At 06:03 PM 06/14/98 +0200, you wrote:
>Sorry to say, but I think you should go for the Turbo-R. The Z380 project
>is still under developement and I doubt if it will ever be finished.
And if it will be finished, it will take quite some time. It's not just the
Z380 they have to get to work, they have to make a new memory mapper, a new
bus etc.
>Over
>here in Holland MSX is slowly dying (example was the fair in Tilburg, which
>had a lack of visitors).
I had the impression that this year's Tilburg had about as much visitors as
the year before. Anyway, I had a great time. I think I even talked to you a
bit (you live in the same town as Jorrith, right?).
>I saw a booth where they where showing a prototype
>of the Z380, but if it worked........ that's what they didn't demonstrate
>as far as I can remember.
It didn't work yet. But they were still gathering info, not working on the
electronics.
>In the last 2 years many ppl announced they where busy with something
>(especially software) and after a few months they leave it as is, without
>releasing anything.
Yes, that happens much too often.
>About the Turbo-R; the speed is ok but it still has it disadvantages (eg.
>the slow V9958 and some bad written software doesn't run on it).
Both involve the S1990 engine. There was a discussion about the mapper
problem on this list a couple of weeks ago. The slow V9958 access is also
caused by the S1990, but it's only a bit slower than MSX2+, so it doesn't
really matter.
>And about MSX2000.......... well I hope that we'll make it but as far as I
>can see now the end of 1999 or halfway 2000 MSX is totally dead over here
>(sad but true).
People have been saying things like that for almost 10 years now. As long
as some of us still regularly boot up our MSXes, it's not dead.
>- IBM compatibles have taken over the market
True, but MSX and PC are so different nowadays, they are hardly competitors.
>- MSX had it advantages, but it's slow and old (Be realistic, it's the
>truth)
True again. I don't mind though.
>- Lack of widely distributed hardware for an affordable price (this also
>includes 2nd hand stuff..... who wants to pay $500 for a Turbo-R nowadays,
>while you shouldn't pay more than $100 for that bunch of outdated
>electronics? And then I even won't mention the MSX2).
Turbo R (especially ST) is available at $300 or less.
MSX2 is available at $50-$75.
I think most people with a part time or full time job can afford such a price.
>- Lack of software (have you seen anything really interesting for the last
>few months??)
Fighter's Ragnarok was nice.
>- There's still a lot of 'backstabbing' between MSX groups (those kids
>never learn!)
Compared to the old days, backstabbing has decreased very much. There may
be a few feuds still going on, but most groups get along fine and even work
on projects together.
>- More and more real programmers leave the scene (nowadays it seems ppl can
>only make music disks and call themselves 'programmers', because they can
>make 'such a nice analyser').
The real programmers are still around, they just don't program much. When I
read this list and the newsgroup, I am often amazed how many people know
quite a lot about programming.
I guess programming is not really a "relaxing" activity, so if you have
been studying or working all day, you don't easily start coding in the
evening. Especially if your work or study involves coding as well...
>When I have repaired my Turbo-R GT, I will be back in business too. I still
>have some plans and unfinished programs (no, not a music disk :-] ). I
>won't tell what it is, or when it will be finished, but if I finish it, it
>will be freeware of course (if I wanted to get rich with MSX I had to have
>released these programs about 8 years ago or so).
I'm looking forward to your releases!
Bye,
Maarten
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