The Pioneer PX-V7: MSX over All? | Hacker News Reader

The Pioneer PX-V7: MSX over All?

nicole.express

77 pointsggoo11 comments

So refreshing to see a MSX machine being featured here. Way before PCs got decent graphics and audio, everyone I did show my MSX (1.0) got impressed by it. Even more so with the "plug and play" capabilities - cartridges could contain software, hardware or a combination of both.

You could have a cartridge that allowed you to play a game - just like a console - while another allowed you to have a (say) disk drive. While 40 columns per line was the standard (this was upgraded with the 2.0 spec), there were cartridges that allowed you to have 80 columns - and would contain all necessary hardware.

Today this is not impressive and "firmware" is commonplace. But at the time the state of the art on the PC involved jumper flipping and installing software from disks...

Then the Amiga came in a similar (although more expensive) niche and there was no contest.

I never really understood why MSX didn't succeed in the US, considering that MSX means "Microsoft Extended". My first contact with DOS was MSX-DOS.

The US had the Commodore64 and the UK had the BBC micro, which are both more or less similar in capabilities (or so it seems; I only ever used the MSX myself) and released at about the same time (or actually, a bit earlier it seems). I bet this is an important part why it was never popular there.

Ah MSX! My first computer was a Spectravideo MSX machine.

Loved it!

I learned programming on a Sinclair ZX81 so getting the MSX was a huge boost in graphics and color.

But it was the 80s so anything with color was great!

1. https://www.msx.org/wiki/Spectravideo_SVI-728

Hah, same here! The SVX-728 was somewhat infuriating in that it was slightly non-standard MSX if I recall correctly; this would mostly show up in (copied) games, which I then had to disassemble and tweak. I think it had to do with the memory mapping of the expansion slot or something... it's been a long time!

It did teach to me code Z-80 assembly (I still have Rodnay Zaks around somewhere [0]), and managed to squeeze a basic text editor into less than one kilobyte of code.

Good times.

[0] https://freecomputerbooks.com/Programming-the-Z80-3rd-Editio...

Yeah! I went ZX-81 to C64, then Amiga, but the MSX machines were always interesting, especially the ones with built in MIDI interfaces. This was such a creative period for computer design, primitive though it appears from our modern perspective.

Interesting, never heard of this one. Reminds me a bit of my old Commodore.

Loved Pioneers amber illuminated stereo equipment in the 80s/90s... sadly they've moved away from those pleasing colors. My newer receiver actually has a blue led! yuck.

I long for some of this style of industrial design to make a comeback

This is not so much "industrial design". It was simply a company which was used to design stereo systems and VCR's trying to design computers.

In Brazil something very similar happened. Take a look in google images for "gradiente MSX".

Yeah there's something about stuff that looks like 80s/90s mid-upper-end hifi equipment that is really attractive.

MSX was quite popular in Brazil. A Gradiente Expert was my first computer. We had a disk drive and a monitor, both relatively rare.

I still remember MSX-DOS, which was interesting because it had some CP/M compatibility, and it could run Turbo Pascal and WordStar.

And of course amazing, unforgettable games like Knightmare and Alien 8.

Alien 8 was great! I should try to dust off my MSX emulator...

Reply on news.ycombinator.com