78-624: Probotector is an alternate title originally given to a number of Contra games in Europe. By itself, the title was affixed to three different games, and may refer to the European localizations of: Contra (video game) for the Nintendo Entertainment System , 1987 Operation C (video game) for the Game Boy , 1991 Contra: Hard Corps for
156-579: A hardcoded character set and keyboard scan code handling algorithm . While MSX has full application software compatibility at the firmware (BIOS) level, due to minor hardware differences, replacement of the BIOS with another from a different computer may return incorrect scan code translations and result in incorrect behaviour of the keyboard subsystem for the application software. In 2011, AGE Labs introduced Language Pack firmware, aiming to make each model support several localizations. In AGE Labs' GR8BIT kit ,
234-554: A Dutch company Bazix announced they had become the representatives of MSX Association in Europe , being the English contact for any questions regarding the MSX trademarks, copyrights, and licensing. On October 17, 2006, Bazix launched WOOMB.Net, a website selling MSX games in English and other languages, with a selection of 14 games. In Japan, game sales began earlier, through Project EGG. WOOMB.Net
312-472: A clone of the original Bill Rizer. Contra 4 was intended to be a direct sequel to Contra III , ignoring the events of previous installments. However, "Mad Dog" and "Scorpion", originally the nicknames given to Bill and Lance in the NES versions of Contra and Super C , were made into separate characters. The game's main antagonist, "Black Viper", is also treated as a new character, despite originally appearing in
390-460: A commercial failure, and very few titles were released on the format. Source files for development of the MSX cartridges are available from AGE Labs for EAGLE . Early MSX models did not have a built-in disk drive, so software were initially published on cartridge and cassette tape. Mitsumi QuickDisks were originally launched as a proprietary extension for the MSX in early 1984, but they never really caught on, as they were quickly surpassed by
468-509: A custom IC known as " MSX-Engine ", which integrated glue logic , 8255 PPI, YM2149 compatible sound chip and more, sometimes even the Z80 CPU. However, almost all MSX systems used a professional keyboard instead of a chiclet keyboard , driving up the price compared to the original SV-328. Consequently, these components alongside Microsoft's MSX BASIC made the MSX a competitive, though somewhat expensive, home computer package. On June 27, 1983,
546-585: A group of fans developed the MSX Mini Replica. It is a 1:2 scale reproduction of the Philips VG-8020 computer compatible with the software of the MSX, MSX2, MSX2+, and TurboR generations. It incorporates 2 USB ports, an HDMI video output and internally uses the same hardware as the C64 Mini . Connecting an additional peripheral called MSX Player allows it to run original games on ROM cartridges. The MSXVR
624-576: A new and short-lived kind of software cracking : converting . Since the MSX games were unplayable on the SV-328 computer, SV-328 crackers developed a method of modifying the (MSX) games to make them work on the SV-328. In most cases, this included downloading the MSX BIOS to the SV-328 from tape or floppy disk. Spectravideo later launched the SVI-728 which completely adhered to the MSX standard. The Sega SG-1000 ,
702-502: A period dubbed "the KONTRA era". Contra: Operation Galuga is a reimagining of the original game and a reboot of the series set in 26XX as opposed to the original taking place in 2633. Bill Rizer and Lance Bean also once again return as the main protagonists. When Konami released the NES version of the original Contra in the PAL region (Europe and Australia) they modified the game by replacing
780-474: A reconfiguration program under MSX-DOS. The "one chip-MSX" also has two USB connectors that can be used after adding some supporting VHDL code. In 2011, AGE Labs announced GR8BIT, a do-it-yourself kit for building an MSX computer. The kit, licensed by the MSX Licensing Corporation, is targeted to those wanting to learn about computer hardware. It includes all the necessary components to assemble
858-415: A single industry-standard for home computers. Inspired by the success of VHS as a standard for video cassette recorders , many Japanese electronics manufacturers (Including GoldStar , Philips and Spectravideo ) built and promoted MSX computers. Any piece of hardware or software with the MSX logo on it was compatible with MSX products from other manufacturers. In particular, the expansion cartridge format
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#1732890783756936-590: A successful crowdfunding campaign, an IoT device resembling a Game Boy with a keyboard, the MSX0, was revealed, intended for IoT uses, alongside the base MSX3 unit. Plans also call for a supercomputer, the MSX Turbo X 128, based around the concept of clusters. The keyboard is a functionally separate unit which could be connected by non-multiplexed and multiplexed interfaces. Multiplexed keyboard units feature additional data direction line, allowing sending scan line number to
