Any collectors of MSX or X68000?

[Arkhan]

yes theyre costly, and also foreign to the Eurofolk at msx.org

when the thing was current, it wasn't even a hotseller because the usefulness of it wasn't really enough to make it worth replacing what people already had. Its still the case now. Everything is fine without it and 500+$ for a Turbo R isn't really worth it just to speed up a few games.

Itd be like paying 500$ to have an NES hacked up to work faster so Contra and crap dont slow down sometimes.


with all that in mind though, the Turbo R still kicks the piss out of all the other machines. Amiga's got nothin' on MSX! :)

[TheRogue]

It does kick the piss out of all the other machines. It's a wonderful machine. I love it. It's pretty on top of it all ROFL. I have fallen in love with my X68000 XVI though. Now that's a sexy machine.

[Arkhan]

I've always been more partial to the MSX, probably because im a sucker for digital-comic games.

and Fray.

[TheRogue]

I've always been more partial to the MSX, probably because im a sucker for digital-comic games.

and Fray.

I'm a fan of digital novels too, but there's not too many in English on the MSX. Can you recommend any?

[AB Positive]

This thread went from me being curious, to being entirely informational, to now making me jealous because I'm broke.


But now I know - if I can get ahold of a MSX2 or a X68000 I definitely should do so.

[Breetai]

i lucked out on my MSX2 and found one CIB by a NA seller on the PCEnigneFX forums but that was the only MSX i've seen on a forum and havn't seen one for sale sinceI'll be selling mine soon, but it's just an MSX1. Not too expensive... except for that pesky shipping!!!

[TheRogue]

You obviously don't frequent the msx.org forums, as there are always many MSXen for sale on that forum. I got my Turbo-R from there.

[danielscheil]

Great topic !

I collect X68000 / MSX / FM Towns stuff for around 2 years now;
http://img24.imageshack.us/img24/6784/bild0261c.jpg
My modell is a XVI, it was around 400 euros (including monitor + seamail shipping). FM Towns is a UX with build in 9" multisync monitor, i love this little machine. (If it is to small, you can connect it to a LCD TV via VGA).

I also have a X68000 Expert but the Video board seems to be broken, it outputs only garbage :-( If someone has a broken Expert for sale please PM me ! My MSX is a Panasonic WSX MSX 2+ and it is a very great machine; game like Space Manbow Gradius II + III and Metal Gear make it worth to buy one.

If someone here is seriously interested in FM Towns gaming please do not buy a marty ! Some games run to slow on it and the video output is horrible. (And a few games do NOT run on it) You can have a loose FM Towns PC shipped for the price of a boxed marty @ yahoo.jp. ^_^

Pictures of my FM Towns connected via VGA to a 26" LCD TV;
http://img147.imageshack.us/img147/5775/dsci0152.jpg
http://img147.imageshack.us/img147/4131/dsci0154.jpg

Sorry for my englisch !

[Arkhan]

I'm a fan of digital novels too, but there's not too many in English on the MSX. Can you recommend any?

no :( except snatcher.

It helps to be able to read the japanese >_<


I'll be selling mine soon, but it's just an MSX1. Not too expensive... except for that pesky shipping!!!

What model? O_o




But now I know - if I can get ahold of a MSX2 or a X68000 I definitely should do so

You can get a 8250 from Bas www.bas-ditta.info for 45 EUR + shipping. It aint a bad idea.

[TheRogue]

Well the X68k monitor arrived today, but there's an issue with it. The power light won't come on and you can hear arcing electricity inside the case. You can hear part of it power up, so I think there is a cold solder joint somewhere, the tube comes on but the actual image processor doesn't seem to receive power. I'm taking it to Monitor King tomorrow, they quoted me roughly $70.00 Canadian dollars to fix it. *sigh* one more day with out an X68k

[danielscheil]

Good luck with your monitor, i hope they can fix it !

[TheRogue]

Well still waiting for my monitor to get fixed, but for now I have it set up on my LCD monitor with a 15KHz-31KHz converter for the software that runs in 15KHz mode. It works excellent. All that extra memory is a huge life saver. Lets me run all sorts of wonderful things. I'll post some pics of it running shorty!

[Ed Oscuro]

Rogue, I've got a non-functioning X68000 monitor around here. You say this place quoted you $70 CAD to get fixed? What was their fee to diagnose the problem?

