What? A Canon V20. I still use it from time to time.
When ? 1986. March if i remember well.
Why ? My argument was : education. Of course, it became quickly game console.
Where? Bayeux, in normandy. I'm today in Provence. A bit sunnier.

Hey... I just noticed that it was my first post...

I'll introduce myself later. For the ParisGMT people, Good night everybody!

Make love, not war...

Hmm.

When: I don't remember very well but I think it was in 1985. My parents bought a Sony HB75. I used that nice MSX1 machine untill 1992, when I got a new, imported A1GT.

How: I just plugged my MSX in

Why: it is a bit difficult to explain .... MSX machines have a strange magic attraction ... when I saw the first MSX (a Sony HB-55), then I knew that I will had a MSX soon. I was 8 years old so I had to do a hard brain-washing task with my parents. At the end they bought it to me (one year later).

First computer I ever saw was my uncles commodore (it was a model with only 16kb of ram, or less), 16 years ago, and we played the games he programmed himself (or copied from some commodore magazine lists)

15 years ago, for christsmas, my family bought to my brothers and me my loved msx hb-55 with a 16kb RAM expansion . They only bought the computer, withouth tape reader, withouth cartridges (only the ram cartridge)....
My computers knowledge level was, then, 0, so we had the computer but we didn't how to use it.
some months later, we bought a cassete reader... but the games didn't run.... we didn't knew it was because:
a) tape reader volume
b) not enogh ram
c) tape to msx wire was broked.

Also, the ram expansion wasn't detected at first, because the msx slot 1 was defective (we discovered it first time a cartridge game entered in my house,,,, the road fighter that we couldn't play because this problem)

So, the first games I played a lot were giro adventure, giro adventure and..... errr giro adventure. That helicopter game dont needed more than 32 kb of ram (I think) and its graphics were cool, and game was veeeery playable. These years also I discovered that msx games ARE NOT compatible with spectrum 48k platform... by friend and me wanted to interchange games but it wasnt possible. A lot of my friends used other platforms like spectrum, amstrad, and it was difficult to me know another msx freaks.

in 1992, with my own money, I decide to purchase my master system 2, when msx was disapearing from the market)

But, in 1998 or 1997 (i don't remenber it), while I was listening radio, a impressive interview started with "some guys" that organiced msx meetings in barcelona (this year, on that meeting, someone presented a spanish disk version of metalgear 2!!!) they mention a contact telephone and inmediatly I call to them!! I didn't imagine then that msx were still used then....

And then, regular visits to msx users meetings... 3 years later I purchased my 8245 and nowadays, and nowadays I'm really inside msx scene, not as a anonymous user like I was 4 years ago. Now konamiman gets scared allways he see my ugly face and some other people inside msx scene starts to know me.

Two months ago I needed to connect to a irc-aniverse channel to chat with a friend, and then I discovered msxdev and msx channels on aniverse and undernet.... and msx.org website (I already have posted 2 news on frontpage!), and I must mention it allways has been a pleassure to chat with the msx scene elite from europe across irc-hispano, aniverse and undernet msx chanels... now I'm a really irc addict....


And thats the end of my boring msx history!!!

P.D. I forgot to mention something about msx emulators for pc... I used them during lots of years while I wasn't able to buy a msx2 with floppy disk reader. I must mention it because thanks to emulators, I really rejoined msx world, and thanks to them I decided to buy my 8245 msx2

I wonder why people always think of their own stories as boring. I really enjoy reading all these stories about people (re)discovering MSX.

..so how about some more 'this is how I got involved with MSX' stories?

Must be three or four years, I found an SVI-728 at the fleamarket. I had bought a Goldstar FC200 at another fleamarket some years before, but since the seller had put it below two trays filled with LP records, it had been smashed. In the following year, I got two more 728s, but lacked software and documentation. It wasn't until I built a cable for connecting the cassette port to a PC soundcard that I started to enjoy playing Roadfight, Galaga and Xanax. Due to housing constraints, I haven't had the chance to delve deeper into the system, and I don't quite fancy learning Z80 just yet (6502 is much more elegant, IMHO).
Why? The MSX hasn't got ugly graphics, it's the only home computer with lots of Japanese games, and I like old computers. Still, I think that it's got a lot of untapped potential. Instead of working on PC remakes of MSX games, I think people should do MSX remakes of MSX games. Take Xenon, for example. It could be so much better.

