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| | One Chip MSX available outside Japan |
| | Sunday, July 10, 2005 - 03:54 Submitted by: Bazix Topic: MSX Revival | | On May 20th, ASCII opened up their Japanese One Chip MSX pre-order page and started taking orders on the new MSX computer from Japanese MSX fans.
Today, an important step in the MSX revival was taken. For the first time, a product resulting from the MSX revival has become available, officially, outside the Japanese market. As of today, the One Chip MSX can also be pre-ordered from outside Japan with Bazix, the Dutch company that represents MSX Association outside the Japanese market.
According to the One Chip MSX page on the Bazix website, their One Chip MSX will come with an English manual, a 220V adapter or 110V converter plug and a simple casing. The One Chip MSX can be pre-ordered right here for € 189,- (about $225,-) including VAT. Thanks to FPGA technology, the functionality of the device can be changed without performing any physical hardware modifications. An upgrade to make the device completely MSX2 compatible will be released in the future.
Needless to say this is a great step for the international MSX community, as the One Chip MSX is the first MSX computer to be officially distributed outside the Japanese market since the MSX2, which was introduced more than 20 years ago.
Relevant link: One Chip MSX information page at Bazix |
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| By djh1697 on July 10 2005, 10:05 | Ouch! Nice device, nice price! Too much for any sort of MSX revival
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| By Latok on July 10 2005, 10:14 | Well, it's a niche product, not too much in my opinion  I think this is great news!
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| By Grauw on July 10 2005, 12:26 | Finally! ^_^
But, you say € 189,- including VAT, but when I pre-order it gives me a total of € 198.81...?
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| By Bart on July 10 2005, 12:26 | Shipping?
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| By snout on July 10 2005, 12:26 | please do note the 'ex shipping' 
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| By Grauw on July 10 2005, 12:27 | Oh, I guess those are the shipping costs. Uh, can I pick it up at a fair instead?
~Grauw
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| By snout on July 10 2005, 12:27 | ^_^
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| By Ivan on July 10 2005, 12:44 | I hope that soon will be available a C64 upgrade kit. Forget that shit of MSX2. 
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| By snout on July 10 2005, 12:46 | Grauw: For the time being, Bazix are only to distribute One Chip MSX computers by directly shipping them to the customers who ordered them.
Ivan: Blasphemy! ^_^
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| By poke-1,170 on July 10 2005, 15:52 | ivan the terrible
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| By djh1697 on July 10 2005, 19:18 | Question? Since USB is not within the MSX specification, what will the USB ports be used for?
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| By snout on July 10 2005, 19:24 | djh - using VHDL you can adapt the funtionality of the One Chip MSX. With an USB connection to the board, you can attach a lot of equipment to it. Use your imagination, I'd say
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| By SaebaMSX on July 10 2005, 19:59 | I preordered the "japanese" version and surely I will order this Bazix version too. I am sure that I won't be the only one doing it, will I?
But let me know something and sorry if it was answered before... Why does it only include composite output? Perhaps VGA will be a solution in the near future, but not having RGB won't be a problem here in Europe? It could be just the typical question when you had v9958 with only colours through RGB... or was it that my F700 (v9938) just had colours through RGB?
I can't wait to get that nice piece of hardware. By the way, what is meant with simple casing?
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| By snout on July 10 2005, 20:39 | Saeba: there's a VGA connector on the One Chip MSX, rest assured...
As for the simple casing: the casing of the One Chip MSX will not be very expensive, so don't expect designs like these to make it this time Something like the Game Reader is more feasible. However, as soon as a casing has been selected, you'll read about it at ASCII, Bazix and the MRC news for sure
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| By karloch on July 11 2005, 02:49 | I'm a bit worried about the pre-orders numbers... 2006 units and just 40 days to reach the 5000. I have already placed my order to Bazix, but... will we reach that number? C'mon guys, a brand new MSX is there for just 189 euro (how much did you pay for your MSX in the 80's?), go and reserve your new, upgraded MSX computer now!!!!
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| By Latok on July 11 2005, 11:21 | About the casing. Ok, it'll be simple. But it simply NEEDS some specifications. Power switch button, holes for all the connections. Being a casing for a complete computer, it can not be that simple in itself.
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| By Tanni on July 11 2005, 11:30 | What's a VAT?
In Europe, there are now 230 V power supply!
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| By Samor on July 11 2005, 12:50 | you guys need some quick international fame, for this to succeed.
any ideas on how to make this big news even bigger?
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| By Latok on July 11 2005, 12:58 | Tanni: VAT ist nur Steuer.
And again something about the price.....189 euro isn't too much for a complete computer, it's really cheap!! It's a scene related product, no mass production. Look at the Sunrise hardware, they sell hardware for similar prices, but that's nowhere near a complete computer!
