The platform's creators - particularly ASCII's Kazuhiko Nishi - based their design around a fairly obscure PC called the Spectravision SV-238, which debuted at roughly the same time as the MSX standard and (with a little rejiggering) could be made to work with MSX software. and America's would-be giant Microsoft, the MSX was a reference point, a standardized hardware spec that any manufacturer could build. A collaboration between Japan's ASCII Corp. Other computers had attempted to overcome one problem or the other, but MSX challenged both. It would be inexpensive, roughly a third of the price of the PC80, and it would nip the incompatibility issue in the bud by promoting a single, open, industry-wide standard hardware spec. Debuting in the summer of 1983, the MSX attempted to conquer the market by overcoming the shortcomings of other computers. Worse, they were simply standouts in an ocean of competing, incompatible standards.Įnter the MSX. Yet these machines commanded high prices the Apple II sold for $1200 (roughly $2800 adjusted for inflation) while the NEC PC-8001 and its descendants were even more expensive. Over in Japan, NEC had done well with its own platform specific to that market's needs (in particular, high-resolution graphics capable of displaying intricate Japanese text). In the late '70s and early '80s, people were still trying to wrap their heads around the entire concept of actually owning a computer.Īpple had made quite a breakthrough in 1977 with the Apple II, the first truly consumer-oriented microcomputer. Look back 30 years, however, and that wasn't the case at all. We take PCs for granted, a basic part of first-world life on par with television, automobiles, and indoor plumbing. In today's world, the personal computer has become a thing of ubiquity.
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