So I'm fairly new to the MSX scene, but I've managed to aquire a Yamaha CX5M unit that appears to be in good working condition. My problem is that I have no video cable for it. I have the American variation in which the video out port is a 5-pin MIDI-style DIN connector. My NEC Supergrafx console uses the same connector to a composite video out with mono audio, and I tried to test the MSX out with that, but was never able to get a signal on my TV. I initially thought the unit was broken until I found out that the MSX and SuperGrafx have vastly different pinouts. The Supergrafx cable I have now was actually an old Commodore 64 AV cable, but as far as I can tell, the needed cable for my CX5M must be a fairly one-of-a-kind item: not really designed to work with any other sort of system.

I was able to come across an old MIDI cable and solder together an AV cable with the proper connection; my problem is that I don't quite trust my soldering ability and am really leery of trying it out lest I short out my TV, MSX, or both. Does anyone know where I might be able to find a composite video cable for a CX5M? At this point, I'd even be happy to find an RF adaptor.

Thanks!

I can build one for you for the cost of DIN-5 connector, RCA cable and shipping. I'm in Canada and am good with soldering. Mind you CX5M video output quality isn't great. I myself plan to replace all capacitors on motherboard and add CXA1645-based circuit for better composite/S-Video/RGB outputs.

I'm sortof a lo-fi guy when it comes to video - I've got half my gaming collection daisy-chained through RF, and the other half on composite on a 13" TV screen, so I'll have no problems at all with the output of a 20-year old computer. I grew up playing games on the Apple IIe anyways...

I may take you up on the offer for the cable - do you have an estimate as to what the whole cost would run? I'm in Oregon, USA (zip 97520 if that helps). Also, would you take Paypal?

Yeah, paypal is ok. I have to buy connector, but it's cheap, like 1 or 2 bucks. I dunno shipping cost from Canada to US, but don't think it's over 5$. So all in all is about 7$.

Do you have floppy drive for it? I have two FD03 units, both in great condition. Will part with one for 25$. Mind you, it's SD drive, unlike FD05, so only 360K disks with work. I can attach pictures if you want.

Wow, $7 sounds perfect. Send me a PM with your Paypal address and I'll get the payment and my shipping address to you ASAP.

As far as floppy drives go, I'd like to have one, but it seems (unless I'm mistaken) that there's not a whole lot of software on 3.5 disks for the first MSX. I think I'd rather just wait until I got a MSX2. Thanks though!

Google for "msx1mania". Who knows what you'll find?

I guess I didn't realize the wealth of titles available; I was under the impression that most disk based games were MSX2. You said that the drive only handles 360k disks; what was the typical size of a MSX game disk?

Also, I finally worked up the courage to test the AV cable I made, and to my complete surprise it actually works! I just need to put some heat-shrink tubing on it and it will be perfect. So I won't need a cable after all; I hope you haven't bought the connector yet! I think I will however take one of the floppy drives off of your hands. Just give me a day or two to get the money all together.
Thanks!

I'm glad it worked out for you. MSX1Mania is from Brazil, so all disks are 360K. But your computer can't run MSX-DOS, because it only have 32K, and MSX-DOS requires 64K. All Brazilian MSXes are 64K.

Ah, I figured there would be some holdup - with the little internet research I've done, the CX5M doesn't seem to be as much of a gaming machine as some other MSX models are. Now if only they weren't so heavy and therefore costly to ship...

It is very easy to pigback 64K in the Cx5M, Luciano Sturaro did it once due to a failure on his CX5M.

CX5M is a regular Japanese style MSX1 computer. It's complete MSX1 system with 32K ram. You can play any MSX1 cartridge game without any issues. Think King's Valley 2 MSX1 version, Dragon Quest I and II etc. etc.