by Yoji Shinkawa, the actual in-game character designs were done by Ikuya Nakamura.

In Metal Gear Acid, Solid Snake must retrieve "Pythagoras" from the Lobito Physics and Research Laboratory, in order to satisfy hijackers who have kidnapped presidential candidate Viggo Hach. This mission is complicated by La Clown, an expert mimic who impersonates Solid Snake's contact Teliko, and subtle brainwashing that nearly convinces him that he is Hans Davis, a ruthless scientist that worked at the Lobito facility. He overcomes both and contacts the real Teliko, then destroys the latest model of Metal Gear, Metal Gear KODOQUE. The sequel, Metal Gear Acid 2, features a main character who is not the real Solid Snake, but a clone created from tissue samples of the Solid Snake from the original Metal Gear Acid, following the events of the Lobito Island mission; the Solid Snake from the original Acid is dead.

Though Snake does not explicitly appear in Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops, he is mentioned, though not referred to by name; Elisa, a teenage German psychic with multiple personalities, has a prophetic vision of Naked Snake's future as she dies: she mentions that one of his sons will save the world after another son (Liquid Snake) brings it to ruin.^[39] He appears in his Metal Gear Solid 4 form as a recruitable character in Portable Ops Plus.^[40] He is also playable in an updated pack from Metal Gear Online.^[41]

Other appearances[link]

Solid Snake has appeared in a number of other games, including other Konami games, and more unusually, under license in games developed and published by other companies, such as Sony and Nintendo.

Hideo Kojima makes a habit of referencing his previous work. In the Kojima-produced Boktai 2: Solar Boy Django (and Boktai 3: Sabata's Counterattack), Snake appears as an unnamed character who sells items to the player. Konami's Evolution Skateboarding features Snake and Raiden as hidden characters, as well two stages set in the Big Shell (the Skateboarding minigame in Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance is a demo of Evolution Skateboarding composed exclusively of these elements).^[42]

Solid Snake also appears in both halves of a crossover between the Metal Gear and Ape Escape franchises: the Ape Escape monkeys appear with Solid Snake in the "Snake vs. Monkey" minigame featured in Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. In turn, Snake (voiced by Peter Lurie in the English version instead of David Hayter, his usual voice actor) appears in the corresponding Metal Gear Solid minigame featured in Ape Escape 3, where he is rescued by Pipo Snake. Snake's character design in this mini-game is taken directly from Naked Snake's.

He has also appeared in a pair of cross-company fighting games. In DreamMix TV World Fighters, Solid Snake appears as a playable character alongside other third-party characters such as Bomberman and Convoy (Optimus Prime). Similarly, in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, a popular fighting game from Nintendo, Solid Snake appeared alongside Nintendo-owned characters such as Mario and Donkey Kong, and Sega's Sonic the Hedgehog. According to producer Masahiro Sakurai, Snake's inclusion in Brawl was done under Kojima's request, who wanted Snake to be featured.^[43]

Snake has appeared as a playable character in the Nintendo DS game, New International Track & Field, alongside fellow Konami characters such as Sparkster and Simon Belmont, as well as new original characters.^[44] Also, Old Snake has appeared in the Japanese version of Scribblenauts, having been published by Konami in that region.^[45]

Customizations in Media Molecule's LittleBigPlanet for the PlayStation 3 allow the player character, Sackboy, to take on the appearance of Old Snake.^[46]

Creation and development[link]

Much as Metal Gear began as a pastiche of action movies of the time, Solid Snake began as a pastiche of contemporary action movie heroes. For example, on the cover artwork of the original Metal Gear, he resembles Michael Biehn in The Terminator, and the in-game portrait of Snake in Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake resembles Mel Gibson in the game's opening sequence.^[47] Solid Snake was even named after another fictional special forces operative: Snake Plissken, Kurt Russell's character in Escape from New York.^[48][49] In Guns of the Patriots, Snake is modeled after Lee Van Cleef, who appeared in Escape from New York.^[50] His real name, David, is a tribute to the film 2001: A Space Odyssey that has a character with the same name.^[51] Kojima later described Snake's role in the original Metal Gear as the "player's presence", contrasting the defined personality Solid Snake acquired in Metal Gear Solid.^[52]

