This system is a MSX Turbo R. It is one of the last MSX computer ever made. It is the successor of the MSX 2+ systems and thus has many characteristics in common. New features include a new PCM sound chip which can sample sound up to 15 KHz and replay up to 22 kHz. There is an internal microphone for the PCM unit. There is also an additional CPU, the R800 wich is a 16-bit RISC processor. The user can select the CPU (Z80 or R800) by software.
The FS-A1 GT follows the FS-A1 ST, and so introduces some improvements over it. Due to some minor bugs discovered, the mainboard is a bit different (e.g. FM-PAC part is redesigned to decrease influence of the noise from computer's digital parts). The MSX-BASIC, version 4.1 instead of 4.0, has MIDI extensions. Indeed the FS-A1 GT has a MSX-MIDI interface built-in with MIDI in/out connectors! The RAM size is of 512 KB, instead of 256 KB. The MSX-DOS is now version V2.31. There is a SVHS video port and the size of the SRAM is now 32 KB.
MSX View, developed by ASCII & HAL, is a Windows-style graphic interface. It is built-in ROM. The OS is delivered with programs such as Page Edit, PageView, Page Link, VShell, VTed, VPaint and VDraw) on 512kB ROM DISK (C: drive). There is no tape recorder port, so strictly speaking, it's not an MSX!
Panasonic stopped the production of the Turbo R when they launched the 3DO game system in 1992. They failed with this system and never returned to MSX.
Lot of extensions, however, were produced by third-party companies to enhance the Turbo R, among them, an OPL4 Sound Card, a VGA card with lot of hardware sprites and IDE or SCSI interfaces.
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Source : The Ultimate MSX FAQ
David Heremans reports:
There is a mixed mode where you can have +4096 colors
simultaneously with an extra 16 indexed colors so that still pictures in
full color can be displayed while the index palatte of 16 redefinable colors
can be used for all kind of effects. But trying to display that would
probably be a litle long for the small space reserved for it on the
page.
Please consider donating your old computer / videogame system to Old-Computers.com or one of our partners from anywhere in the world (Europe, America, Asia, etc.).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v$zsjTpFR0oYQ
please help trying to convert 8bit video for sam coupe this is still not mode 3 interlaced with hmpr bit 5$6 CLUT alterations per scan line HELP we only need a DMA... masterdos/basic atom lite support
