building a MSX machine from components

By st1mpy

Paladin (900)

st1mpy's picture

14-10-2010, 20:16

Has anyone managed to make a MSX compatible computer from parts? (Actual CPU, VDP, ram. Some modern equivalent parts might be needed. A little like the one chip MSX FPGA implementation, but more like a kit computer built from physical parts.)

There is this book titled "Apple I Replica Creation, back to the garage" (Syngress, Tom Owad) The book goes through the design and building and using an Apple I replica, and I think some of you might find it very interesting read. It would be very cool to see something like this made for MSX.

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By RetroTechie

Paragon (1563)

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14-10-2010, 21:21

Well it has been done, but IMHO the MSX system is a little bit too complex to build from discrete components yourself. Without PCB tracks, using loose wires to connect everything, that is. And designing & producing a circuit board the size of an MSX mainboard is nearly impossible for a hobbyist.

Modern programmable logic makes these things more feasible, but such a part then (roughly) takes the place of an MSX engine. Read: a part with 100+ closely spaced pins to wire up (and adapter boards hard / nowhere to be found). Much easier to pick a machine that comes closest to what you'd like, and extend / modify until you have what you want.

Btw: any other examples of "MSX built from scratch" known, or is the one linked above the only one? :-?

By syn

Prophet (2113)

syn's picture

14-10-2010, 22:40

from what I read the CIEL msx2+ turbo (by Ademir Carchano) existed as a working msx 2+ compatible computer.. but dont know how many of those were made
http://www.mccw.hetlab.tk/93/ciel/en.html

I think in this era a msx from full parts/components is a bit too much effort for not much, it would be a lot easier to have a simple fpga core with 1 or 2 loose chips for the things that dont have fpga implementation yet (like the msx audio). for example this thing http://www.retroleum.co.uk/ has fpga + "real" z80.

By Sd-Snatcher

Hero (582)

Sd-Snatcher's picture

15-10-2010, 00:17

By Lord_Zett

Paladin (807)

Lord_Zett's picture

15-10-2010, 11:52

http://www.msxposse.com/site/gallery/displayimage.php?pid=2523&fullsize=1

look the real thing all is posible. a euro msx 2+

By Eugeny_Brychkov

Paragon (1232)

Eugeny_Brychkov's picture

16-10-2010, 08:52

Asuka, please email me.