MSX Emulation on Amiga

[Buleste]

The past few days i've been reliving my early computing days by using the 2 MSX emulators on the Amiga. fMSX and AmiMSX. Both of these emulators have their pro's and cons but neither work on graphics cards. If you have a good CPU then i'd recommend fMSX. fMSX is also the most stable of the two and whilst you can open the emulator in a RTG screen it actually slows the emulation down to a snails pace. Most of fMSX settings are accessed via menus opening new windows which can be laborious at times but once you get used to it it's fine. AmiMSX is a faster emulator but is also less acurate and for me was slightly unstable. AmiMSX is slightly easier to configure though. The main reason you may need both emulators is due to some games working on one but not the other. For example Gunfright works fine on fMSX but has corrupted graphics in AmiMSX where as Way of the Tiger is the opposite way round. Ikari Warriors doesn't work on either. Both emulators have cheat modes. If you're looking for a PC MSX emulator then i'd try BlueMSX as it also emulates several other systems.

[Harrison]

The MSX was a great system in its day. Such a shame it wasn't more popular in the west as its capabilities were good. The only downside of the MSX was its close ties with the devil! M$ by any other name!

[Buleste]

I've been actually reading up on the MSX today and it was actually an early indicator of how M$ would "improve" on someone elses idea. The MSX hardware specification was based on the Colecovision console just with added M$ ROMS and a different sound chip (the same one that was used in the Spectrum 128k). Like IBM PC's the spec was based on easily available parts so it was easy to manufacture which is why most far eastern electronics firms built a version however M$ took a slice of each one. The MSX2 Rom was identicle to MSDOS3.3. M$ only pulled out of the MSX when they realised they were making more money of IBM clones. How different the world would be if they had dumped IBM and stuck with the MSX.

The one thing that all this emulator testing has done is make me realise that I would dearly love to own a Toshiba HX-10 again.
"Hello Tosh gotta Toshiba?"

[Harrison]

Someone was selling a Philips MSX 2 on AmiBay recently.

Here is an image of it:

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b328/scottspikey/MSX2.jpg

[Ghost]

Ah, that brings back memories, I used to have one like that until those bastards at school stole parts while we were cleaning it of dust.

Most of the games I had were all MSX1, only later I discovered the MSX2 games and thought it was a shame that I had never played any of those.
Well not that I can read Japanese.

Since then I have collected some MSX2 games;

Metal Gear 1 (Japanese)
Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake
King Kong 2
SD Snatcher
Last Armageddon

Still waiting for my copy of Ys3: Wanderers of Ys.
I also hope to get Super Rambo Special from the same seller.

Another thing, the MSX2 games had some of the nicest boxes ever, Western publishers could learn something of them.

[Harrison]

What did the boxes look like? I don't think I've ever seen any original MSX software.

[Ghost]

Solid plastic ones, a little like those old VHS boxes, well if they had those in the UK.