ASCII lists the 3 rarest MSX machines

ASCII lists the 3 rarest MSX machines

by snout on 28-03-2014, 13:17
Topic: Media
Languages:

Celebrating the 30th anniversary of MSX, ASCII published a series of articles about our favorite 8bit computer. Some of them are quite an interesting read, and although this is quite an old one we feel it's worth reporting about.

First, ASCII mentions the General Paxon PCT-50, an MSX computer integrated in TV. Matching joysticks and keyboard were optional - of course. Thanks to the quality of its dedicated RGB output this computer was very popular for taking screen shots to be used in magazines.

Second, the Mitsubishi ML-T2SH - an MSX computer with an integrated phone/modem, Kanji ROM and full-fledged word processing software "MSX Write", this machine targeted the business-users of the pre-internet era. In fact, it was marketed to fathers who felt personal computers were too complex or expensive. According to the article, the deal breaker was the capability to do stock trading without the intervention of a business manager or security firm, directly on the computer. Although commissions were pretty steep, this concept was quite ahead of its time.

Third and arguably the most unknown MSX computer is the Daisen Sangyo MX-2021, an MSX2 computer designed specifically for Factory Automation. Coming in a ruggid white box, a set with 3 cartridge slots, FDD, keyboard and mouse would set you back a mere 150,000 yen at the time. The three cartridge slots allowed for useful extensions such as RAMdisks for timing critical operations or control sensors.

So there you have it. Online stock trading, the ultimate screen-shot setup and factory automation - all in a days work for MSX in the 1980s. Makes one wonder where these MX-2021's were all being used, doesn't it?

Relevant link: ASCII lists the rarest MSX machines

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  • ASCII lists the 3 rarest MSX machines
  • ASCII lists the 3 rarest MSX machines
  • ASCII lists the 3 rarest MSX machines

Comments (26)

By hbarcellos

Hero (662)

hbarcellos's picture

28-03-2014, 14:15

well, the plan, was what we knew (at least until 2007) as PC...

By NYYRIKKI

Enlighted (6236)

NYYRIKKI's picture

28-03-2014, 15:35

Is there anyone here, who actually owns any of these?

By Bothman

Champion (500)

Bothman's picture

28-03-2014, 15:48

Marvellous the red one! XD

By snout

Ascended (15187)

snout's picture

28-03-2014, 16:57

@nyyrikki according to ASCII you must be some sort of God if you actually own an MX-2021, so euhm...

By hbarcellos

Hero (662)

hbarcellos's picture

28-03-2014, 18:50

are those roms dumped?

By ray2day

Paladin (780)

ray2day's picture

28-03-2014, 22:26

Doesn't MSX holder have/own a Mitsubishi ML-T2SH? I think I have seen such MSX one before complete with phone in Mariënberg. Or did I dream about it... oO

By switch

Resident (55)

switch's picture

29-03-2014, 22:33

It must be somewhere. I"ll have a look tomorrow.

By meits

Scribe (6606)

meits's picture

30-03-2014, 00:22

snout wrote:

@nyyrikki according to ASCII you must be some sort of God if you actually own an MX-2021, so euhm...

That'd be an iferior god... I've better MSXes for sure Big smile

By switch

Resident (55)

switch's picture

30-03-2014, 12:40

Didn""t know god had an ebay account...

By switch

Resident (55)

switch's picture

30-03-2014, 13:07

or similar

By wernerkai

Champion (357)

wernerkai's picture

16-04-2014, 04:33

We saw one ML-T2SH in MSX Jau' 2006:

MSX JAU 2006 pictures

2 Pictures by Werner Kai (me):

By Manuel

Ascended (20029)

Manuel's picture

16-04-2014, 09:49

Who owns the machine? Would be nice to have more info about it (especially about the internals).

By enribar

Paragon (1248)

enribar's picture

16-04-2014, 14:21

An Italian guy owns this machine, too.
But unfortunately without the phone...

By Manuel

Ascended (20029)

Manuel's picture

16-04-2014, 18:29

Still very interesting to get more to know about the internals! Don't need a phone for that.

By JohnHassink

Ambassador (5700)

JohnHassink's picture

16-04-2014, 18:54

Anyway, having the cursor keys way up there seems somewhat impractical.

By wernerkai

Champion (357)

wernerkai's picture

16-04-2014, 20:07

The owner is fractal2000. I have the model ML-TS2, without the phone set. I guess he also never tested the MSX due the lack of Power Supply. Does anybody know about the pinout/voltages of the power supply for these MSX's ? Though, I guess is the same of FS-A1 and HB-F1...

By Manuel

Ascended (20029)

Manuel's picture

16-04-2014, 20:38

John: it's not very different than Sony 500/700/900,

werner: the ML-TS2 is also very interesting to examine! If you ahve the means to connect a disk drive to it, please help to run some test and dump programs!

By msxholder

Champion (399)

msxholder's picture

17-04-2014, 00:20

If swich says I have to look she means i've got one some where such a msx
And raytoday your right you have seen it in Marienberg
If one room is burned out an whole lot of serial numbers are lost
The voltage of power supply is diff so be carefull
It's not equal of panasonic fs-a1

By wernerkai

Champion (357)

wernerkai's picture

17-04-2014, 03:42

Thank you for the information. I will go slow and easy with this....

By Manuel

Ascended (20029)

Manuel's picture

17-04-2014, 11:10

Gosh, I should plan a visit to Amsterdam some time.

By wernerkai

Champion (357)

wernerkai's picture

18-04-2014, 17:21

For more information about Mitsubishi ML-TS2, please switch to this topic:

I think the MSX1 ISA board of SVI838 is very rare...

By msxholder

Champion (399)

msxholder's picture

19-04-2014, 22:34

I Think i saw it in Amsterdam

By wernerkai

Champion (357)

wernerkai's picture

30-04-2014, 04:53

Hello folks,

I found some pictures of that MSX on ISA board:

link to picture 1

link to picture 2

link to picture 3

It's just a "Philips Thuiscomputer Club MSX2PC ISA card", presented (offline) at Jau 2000 MSX meeting:

link to picture 1

link to picture 2

link to picture 3

It seems that the SVI-838 has the MSX2 VDP and VRAM (and maybe the rest of MSX) on main board:

Picture of SVI-838 MB

And the SVI-811 must be just an slot adapter to plug MSX cartridges.

Anyway, if they were considered "MSX", I think this ISA card and the SVI-838 are rarest than the Paxon and Mitsubishi, and Captain NTT which I also consider rare...

By wernerkai

Champion (357)

wernerkai's picture

20-05-2014, 05:25

Hey, and what about this MSX "compatible" without the MSX Logo/brand:

Article in Spanish

Topic in Forum

Another Topic in Another forum - NICE PICTURES HERE

Video on Youtube. Sincorp SBX box is shown at 5:54

Only about 100 were made/sold.

By albs_br

Hero (529)

albs_br's picture

22-10-2020, 17:27

I bet the AUCNET NIA-2001 is even more rare than these guys.

By gdx

Enlighted (6792)

gdx's picture

23-10-2020, 13:01

This computer is not an official MSX. It's hard to know witch MSXs are the rarest. There are several of them. The Sanyo MPC-2 with 3 slots for example.

https://www.msx.org/wiki/Sanyo_MPC-2

My MSX profile