MSX

Various (Sony, Panasonic, Toshiba, Philips, etc.) · 1983 – 1995

Microsoft and ASCII's open home computer standard created a unified software platform across multiple hardware manufacturers. Dominant in Japan, the Netherlands, and Brazil, MSX was the platform where Hideo Kojima created the original Metal Gear and where Konami produced early versions of Gradius and Castlevania.

MSX was an open hardware and software standard proposed by Microsoft Japan and ASCII Corporation in 1983, intended to create a common platform across competing home computer manufacturers. The specification required a Zilog Z80 CPU, Texas Instruments TMS9918 (or compatible) graphics chip, Microsoft BASIC in ROM, and specific memory mapping — meaning any software meeting the standard would run on any MSX computer. Sony, Panasonic, Toshiba, Philips, Sanyo, and dozens of other manufacturers produced MSX machines, creating a diverse hardware ecosystem around a consistent software base. The platform was most successful in Japan, the Netherlands, and Brazil, where it achieved the kind of market penetration that no single manufacturer's computer could have achieved alone. Konami's MSX software division was among the platform's most prolific and important: Metal Gear (1987), Vampire Killer (1986 — the MSX version of Castlevania), and Gradius were all MSX productions of genuine quality. The MSX2 standard (1985) upgraded graphics to the Yamaha V9938, enabling 512-colour displays. MSX2+ (1988) and MSX Turbo R (1990) extended the standard further, but the platform's relevance waned as the PC-9801 and then DOS/V IBM-compatible computers dominated the Japanese market in the early 1990s.