website/content/museum/sony-hit-bit-55.md

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Sony Hit-Bit 55	Computers	name image company company_name tabs photos adverts hardware emulators links comments related oc_id source Hit-Bit 55 /media/museum/photos/sony_hitbit55_system_s3.jpg /companies/sony Sony photos adverts hardware emulators links title subtitle text image SILVER MODEL /media/museum/photos/sony_hitbit55_system_s4.jpg title subtitle text image RED MODEL /media/museum/photos/sony_hb55_red_1.jpg title subtitle text image LEFT & RIGHT SIDES Two joystick connectors are located on the right side. /media/museum/photos/sony_hitbit55_sides_s1.jpg title subtitle text image KEYBOARD CLOSE-UP In spite of its flat keys, the keyboard has a goof typing feeling. /media/museum/photos/sony_hitbit55_keyboard_s1.jpg title subtitle text image REAR CONNECTORS **(1)** Expansion connector, protected by a plastic lid\ **(2)** RF/aerial video output\ **(3)** Parallel printer connector\ **(4)** Tape recorder DIN socket (In, Out and remote control).\ **(5)** Composite PAL video output, some models had a RGB output, depending on the country they were sold.\ Pal pinouts:\ 1 - +12v\ 2 - Composite video out\ 3 - Ground\ 5 - Not used\ 6 - Audio out /media/museum/photos/sony_hitbit55_rearside_s1.jpg title subtitle text image MOTHERBOARD **(1)** Z80 microporsessor, here a Sharp version\ **(2)** Yamaha sound generator chip, AY-8910 equivalent\ **(3)** 16 KB user RAM (8x4116)\ **(4)** 16K BASIC and 8K built-in applications ROMs\ **(5)** TMS 9929 video chip and its heat sink\ **(6)** 16 KB video RAM (8x4116)\ **(7)** Keyboard connectors\ **(8)** Power supply connector\ **(9)** 8255 I/O chip\ **(10)** Provision is made for a SCART interface and socket. /media/museum/photos/sony_hitbit55_mainboard_s1.jpg title subtitle text image INSIDE ELECTRONICS One can spot the power transformer and a rather complicated add-on card which holds the power regulation and video output components. /media/museum/photos/sony_hitbit55_inside_s3.jpg title subtitle text image BOOT SCREEN Boot screen allowing to select built-in firmware options or the Basic interpreter. Thanks to **Jorge A. Gutiérrez** /media/museum/photos/sony_hitbit55_bootscreen_s1.jpg title subtitle text image BUILT-IN SOFTWARE This is the HB-55 running the built-in schedule software... /media/museum/photos/sony_hb55_in-use.jpg title subtitle text image JAPANESE ADVERT (1984) /media/museum/pubs/sony_hb55_jap-pub_1.jpg title subtitle text image SONY EXPANSIONS This is a most complete HB-55 system with a Sony monitor, disk-drive, printer, joystick and infra-red controller, game cartridges, memory cartridge, etc. /media/museum/hardware/sony_hb55_complete.jpg title subtitle text image NATIONAL CF-2131 16 KB RAM expansion /media/museum/hardware/national_cf2131_16k-cart.jpg title subtitle text image CASIO OR-216 - 16 KB RAM EXPANSION Box /media/museum/hardware/casio_or216_16kbramexpansion_box.jpg title subtitle text image PHILIPS RAM EXPANSION RAM expansion and LOGO language cartridges. Thanks to Daniele from Italy /media/museum/hardware/philips_vg8020_cartridges_s1.jpg title subtitle text image MEGA RAM DISK 256 from DDX (Brazil) This is the famous Megaram cartridge made in Brzail, used to play all Konami cracked Megarom games.6401999243 /media/museum/hardware/msx_megaram256-ddx_1.jpg title subtitle text image PANASONIC FS-IFA1 & FW-RSU1W Scanner/Printer interface 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. /media/museum/hardware/msx_fs-ifa1_fw-rsu1w.jpg title subtitle text image SONY HBI-232 RS232c cartridge Used to connect serial printers. /media/museum/hardware/sony_msx_rs232c-cartridge.jpg title subtitle text image YAMAHA MOUSE #1 This mouse was compatible with all MSX systems. It connects to the first Joystick port. Thanks to **www.zonadepruebas.com** /media/museum/hardware/yamaha_mouse_s2.jpg title subtitle text image YAMAHA MOUSE #2 Brand new! Thanks to **www.zonadepruebas.com** /media/museum/hardware/yamaha_mouse_s1.jpg title subtitle text image PHILIPS VW0020 80-col dot-matrix printer 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. /media/museum/hardware/philips_vg8020_printervw0020_s1.jpg title subtitle text image SANYO PHC-DR II Side /media/museum/hardware/sanyo_phc-drii_side_1.jpg title subtitle text image SANYO PHC-DR II Front /media/museum/hardware/sanyo_phc-drii_front_1.jpg