1014-400: A wide variety of peripherals could be connected. Regular game cartridges are about the size of an audio cassette (so-called "Konami size"). Despite their higher cost, this was a popular format due to its reliability and ease of use. Around 1985, Hudson Soft released the credit card-sized Bee Card , which was meant as a cheaper and more convenient alternative to ROM cartridges. But it was
1092-523: A working MSX2-compatible computer except for an ATX chassis, power supply, floppy drive, hard disk, PS/2 keyboard, and monitor. Some of the Korean forum members who made Zemmix Neo created a new MSX-compatible called Mini IQ3000 Cutie, which has similar features to Daewoo Electronics' Korean-made MSX2 model, the IQ-2000. It is based on 1ChipMSX but has some special features like 'Scan Line Generator', which improves
1170-497: Is a computer released in 2020 and compatible with the MSX family of computers. Like the latest Zemmix game consoles, it is also based on a Raspberry Pi card with additional circuitry to connect the original MSX peripherals. In 2022, Nishi announced an official revival of the MSX computer standard dubbed the MSX3, to be implemented in multiple configurations, including an upgrade cartridge to existing MSX computers. Later, in 2023 following
1248-469: Is also set twenty years before the events of the original Contra . The game follows a character named "Bahamut", but in an interview with Siliconera , producer Kenji Yamamoto comments that Bahamut may or may not be the same character from the original Hard Corps . Yamamoto would also reveal the reason why the game doesn't use the Contra name in its title was due to how "different" fans regarded Hard Corps from
1326-484: Is fully transparent to the applications, allowing use of the controller unit with different MSX-compatible machines and for different localization setups. MSX standard requires at least 1 cartridge slot, most MSX models have 2. These slots are interchangeable, so in most cases it makes no difference in which slot a cartridge is inserted. The physical connector is a 50 pin (2 × 25 contacts), standard 2.54 mm (0.1 inch) pitch edge connector . Using these cartridge slots,
1404-451: Is housed in a box made out of transparent blue plastic, and can be used with a standard monitor (or TV) and a PC keyboard. It has two MSX cartridge slots and supports the audio extensions MSX-MUSIC and SCC+. A SD/MMC-flashcard can be used as an external storage medium, emulating a disk drive and can be used to boot MSX-DOS . Due to its VHDL programmable hardware, it is possible to give the device new hardware extensions simply by running
1482-426: Is regularly queried to identify the state of the keys on the line; query speed is identified by the system interrupt frequency. Such organization allows system to sense state of each key, not exhibiting notorious problem with 8042 microcontroller -based keyboards when pressing several keys simultaneously (usually more than 3) generates wrong input characters, or renders inability to sense the press of more keys. Due to
1560-795: The Metal Gear series were originally released for MSX hardware. In the early 1980s, most home computers manufactured in Japan such as the NEC PC-6001 and PC-8000 series, Fujitsu 's FM-7 and FM-8 , and Hitachi 's Basic Master featured a variant of the Microsoft BASIC interpreter integrated into their on-board ROMs . The hardware design of these computers and the various dialects of their BASICs were incompatible. Other Japanese consumer electronics firms such as Panasonic , Canon , Casio , Yamaha , Pioneer , and Sanyo were searching for ways to enter
1638-504: The AY-3-8910 chip manufactured by General Instrument (GI), and an Intel 8255 Programmable Peripheral Interface (PPI) chip was used for parallel I/O such as the keyboard. The choice of these components was shared by many other home computers and games consoles of the period, such as the ColecoVision and Sega SG-1000 video game systems. To reduce overall system cost, many MSX models used
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#17328907837561716-656: The Amstrad CPC sold 3 million units, and the Tandy TRS-80 Model 1 sold 250,000 units. A Sony MSX2 machine was launched into space to the Russian Mir space station. The system MSX most closely resembled was the Spectravideo SV-328 home computer (Spectravideo even claimed to be "MSX compatible" in advertisements before the actual launch of MSX systems, but it was not completely compatible with it). This led to
1794-527: The Mega Drive , 1994 See also [ edit ] Super Contra , also known as Probotector II: Return of the Evil Forces . Contra III: The Alien Wars , also known as Super Probotector: Alien Rebels . Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Probotector . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change