In addition to expanding Solid Snake's backstory, as the first Metal Gear game to feature voice acting Metal Gear Solid established his characteristic voice and appearance.^[53] Yoji Shinkawa's Solid Snake design, characterized by his navy blue bandanna and "sneaking suit", would serve as the template for all future incarnations of Snake in later Metal Gear games. According to Shinkawa, Snake's physique in Metal Gear Solid was based on that of action star Jean-Claude Van Damme, while his facial appearance in the same game was inspired by actor Christopher Walken. Shinkawa described his rendition of Solid Snake from Metal Gear Solid as a "middle ground" between the younger Snake who graced the cover artwork of the first Metal Gear and the middle-aged Snake from the MSX2 version of Metal Gear 2.^[49][54] For the initial events from the Big Shell chapter from Metal Gear Solid 2, Snake's visual appearance was sightly modified with his hair being more blonde.^[55] Solid Snake became one of the characters easiest to draw by Shinkawa as he notes that his appearance is consistence, suffering minor changes across the games.^[56]

Various scenes from the games relate Snake's ideals with Hideo Kojima's. During Metal Gear Solid 2 Snake encourages Raiden to trust himself in making his own choices with the former representing the veteran developer and the latter the younger staff who are to decide whether a sequel to the series would be made without Kojima.^[51] In Metal Gear Solid 4, Snake tries to protect the next generation by stopping Ocelot which was representing by Kojima working with the staff to avoid bugs from occurying within the game.^[57] Kojima introduced the cloning origins of Solid Snake to Metal Gear Solid in order to provide Solid Snake with an adversary who would be his equal, since the story, being a continuation to the original MSX2 games, established Snake as an experienced soldier.^[58] Kojima explained that his decision to introduce a new playable character in Solid Snake's place for Sons of Liberty was done in order to develop Snake from another character's perspective, but also to avoid treating Snake as a rookie by having a new character be instructed via Codec instead.^[59]

By the time of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots started development, Kojima told Shinkawa about his idea of making Snake look like an elder which surprised the designer. Once Shinkawa showed his artwork of Old Snake to the staff, they were all also surprised by the idea of playing as an old Solid Snake. However, as they were satisfied with end product as the staff started liking the character.^[57] In Guns of the Patriots one of Kojima's endings for the game would have had Snake and Otacon turn themselves in for breaking the law, and subsequently they would be convicted and executed.^[58] However, comments from Kojima's staff who were disappointed with his death resulted in the character's survival.^[60] According to Ryan Payton of Konami, Guns of the Patriots is the final canonical Metal Gear game to feature Solid Snake as the main character.^[61] Kojima himself stated that the series will continue but he does not want the character to be handled by anyone else.^[58]

In the games, Snake has been voiced by Akio Ōtsuka starting with Metal Gear Solid. Ōtsuka remembers being surprised during his debut as a result of the large amount dialogue Snake was given.^[62] In the English adaptations, Snake's role was made by David Hayter who found his work notable as he was originally a screenwriter and did not expect to become famous for dubbing a character.^[63] While Hayter comments having issues with some of Snake's lines in his first game, most notably a conversation regarding romance with Hal Emmerich, he stated he would talk about such things if he was asked again. By the time Metal Gear Solid 4 had its first trailers released, Hayter was frustrated by Snake's flinchs during his attempt of committing suicide based on the character's experience in the battlefield.^[64] For the crossover game Super Smash Bros, Hayter remembers having fun in voicing the character due to the comical lines Snake had to say.^[63]

Reception[link]

The character of Solid Snake has received positive response, ranking in various polls as one of the best video games characters in history. In an Oricon poll from 2008, he was voted as the fourth most popular video game character in Japan, tying with Nintendo's Pikachu.^[65] In a Famitsu poll done in February 2010, Snake was voted by readers as the most popular video game character.^[66] In the Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition from 2011, Snake was voted as the fourth most popular video game character.^[67] Also, Electronic Gaming Monthly listed him as number three as the Top Ten Video Game characters of all time.^[35]

