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Free vintage computer with a haircut

hey now, that's awesome! looks perfect. i've never owned any MSX machines so i know next to nothing about them, but it's interesting.
 
In the US MSX never came around, but the computer magazines did advertise the Spectravideo with the red joystick built in (318 model) quite a bit. Quite a few console games started out on the MSX machines I think.
 
In the USA we got the SVI-318 and -328, which were essentially early prototypes of the MSX standard. Spectravideo advertised the SVI-328 as being MSX compatible, but there were enough differences in the hardware that it wouldn't run most MSX software. As far as I can tell, the company left the U.S. market before the SVI-728 (which was fully MSX compatible) was sold here.

An interesting side note is that Commodore's Jack Tramiel was always scared of Japanese computers taking over the U.S. marketplace, and the threat of the new MSX standard prompted him to create the Commodore Plus/4, which had very MSX-like case styling, including the obligatory oversized cursor key diamond. Of course as it turns out, the MSX machines never materialized in the USA, the Plus/4 turned out to be a flop, and Tramiel soon left Commodore (or was kicked out, depending on who you believe).
 
Hm, I always thought Spectravideo was a part-US, part-Hong Kong company but even if they were nothing would stop them from moving out of the US. As for the Plus/4, there are many different stories going on for which reason the TED series were built. It might be true that Jack Tramiel both wanted an ultra-cheap rubber keyboard machine (Commodore 116) for the European market and a somewhat more stylish machine (Plus/4) for the US market to counter the MSX. For that matter, the distribution of MSX brands in Europe was a bit uneven as well, in some countries it took off fairly big while in others it was almost unheard of.
 
Eek... if my fiance reads this article I'm surely doomed for more frequent haircuts! Noooo!! .. although.. if they had a vintage computer.. hm. Pretty awesome find. Have you seen much in the MSX software prices around there? I've looked here in the US and they're usually quite expensive and also a lot of imported software cartridges. I haven't found much below $25, I'm not sure about rarity or what drives the market as I see lots of $80-$150 software for whatever reason yet I also find those on craigslist here and there for less or the same price but with a system.
 
No, I've never seen any software for these machines down here. Mind you, I haven't really been looking. I figured out how to get cassette images off the Net to stock up tapes for my Spectravideo 318. It worked well but was rather demoralising as most of the really good ones took more RAM than the 16K user RAM my 318 had on-board. I'm sure those ones I left will run well on this unit!

Tez
 
Tez,

That is how my computer phobic barber got "into" computing - one haircut for a nice about 5 year old Compaq laptop from his customer !

Very nice machine - guy picked it up someplace and replaced the hard drive with a working used one he had and "bingo" - working computer.

Now all business is on the computer - appointments, cancellations, his hobbies, etc.

It sure amazed me when he did this after all our discussions of him so "against" computing.

The new currency - "vintage computers !" I knew we were all on to something big !!!

Enjoy !!!

Frank
 
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