1872-732: The Memotech MTX , the Tatung Einstein , and the ColecoVision all have many similarities with the MSX1 standard, but none are fully compatible with it. Porting games between those systems is somewhat easy. It was also very common to port games from the ZX Spectrum to the MSX, since both have the same CPU, the Spectrum 128 had the same soundchip, and the ZX Spectrum's graphic mode could be easily emulated on
1950-514: The Soviet Union , and Cuba , where they were widely used in schools. In total, 9 million MSX computers were sold in Japan, making it relatively popular. However, the MSX did not become the worldwide standard envisioned because of limited adoption in other markets. Before the MSX's lack of success in these markets became apparent, US manufacturer Commodore Business Machines overhauled its product line in
2028-623: The Super Contra or Super C games. In the Japanese version of Operation C , the antagonist was originally a nameless hostile nation seeking to develop alien-based weapons. This was changed in the North American version to "Black Viper", another alien invader. With the release of the American and European versions of Contra: Shattered Soldier , all international Contra releases began to follow
2106-541: The Wii Virtual Console in Europe and Australia like their original releases, with no "uncensored" versions available. Although Contra 4 was not released in Europe, the "Probotector" character appears in the game as a hidden character. By the end of 1996, the Contra series had accumulated combined sales of over 4 million units worldwide. MSX#MSX2 MSX is a standardized home computer architecture, announced by ASCII Corporation on June 16, 1983. It
2184-657: The Wii 's Virtual Console , the Xbox Live Arcade , and the PlayStation Network . Contra , and its initial sequels, are set in the 27th century, and center around two commandos named Bill Rizer (code name Mad Dog) and Lance Bean (code name Scorpion). They are members of a special guerrilla task force codenamed "Contra", who are sent to thwart armies of alien invaders seeking to destroy the Earth. After Contra III: The Alien Wars ,
2262-553: The Japanese coin-operated arcade game of the same name , which has since spawned several sequels produced for various platforms. The arcade version of Contra was released a few months after the Iran–Contra affair was made public. While it is unclear whether the game was deliberately named after the Nicaraguan Contra rebels , the ending theme of the original game was titled " Sandinista " ( サンディニスタ , Sandinisuta ) , after
2340-429: The Japanese continuity. Contra Force is a standalone entry that, due to it being originally intended to be separate game altogether, is considered to be non-canon from the rest of the franchise. Contra ReBirth begins in 2633, but the game's plot primarily takes place in 1973 and incorporates elements of time travel . It has since been considered non-canon, instead taking place in an alternate timeline during
2418-638: The Language Pack is installed by default in place of the Kanji -ROM. It allows changing the character set and keyboard layout of the machine at startup between Japanese, Russian, International and Portuguese locales. It also gives the ability to change locales during machine operation using the newly introduced LANG command in BASIC. The selected locale setting is stored into the unused RTC NVRAM memory space. Several popular video game franchises were established on
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2496-531: The MSX TurboR was released, which used the new custom 16-bit R800 microprocessor developed by ASCII Corporation intended for the MSX3, but features such as DMA and 24-bit addressing were disabled. Like the MSX2+, the MSX TurboR was exclusively released in Japan. By the time the MSX TurboR standard was announced in 1990, only Panasonic was manufacturing MSX computers. Its initial model FS-A1ST met with moderate success, but
2574-485: The MSX was formally announced during a press conference, and a slew of big Japanese firms declared their plans to introduce the machines. The Japanese companies avoided the intensely competitive U.S. home computer market, which was in the throes of a Commodore -led price war . Only Spectravideo and Yamaha briefly marketed MSX machines in the U.S. Spectravideo's MSX enjoyed very little success, and Yamaha's CX5M model, built to interface with various types of MIDI equipment,
2652-487: The MSX's screen-2 mode. Many Roland S-series audio/music digital sampler/synthesizer keyboards and rack module units are based on the MSX operating system. This includes the earlier 12-bit sample resolution models S-50, S-330, S-550, W-30, and later 16-bit sample resolution models S-770, S-750, SP-700, and S-760. Most of these models included (or could be expanded with) color video outputs to display monitors, as well as MSX-compatible mouse ports. By default, MSX machines have
