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This page contains documents, software, and links related to MSX, MSX2, MSX2+, and TurboR personal computers. For discussion, join the EMUL8 discussion group.

COMP.SYS.MSX FAQ : read it before you ask!
fMSX: The portable MSX emulator
Various documentation on MSX

Instroduction to MSX by Hans Guijt
PORTAR by Mayer: the most complete MSX tech doc so far
MSX User List by Ricardo Pinheiro

MSX Technical Handbook from ASCII (digitized by Nestor Soriano)
Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4a Chapter 4b

TOR text editor series by Leonid Baraz
DBG debugger and RDV RAM drive by Leonid Baraz
ND System 6.1 (Norton Commander clone) by Igor Bocharov
Educational games and utilities by Oleg Shamshura
MSX-Tools and antiviruses by Igor Bernstein
Major Pistoletov and other games by Andrew Rodionov

MSX Games Collage 1988-1998 by Paul Horley
Complete Maze of Galious map by Paul Horley
Complete Metal Gear map by Nick Chudin

MSX is an old Z80-based family of home computers which appeared in 1982 as an attempt to establish a single standard in home computing similar to VHS in video. They were popular in Asian (Korea, Japan) and South American (Brazil, Chile) countries as well as in Europe (Netherlands, France, Spain) and former Soviet Union, but they are virtually unknown in USA. Although MSX standard quietly died to year 1988, the world got to see MSX2, MSX2+ and TurboR extensions of it.

The MSX standard has been designed by a company called ASCII in cooperation with Microsoft which provided a firmware version of its BASIC for the machine. There is a widespread rumor that "MSX" stands for "MicroSoft eXtended". The MSX machines were produced by such giants as Sony, Yamaha, Panasonic, Toshiba, Daewoo, and Philips. The only MSX model ever sold in USA appears to be an early SpectraVideo machine.

In spite of its sad history, MSX is a very nice computer, especially useful for educational purposes which is clearly indicated by example of the Soviet Union. Russian Ministry of Education bought hundreds of MSXes (and later MSX2s) grouped into "computerized classroom systems" of 10-16 machines connected into a simple network. Entire generation of programmers has grown up using these computers.

Hardware-wise, MSX represents a hybride of a videogame console and a generic CP/M-80 machine. Its heart is a Z80 CPU working at 3.58MHz in the base model. The clock frequency has been doubled in the TurboR. The video subsystem is built around a TI9918 or TI9928 VDP chip also used in Texas Instruments' TI-99/4 computers, ColecoVision, and Coleco Adam. In the later MSX models this chip has been upgraded to V9938 (MSX2) and V9958 (MSX2+ and TurboR). The latest version of it is V9990. The audio system is handled by AY-3-8910 chip by General Instruments, same as the one used in Sinclair ZXSpectrum128 audio. AY-3-8910 provides 3 channels of synthetized sound, noise generation, and two general purpose parallel IO ports which are used for joysticks and some other things in the MSX design. Due to their hardware structure, MSX machines were perfectly suitable for games and there is a lot of good games either written or ported to them.

CPU

Table of Z80 commands with codes
List of Z80 commands with descriptions

Video

V9958 registers description
Information about V9990 VDP chip

Audio

SCC and FMPAC sound chips
Information about MoonSound board

Memory

MSX memory map
Yamaha YIS503 memory maps

System

MSX BIOS functions
Variables in the system memory area
List of hooks with descriptions
MSX BASIC internals
Some BDOS entry points [DiskROMs 1 and 2]
DiskROM 1 routines
DiskROM 2 routines
Error codes passed to DISK BASIC hooks
Description of the disk format

Other

Clock Chip in MSX2
Report from Zandvoort 1994 by Stefan Boer
Report from Tilburg 1995 by Stephan Szarafinski
Addresses of SVI MSX groups
List of Konami games

Archive at FUNET (emulators, tools, and documentation)
Archive in Irkutsk (please, do not overload the link)
Archive at KOMKON (fMSX, games in BLOADable and .ROM formats)
Archive in Japan (mirrors of other archives, Japanese user group depository)
Archive in Netherlands (fMSX, utilities, games, demos)
CJS Archive (CJS MSX2 emulator)

Wiebe Weikamp's Page (information, mailing list, game trivia, excellent site)
Alex Wulms' Page (XelaSoft, Quadrivium, and Sunrise)
CJS MSX Page (MSDOS-based MSX2 emulator)
Toni Siira's Page (MSX FAQ, news, more)
Parallax Software (games)
Fony (games, demos, Zandvoort fairs)
Abyss Productions (demos, games)
Sunrise Hardware (MSX hardware and upgrades)
The File Hunter (MSX software archive)
Klaas de Wind's Page (Friesland-Noord MSX club)
N.O.P. Page (demos, TraxPlayer)
Tjip's Page (MSX Web Magazine)
Michel Meilink's Page (Konami games, codes, etc.)
Warper's Page (dutch documentation)
Maarten ter Huurne's Page (Mayhem)
Tiens' Institute for MSX (pictures of game screens, .ROM files)
Yoshihisa Makuta's Page of Links (lots of links to Japanese MSX pages)

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