Critics have often praised Snake's commitment to war as well as his appealing personality.^[35][68] Snake appeared in multiple GameFAQs "Character Battle" contests, and was runner-up in two, the "Character Battle V" in 2006,^[69] and the "Character Battle VII" in 2008.^[70] His character was amongst the last sixteen contestants on the greatest video game hero on GameSpot contest held in 2009, and lost out to Gordon Freeman on a tiebreaker.^[71] He was ranked seventeenth in UGO Networks's "Best Heroes in Entertainment."^[68] GameDaily listed him on their top 10 Smash Bros. characters list,^[72] while Play listed him as one of the characters they wanted to be playable in Mortal Kombat.^[73] Sites have also commented on his traits and appearance. 1UP listed him second in the "Top 5 Video Game Smokers" while GamesRadar placed him at the top of "The 10 manliest men in videogame history."^[74][75] Complex.com ranked him as fourth on the list of "Top 25 Pervs in Games".^[76] Solid Snake's endurance in the face of extreme punishment was even made the focus of a comedy article in the satirical newspaper, The Onion.^[77] The character customization in Soul Calibur 4 that allowed to create Snake was listed by UGO as one of the best ones from the series owing to his popularity within gamers.^[78] The character's Metal Gear Solid 2 design was at the bottom of the "8 Worst Game Character Makeovers" by GamePro, condemning his conversion in hairstyle in comparison to the one in Metal Gear Solid,^[79] and was also at the top of IGN's "Worst Videogame Haircuts".^[80] Before Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, Snake was thought to be the game's protagonist because of the physical resemblances between him and Naked Snake. However, later previews speculated how was it possible for Solid Snake to be in the game's settings, leading to the conclusion it was a young Big Boss.^[81][82][83] A comparison between Solid Snake's and Big Boss' characters was made by IGN's Phil Pirrello in articled called "Stars Thunderdome: Snake vs. Big Boss."^[84] David Hayter's performance as Snake's English voice actor has received praise to the point of being called one of the best ones in gaming as well as one of the character's most recognizable traits.^[85][86]

Snake's appearance in Metal Gear Solid 4 has received mixed opinions. Before it was released, various speculations were made regarding Snake's role. As he was the only who suffered from a drastic change in appearance, IGN commented that the most famous rumor was the one of Snake's body deteriorating across the game.^[87] Moreover, since it had been announced it would be his last appearance, IGN and GamesRadar wondered whether the character would die during the game and if Raiden would replace him following his death.^[88][89] GamesRadar commented that Snake was one of the few gaming characters that aged across video games.^[90] GamePro also listed Old Snake as one of the biggest surprises from Metal Gear Solid 4 as the character was found interesting in contrast to pessimistic thoughts they had before the game's release.^[91] GameDaily listed the "old hero" as one of their top 25 video game archetypes, using the old version of Snake as an example of this.^[92] Play gave praise to his moustache considering how highly detailed it is, and represents the change from Snake's character.^[93] On the other hand, 1UP placed him third in the article of "Top 5 Gracelessly Aging Characters" as it gave negative messages about aging.^[94]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Solid Snake - The Metal Gear Wiki

v t e Metal Gear series Main games Metal Gear Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake Metal Gear Solid The Twin Snakes MGS2: Sons of Liberty 3: Snake Eater Portable Ops 4: Guns of the Patriots Peace Walker Spin-off games Snake's Revenge Ghost Babel Acid Acid 2 Acid Mobile Mobile Online Touch Arcade Rising: Revengeance Creators Hideo Kojima Shuyo Murata Yoji Shinkawa Motosada Mori Shinta Nojiri Mineshi Kimura Characters Solid Snake Big Boss Gray Fox Revolver Ocelot Raiden Related articles Metal Gear (weapon) List of media HD Collection Kojima Productions Metal Gear Solid: Philanthropy (fan film) DreamMix TV World Fighters Super Smash Bros. Brawl Book:Metal Gear series  · Category:Metal Gear  · Portal:Video games