MSX: I have an MSX-2, two 2+ machines and a Turbo-R. The Turbo-R does not have a cassette port, so obviously you can't load games directly from cassette. Also, many MSX1 games won't work at all even from disk, so I bought Nyyrikki's MSX1 emulator for the Turbo-R, and it works great (search for it on MSX.org). I am looking to sell my machines though, they take up too much room. Anyway, you should be looking for at least an MSX-2, the 2+ is obviously slightly more enhanced.
X68000: The X68030 is not fully compatible with older games, some of them won't run and you need patches for them. However, the X68030 does have a better power supply than the older machines. My XVI has an 030 power supply and it's never been a problem. As was mentioned before, you'll need at least 2MB, and for Super Street Fighter 2, 4MB. Some games run better at higher speeds. The XVI is capable of 16MHz, the 030 of 25MHz. I tested all of my games and these were the results.
These games ran better at 16MHz:
F-15 Strike Eagle II
Hishouzame (slightly better scrolling)
Jack Nicklaus Championship Golf
Mahou Daisakusen
Populous
Populous 2
Populous The Promised Lands
Powermonger
Salamander (a lot better, almost no slowdown)
Sim City
Sim Earth
Star Wars Attack on the Death Star
Super Street Fighter II
Viewpoint
These games ran TOO fast:
Arkanoid Revenge of DOH
D-Return
Full Throttle
Granada
These games exhibited problems:
Dragon Spirit (music messed up)
Fantasy Zone (music messed up)
Gradius (music messed up)
Naious (music messed up)
Nekketsu Koukou Dodgeball Bu (corrupt graphics)
Twinbee (corrupt graphics)
So, a very nice X68000 setup would feature:
2MB RAM, preferably more
Hard Disk drive. Later models used SCSI, so get a later model.
MIDI card. Capcom and Konami games especially have great MIDI music.
Keyboard and Mouse. A lot of people don't have these.
Sinclair Spectrum: I have the 48K, 128K, 128K+2 (built-in cassette player), and 128K+3 (built-in disk drive) models. I've had the 48K model for as long as I can remember, just this year I modded it to give composite video output, and it works perfectly here in Japan. The power supply required for each model is:
48: 9V 1.4A
128: 9V 1.85A
+2: 9V 2.1A
+3: 5V @ 2A, +12V @ 700mA, -12V @ 50mA (special PSU, not like the others). This is the same power supply as used on the +2A/B which were basically +3's with a cassette player. They're black, the original +2 is grey.
So you can run the first three models listed with any 9V PSU (centre negative). I sometimes run my 48K model off my MIDI synth power supply. The full 1.4A is not needed if you don't have any peripherals, my aforementioned synth PSU only supplies 1A, and the machine is fine. Usually though, I run all three models off my +2 power supply. I also have a DivIDE (http://baze.au.com/divide/) and all of my games are on that, so I can load them instantly. For those that don't work from the DivIDE, I still have all my cassettes, but to save them, I load from an iPod. The volume isn't loud enough so I connect the iPod to speakers, and then the speakers to the Spectrum, the speakers' amplification is enough for the games to load.
There are not too many disk games, for a newcomer the +2 might be the best bet, BUT it doesn't have an external casssette port, so no loading from iPod. This IS possible on a +3. For the hardcore collector, an original 48K model is a must, the 128K models are hard to get, and quite expensive. I value mine highly as it's the last real Sinclair machine, before Amstrad.
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