can the Philips VG-8020 run metal gear 2?

Supporter (8)

25-12-2020, 12:03

i am a MSX newbie who is thinking about buying a Philips VG-8020, but since its a MSX1, does that mean it can't run metal gear 2 even with a flash cart? because metal gear 2 required 120kb of VRAM which the VG-8020 does not have?

thanks for letting me know

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Par TheKid

Paragon (1238)

25-12-2020, 12:24

Hi blueagent, metal gear is a MSX 2 game so it won't work on a msx 1 computer.

Par blueagent

Supporter (8)

25-12-2020, 15:51

ah i see, i was afraid that was the case after all, thanks for clearing this up for me.

in all honesty though, the design of the Philips VG-8020 is quite beautiful actually, it just looked so sleek and modern even after so many years, such is the beauty of MSX computers.

Par Briqunullus

Hero (527)

25-12-2020, 16:29

Maybe a Philips NMS 8220 is something for you then?

Par Rataplan

Champion (270)

25-12-2020, 16:38

My parents had a NMS8250 but we had a 8220 with tape only. Still it was an MSX2 with 128K. I remember I copied Vampire Killer and Metal Gear to tape. After loading for half an hour or so, we got Vampire Killer to run, but Metal Gear was a crime as the 128KB cracked version crashed a lot in the elevator sections... Reloading the game from tape was not a small feat

Par Briqunullus

Hero (527)

25-12-2020, 21:39

The 8220 only has 64K of RAM, you can't just tape load megaroms into that, can you? Or was it modded in any way?

@blueagent, nowadays the limited memory and lack of a diskdrive don't matter as much, just put a Carnivore 2 or a Megaflashrom SCC+ 512K into it and play any game (MSX1 or MSX2) you want.

Par Rataplan

Champion (270)

25-12-2020, 22:25

Ours had 128KB, but we bought it second hand. We didn't mod it ourselves but if the original machine had 64K it must have had an internal memory upgrade. It also had Designer+ built in too. Thinking of it we also loaded Bubble Bobble from tape, the MSX2 version that is. The version that crashed at level 42 I think that needs 128KB RAM as well. Not many original games back in the day

Par blueagent

Supporter (8)

26-12-2020, 02:17

Briqunullus wrote:

@blueagent, nowadays the limited memory and lack of a diskdrive don't matter as much, just put a Carnivore 2 or a Megaflashrom SCC+ 512K into it and play any game (MSX1 or MSX2) you want.

ok so a Carnivore 2 or a Megaflashrom SCC+ 512K can play metal gear 2 even on a MSX1 machine like the Philips VG-8020 right?

Par thegeps

Paragon (1031)

26-12-2020, 02:53

Nope. To run a msx2 game you need a msx2 or higher (2+ or TurboR). Carnivore2 or mfr scc+512 add RAM, so if you have a nms 8220 msx2, wich have only 64KB of RAM, you can play metal gear 2

Par Briqunullus

Hero (527)

26-12-2020, 09:12

Exactly what thegeps says. I only suggested the 8220 because it looks the same as the 8020. Internally they are different machines, in particular the video chip.

Par TheKid

Paragon (1238)

26-12-2020, 10:52

My first msx was a vg 8020 and it was a wonderfull machine. And I remember the long loading times. Later they made a vg 8020/2 which always needed you to type poke -1,170 to start a game. So I would suggest to search for the first generation vg 8020. BUT, if you want to play msx 2 games, I would recommend my first msx 2, the nms 8245, now that is one slick design.