ZX Spectrum 'v' MSX

بواسطة djh1697

Paragon (1736)

27-04-2021, 14:50

Clive Sinclair stated that the spectrum was 2 to 3 times more powerful than the MSX, an interesting, new video, about how it wasn't!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mg8IRQfFkA

بواسطة Grauw

Ascended (10821)

27-04-2021, 14:57

Yes, it’s a nice video! I’m looking forward to part 2.

It’s always strange to see that those UK retro gaming youtubers (of which there are quite a few) are so unfamiliar with MSX. What computer systems were popular in those days really was quite local even within Europe. I mean, on the other hand for me the same thing applies, I’ve heard of but never actually seen a BBC, or know anyone that owned one. Or a Spectrum or CPC for that matter.

بواسطة djh1697

Paragon (1736)

27-04-2021, 15:10

The BBC computer was used in most schools, and the TV station also did a whole TV series about it. There was the Dragon, Oric, Amstrad, Sinclair, Mattel, Tandy TRS-80, Nascom, MGT, and many others. Porting software to MSX was not easy since the programmer had to conform to the BIOS I/O routines.

If you are ever in the UK, there are two excellent places to visit, the National Computer museum in Cambridge, and the smaller, but more hands on experience of the Retro computer museum here in Leicester, which is a 5 min bus trip from my house

بواسطة PingPong

Enlighted (4156)

27-04-2021, 20:28

it is not a problem of being unfamiliar.
This guy was selling a competitor product. Did you expect that he say ' AH ok, msx is far better than my ZX because it has:
- PSG while i have a beeper
- TMS Graphic chip with sprites and tiles and reduced colour clash than ZX
- THE SAME PROCESSOR @ SAME SPEED (So how can be three times powerful is something that should be explained because the CPU is the only source of power in those early '80 machines)

Ovbiously he can only say some negative words, regardless of the fact that msx is better or worse than ZX.

بواسطة Grauw

Ascended (10821)

27-04-2021, 20:46

Maybe you misread my words. I said UK retro gaming youtubers are generally unfamiliar (because MSX did not have a big presence in the UK).

بواسطة Pentarou

Hero (563)

27-04-2021, 21:04

PingPong wrote:

how can be three times powerful

Maybe I'm wrong, but Sinclair's quote from the video says: "2 or 3 times as powerful", not "2 or 3 times more powerful".
But in hindsight should have said "2 out of 3 times is just barely as powerful"

بواسطة The Apeman

Master (252)

27-04-2021, 21:58

I just never realized that Outrun on Spectrum is even worse than on the MSX! (Not talking about the MSX2-version BTW).

بواسطة PingPong

Enlighted (4156)

27-04-2021, 22:50

anyway he is lying about the zx vs msx power.

بواسطة PingPong

Enlighted (4156)

27-04-2021, 22:53

the msx is barely like the spectrum version with PSG sound and some sprites used to give color to main car.
nothing more.
so they are quite similar.
the msx1 version would have been a lot better if they used screen 2 mode like a tiled mode instead of a bitmapped mode as they do on speccy. Despite that the frame rate is very similar even with the so over estimated vdp slow I/O

بواسطة PingPong

Enlighted (4156)

27-04-2021, 22:54

Sorry i've completely misundertood .....

بواسطة Manuel

Ascended (19683)

27-04-2021, 22:56

Someone in the comment thread claims that the Spectrum has a bitmap mode (and the MSX has not). Is that true? Or is the Spectrum similar to screen 1/2 with more limitations?