2730-522: The MSX: Others received various installments on the MSX, including several titles unique to the system or largely reworked versions of games on other formats: * Clones or unlicensed equipment. In 2001, Kazuhiko Nishi initiated a MSX revival around an official MSX emulator called MSXPLAYer. This is the only official MSX emulator as all MSX copyrights are maintained by the MSX Association. In 2004,
2808-513: The North American version of Operation C (which also refers to protagonist Lance as "Scorpion"). On the official timeline seen in the "History of Contra " e-book included with the Contra Anniversary Collection , the game is chronology set after the Japanese versions of Operation C and Contra III , but before the events of Hard Corps . Contra: Rogue Corps would return to the post- Contra III setting. The game features
2886-584: The Panasonic (previously named National) CF-3300. In Europe, a range of Philips MSX2 systems NMS 8230, 8235, 8245, 8250 and above featured either 360 or 720 KB 3.5-inch floppy drives. In 1985, the MSX2 was released, and these systems often (but not always) also included a built-in 3.5-inch disk drive. Consequently, the popular media for games and other software shifted to floppy disks. The MSX-DOS disk operating system had binary compatibility with CP/M , but used
2964-605: The SNES ( Contra III: The Alien Wars ). The Contra games for the Game Boy ( Operation C and the Game Boy version of Alien Wars ) and Mega Drive ( Contra: Hard Corps ) were also released as Probotector titles in Europe. The series would revert to the Contra title in Europe beginning with Contra: Legacy of War for the PlayStation, retaining the human characters. However, Probotector II and Super Probotector were still released for
3042-544: The United States. The meaning of the acronym MSX remains a matter of debate. In 2001, Kazuhiko Nishi recalled that many assumed that it was derived from "Microsoft Extended", referring to the built-in Microsoft Extended BASIC ( MSX BASIC ). Others believed that it stood for "Matsushita-Sony". Nishi said that the team's original definition was "Machines with Software eXchangeability", although in 1985 he said it
3120-415: The adapter board to connect a PS/2 keyboard to the multiplexed MSX keyboard interface. The firmware embedded into its ATTiny chip was tailored for Daewoo CPC machines. In 2011, AGE Labs embedded a PS/2 keyboard controller unit, based on Microchip microcontroller, into its GR8BIT do-it-yourself machine. Its firmware is developed to directly convert PS/2 scan codes to the MSX keyboard scan codes. Thus it
3198-420: The adversaries of the real-life Contras. The majority of the Contra games are side-scrolling shoot-'em-ups where the player takes control of an armed commando who must fight all sorts of extraterrestrial monsters and other kinds of futuristic menaces. In addition to the side-scrolling stages, the original Contra (among others) also features "pseudo-3D perspective" levels where the player must move towards
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3276-539: The background in order to progress, while subsequent titles, such as Super Contra and Contra III: The Alien Wars , feature overhead stages as well. Only the Appaloosa -developed installments in the series, Contra: Legacy of War and C: The Contra Adventure , as well as Neo Contra , deviated from the series' mainly side-scrolling perspective (although C: The Contra Adventure does feature two side-scrolling stages). Contra: Shattered Soldier , while maintaining
3354-489: The development of home computers. While they were competing for videotape formats , Nobuyuki Idei of Sony accepted his proposal. Idei thought Sony should cooperate with Panasonic on its development because the SMC-70 , Sony's first personal computer, faced difficulty in the market when Sony started their computer business. Maeda also wanted to invite NEC, but NEC chose to go its own way. Nishi proposed MSX as an attempt to create
3432-685: The earlier games were also named differently in the American versions. In particular, "Red Falcon", originally the name of the terrorist army that was fought by the main characters in the first game (the Red Falcon Organization), became the name of the actual alien entity leader; thus, "Red Falcon" became the name of the final boss fought at the end of Contra , where the player fights both his alien body form and his heart. In Japan, these are intended to be two different entities: Emperor Demon Dragon God Java and Emperor Demon Evil Heart Gomera Mosking, respectively. The final boss of Super Contra (or
3510-608: The early 1980s and introduced models such as the Plus/4 and Commodore 16 , that were intended to better compete with the features of MSX computers. In comparison with rival 8-bit computers, the Commodore 64 is estimated to have sold 12.5–17 million units worldwide, the Apple II sold 6 million units, the ZX Spectrum over 5 million units, the Atari 8-bit computers sold at least 4 million units,
