 | |
| Developer | Spectravideo |
|---|---|
| Type | Home computer |
| Release date | 1985 |
| Introductory price | £399.99 (UK) 440000PLZ (Poland) |
| Media | 3+1⁄2-inch floppy disks, ROM cartridge, cassette tapes |
| Operating system | MSX BASIC MSX-DOS CP/M 2.2 |
| CPU | Zilog Z80A @ 3.58 MHz |
| Memory | 64 KB (+16 KB video memory) |
| Display | 256x192 pixel resolution, 256 colours |
| Input | Keyboard |
| Related | SVI-728 |
The Spectravideo SVI-738 X'Press is an MSX1 compatible home computer manufactured by Spectravideo from 1985. Although compatible with the MSX 1.0 standard, it incorporates several extensions to the standard (80-column display, serial RS-232, built-in 3.5" floppy drive); many are hardware-compatible with the MSX 2.0 standard[citation needed] but the system as a whole is not, leading to it being referred to as an "MSX 1.5" computer.
Along with the Sony HB-101, Canon V-8, Casio MX-10 and Hitachi MB-H1, it was a portable computer based on the MSX standard[citation needed], hence the title "X'Press". It came packaged with its own carrying bag in addition to the manuals, booklets and software (CP/M 2.2 and MSX-DOS 1.0) a disk containing a special demonstration program featuring an astronaut flying about on the screen, demonstrating the computer's graphic capabilities and listing facts about the computer's ROM and RAM sizes.
Along with the disk drive and integrated serial port, what stood out the most was the use of the graphics chip specified by the MSX-2 standard, although the use of only 16 KB of VRAM allowed you to add only an 80 column mode. This, together with bugs in the first model's design (Konami SCC-sound based cartridges do not work or have bad sound) are among the reasons for the "MSX 1.5" moniker.
It ran Microsoft Disk BASIC 1.0 from ROM when turned on if no disk or a non-autoexecutable disk was inserted.