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| By Haze on July 11 2005, 13:04 | Someone should report this on to big sites, such as Tweakers.net. Plenty of geeks and hardware freaks who'd love to get their hands on a machine like this, I can imagine. And that should boost pre-orders a bit.
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| By Latok on July 11 2005, 13:05 | Indeed, it's interesting enough for a larger audience. Problem will be attracting it, though. And Bazix needs credibility as well. There's no real product yet. That's a disadvantage.
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| By sunrise on July 11 2005, 14:35 | Latok, that's billshit
Our highest price is for the Moonsound and based on 25 copies not on 5000.
The cf-interface and all others not come even close to this !
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| By sunrise on July 11 2005, 14:38 | Furthermore, I consider to stop forever !
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| By Samor on July 11 2005, 15:04 | I don't think Latok meant to criticise, he just made a comparison (allthough it's kind of a bad one).
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| By BodyHammeR on July 11 2005, 15:05 | '189 euro isn't too much for a complete computer'
I agree. But the One Chip MSX in it's current form is not complete.
@sunrise: care to explain? we'd hate to see you go 
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| By Latok on July 11 2005, 15:06 | Indeed, I didn't mean to criticise, Rob. Not at all. I have very much respect for Sunrise and all what you are doing. Please don't misunderstand me. I was indeed just trying to compare things to eachother.
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| By Latok on July 11 2005, 15:08 | To make things more clear, I don't think Sunrise hardware is overpriced or something. Actually, I don't quite understand why you're angry, but believe me, everything I said about Sunrise, I meant it in the most positive way
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| By Samor on July 11 2005, 15:15 | you guys should try and get it posted on slashdot.
hey, it's worth a shot, isn't it?
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| By Tanni on July 11 2005, 15:21 | To compare prices, visit www.digilentinc.com/! Spartan 3 Starter Board: $99!
I don't know what it is in euro, I don't know if the Xilinx FGPA chip is comparable to the one from Altera, but we should take into account, that MSX Association must make some money to go on with the MSX revival.
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| By Tanni on July 11 2005, 15:23 | Latok: Danke für die Auskunft!
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| By andete on July 11 2005, 15:25 | Will the MSX2 upgrade be available for free or will it come at additional cost?
Is the programmable chip code released under a liberal license (GPL or BSD)?
Are the MSX ROMS part of the product as a ROM or part of the programmable chip?
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| By sunrise on July 11 2005, 15:39 | I have no appetite anymore , so get lost !
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| By snout on July 11 2005, 18:45 | Although I can imagine that and why Sunrise is reacting this way, I don't think Latok had the intention to be negative about Sunrise, but he was trying to make a fair comparison. The only references we have when it comes to MSX hardware are Obsonet (~ €50), CompactFlash (~ €65,-), GFX9000 (€134,-) and the Moonsound (~€172 with 1024kB SRAM). One can only conclude that a sale price of € 189,- for the One Chip MSX is more or less in line with these hardware expansions. That doesn't imply that Sunrise hardware or the One Chip MSX is (too) expensive, though, and I'm absolutely sure Latok did not have the intention to imply that either.
As for the many questions: Bazix plans to publish a small FAQ in the near future in which these and many other questions are being answered. Please understand the OCM is still in full development, so although a casing and details on the VHDL coding and its licensing have not been announced yet, they will be as soon as there is any certainty about it.
Samor: press release is going out this evening... all I can promise is Slashdot will receive one. Rest is up to them
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| By Latok on July 11 2005, 19:01 | I already said it. I didn't have any intention of being negative about Sunrise. Sunrise hardware is just the only reference I have and these prices are indeed in line with the One Chip MSX pricing. That's all. Again, sunrise, if I hurt your feelings in some way or another, my apologies!
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| By iamweasel on July 12 2005, 03:09 | At last an english page about 1CM! :-) It's also good to hear that questions about casing and code licensing will be answered soon. I believe that making everything clear about 1CM will help to increase the sales. Things are getting better and better. :-)
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| By Arjan on July 16 2005, 12:27 | Tanni: The Spartan 3 Starter Board has just ~4000 LE's (compared to OCM's 12000). The versions with ~8500 and ~20000 have $20 / $50 extra costs. This board has only 1MB while OCM has 32MB. Furthermore, the Spartan 3 doesn't have USB, no composite video output, no audio outputs, no SD/MMC card slot and of course no MSX Joystick port and MSX Cartridge slot. There are some more differences of course (some in favour of the Spartan 3, some in favour of the OCM) but overall I'd say the OCM is better and is prices just right!
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| By Tanni on July 18 2005, 16:29 | Yes, that's why I posted the link!
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