3588-513: The falcon icons for all of its weapons except the Laser Gun and the Fire Ball weapon, while in the arcade version of Super Contra , no Falcon icons were used. Contra: Shattered Soldier and Neo Contra both deviate from this tradition by having set weapon configurations instead. Most of the Contra games have the player begin the game with only a set number of lives (three in most console games). If
3666-404: The form of a cartridge containing the disk interface electronics and a BIOS extension ROM (the floppy disk drive interface), connected to an external case with the drive. In South America, many of these systems used a 5.25 in (133 mm) floppy disk drive, but in Europe, 3.5 in (89 mm) drives were more popular. In Japan, some MSX1 systems included a built-in 3.5-inch disk drive, like
3744-502: The keyboard scan being controlled by the system interrupts, one of the troubleshooting hints when an MSX machine does not display any image (assuming power is present) is to press the CAPS key to see if the respective LED toggles. If it does not toggle, the system is likely suffering a more serious problem than just lack of image on the screen (i.e. the problem with video cable or video display interface in overall). In 2009, Kamil Karimov designed
3822-582: The keyboard using same data lines used for return scan code, decreasing overall number of wires between keyboard and machine. Non-multiplexed interface is usually used for internal keyboards (and some external keyboards, like Panasonic CF-3300); multiplexed interface is used for external keyboards (e.g. in Yamaha YIS805 model). The keyboard is organized as a matrix with maximum 11 input lines and 8 output lines, accounting for maximum 88 keys (including all control, numerical and alphanumerical keys). Each scan line
3900-627: The largest electronics companies. In the late 1970s, the company investigated other business areas outside of home appliances. Panasonic also saw potential in the recent microcomputer revolution . One of Panasonic's distributors, Yamagata National, told Panasonic's president, Toshihiko Yamashita: Recently, NEC 's personal computers sell well in Yamagata too, and our dealers also request merchandise. However, we must purchase not only personal computers, but also home appliances from NEC. I think Matsushita also need develop personal computers. Yamashita ordered
3978-551: The late 1980s and 1990s. In North America, the original Contra and Super Contra (as Super C ) were ported to DOS . A version of Super C was also released for the Amiga . Contra was released for DOS , the Amstrad CPC , the Commodore 64 and the ZX Spectrum in Europe under the Gryzor title. As software emulation became more widespread, the games would be re-released in numerous formats on several platforms, most notable through
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#17328907837564056-574: The link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Probotector&oldid=1144670125 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Contra (series) Contra is a video game series produced by Konami composed primarily of run and gun-style shooting games . The series debuted in February 1987 with
4134-429: The new home computer market. Major Japanese electronics companies entered the computer market in the 1960s, and Panasonic (Matsushita Electric Industrial) was also developing mainframe computers . The Japanese economy was facing a recession after the 1964 Summer Olympics and Panasonic decided to exit the computer business and focus on home appliances. The decision was a huge success, and Panasonic grew to become one of
4212-691: The original Contra used the Konami Code (previously featured in the NES version of Gradius ) to start the game with thirty lives instead of the usual three. Most of the subsequent console games in the series only featured these extra lives codes in their Japanese releases, such as Contra Spirits (the Japanese version of Contra III ) and Contra: Hard Corps . Spin-offs exclusive to mobile gaming platforms among other mediums. The original arcade versions of Contra and Super Contra were ported to several computer platforms in North America and Europe during
4290-472: The original arcade games, as well as a few computer conversions under the Gryzor title, were released unchanged in Europe, subsequent console installments of the Contra series were released under the Probotector title in Europe. The original Probotector was followed by Probotector II: Return of the Evil Forces for the NES (originally Super Contra or Super C ) and Super Probotector: Alien Rebels for
4368-543: The original main characters and most of the human enemies with robotic counterparts, retitling the game Probotector (a portmanteau of "Robot" and "Protector"). The title referred to the two robotic soldiers, RD-008 and RC-011, who replaced Bill and Lance in this version. This was presumably done due to the German Federal Agency BPjM , which prohibited the sale and advertisement of media deemed too violent to children, including "content which glorifies war". While
