History Platform / MSX

** ''Ys III: Wanders from Ys''

The MSX offered a powerful (for the time) 8-bit system using the Z80 [[UsefulNotes/CentralProcessingUnit CPU]] and Texas Instruments' [=TMS9918=] UsefulNotes/{{GPU}}. Most MSX systems offered 64K of the main memory from the outset, at a time when the first series of the Platform/ZXSpectrum had only 16K, and it could provide arcade-quality graphics at a fraction of the cost. It was often called ''the'' best Z80-based system of all time. It also had not one, but ''two'' cartridge slots connecting to the system bus, allowing for system expandability and avoiding the cheap but cumbersome and unreliable cassette tape distribution system. Major Japanese and Korean hardware manufacturers like Sony, Yamaha, Toshiba, Samsung, and Panasonic produced, in all, about 9 million MSX machines in all versions.

The main power of the MSX lay in its UsefulNotes/{{GPU}}, which was one of the most powerful and sophisticated 2D graphics engines ''ever''. It was an extremely advanced (for its time) video coprocessor, supporting not only simple tile-based graphics and sprites, like Famicom's one, but also featured several graphics modes (text was actually output as a set of tiles on the graphics screen, allowing their free combination); hardware-accelerated bit copy, area fill, line draw, scrolling, etc; and even limited overlay support in later versions.

* ''VideoGame/{{Commando}}''

The '''MSX''' was standard for home computers introduced in Japan in June 1983. It was a peculiar system that straddled the border between consoles and home computers. It was the brainchild of Kazuhiko Nishi, then Microsoft's Vice-President for the Far Eastern operations and chief executive of [[Creator/{{Microsoft}} Microsoft Japan]]. It was inspired in part by the success of the [[UsefulNotes/{{VCR}} VHS]] standard and intended to popularize home computers in Japan.

* General Instruments AY-3-8910 on [=MSX1=] (same as on [[Platform/ZXSpectrum Spectrum]] 128 and the Mockingboard [[UsefulNotes/GamingAudio sound card]] for Platform/AppleII).