Weno jente, hete aquà la "beta" de la primera parte sobre el articulamen
pa los japos: el perÃodo comercial. El que tenga algo que
añadir/quitar/cambiar, que hable ahora o calle para siempre.
Nota: que sÃ, que he quitado eso de que los sambeiros son más piratas
que nosotros, que no es muy polÃticamente molón aún suponiendo que sea
cierto (que no lo sé).
--------------------------------------
The European presentation of the MSX System was done within the context
of the Informat fair in Madrid by Sony Spain, in 1984; the model HB55P
was exposed then. Sales started at the end of September of the same year,
the first models available were Sony HB55P, Toshiba HX-10 and
Spectravideo SVI-728. The expectation about the new computer was high
and there were a lot of discussions regarding the compatibility issues.
The "best seller" MSX machines were from Sony and Philips. Philips dominated
the european market without doubts, but Sony was always the main competence for
Philips; they had about 75-85% of the spanish MSX market. There were also
companies that sold MSX machines with success, like Toshiba and SVI; the most
popular models were SVI 728 from Spectravideo (distribuited under the Spanish
company Indescomp), Canon V20 and Toshiba HX-10. There were more marks that
produced MSX, for example Dynadata (the spanish mark for Daewoo), Piooner, or
Sharp; but their sales were not so high.
Even there was a 100% spanish MSX computer developed under the spanish company,
Dragon, only 500 units were sold, so it is a collectors loved machine.
Apart from all the hardware made in Japan and Netherlands (Philips), there were
some hardware made in Spain: diskdrives from Indescomp, MSX-SVI adaptor (for
making fully compatible the old SVI computers with MSX standard),Memory
expansions from several independent hardware developers (for example the 256K
cartridge from
Walter Miller), and even a Gunstick developed by MHT ingenieros.
The hardware prices were quite high, if we look them from the perspective of 20
years ago. The price of a MSX1 computer, depending on the model, ranged from
300 to 600 euros (typically about 400 euros); an external disk drive costed up
to 500 euros.
Spain produced a lot of commercial software productions for MSX and MSX-2,
during the first years Opera Soft, Dinamic and Topo Soft for example made very
good games, using the special features of the MSX system (VDP, PSG...);
companies like Dinamic, Topo and Opera produced good quality entertainment
software. Professional software was also avaliable under spanish software
companies, Ease was a complete home office system for MSX-2 computers, made by
Opera soft in clear competence agaisnt the Hibrid from Sony; Idealogic produced
also good office software like the text processor Ideatext or the database
system Ideabase. The most popular format for software was the cassette tape,
and the prices ranged from 5-12 euros (cassette games) to 60 euros or even more
for some professional tools. The typical price for a cartridge game was about
30-40 euros.
In January of 1985 a computer magazine called "Super Juegos" included
an MSX Extra, and this was the first MSX magazine in Spain. Due to the success
of that extra number, the magazine decided to include in all the next numbers
more MSX Extras. Finally, the magazine was only for MSX and his name was:
"MSX Extra". Four months later, the same firm of MSX Extra created a new MSX
magazine called: "MSX Club". With the pass of time, this was the "official"
MSX magazine in Spain.
In 1986 a new MSX magazine appears, it is "Input MSX", a full color magazine
with lots of screenshots, maps and photographs. It had the best look,
and sometimes, the best contents. There were also a "MSX Magazine" (nothing to
do with the Japanese one), which was sold also from 1985. There were also some
more magazines but their life was very short; some of them included a tape with
software (usually simple BASIC games), for example "Data MSX", made by Geasa.
In April, 1986, the MSX2 computers were introduced in the Spanish market;
almost all models had 128K RAM and floppy disk drive built-in. This time only a
few companies accepted the challenge: Sony, Philips, in less proportion
Mitsubishi, and few more. Unfortunately, this time the sales were very low and
did not match the expectations of these companies; this was mainly why the MSX
started to decay in Spain about 1988.
MSX Magazine disappeared in 1987; then, Input MSX in 1988. About 1989 the game
developers started to use cross code conversors to develop the MSX games, so
the games released for MSX were direct conversions from Spectrum, and therefore
of very poor quality; besides many of these conversions were not fully
compatible with MSX2. The production of entertainment software for MSX2 was
very low, and there were only a few conversions made by Opera of their games.
Idealogic was one of the rare companies which produced some spanish games for
MSX2 during the commercial years, distribuited under the Philips mark.
The last mention to MSX2 hardware is from a Sony catalog of the beginning of
1989; in 1990 there were no MSX hardware for sale in the stores, only some old
MSX1 stock. MSX users were quite disgusted, since felt that they were suddenly
abandoned.
The end of the commercial period for the MSX in Spain can be dated in December
of 1991, since this is the month when MSX Club, the last MSX magazine sold in
Spain, published its last number; the last games for MSX were released some
months before.
The MSX was once the second home computer system after Spectrum, estimations
can afirm that during the heydays about 200.000 users could enjoy with MSX,
most of them sold in 1985.
The "official" or big commercial piracy was very rare in Spain. Some flea
markets distribuited bad quality copies of several games (specially from
Konami) with B/W papers and bad recorded tapes. There was a company named Onaki
which sold pirated Konami games under their brand; and a magazine named
"Load'N'Run" which was sold with a tape containing (illegally) European games
translated to Spanish.
*** XXIV MSX USERS MEETING IN BARCELONA: NOVEMBER 1st 2003 ***
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Konami Man - AKA Nestor Soriano (^^)v
http://www.konamiman.com - konamiman(_en_)konamiman(_punto_)com
ICQ#: 18281450
Itoshii hito no tame ni Ima nani ga dekiru ka na?
Kanawanai yume wa nai yo! Massugu ni shinjiteru
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
