Hi, I'm just curious why even modern MSX users from Brazil are still mostly oriented to MSX-1 and not MSX-2 or newer?

I don't know if this is common sence: but Iirc MSX1 was well world wide spread. However the MSX2 mostly got well spread in Japan, North America and Europe.

That might be one explination

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However the MSX2 mostly got well spread in Japan, North America and Europe

Lol, I think that the only MSX computers that made it to US and Canada are the eBay auctions or direct imports from Japan.

Brazil had their own hardware maker: Gradiente.

I don't know much about this company, but some Experts look really hot.

The MSX was made by Microsoft (America) and ASCII (Japan). The MSX2 was also under the same flag (but somehow sales where not as high as the MSX1).

The TurboR whatsoever came under the ASCII flag (MS had taken the sinking ship called IBM). So basicly the TurboR was only sold in Japan (but thanx to small amount of export it also got in America & Europe)

Trust me, I am from Canada, and except for specialized Yamaha synth computers we didn't ever had anything MSX in retail.

Even being brazilian I don't know exactly why, but here goes my guesses:
- MSX1 got lots of books in portuguese while MSX2 got almost none
- MSX1 was produced by Gradiente and Sharp to our market
- MSX2 never got oficially into our country
- At that time, we was under a politic called "reserva de mercado" (market reserve), wich made it illegal to import any computer. So we could only buy national computer.
- Nowadays, a national MSX1 like Expert 1.1 or HotBit 1.1 cost something like R$60,00 (about 18 dollars). MSX2 must be imported and usually costs R$400,00 (about 130 dollars). And with R$400,00 we can buy a K6-2 400MHz PC that emulates even a TurboR. So, only the ones that want the real thing (like me) buys it.
- By historical facts, brazilians never get latest tecnology. So we learned well how to use old tecnology to do at least reasonably what newest tecnologies do.
- Unless you wanna play games, there is no good reason to buy an entire new system only to get clock and new vdp.

Well, I think that those are the apparent reasons. Especially the pricing one, given the fact that Brazil yet is a poor country.

Here, in Spain, it happened something strange: while the official MSX community was focused in MSX2 (and higher) systems, the single users were still stuck to their good and old MSX1. There are a lot of users that still do not owe an MSX2 computer with FD.

That explains why I decided to code tools such as WAVeR. Anyway, I will continue working with the MSX1 system because I feel more confident about it. Do not missunderstand this: my knowledge of the MSX2 system is very limited.

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Unless you wanna play games, there is no good reason to buy an entire new system only to get clock and new vdp.

'Only' a new VDP?? Heh, there is sooooo much more you can do with the v9938 than a tms9918!! You really don't know what you're missing! For that matter, the v9958 is also an awesome expansion of the v9938, even though its added features are percieved as few.

That said, there's nothing wrong with MSX1 stuff... But I'm from the 'MSX2 generation', really, so I never really used the MSX1 and I think most things for it look kinda outdated . I'd never consider programming for it, it is just 'not MSX' to me (in the way I experienced MSX).

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The TurboR whatsoever came under the ASCII flag (MS had taken the sinking ship called IBM). So basicly the TurboR was only sold in Japan (but thanx to small amount of export it also got in America & Europe)

You make this sound as if the turboR being sold only in Japan was because of ASCII. This is not true, when ASCII acquired the rights for MSX it was already pretty much a lost cause (otherwise why would MS sell at all)... There just was no market anymore, mainly due to the rise of IBM compatibles in my experience, although some claim it was due to the excessive copying (it makes sense ofcourse - computer markets were small back then so much more vulnerable than they are nowadays). Nevertheless I heard a lot of sounds like 'I finally got a PC' in the days then, as if it was somehow a better/more professional goal towards which there was an unavoidable trend. Of course, history proved that that was indeed the case.

I never heard someone say 'I finally got a commodore' .

By the way, Nishi *did* apologize for his dropping of MSX. I think on one hand that this is not at all entirely thanks to him, and it was the Japanese nature of excessive apologizing speaking or something . On the other hand, if he at some point saw no future in it anymore, and basically 'gave up' on it... Things might have been different if he had still gone for it with all his efforts. But then again they might not have, and big stakes are involved, financial and personal, so I can't say I blame him for taking the safe route... After all, MSX *was* in a downward spiral, *was* being dropped by more and more manufacturers, and the IBM PC *was* at a rise.


