Hello everyone,

I am about to buy a Panasonic FS-A1FX, but before I have a questiona bout it:

Does it have FM sound chip included? Cause I have been looking on some sources for this info, but some say it does, some say it doesn`t. And the vendor says it does.

Also I saw some sources saying that FS-A1 WSX has 128KB RAM, and others saying that it has in true 64KB RAM.

Thanks.

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Hello everyone, I am about to buy a Panasonic FS-A1FX, but before I have a questiona bout it: Does it have FM sound chip included? Cause I have been looking on some sources for this info, but some say it does, some say it doesn`t. And the vendor says it does. Also I saw some sources saying that FS-A1 WSX has 128KB RAM, and others saying that it has in true 64KB RAM. Thanks.

A1 WSX has 64 RAM and 128VRAM by default. RAM could be easily upgraded to 128, 256 or 512KBytes, and VRAM - to 192KB, but it's not very useful.

You can get all the info on 512KB upgrade from a recend thread in this forum - "RAM upgrade kit"

The WSX and the WX do have MSX-MUSIC. I *think* the FX does not. I'm not entirely sure though. I would ask the vendor if he's 100% sure about this...

I think FX doesn't have MSX-MUSIC:

http://www.faq.msxnet.org/msx2p.html

FX doesn't have MSX-MUSIC, and WSX doesn't have a cassette port.
I don't know if WX and FX have a cassette port...

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I don't know if WX and FX have a cassette port...

WX and FX do have cassette port, but don't have S-Video out (which is irrelevant outside North America)

Why would that be irrelevant outside north america?

Because Europe and Asia have SCART, which is better then S-Video

Well, my turboR is connected to my RGB monitor, but I sure am glad it has an S-video out so I can additionally connect it to my VCR or TV!

Why not use SCART? True RGB is far better then Chroma + Lumina (i.e. S-Video)

Look at this source:
http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?st=1&c=626

It says that FX dont have FM-PAC bios, but have FM chip... Weird???

Here in Brazil we use S-Video also. But the most common yet is RCA. Newest TVs are comming with composite, but they are so expensive that it is better wait for HDTV.

AFAIK RCA=Composite.
You probably mean Component

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Look at this source: http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?st=1&c=626 It says that FX dont have FM-PAC bios, but have FM chip... Weird???

The part in which it talks about the FM chip is purely a talk about MSX2+ specifications over MSX2. It's a common misconception that MSX-MUSIC was part of the MSX2+ spec, because in fact it's an OPTIONAL part (just like MSX-AUDIO was optional in the MSX2 spec).

So you can be sure there is NO FM-Chip in the A1FX.

If there is no FM chip in this model, would it then be able to build it in as an internal expantion? This question due to the fact that the Panasonic A1-WX has the FM-Chip.
(with a bit of luck the mainboard is the same but due to budget the FM-chip was only reserved for the more expencive models)

-Q

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If there is no FM chip in this model, would it then be able to build it in as an internal expantion?

What I say is mostly speculation. Let the gurus correct me if I lie.

You can hook-up chip easy enough, it's i/o based, so all you need is a port dechiphrator. But I suspect many games detect FM-PAC by bios, and so without bios games only use PSG

And I suspect that cost of FX + cost of FM-PAC chip + TTL ICs to dechipher port i/o will be more then the cost of WX or WSX.

You can always stick FM-PAC or clones in slot or slot-expander. I don't think there are many good games that use FM-PAC. SCC is way more important to have.