The 11 MSX machines are regional variants of the first MSX generation, they have 3 non-expanded slots, 1 expanded slot, 2 cartridge slots, 1 tape port, 64 Kb RAM, 16 Kb VRAM and generally 2 physical drives. The MSX Brazilian machine has only 1 physical drive.

Besides, the MSX Arabic machine includes a special firmware (see presentation of the Al Alamiah AX-170 machine).

Differences between these machines concern mainly the keyboard, the special characters, the type of floppy drive controller (FDC) and the video frequency :

To get MSX-MUSIC sounds with a MSX1 machine, insert a FM-PAC rom in one cartridge slot by using the normal or the special cartridge menu.

To get MSX-AUDIO sounds with a MSX1 machine, use the Machine editor to add a MSX Audio chip or Y8950 (without addition of a rom), then save the new machine, eventually under a new name.

The insertion of a Panasonic MSX-AUDIO rom in a cartridge slot is only required for applications that use the MSX-AUDIO BASIC

9 of the 12 MSX2 machines are regional variants of the second MSX generation, they have 2 non-expanded slots, 2 expanded slots, 2 cartridge slots, 1 tape port and are boosted with 512 Kb mapped RAM, 128 Kb VRAM, MSX-MUSIC, MSX-AUDIO, MoonSound, Turbo-Basic, the PAC cartridge and generally 2 physical drives. The MSX2 Brazilian machine has only 1 physical drive.

The MSX2 Arabic, MSX2 Korean, MSX2+ and MSXturboR machines are boosted in the same way, but have 1 non-expanded slot and 3 expanded slots. Besides, the MSX2 Arabic machine includes a special firmware (see presentation of the Al Alamiah AX-350 machine). The MSXturboR machine is without tape port.

Note about MSX-AUDIO : the insertion of a Panasonic MSX-AUDIO rom in a cartridge slot is only required for applications that use the MSX-AUDIO BASIC or that can use MSX-AUDIO as a substitute for MSX-MUSIC (Compile games and diskstations).

In this last case, edit first the MSX2 Only PSG machine by using the Machine editor to add a MSX Audio chip, then save the new machine, eventually under a new name.

The MSX2 Only PSG machine is not boosted with the special soundchips, you must use it if you want to run a game with automatic choice between PSG and MSX-MUSIC, but want to hear the PSG sounds in stead of MSX-MUSIC.

You can view on this page the list of the rom games with automatic choice between PSG and MSX-MUSIC.

For these machines, there are also differences about the keyboard, the special characters, the type of floppy drive controller (FDC) and the video frequency :

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