msx:

MSX BASIC

Keywords

The MSX platform standard anedoctally takes its name from "MicroSoft eXtended", and was developed by a Japanese subsidiary of Microsoft called ASCII in 1983, and its disk formats can be used with the IBM-PC. It was as Microsoft as an 8-bit computer might get, and the powerful MSX BASIC is arguably the last evolution of the Microsoft BASIC-80 on its original processors.

MSX BASIC was comprehensive enough to take advantage of much of the platform features, but also suffered from its limitations — the major one, probably, the already outdated and weak video chip, the Texas Instruments' TMS9918 released in 1979. Each new version of the standard had an extension of the original BASIC, but also had less machines following it.

Where it is/was used

Because MSX was a standard, a number of manufacturers adopted it for many machines, so it is easy to miss some in such a list:

  • Gradiente Expert (Brazil)
  • Sharp/Epcom HOTBIT (Brazil)

Noteworthy characteristics

Environment and usage

Extensions

The Disk Basic extension was bundled with every cartridge connector for external disk drives, and incorporated into ROM for machines with internal drives.

Curiosities

Influenced by

  • Microsoft GW-BASIC - not a big surprise: both BASICs wre released and developed at the same time.

Influence for

Versions and successors

The BASIC of the original specification, known as MSX 1 (which this page is based on), was also updated along each successive version of the standard, and such versions were largely backwards compatible:

References

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