In my humble opinion, MySpace is just too painful to be true:
1) it tells me to install Flash, while I have it installed and working fine on other sites (using even proprietary Flash 10 on my Debian amd64 box) 2) it doesn't have a single way to give feedback to the administrators of MySpace (e.g. for issue 1) 3) it's a pain to the eyes to see most MySpace pages. Things are messed up, bad color schemes, hardly any well-thought about layout.
Who needs MySpace?
Unfortunately, many music composers seem to like it...:(
They are reading and writing a hard drive using laser. That's not bad from the same people that invented the CD (Phillips). Um, this work was not done by people from Philips, but people from the Radboud University in Nijmegen, the Netherlands. I even know the guys there, I did my physics Master's research project in the same group, the mentioned Hohlfeld was my mentor:)
Anyway, it's really great stuff they discovered. This is truly new! I wish them a lot of good luck in continuing this research.
A classic '80s war, I'd say:P
Anyway, there have been made some comparison between Amiga and MSX here in this thread on the MSX Resource Center: http://www.msx.org/forumtopic6582p75.html
Might be entertaining to read.
The MSX had the AY-3-8910 PSG sound chip as default indeed. But since the MSX2+ (1988), the Yamaha OPLL was default. The same chip in a cartridge was also a very popular extension cartridge (called FM-PAC). Then there is the MSX-AUDIO (Yamaha Y8950) sound extension, the SCC which Konami put in some of their game cartridges and some other sound extensions. MSX users became very active on the sound department due to this. So, it's a bit simple to state what you did about the sound in MSX.
Secondly, the disk drive. Indeed, most first generation MSX models did not have a disk drive, but most second generation (MSX2) models did. Also, you could buy an external disk drive, which works on any MSX.
About the memory: the Sony HB-F700P was a very popular MSX2 machine in Europe, which had 256kB main RAM, plus 128kB videoRAM (this is 1986). THe last MSX model, the Panasonic FS-A1GT turboR, released in 1992, had 512kB main RAM and 128kB VideoRAM. The RAM could easily be expanded, and this was done a lot in Europe, too. Unfortunately mostly to play cracked ROM cartridges, but OK.
We can say that the MSX2 (1985) was really the most powerful 8 bit computer at that time, with the hardware accelerated graphics chip. Many great games were made for it, like indeed the Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake games.
Yes, but Hobbyscoop Basicode programs were also distributed on cassette tapes.
The only Flexi-Disk I know is the one that was packaged with the Dutch MSX magazine "MSX Computer Magazine", issue 16 of 1987. The vinyl contained "MCM's Basicode 3 translator". Maybe you were even confused with that? See also a picture of the cover on Generation MSX
Isn't it also a matter of acceleration in your grahpics driver? Dragging windows around the screen while showing their contents is quite some heavy work for it...
I just wrote the following e-mail to the author of the article:
Hello Frank,
I just read your SNK article on GameSpot.com. A very nice in-depth article!
Although, I think you forgot to mention that SNK also produced software for the MSX system, which is virtually unknown in the USA, but used to be very popular in Japan and certain parts of Europe, as well as Brazil.
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In my humble opinion, MySpace is just too painful to be true:
1) it tells me to install Flash, while I have it installed and working fine on other sites (using even proprietary Flash 10 on my Debian amd64 box)
2) it doesn't have a single way to give feedback to the administrators of MySpace (e.g. for issue 1)
3) it's a pain to the eyes to see most MySpace pages. Things are messed up, bad color schemes, hardly any well-thought about layout.
Who needs MySpace?
Unfortunately, many music composers seem to like it... :(
Anyway, it's really great stuff they discovered. This is truly new! I wish them a lot of good luck in continuing this research.
A classic '80s war, I'd say :P
Anyway, there have been made some comparison between Amiga and MSX here in this thread on the MSX Resource Center: http://www.msx.org/forumtopic6582p75.html
Might be entertaining to read.
The MSX had the AY-3-8910 PSG sound chip as default indeed. But since the MSX2+ (1988), the Yamaha OPLL was default. The same chip in a cartridge was also a very popular extension cartridge (called FM-PAC). Then there is the MSX-AUDIO (Yamaha Y8950) sound extension, the SCC which Konami put in some of their game cartridges and some other sound extensions. MSX users became very active on the sound department due to this. So, it's a bit simple to state what you did about the sound in MSX.
:)
Secondly, the disk drive. Indeed, most first generation MSX models did not have a disk drive, but most second generation (MSX2) models did. Also, you could buy an external disk drive, which works on any MSX.
About the memory: the Sony HB-F700P was a very popular MSX2 machine in Europe, which had 256kB main RAM, plus 128kB videoRAM (this is 1986). THe last MSX model, the Panasonic FS-A1GT turboR, released in 1992, had 512kB main RAM and 128kB VideoRAM. The RAM could easily be expanded, and this was done a lot in Europe, too. Unfortunately mostly to play cracked ROM cartridges, but OK.
We can say that the MSX2 (1985) was really the most powerful 8 bit computer at that time, with the hardware accelerated graphics chip. Many great games were made for it, like indeed the Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake games.
In total, there are about 3000 games for the MSX, see http://www.generation-msx.nl/msxdb for a list.
The aforementioned Wikipedia page lists some more details, as well as The Ultimate MSX FAQ: http://faq.msxnet.org/
OK, I hope I set some things straight here
Better just follow the upgrade guide to make sure everything goes OK! (Before you do a simple dist-upgrade...)
Yes, but Hobbyscoop Basicode programs were also distributed on cassette tapes.
The only Flexi-Disk I know is the one that was packaged with the Dutch MSX magazine "MSX Computer Magazine", issue 16 of 1987. The vinyl contained "MCM's Basicode 3 translator". Maybe you were even confused with that?
See also a picture of the cover on Generation MSX
Isn't it also a matter of acceleration in your grahpics driver? Dragging windows around the screen while showing their contents is quite some heavy work for it...
I just wrote the following e-mail to the author of the article:
:-)
Hello Frank,
I just read your SNK article on GameSpot.com. A very nice in-depth article!
Although, I think you forgot to mention that SNK also produced software for the MSX system, which is virtually unknown in the USA, but used to be very popular in Japan and certain parts of Europe, as well as Brazil.
For some more information about this home computer system, you might want to check out these sites:
The Ultimate MSX FAQ
The MSX Resource Center
The only MSX product of SNK I know is Ikari Warriors. For some information about the game, see this page: Ikari Warriors on Generation MSX.
In short: it was released in 1987 for the MSX2 system (the second generation standard of MSX). It's a 2Mbit game.
Some scans of the cover in a higher resolution: front, back, side.
I'm also in posession of this game myself.
I hope you will update the article!
(At least pages 2 (near the bottom) and page 31 should mention the MSX port of Ikari Warriors, I think.