Added: 5 years ago
From: GuruLarry
Views: 96,674
Sort by time | Sort by thread (beta)

Link to this comment:

Share to:
see all

All Comments (269)

Sign In or Sign Up now to post a comment!
  • Wow... BillG foresaw "smart TVs" in 1984 at least 23-24 years before it happened.

  • Not mush significant change. lol

  • What yea ris this?

  • i have 6 MSX machines,,,,Hit Bit, Toshiba etc,,,,WORLDS BEST! allways works!

  • Is it weird that I find him handsome and hot?

  • @CChedwige NO! I was about to say that X)

  • @CChedwige if youre a girl no, girls goes for the wallet :)

  • @saigon1337 Lol you're not completely wrong. But i'll true to my comment :)

  • anyone know what year this was?

  • @malBOROkid It was June 1984. I got flung out of Dixons for playing about on their QL computer.

  • @malBOROkid 1984 I think.

  • Mr. Sinclair is right that the MSX never became very popular in Britain but in the rest of the world it was very popular indeed. Conversely I don't think the Spectrum ever became popular anywhere other than in the U.K.

  • <3 Dragon 32. My first ever computer.

  • MSX never had one, never saw one, and never knew anyone who had one. I think they had one in Tandy`s.

    So as far as I`m concerned it didn't do well, But hell spec wise it sounded very nice don't they do a "One chip MSX" recent or did that come to nothing.

    Someone should do a one chip Spec and a one chip c64.

    Weird how Bill "mystic meg" Gates saw all this stuff coming 20 years plus later crystal ball glasses.

    I Never saw a QL either even now 20 years on. sounded odd, and micro drives were crap.

  • @blackcountryme was very popular in Belgium Germany and especially The Netherlands, so much that i knew more ppl with msx than commodore

  • ha ha ha, bill gates's glasses are funny

  • The Plus 4 and the 16 were a huge error.

  • Funny how the Yamaha MSX seemed the best because of the midi, yet had half the memory of the others.

  • Wow that bald guy with the glasses is probably dead! 0_0

  • @midarkmind If you mean Sir Clive Sinclair, he's very much still with us.

  • Wow that guy is probably dead! 0_0

  • Now this is RETRO

  • Still the mainstay of today is the PC that can play games at HIGHEST res and graphics most sound chan etc will exceed all other operations and apps easily.

  • Wow! It's almost as though YOUNG MS Gates was behind the time while AHEAD of the market. He would have been SCUM if the INTERNET was a widespread product of 1970...

  • 5:18 FLY ME TO THE MOON. 11:30 THATS THE WORST LANGUAGE LEARNING METHOD EVER. 12:44 "REMEMBER IT ISN'T JUST A FREE SOFTWARE GIVE AWAY. YOU DO HAVE TO DO SOME WORK IF YOU WANT TO TAKE PART IN IT". SO HONEST. USUALLY YOU SEE SOMETHING "FREE" EVERYWHERE AND INTERNET ADVERTISEMENTS BUT THERES ALWAYS A CATCH. I GUESS AMERICANS BEING BETTER AT LIEING THAN THE BRITISH IS WHAT HELPED US SUCCEED AS OPPOSED TO OUR POPULLATION RESOURCES AND INTELLIGENCE. GOTTA GET EFFICIENTLY AND MILEAGE INSTEAD OF BLOAT. 

  • MSX comes from an alternate universe where Microsoft was a successful PC and game console developer in Japan in the early 80's. Something that would be absolute absurdity on this side of the membrane.

  • 1:55 that's my boy! woot woot! eff jobs and the tight ass turtle neck he rode in on.

  • Kotaku took your video for a review!

  • Software compatibility! What a concept!

  • @KTP200

    In English please! Words were too complex!

  • I'm writing that postcard as we speak!

  • 9.0 secs...why don't women wear dresses any more?

  • MSX was just a precursor of thing to come in the following decade.

    think about it: a bunch of machines manufactured by different companies and the only thing they have in common is the OS?

  • The presenter knows nothing. He doesnt even know that your not supposed to pull out a cartidge while the machines switched on.

  • Commodore, despite making some amazing machines, really do look like they didnt have a fucking clue!