It's an interesting coincidence because today I've been asking around about a problem with a regular PC monitor that I wanted to get working (that has this problem - pic (http://img687.imageshack.us/img687/1865/dellp992problem.jpg)).


I collect X68000 / MSX / FM Towns stuff for around 2 years now;
Yeah, you've been busy. Nice setup, although I've not got the space to dedicate to a bookcase like that - I also like to keep my rares out of the light. It's also a bit too space-wasting for my liking. 7 to 10 * 14 = that's a lot of stuff. Last time I checked I had around 50 X68000 titles, and it only got more cluttered from there. Still got a couple X68000 games I need to find. MSX I'm more or less done with, I never cared for Laydock et c. and just want to pick up the original Aleste and maybe some of the Konami titles (except they're expensive).

[an_turtar]

My X68000 monitor also needed to be fixed just after I got it, so my wife took it to an old classmate. Anyway, he laughed when he saw it and said it should be thrown away. In the end he fixed it for 3000 yen. The only thing was that he could only test it as a television, he didn't know if it would work with a computer attached. He fixed it up perfectly, didn't take too long either.

So, it's likely that you may get strange looks when asking about such an old monitor, but it still works just like a normal television, so maybe use that approach.

[danielscheil]

Well still waiting for my monitor to get fixed, but for now I have it set up on my LCD monitor with a 15KHz-31KHz converter for the software that runs in 15KHz mode.
W O W !

More infos please ! ^_^

[TheRogue]

More info about what? The 15KHz-31KHz converter? Sure. It's called an Ambery CGA-To-VGA converter. It's not as good as something like the xRGB, but it gets the job done. You can find more information about it here. http://www.ambery.com/rgbcgatovgac.html. It also acts as a YPbPr to VGA converter. I will post pictures for you guys of it in action if you want. I tried it with one or 2 other computers when I first got it, and it's performance was way below satisfactory. I honestly thought it was going to be a write-off until I tried it on the X68k. The only thing is on certain screens you can see very faint vertical bars on the screen. It's not even noticeable unless you look for it thought. By the way, don't let the name fool you, it doesn't actually work on CGA (digital RGB), so be aware of that.

[Ed Oscuro]

NICE. Any lag noticable? Take it you had to splice up a custom cable?

The thing about the XRGB2 is that I think the designers were smoking something bad; there's an OUTPUT for X68000 monitors, but no INPUT. What the hell? Anyway, I will definitely be checking into that :D

[Ed Oscuro]

I've always been more partial to the MSX, probably because im a sucker for digital-comic games.

and Fray.

I've always been more partial to the MSX, probably because im a sucker for digital-comic games.
See, that's what slowdown will do to you. *Cheapshot* :-D

[TheRogue]

The converter uses the VGA Pin-out on both sides. What I did was took an extra commodore 23 pin to 15 pin converter, cut the extra pins off the 23 pin connector and rewired the port to the correct pin-out. Not the most direct solution, but it was the middle of the night, I was out of female 15 pin connectors, and didn't want to wait. Keep in mind I'm not plugging this directly into the X68000 but rather into one end of an X68000 monitor cable. It works quite well. Also, there is no noticeable lag with the image, It's actually quite impressive.

[Arkhan]

See, that's what slowdown will do to you. *Cheapshot* :-D

Im not sure I follow you on this one, at all lol.

[Tupin]

I just ordered an MSX2 online with 14 games for $120. It's a Sony model, an HB-F1 II. Thankfully, it's Japanese so I don't need to worry about voltage or video output. Can't wait to get it, and after reading this thread, the MSX looks even more awesome. :D

[Breetai]

What model? O_o
Sanyo MPC-10. It's not in perfect condition, though. I'm honestly not sure of what prices on these things usually are. I put it as a lot with a 5 games, a memory cartridge (?) and a demo cart for $60. The thread is HERE (http://www.digitpress.com/forum/showthread.php?t=138643).
Do you think that's a decent deal?

[Arkhan]

I just ordered an MSX2 online with 14 games for $120. It's a Sony model, an HB-F1 II. Thankfully, it's Japanese so I don't need to worry about voltage or video output. Can't wait to get it, and after reading this thread, the MSX looks even more awesome. :D

Got it from rising stuff didn't ya? :)


As for that Sanyo model, 60$ aint bad. The games are pretty cool ones too at least.

