Are Spectravideo SV318 possible to find?

[+eebuckeye]

What is a good MSX system for the US and NTSC?

[Bill Loguidice]

What is a good MSX system for the US and NTSC?

 

Honestly, there's not. The only US MSX systems ever released were from Yamaha (primarily designed as music-based computers), and they only support the MSX 1 standard. I have them, they're nice, work well, etc., but you really want an MSX2+ system with built-in 3.5" disk drive. For that, you'll need a Japanese system, preferably from Sony or Panasonic. The video output works fine, you just need to adapt the power, which is easy enough.

[Tempest]

Was the SV-728 ever sold in the US? http://www.samdal.com/svi728.htm

[Bill Loguidice]

Was the SV-728 ever sold in the US? http://www.samdal.com/svi728.htm

 

No. The only MSX computers ever released in the US were by Yamaha, and again, mostly in music stores. They were MIDI-centric, but still full-fledged MSX 1 systems (even the 128K model).

[Bill Loguidice]

The main reason why MSX computers were never released in the US was that by the time they were ready for release here, circa 1985, the low end computer market was already dominated by the C-64 and littered with the carcasses of failed competitors (the MSX similar Adam, among them). There was no longer any room for new 16K - 64K spec 8-bit computers. PAL territories (which were still receptive to new low end machines) got a few with some reasonable support, but they really only took off in Japan, which is why they saw two additional revisions to the spec.

[carlsson]

MSX computers also had fair market shares in South Korea and Brazil. Many of the cartridges you find in those regions are bootlegs though, although some were semi-licensed from e.g. Konami.

 

Given the relatively big spread COMPUTE! had in the January 1985 issue, it surprises me a bit if Yamaha CX-5M was the only to actually hit the market. Or perhaps more resellers were planning to introduce them, but as you write the low end market probably was sealed by Commodore, and with possibly struggling Atari, Tandy CoCo, ADAM, already deceased TI-99/4A and so on - the MSX computers would've needed to have something extra to make an impact. The built in DX synth in Yamaha's models is a such extra. The LD connectivity in Pioneer's models might've been a selling argument. The other Sony, Toshiba, GoldStar, Canon, JVC, Hitachi and so on probably didn't.

[R4ngerM4n]

Interesting thread!

 

I have still some questions:

 

1) Someone knows what the average data transfer rate of the SV-902 disc drive is (for the datasette it is 1800 bits per second)?

2) Has the SV-912 disc drive - if existent at all - its own controller card for the expander?

3) What was the initial selling price for the SV-318 in Australia?

4) Are there any sources that can confirm the computer was sold in South Africa and Israel as well?

5) Is there a SECAM version of the 318/328 made for France?

6) Are there any documents when the SVI renaming was done? The trademark registration says filing date is 1988-08-10 and first use in commerce date is 1985-00-00 (whatever 00-00 means), but websites claim it was used in '84 already.

 

Looking forward to your answers!

[+pboland]

The main reason why MSX computers were never released in the US was that by the time they were ready for release here, circa 1985, the low end computer market was already dominated by the C-64 and littered with the carcasses of failed competitors (the MSX similar Adam, among them). There was no longer any room for new 16K - 64K spec 8-bit computers. PAL territories (which were still receptive to new low end machines) got a few with some reasonable support, but they really only took off in Japan, which is why they saw two additional revisions to the spec.

 

^This^ is pretty much confirmed by an old Computer Chronicles episode (4/8/1985) in an interview with Jack Tramiel (Atari).

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMD2nF7meDI

 

Time in video at: 12:19 - 13:31

 

On a side note, its interesting to see the host of Computer Chronicles in 1985 at a Toys R Us next to a large isle of Computers and software. I'm pointing that out for any of the younger collectors who think all things video game died after the crash.

Edited December 28, 2015 by pboland

[mhutch]

Yes, definitely available. I have a full working SV-318 with cassette device still in its box. See photos attached. What do you think it's worth? I used it to write a snake game and some auto-evolving art (using continuously overlapping sprites) in the 70's. It's amazing what we could do with 16kb ROM & RAM! Those were the days!

[mhutch]

Sorry, it was the 80's not 70's.

[mhutch]

And 32kb not 16kb.

[HDTV1080P]

The Coleco ADAM appears to be much more popular in the United States when compared to the Spectravideo computer system. At ATARIAGE there is a dedicated ColecoVision/ADAM forum since a minimum of 500,000 Coleco ADAM’s were sold and a minimum of 2 million ColecoVisions were sold. How many Spectravideo computer systems were sold worldwide or in the USA? I am guessing 100,000 or less.

 

Its extremely hard to find a working NTSC Spectravideo with a working power supply.

[mhutch]

I have a working Spectravideo SV-318 plus cassette deck plus games (see photo). All as good as new.