~Grauw

At that time the MSX 2 was expensive and difficulty to make.
Dynacom announced a MSX1 and never released that.
Dynacom continued to sell clones of systems.
Dynacom sold (and still sell) NES clones.
Later introduced a Mega Drive clone that played Master System games.
The MSX2 and MSX2+ was available only into expansion KIT's old computers.
Some incompatibilities for old games and newer hardware didn't help Sharp and Gradiente.
The magazines explained, this wasn't a fault. The software and hardware that was used does not complain with the exact standard for MSX computers.
Most of the history is fully explained into Brazilian magazines.
I don't know any book about the MSX2 that was available at the time.
At least the FM market was very good with FM cartridges that use ear phones or stereo audio cables.
Great software for old machines. Not fully explored into commercial titles.
A good text editor and more software for business would be nice.
Bad market and expensive price.
The unofficially Pirate market killed newer releases.

Later, there was a request to officially import the MSX Turbo R direct from Japan.
In some opinions this would go against the Amiga market.
Sure that you could use a cooperative thing that could help.
The rest like someone could said is "story" whit very long explanations.
---
http://www.thehungersite.com/

Lol, this reminds me situation with ZX Spectrum machines in my home country. We had a lot of Spectrum 48 clones in 1991-1993. In 95% they was used as cheap gaming machines. In 1993 the factory that was making those computers finally moved on to one chip design, full Spectrum 128 compatibility and Beta disk controller. The cost of new system was twice of vanilla Spectrum 48, and at the same time a wave of cheap NES clones eliminated this new model completely.

I never got this new machine, and years after I did regreted not getting it a lot...

There is also another reason, that I just remembered:

- When MSX2 upgrade kits started to gain market, Sega Master System arrived also in Tec Toy's hands. It had very good grafics (better even than most MSX2 games), wasn't expensive, had a much better support from Tec Toy than MSX had with Gradiente and Sharp, and came with some very good games like Shinobi, Alex Kidd, Kenseiden and Phantasy Star.

And as I said, people who wanted MSX2 was the ones who wanted it to play games, not as a computer plataform. So they prefered SMS.

This is very similar to ZX Spectrum vs NES in my country

But NES died off very fast, by 1995-96 most of the gaming population moved on to PCs, so even NES went dead and forgotten

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But NES died off very fast, by 1995-96 most of the gaming population moved on to PCs, so even NES went dead and forgotten

That is a difference. Here in Brazil, SMS still being produced, and still selling reasonably. It is understandable, since SMS and Mega Drive are the only consoles to be officially sold here.

There is also Dynavision, a NES console from Dynacom, but it's support is almost inexistent and the only games we can buy for it are the ones that come in a "81 in 1" cartridge. If you want more NES games, must look for auctions and imports. So this console can be disconsidered.

Super Nintendo, N64, Gameboy Advanced and GameCube was sold officially by Gradiente (differently from MSX'es, with good support). But when the contract between Gradiente and Nintendo finished, Gradiente prefered to don't extend it, since Gamecube and GBA wasn't having good sales as N64 and GBC had, specially cause the new generation was damn expensive for us brazilians.

And just to finish my report, Saturn and Dreamcast was officially sold by Tec Toy, but Tec Toy prefered to stop since PSX took completely the brazilian market. So they only still selling SMS and Genesis, cause of good pricing.

Neat! SMS is still produced and sold? So if I code a good SMS game and donate it to pirates, they will publish it and kids in poor Brazilian families will play it?

Excellent!

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Neat! SMS is still produced and sold? So if I code a good SMS game and donate it to pirates, they will publish it and kids in poor Brazilian families will play it? Excellent!

Well, I think the only way for you to publish a SMS game is producing it alone or with a team, but at own, show it to Tec Toy and pray for that they think it is worth. 'Cause they themselves don't produce any more new games for SMS, only take old good forgotten games and re-publish it. Tec Toy only produces few new games for Mega Drive.

The pirate alternative, I think there is no pirates that distributes SMS games. I myself that own a SMS with 23 cartridges (bought sms in 1988) never ever saw a single sms pirate cartridge here in Brazil.