Introduction

SMD (Marten Westerhof) got introduced to MSX in the early 90s because W76 and Meits had an MSX. He liked it, so he bought a Philips vg8235. This introduction opened a large can of worms. SMD and hardware were about to become sworn enemies (see trivia).

It would take more than a decade until SMD joined Near Dark with assembly coding. His first product was Happy 10th anyversary Soepfiskje. Furthermore SMD is known for his Runit tool, which made him famous.

SMD maintains the Near Dark website.

Credits

as coder

• Happy 10th anniversary Soepfiskje
• MBMIDI (an MBWAVE port which works with the MIDI interface of the NMS1205 and turbo R GT)
• Runit

Trivia (or what went wrong)

• The first MSX (8235) first got a double sided diskdrive, quickly followed by a new double sided diskdrive because the first one died soon. Next he tried to build this 8235 into a Tulip XT desktop case. RIP 8235
• The next MSX was an NMS8250 bought from .arj. This machine seemed to have memory problems and a 6MHz expansion with a broken switch. W76 urged him replace this with a Bravilor coffee machine switch (2x3cm). After trying to build in 128kB RAM extra, he myseriously damaged copperwires on the mainboard underneeth the RAM chips he never popped out. This project was doomed, so he sold the dead remains to Chip.
• Another NMS8250 got recruted. Putting in a second disk drive was not the problem. The upgrade to 256kB was the headshot for this machine.
• Number four was another vg8235 which was still alive when he sold it.
• Now the big guns were bought. A Sony HB-F700P. Since Meits had 192kB VRAM, he also wanted this. He forgot to solder the RAM chips, which resulted in a big mess on screen. After soldering the RAM chips firmly in place, the problem was over. The implementation of a second fast diskROM was the next project. Since he heard that Meits' Sony had the info misprinted on his mainboard under the basic- and diskROM, he thought that was the case at his Sony as well. Little did he know that his mainboard wasn't misprinted. He put the fast diskROM on top of the basicROM and made it switchable. He thought he had two switchable diskROMs now, just like Meits. It turned out he could boot the computer in original Sony mode, or without basic, but with two different diskROMs. This got fixed and nothing died. Detail: All this was done with a 100WATT solder gun. Nowadays his computers seem solid.
• The first Telcom modem he bought was just plain broken. The second could only dial one phone number. This person was no MSXer, had no BBS and lived on Ameland (Netherlands).
• The Digital KC slot expander he bought for 200 guilders (~ € 90,-) turned out to be a nothing more than a very professional looking slot splitter.
• After buying a 80MB harddisk with missing pins, he replaced the pins and built it into a medicine cabinet. The PSU was taken from a dead NMS8250. While screwing everyting firmly in place, he destroyed the plastic ribbon cable on the harddisk. This got fixed. After three format sessions the disk was accessible, though only on 3.5MHz and DOS2.20 exclusively. A few days later his Novaxis SCSI interface died.

This category currently contains no pages or media.