MSX



The MSX standard was developed in the early 1980s by ASCII with a little hand from Microsoft, with the goal of allowing different companies to make mutually compatible computers. Hence the acronym, "Machines with Software eXchangeability". That was still a bit of a crazy idea back then, but it worked: although it remained pretty much unknown in the USA, it had a huge following in Japan, South Korea, Brazil, Argentina, Soviet Union, and parts of Europe and the Middle-East. Not only it was a fine all-purpose home computer, what it's really good for is games. Metal Gear, Bomberman, Puyo Puyo - they all started here!

MSX2


MSX2 was an upgraded version of the MSX standard. It mantained full backwards compatibility, and the CPU remained the same, but it provided better video and audio chips and much more RAM. It was followed by the MSX2+ and MSX turboR standards, but the market for the MSX was already declining at that point, so these only managed to find some success in Japan and Brazil.