--- title: Spectravideo SVI 728 categories: - Computers types: - Home Computer origins: - U.S.A. years: - '1984' cpus: - Zilog Z80 params: name: SVI 728 image: /media/museum/photos/spectravideo_svi728_3.jpg company: /companies/spectravideo company_name: Spectravideo specs: - label: NAME value: SVI 728 - label: MANUFACTURER value: Spectravideo - label: TYPE value: Home Computer - label: ORIGIN value: U.S.A. - label: YEAR value: May 1984 - label: BUILT IN LANGUAGE value: Microsoft Extended Basic (MSX Basic V1.0) - label: KEYBOARD value: |- QWERTY, mechanical enhanced keyboard\ Numeric keypad, 90 keys - label: CPU value: Zilog Z80 - label: SPEED value: 3.58 MHz - label: CO-PROCESSOR value: |- VDP Texas Instruments TMS9929A (PAL/SECAM)\ VDP Texas Instruments TMS9918A (NTSC) - label: RAM value: 64 kb (max. 144 kb) - label: VRAM value: 16 kb - label: ROM value: 32 kb (max. 96 kb) - label: TEXT MODES value: |- Mode 0 : 40 x 24\ Mode 1 : 32 x 24 - label: GRAPHIC MODES value: |- Mode 2 : 256 x 192 with 16 colors (Hires mode)\ Mode 3 : 64 x 48 with 16 colors (Multi colour mode)\ 32 sprites - label: COLORS value: '16' - label: SOUND value: |- General Instruments AY-3-8910 Programmable Sound Generator\ 3 channels, 8 octaves - label: I/O PORTS value: |- 2 joystick sockets\ 1 cardridge slot\ Tape-recorder (Specialised interfaced, 2400 bps)\ RGB & Monitor video output\ Centronics port - label: OS value: MSX DOS - label: PRICE value: |- 532 (France, january 85)\ 452 (France, august 85) tabs: - photos - adverts - hardware - emulators - links forum_thread: 239 photos: - title: SVI 728 subtitle: '' text: '' image: /media/museum/photos/spectravideo_svi-728_3.jpg - title: ANOTHER PICTURE subtitle: '' text: '' image: /media/museum/photos/spectravideo_svi_728.jpg adverts: - title: NEW-ZEALAND ADVERT (OCT. 1985) subtitle: '' text: from Bits & Bytes magazine... image: null hardware: - title: SOME EXTENSIONS subtitle: RAM expansion and Disk Drive text: This is a SVI-728 with the SVI-707 5"1/4 Disk Drive (double sided, double density, 40 tracks), a SVI-747 64kb RAM extension and another one... image: /media/museum/hardware/spectravideo_svi728_extensions.jpg - title: SVI-767 subtitle: Tape-recorder text: '' image: /media/museum/hardware/spectravideo_svi767-taperecorder_1.jpg - title: SVI-787 subtitle: 3.5'' disk drive text: This drive is a 3.5", single-sided, double-density, 80-track drive and was produced in 1985. image: /media/museum/hardware/spectravideo_svi787_1.jpg - title: NATIONAL CF-2131 subtitle: 16 KB RAM expansion text: '' image: /media/museum/hardware/national_cf2131_16k-cart.jpg - title: CASIO OR-216 - 16 KB RAM EXPANSION subtitle: Box text: '' image: /media/museum/hardware/casio_or216_16kbramexpansion_box.jpg - title: PHILIPS RAM EXPANSION subtitle: '' text: |- RAM expansion and LOGO language cartridges. Thanks to Daniele from Italy image: /media/museum/hardware/philips_vg8020_cartridges_s1.jpg - title: MEGA RAM DISK 256 subtitle: from DDX (Brazil) text: This is the famous Megaram cartridge made in Brzail, used to play all Konami cracked Megarom games.6401999243 image: /media/museum/hardware/msx_megaram256-ddx_1.jpg - title: PANASONIC FS-IFA1 & FW-RSU1W subtitle: Scanner/Printer interface text: The FS-IFA1 is the printer/scanner interface (left on the picture) and the FW-RSU1W is the handheld scanner (right on the picture). These expansions are for MSX2 systems. image: /media/museum/hardware/msx_fs-ifa1_fw-rsu1w.jpg - title: SONY HBI-232 subtitle: RS232c cartridge text: Used to connect serial printers. image: /media/museum/hardware/sony_msx_rs232c-cartridge.jpg - title: 'YAMAHA MOUSE #1' subtitle: '' text: |- This mouse was compatible with all MSX systems. It connects to the first Joystick port. Thanks to **www.zonadepruebas.com** image: /media/museum/hardware/yamaha_mouse_s2.jpg - title: 'YAMAHA MOUSE #2' subtitle: '' text: |- Brand new! Thanks to **www.zonadepruebas.com** image: /media/museum/hardware/yamaha_mouse_s1.jpg - title: PHILIPS VW0020 subtitle: 80-col dot-matrix printer text: |- This printer was a rebadged version of the Seikosha GP-500.