4446-433: The player gets hit once, they will lose a life along with any weapon they currently possess in some games. Because of this, the Contra series is notorious for being extremely difficult. Even in the original arcade versions, most of the games only give limited chances to continue before forcing the player to start all over. Extra lives are usually obtained in most games when the player reaches certain scores. The NES version of
4524-802: The player's default weapon with a new one, such as a Laser Gun or a Spread Gun. There are also power-ups that are actually auxiliary items like the Barrier (which provides temporary invincibility) or the Rapid Bullets (which increases the firing speed of the player's current weapon) in the original Contra , as well as weapons such as the Mega Shell in the arcade version of Super Contra and the Bombs in Contra III and Contra: Hard Corps , that are used to destroy all on-screen enemies. The original arcade version of Contra used
4602-506: The public was a Mitsubishi ML-8000, released on October 21, 1983, thus marking its official release date. MSX systems were popular in Japan and several other countries. There are differing accounts of MSX sales. One source claims 9 million MSX units were sold worldwide, including 7 million in Japan alone, whereas ASCII corporation founder Kazuhiko Nishi claims that 3 million were sold in Japan, and 1 million overseas. Despite Microsoft's involvement, few MSX-based machines were released in
4680-461: The quality of the video display, and 'Multi Language Support' that allows it to support two languages. By default, the machine operates using the Korean version of MSX displaying the Korean font, but if the 'del' key is pressed during booting it will operate in Japanese mode. Even though the default mode is Korean, the default font allocation table is Japanese, and will show Japanese characters when executing Japanese version software programs. In 2019,
4758-411: The rest of the series. Hard Corps and its follow ups have since been considered to be spin-offs from the main series. Bill would not return until 2002's Contra: Shattered Soldier ; where he became a convicted war criminal sent to fight against his former partner, Lance, who has become a terrorist leader. In the game's sequel, Neo Contra , a cryogenically frozen Bill is ultimately revealed to be
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#17328907837564836-476: The resulting V9990 E-VDP III as a video-chipset for PC VGA graphic cards, with moderate success. In Japan, South Korea, Argentina, and Brazil, the MSX was the preeminent home computer system of the 1980s. It was also fairly popular in continental Europe , especially in the Netherlands and Spain. Classrooms full of networked Yamaha MSX computers were used for teaching informatics in schools in some Arab countries,
4914-437: The return of Kaiser from the latter game, who joins a group of bounty hunters in a place called the "Damned City". While the original Japanese version of the early Contra games (specifically Contra , Super Contra and Operation C ) were set in the 27th century (in the years 2633, 2634, and 2635 in that order), the American versions of these games omitted this detail and the instruction manuals for these versions implied that
4992-529: The same FAT file system as MS-DOS . Its user commands were also similar to early MS-DOS versions. In this way, Microsoft could promote MSX for home use while promoting MS-DOS based personal computers in office environments. The MSX 3.5-inch floppy disks are directly compatible with MS-DOS (although some details like file undeletion and boot sector code were different). Like MS-DOS 1, MSX disks (formatted) under MSX-DOS 1 have no support for subdirectories . In September 2012, AGE Labs extended
5070-433: The same time, Spectravideo contacted Microsoft in order to obtain software for their new home computer. Nishi went to Hong Kong to meet with Spectravideo, and suggested some improvements to its prototype. Spectravideo's president, Harry Fox, was willing to accept Nishi's proposals. Nishi conceived to create a unified standard based on its machine, and Maeda agreed with his idea. Nishi wanted to involve Panasonic and Sony in
5148-407: The series was set during the present day . Contra III: The Alien Wars retains its futuristic setting of 2636 for its American release, but the identities of the two player characters, Bill Rizer and Lance Bean (the heroes from the previous installments), were changed to their descendants "Jimbo" and "Sully" in order to retain the continuity of the previous localizations. The enemy characters of
5226-413: The series would deviate from its original premise. Contra: Hard Corps and its sequels ( Legacy of War and C The Contra Adventure ) take place after the events of Contra III , and followed several new characters; namely, recurring protagonist Ray Poward. Additionally, Hard Corps would feature human antagonists, rather than aliens. 2011's Hard Corps: Uprising is a prequel to Hard Corps , and
