Finally, the Dragon MSX!

A place to discuss everything Dragon related that doesn't fall into the other categories.
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robcfg
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Finally, the Dragon MSX!

Post by robcfg »

Hello everyone!

Thanks to my friends at the spanish Classic Computing Users Association, who contacted David F. Gisbert aka Tromax, the owner of the only Dragon MSX known to exist, I got the chance to get the machine to photograph and scan it.

Yes! We now have the elusive Dragon MSX on the Archive in all its glory!

Check the Dragon MSX page and don't forget to take a look at the hardware pictures page to see the high quality board scans!

I think it's amazing that we now have detailed pictures and scans of all Dragon Data machines.

I hope you like it! :mrgreen:
Pernod70
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Re: Finally, the Dragon MSX!

Post by Pernod70 »

Excellent! So it has the same ROMs as the Sony HB-55/HB-75, are there any notable hardware differences from the Sony?
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robcfg
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Re: Finally, the Dragon MSX!

Post by robcfg »

I’m no MSX expert, but it seems pretty standard with nothing noticeable.

Anyway, please check the board scans just in case I missed something juicy.
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Bosco
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Re: Finally, the Dragon MSX!

Post by Bosco »

Nice work Rob!

So this machine is a `Dragon' in name only? A fascinating discovery none-the-less. :D
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robcfg
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Re: Finally, the Dragon MSX!

Post by robcfg »

Thanks Steve, glad you like it!

It's an interesting machine because it's part of Dragon Data/Eurohard history, even if it's a fairly standard MSX1 machine, and definitely worth having it finally documented at the Archive.

Cheers,
Rob
munkeyboy
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Re: Finally, the Dragon MSX!

Post by munkeyboy »

Great work Rob.
A worthy addition to the archive.
Pernod70
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Re: Finally, the Dragon MSX!

Post by Pernod70 »

I've been looking at the Sony HB-55/HB-75 in MAME and those use Sony Hit Bit branded firmware, and contain 3x16k ROMs whereas the Dragon MSX only has 2x16K.

So could I get the actual ROMs from the Dragon MSX to ensure I get them correct in MAME?
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robcfg
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Re: Finally, the Dragon MSX!

Post by robcfg »

Sure!

I've attached the roms, and also the result from MAME's romident command.
DragonMSX_Romident.png
DragonMSX_Romident.png (81.23 KiB) Viewed 7061 times
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Dragon MSX (1985)(Eurohard S.A.)[!].zip
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Pernod70
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Re: Finally, the Dragon MSX!

Post by Pernod70 »

robcfg wrote:I've attached the roms, and also the result from MAME's romident command.
Perfect thanks :) What do we think the year of release was 1984 or 1985? And who should I credit in MAME's whatsnew?
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robcfg
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Re: Finally, the Dragon MSX!

Post by robcfg »

I think it was 85, as references on the press on January 1985 said that they expected to start producing the machine by middle of that year.

As for the credits, I'd go for "David F. Gisbert aka Tromax, AUIC and Robcfg".

Thank you very much!
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