\ It was a 80-column, 50 CPS model with a 7x5 dot matrix head.\ Commodore and Atari used same hardware basis for their MPS-801 and 1029 printers. image: /media/museum/hardware/philips_vg8020_printervw0020_s1.jpg - title: SANYO PHC-DR II subtitle: Side text: '' image: /media/museum/hardware/sanyo_phc-drii_side_1.jpg - title: SANYO PHC-DR II subtitle: Front text: '' image: /media/museum/hardware/sanyo_phc-drii_front_1.jpg - title: SANYO DR-202 subtitle: '' text: The ADSS system allowed to quickly search a specific program in a cassette tape and load it. Seach time for a C60 cassette was less than 1 minute. image: /media/museum/hardware/sanyo_phc28_dr202tapedrive_s1.jpg - title: NATIONAL RQ-8030 subtitle: tape-recorder text: '' image: /media/museum/hardware/national_tape_rq8030.jpg - title: BIT-CORDER subtitle: '' text: Cassete recorder dedicated to Hit-Bit MSX systems, though it could be used with any home computers. image: /media/museum/hardware/sony_hb201_bitcorder_1.jpg emulators: - title: fMSX for MS DOS Homepage url: http://www.komkon.org/~dekogel/fmsx.html platform: MS DOS text: '' - title: BlueMSX url: http://www.bluemsx.com/ platform: Windows text: Excellent free MSX emulator - title: BrMSX url: http://www.lsi.usp.br/~ricardo/brmsx.htm platform: Windows text: A Bresilian MSX Emulator written in 100% assembler - title: CompuJunk's MSX Emulator url: http://ftp.castel.nl/msx/ platform: Windows text: A MSX1 and MSX2 Emulator - title: RuMSX url: http://members.eunet.at/lexlechz/msx.html platform: Windows text: A MSX Emulator for Win95 and Win NT + Direct X - title: fMSX for MAC OS Homepage url: http://www.emulation.net/msx/index.html platform: Apple text: '' - title: fMSX official Homepage url: http://www.komkon.org/fms/fMSX platform: Multiplatform text: 'fMSX is a portable MSX emulator ported on : Amiga OS, Mac OS, MS DOS, OS/2, Sony Playstation, Risc OS, Towns OS, Unix / X, Win95 / NT, X68K.' - title: openMSX - The MSX emulator that aims for perfection. url: http://openmsx.sourceforge.net/ platform: Multiplatform text: This new MSX emulator can reproduce, among many other MSX, MSX2and MSX2+ machines, both Panasonic Turbo-R models. Be sure to get the catapult frontend and the system roms from FUNET. links: - title: Baboo! url: http://www.baboo.net/baboo.shtml text: MSX dedicated Yahoo clone. Essential ! - title: FILE-HUNTER.COM url: http://www.file-hunter.com/ text: Excellent! All MSX emulators, sources and utilities! - title: FTP da MSXBr-L/MSX.Org.Br url: http://www.caetano.eng.br/msxsoft/ text: Excellent brasilian software archive - title: MOAI TECH url: http://www.moai-tech.com/ text: Spanish/English website with interesting content - title: MSX Hardware List url: http://www.faq.msxnet.org/hardware.html text: An impressive list of MSX hardware. The Bible !!! - title: MSX Ressource Center url: http://www.msx.org/ text: Essential site ! - title: Possi's Konami MSX Page url: http://dynamo.geol.msu.ru/MSX/ text: Nice page dedicated to all Konami MSX games (roms, scans, mids, etc.) - title: The MSX Games Box url: http://www.msxgamesbox.com text: All about MSX gaming (games, covers.etc.). More Fun, Less Mhz! - title: The MSX Museum BOX url: http://www.msxmuseumbox.com text: More than 190 different MSX models in pictures. - title: The ultimate MSX Faq url: http://www.faq.msxnet.org text: Here, you can find near all hardware pieces related to MSX. - title: Web Wiz CAPTCHA url: http://www.webwizcaptcha.com text: The MSX home computer system related: - /museum/canon-v-10 - /museum/canon-v-20 - /museum/canon-v-8 - /museum/casio-mx-10-mx-101 - /museum/casio-pv-16 - /museum/casio-pv-7 - /museum/epcom-sharp-hotbit-hb-8000 - /museum/fujitsu-fm-x - /museum/general-paxon-pct-50 - /museum/goldstar-fc-80-fc-200 - /museum/gradiente-expert-plus - /museum/gradiente-expert-xp-800 - /museum/hitachi-ah-200 - /museum/hitachi-h1-h1e - /museum/hitachi-h2 - /museum/mitsubishi-ml-f110-ml-f120 - /museum/mitsubishi-ml-f48-ml-f80 - /museum/mitsubishi-ml-fx1-fx2 - /museum/mitsubishi-ml-g10 - /museum/msx-1 - /museum/national-cf-2000 - /museum/national-cf-2700 - /museum/national-cf-3000 - /museum/national-fs-4000 - /museum/national-fs-4500 - /museum/olympia-phc-2 - /museum/panasonic-cf-2700 - /museum/philips-nms-801 - /museum/philips-vg-8000-8010 - /museum/philips-vg-8020 - /museum/philips-vg-8235 - /museum/pioneer-palcom-px-7 - /museum/sanyo-mpc-100 - /museum/sanyo-phc-28 - /museum/sanyo-phc-30 - /museum/sanyo-phc-33 - /museum/sanyo-wavy-10-mpc-10 - /museum/sanyo-wavy-23 - /museum/sanyo-wavy-3 - /museum/schneider-philips-mc-810 - /museum/sony-hit-bit-10 - /museum/sony-hit-bit-101 - /museum/sony-hit-bit-20 - /museum/sony-hit-bit-201 - /museum/sony-hit-bit-501 - /museum/sony-hit-bit-55 - /museum/sony-hit-bit-75 - /museum/toshiba-hx-10-pasopia-iq - /museum/toshiba-hx-20-hx-21-pasopia-iq - /museum/toshiba-hx-52 - /museum/victor-hc-6 - /museum/yamaha-cx5 - /museum/yamaha-cx5m-music-computer - /museum/yamaha-sx-100 - /museum/yamaha-yis-303 - /museum/yamaha-yis-503-diabolik - /museum/yashica-yc-64 - /museum/yeno-dpc-64 - /museum/yeno-mx-64 oc_id: 229 source: url: https://web.archive.org/web/20230609172057/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=229 date: '2023-06-09' --- Spectravideo was the only american MSX manufacturer, but they were later bought back by their manufacturer based in Hong-Kong. For their first computers, the [SV-318](/museum/spectravideo-sv-318/) and [328](/museum/spectravideo-sv-328/), Spectravideo asked naturally Microsoft to develop a Basic. Then, when Microsoft developped the MSX Basic, they used their previous work with Spectravideo. That's why there's always been a rumour saying that the SV-318 and 328 were [MSX](/museum/msx-1/) compatible. But that's wrong, the first Spectravideo MSX is truly the SVI-728. The SVI-728 is not really different from the other MSX 1, apart maybe from the keyboard which is very complete with its numeric keypad and also the fact that it was one of the first MSX to come with some serious extensions. Spectravideo also made a portable version of the SVI-728: the Spectravideo [SVI-738](/museum/spectravideo-svi-738-x-press/). --- More information from **Taneli Lukka** (Finland):\ SVI-728 does have a very complete keyboard, but it's also probably the worst mechanical keyboard in history. It can be best described as putting your hands in to a pile of jelly and trying to type something. The build quality of this computer is also very poor when compared to Japanese MSX machines. The machine is mainly put together using hot glue. You can't even disconnect the keyboard from the mainboard because it has no connector, it's just soldered and glued in place! Some of the machines are also not 100% MSX compliant because they don't run Konami's MegaROM/SCC-soundchip games like they are supposed to. Some machines don't run these games at all and all the others have sound problems because SVI used a wrong type of condensator next to the machines sound chip. Because of this the PSG sound chip is so loud that Konami's SCC chip can't be heard. Replacing the condensator cures the problem. Another fact is that the machine actually has two cartridge ports, but the second port on the backside has a non-standard connector, so you can only connect SVI's own disk drive into it. The pin-outs are the same as in the regular port, though. Different opinion from **Mark Dodd**:\ Mmmm, the Australian SVI-728's must have been different that the Finnish ones. At the User Group meeting in Australia we had up to 100 or more happy SVI-728 users running just about every piece of MSX1 software porduced on cartridge, tape or floppy. I can't recall a single MSX title that didn't run correctly.\ I agree the machine was harder to dismantle than than the Sony HitBit or Toshiba equivalents but hey, they had nowhere near the peripheral support and who wanted to pull apart thier machine anyway?\ And once again I would have to disagree about the keyboard. I still have my SVI-728 at home and its keyboard feel is equivalent to this Microsoft keyboard I am typing this with.