[mb7241]

I'd love to get me an MSX2 or MSX2+ with floppy drives...I've a copy of Final Fantasy that I'd like to try and play... Outside of that, the only MSX stuff I want is the two Dragon Quest games...

[Breetai]

Got it from rising stuff didn't ya? :)


As for that Sanyo model, 60$ aint bad. The games are pretty cool ones too at least.Great! I'm not really a bit MSX expert other than what's on my emulator and the few games I've got here. To be honest, I'd love to get into it more but I'm trying to keep my collection under control and that means I'm selling my MSX.

[Arkhan]

Great! I'm not really a bit MSX expert other than what's on my emulator and the few games I've got here. To be honest, I'd love to get into it more but I'm trying to keep my collection under control and that means I'm selling my MSX.

yeah. Its just a shame that the MSX1 in general aint too sought out other than by collectors. They're kind of underpowered since you can find an MSX2 and have a floppy drive and backwards compatibility..

[Soviet Conscript]

Sanyo MPC-10. It's not in perfect condition, though. I'm honestly not sure of what prices on these things usually are. I put it as a lot with a 5 games, a memory cartridge (?) and a demo cart for $60. The thread is HERE (http://www.digitpress.com/forum/showthread.php?t=138643).
Do you think that's a decent deal?

i think thats a fair price for that bundle

[Tupin]

Got it from rising stuff didn't ya? :)


As for that Sanyo model, 60$ aint bad. The games are pretty cool ones too at least.
Yes, I did. Better I get it from them than from some eBay seller I've never dealt with. :)

[danielscheil]

Great news for x68k gamers;

Nemesis 90 Kai is fully playable from HD !
Just copy both discs in the same directory and start the game via "autoexec" not via neme.x

TADA no need to worry about broken discs or drives ^_^

If someone has problems connecting a HD or Mo Drive to a x68k follow this guide;
http://www4.ocn.ne.jp/~debiddo/hdd.htm

And if it does not work (in my case it was different cause i use a XV modell) just ask

[danielscheil]

Finally arrived;

http://img651.imageshack.us/img651/1844/bild0001.jpg
http://img651.imageshack.us/img651/2729/bild0002.jpg http://img651.imageshack.us/img651/8434/bild0003.jpg
LCD is fully multisync, works with X68000, PC98 and FMTowns
http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/849/bild0004g.jpg

:-)

[Arasoi]

That Epson LCD is nice, good picture quality and looks like a convenient space saver too. Whats it's model #? I think I might look for one to permatate for my vertical arcade pcbs.

[danielscheil]

Believe me, you do not want to play your pcbs on this monitor !
It has around 12" and the pictures are taken from a paused game.
It is not really good when things are moving around.

But it is still a true alternative for old x68k and FMT Monitors.
Games like Bubble Bobble and Sim City look great on it

I will make a short video tomorrow and give you the model number.

sorry for my englisch ! ^_^

[danielscheil]

The german FAQs for FM Towns, MSX and X68k are now a little bit bigger, i also uploadet pictures of every game i own (x68k/fmt/msx) so if you want to see boxes and manuals visit my page. (no adds or something there, just infos) My englisch is still not good enough to translate the FAQs but if you may have specific questions, you can ask me via PM.

http://www.japan-retro.de/

[danielscheil]

command.x and nemesis 90 kai booting from external mo drive
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnXWQvDEGZk

same with fm towns
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PsX7LvhoUDQ

[danielscheil]

Hey there;

If you are stilll playing with FMTowns, x68000 or PC98 computers, join the facebook groups x68000 club, pc98 club or FMTowns club. I really hate facebook but these groups are the only places where you can get quick help and answers from a "large" community. Unfortunately the most people in forums focus on emulators and not on the real hardware !

When you have other questions around these three computers, you can still ask me here. I am very active rightnow and writing a few new guides in german. My english is not the best but to answer questions its enough. I have configured HDDs on every system this year and most of my PC98 games run from there. Also a few x68000 games are able to boot from HDD without using the DD´s and FM Towns HDDs speed up loading times very much.

Japanese computer gamers unite ! ^_^