title subtitle text image SANYO DR-202 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. /media/museum/hardware/sanyo_phc28_dr202tapedrive_s1.jpg title subtitle text image NATIONAL RQ-8030 tape-recorder /media/museum/hardware/national_tape_rq8030.jpg title subtitle text image BIT-CORDER Cassete recorder dedicated to Hit-Bit MSX systems, though it could be used with any home computers. /media/museum/hardware/sony_hb201_bitcorder_1.jpg title url platform text fMSX for MS DOS Homepage http://www.komkon.org/~dekogel/fmsx.html MS DOS title url platform text BlueMSX http://www.bluemsx.com/ Windows Excellent free MSX emulator title url platform text BrMSX http://www.lsi.usp.br/~ricardo/brmsx.htm Windows A Bresilian MSX Emulator written in 100% assembler title url platform text CompuJunk's MSX Emulator http://ftp.castel.nl/msx/ Windows A MSX1 and MSX2 Emulator title url platform text RuMSX http://members.eunet.at/lexlechz/msx.html Windows A MSX Emulator for Win95 and Win NT + Direct X title url platform text fMSX for MAC OS Homepage http://www.emulation.net/msx/index.html Apple title url platform text fMSX official Homepage http://www.komkon.org/fms/fMSX Multiplatform 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 url platform text openMSX - The MSX emulator that aims for perfection. http://openmsx.sourceforge.net/ Multiplatform 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. title url text Baboo! http://www.baboo.net/baboo.shtml MSX dedicated Yahoo clone. Essential ! title url text FILE-HUNTER.COM http://www.file-hunter.com/ Excellent! All MSX emulators, sources and utilities! title url text FTP da MSXBr-L/MSX.Org.Br http://www.caetano.eng.br/msxsoft/ Excellent brasilian software archive title url text MOAI TECH http://www.moai-tech.com/ Spanish/English website with interesting content title url text MSX Hardware List http://www.faq.msxnet.org/hardware.html An impressive list of MSX hardware. The Bible !!! title url text MSX Ressource Center http://www.msx.org/ Essential site ! title url text Possi's Konami MSX Page http://dynamo.geol.msu.ru/MSX/ Nice page dedicated to all Konami MSX games (roms, scans, mids, etc.) title url text The MSX Games Box http://www.msxgamesbox.com All about MSX gaming (games, covers.etc.). More Fun, Less Mhz! title url text The MSX Museum BOX http://www.msxmuseumbox.com More than 190 different MSX models in pictures. title url text The ultimate MSX Faq http://www.faq.msxnet.org Here, you can find near all hardware pieces related to MSX. title url text Web Wiz CAPTCHA http://www.webwizcaptcha.com The MSX home computer system author date text Roger Jowett (Ulster Londonderry) Saturday 6th April 2013 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v$zsjTpFR0oYQ please help we have zx spectrum 48k and one 128k program running at 6mhz using external ram and snapper discs from velesoft site author date text ESLES (DSS) Tuesday 17th January 2012 My first computer... I love It! author date text ESLES (DSS) Tuesday 17th January 2012 My first computer... I love It! author date text Alberto (Madrid (Spain)) Friday 3rd January 2003 :) ooh I really love the Sony MSX machines... thankyou very much for this info. Best regards. /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-75 /museum/spectravideo-svi-728 /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-64 784 url date https://web.archive.org/web/20230328221645/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=784 2023-03-28

The Hit-Bit 55 was a classic MSX1 computer. It was very similar to the Hit-Bit 75. Its most distinctive sign was its flat but good quality keyboard. It was one of the few MSX with the Philips VG-8000 to have a low-cost keyboard.

Unlike the HB-75, it had only 16 KB RAM. There was a built-in software (scheduler and memo) which was a kind of cut-down version of the one built-in the HB-75, program size was only 8 KB against 16 KB on the HB-75, it seems that some version had the 16 KB version though. To save files made with this apps, a 4K S-RAM non-volatile cartridge was used (called HBI-55).

The Hit-Bit 55 was clearly marketed as the low-range MSX model of the Hit-Bit serie. It was also available in a red and black cases.

We need more info about this console ! If you designed, used, or have more info about this system, please send us pictures or anything you might find useful.