5304-461: The side-view perspective of the 2D games, features fully polygonal 3D graphics. Almost every game in the series, with only a few exceptions (such as the MSX2 version of Contra , C: The Contra Adventure or Operation C for the Game Boy , which were single-player only), allows two players to play the game simultaneously. The main power-ups in the series are falcon-shaped letter icons which will replace
5382-504: The standard by including support for 1.44Mb 3.5-inch format. The 1.44Mb diskette size goes in two configurations: Standard (1 sector per cluster, 9 FAT sectors), and Compatible (4 sectors per cluster, 3 FAT sectors). MSX computers are emulated on many platforms today. Early MSX emulators were often based on the code of the pioneer fMSX , a portable MSX emulator by Marat Fayzullin. Many emulators removed Fayzullin's Z80 emulation code entirely in later versions to avoid legal problems, as at
5460-559: The standard floppy disk interface released a few months later. Only a handful of titles were released in this format. Sony also created a battery backed RAM cartridge the HBI-55 "data cartridge" in 1984 for some computers in their "Hit-Bit" line of MSX systems, that could be used to store programs or data as an alternative to cassette tapes. Many Yamaha Music software are also compatible with this cartridge. Traditional floppy disk drives were made available for MSX in 1984, either built-in or in
5538-544: The third to last boss in the NES Super C ) and Contra III ; is named Emperor Demon Gyaba in the original Japanese versions. Often mistaken as Red Falcon, his American name is referred to as Jagger Froid in the Super C instruction manual. The American Super C instruction manual also illustrates a common "running" alien enemy from its final stage as Red Falcon. The alien entity leader known as Red Falcon does not appear as an enemy in
5616-496: The upgraded model FS-A1GT introduced in 1991 sold poorly due to its high retail cost of 99800 yen (about 740 USD at the time). Production of the TurboR ended in 1993 when Panasonic decided to focus on the release of 3DO . The VDP was eventually delivered in 1992, two years after its planned deadline, by which time the market had moved on. In an attempt to reduce its financial loss, Yamaha stripped nearly all V9958 compatibility and marketed
5694-409: The vice president, Shunkichi Kisaka, to develop a personal computer, and Kisaka called on Kazuyasu Maeda of Matsushita R&D Center. Maeda requested Nishi to assist with the development. They were already close to each other. When they met at a seminar held by NEC, they noticed both were from Kobe and had graduated from the same university. They often talked to each other about home computers. At
5772-500: Was billed more as a digital music tool than a standard personal computer. MSX spawned four generations. The first three, MSX (1983), MSX2 (1985), and MSX2+ (1988), were all 8-bit computers based on the Z80 microprocessor. The MSX2+ was exclusively released in Japan. A new MSX3 was originally scheduled to be released in 1990, but delays in the development of its Yamaha-designed VDP caused it to miss its time to market deadline. In its place,
5850-504: Was initially conceived by Microsoft as a product for the Eastern sector, and jointly marketed by Kazuhiko Nishi , the director at ASCII Corporation. Microsoft and Nishi conceived the project as an attempt to create unified standards among various home computing system manufacturers of the period, in the same fashion as the VHS standard for home video tape machines. The first MSX computer sold to
5928-526: Was named after the MX missile . According to his book in 2020, he considered the name of the new standard should consist of three letters, like VHS . He felt "MSX" was fit because it means "the next of Microsoft", and it also contains the first letters of Matsushita ( Panasonic ) and Sony. Before the success of Nintendo 's Family Computer , the MSX was the platform that major Japanese game studios such as Konami and Hudson Soft developed for. The first two games in
6006-521: Was part of the standard; any MSX expansion or game cartridge would work in any MSX computer. Nishi's standard was built around the Spectravideo SV-328 computer. The standard consisted primarily of several off-the-shelf parts; the main CPU was a 3.58 MHz Zilog Z80 , the Texas Instruments TMS9918 graphics chip with 16 KB of dedicated VRAM , sound and partial I/O support was provided by
6084-500: Was the English counterpart of this and other Japanese services offered by D4 Enterprise , which also announced in August 2006 the launch of a new MSX2 compatible system called the " one chip-MSX ", a system based on an Altera Cyclone EP1C12Q240C8 FPGA . The one chip-MSX" is similar in concept to the C-One , a Commodore 64 clone also built on the basis of a single FPGA chip. The new MSX system
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