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I don't quite fancy learning Z80 just yet (6502 is much more elegant, IMHO).

LOL
That's a term I haven't heard in relation with 6502 before!

I can still remember the good ol' days!

hehehe

My first computer was a Texas Instruments a so called 'TI 99 - 4A'

Hell yeah!

after some time I had my first MSX: a Sanyo MSX 1
(can't remember the type but do remember there was a little switch in the cartridge slot on top (like a reset button, guess it was for preventing putting a cartridge in when the computer was still powered or something...) with an external Sony diskdrive

later on I became a Sony Hit-Bit 700 D (german version), Philips 8245, 8250, 8250. The last computer I bought was a Turbo-R.

Nowadays working with Blue-MSX...

I'm not sure which year it was, but my first MSX was a Spectravideo SVi738 with internal single-sided floppydrive. As far as I know the only MSX1 with a diskdrive. My dad actually had to go to Amsterdam to get one. It was my second computer, I started out on a Sinclair Spectrum 128+ (on which I also programmed my first game - a textadventure which was a bit like Cluedo).

I did some basic stuff on the Spectravideo as well but it was mainly a games machine. Till I got fed up with all the great MSX games I couldn't play on it and sold it, to buy a Sony HB700 after that, which came with an original Metal Gear and Vampire Killer Years later the Sony was traded in for an NMS8280 which I still have. Both it's drives are busted though. The rare times I want to fire up a real MSX computer I use the NMS8255 I bought on a fleamarket a couple of years ago.

I started programming again when I got the HB700 since it was so easy to get nice graphics on the MSX2 screens. I made a few leaders (logo animations) for myself and filtered through the source code of FAC Demo 3 to find out how to use ripped MSX-Game music in my "demo's". Around that time I guess there was this girl in school who told me her brother did that kind of stuff too, and told me I should give him a call. Her brother of course was Koert van Mensvoort who had already formed BCF with Sander Strootman and Dennis Lodewijks (anyone else saw them on TV last week? ). I joined BCF when DiskStation 2 was released in Zandvoort and that's how it all started!

on tv? When? What program? About what?

The good ol' days was when my dad borrowed a computer, which, I guess, was running CP/M and I had just enough knowledge to figure out how to run 'Boter Kaas en Eieren' :-)
A few years later he bought an ZX-81 in Germany. Lots a fun.
In 88 I got my first own computer as a high-school graduation gift: an NMS8250 which I still have.
It came with Radarsoft's "Topografie Europa" (If you don't know where to find a city, just fly yo Russia). The first cracked software I got was 'Livingstone', 'Last Mission' and TurboPascal 3.0'

Hehe.. this brings back memories.. The first touch I made was with an VG8020 (Philips) and I even remember my first game that I played.. Nemesis3! And I was A.M.A.Z.E.D! With all the Atari 2600 things I did this Nemesis 3 made me turn into a MSX lover in an instance.

After my 'first contact' I bought an VG8020 from a friend who wanted to trash his cpu (cauz he bought an Amiga). At some fair I bought my first original catridge (Nemesis3.. why was that? )

After seen SD-Snatcher on an NMS8245 I bought my own NMS8245.. and that's where I first came in touch with ASM, BBS, Harddisk and all the other stuff..

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on tv? When? What program? About what?

Some years ago Koert made a very bad amateur movie starring Sander and Dennis shooting at eachother with plasma rifles. Just a simple movie with some effects added afterwards. (I think it can be found on www.snout.com, not sure). I am guessing they submitted that for the 'Dutch movie week' or something, and NLD3 broadcasted a compilation of all submissions last week, including theirs.

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...to figure out how to run 'Boter Kaas en Eieren' :-)

That would be 'Tic Tac Toe'

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Quote: ...to figure out how to run 'Boter Kaas en Eieren' :-) That would be 'Tic Tac Toe'

Indeed - Thanx! I couldn't remember the proper english name last night