  • Sinclair was a lying bastard! MSX was much more powerful than the Zx Spectrum.

  • @LawrenceHill2010 Sir Clive is a genius! You're right about MSX being so much better than he said.

  • MSX was awesome. I had a Toshiba HX10. The Konami carts were the best and the Toshiba joystick was the best controller ever.

  • hard times:)

  • OMG on 1:12 he could have burned # #

  • Microsoft Windows: Holding back pc's since 1985.

  • 01:15 OMG! first time i know this ! i always shut down MSX then put another cartridge LOL

  • It seems the QL was a major mess, from inception, through to production, and even the marketing. Fancy not including an instruction manual!

  • What a bullshitter Sir Clive was. 3-4 times faster? They were basically the same computer. Comparing his white elephant QL to a home machine like a MSX was like comparing a... I'm bored of this analogy.

  • Is Bill Gates Kermit's voice?

  • The more I see the MSX machine the more I like em. I've just purchased a Yamaha CX5M II/128, looking forward to testing out its 1 third the power of a spectrum capabilities :D Was that a bar of soap lodged into the back of the C16? 09:21 lol.

  • Most great ideas in the last hundred years were thought of by brits and developed and capitalized better by americans. Computers, the internet and the web are a good example of this.

  • Well Gates fathers side is all from England so he IS English. I wonder how old he is there? Judging by the time time of the video I'd say he's in his late 20s. Most likely 28.

  • MSX rules!! The Sinclair computers sux!

  • Dont want to look like a troll, but did you notice how sincere Sir Clive was, admitting mistakes and then putting them right. What a guy.

  • @bazfanv2 From what i've read though, it was Sir Clive's fault the QL was in such a bad state to begin with. It was rushed into production and announced way too early. They were fixing basic design problems well after its actual release.

  • Trip Hawkins tried again in the early 90s with the 3DO to get a common standard. Like MSX it failed.

  • Nice quote there by sir Clive @08:18 "the spectrum(48) is roughly two or three times more powerfull as the MSX machines" (diverting attentenion from the missing backwards compatibility" hehehe!

  • Clive Sinclair was so good in this interview, with an immediate and convincing answer for every question. He is a legend. Long live Sir Clive.

  • I love the way he swaps cartridges. It seems he do not know about the on/off switch.

  • And it could interchange the cartridges without turn the machines off. Bill Gates young nerd, etc. Amazing!

  • @Helderhugo that hot-plugging made me cringe too :/

    brrr...

  • On rogerpenna and ZXRulezz concerns about having to switch off the machine before changing the cartridges, I don't believe it was a real issue... I've learned from Brazilian MSX models that whenever the cartridge slot is opened, main board power is automatically turned off and on, so a system reset follows.

  • Bill Gates was quite forward thinking. At this time a lot of people thought computers should be for business use only. It's a pity the accuntants rule the world now.

  • Currently, the winner in setting the computer standard: Intel.

    Why?

    If you're running Windows, it's going to be on a computer based on the x86 or x86-64 standard. If you're running Mac OS X in its current iteration, again, same standard. If it's Linux, again, same standard.

    Even if you use an AMD processor, it's running on the x86 architecture, which is an Intel standard.

    Intel won because most software runs on their architecture. Only exception: modern video games running on PowerPC.

  • @Watcher3223 x86-64 even though based on x86 was from AMD first.

  • @Watcher3223 x86-64 even though based on x86 was from AMD first.

  • MSX - my very first computer... Classic.

  • They were all pretty much the same as I remember, except the Yamaha which only had 32K but had 8 channel sound.

  • 1:12 He should turn off these computers before swapping cartridges

  • I was thinking exactly the same thing.

  • to many talking... more games.... nice computers... not thad shit like today... just some pure old keybord with casset player

  • Good ol' days hey?

  • @pongboy1100 ur username is pongboy1100... nuff said

  • brits lost

  • brits always win

  • @GuruLarry not the revolutionary war :3

  • @Dimatizer brits allways win

  • Penguin adventure!

  • sorry... rick wakeman!

  • database had a great themetune (by alan wakeman). Anyone point me in the direction of a full mp3 version?

  • Bill Gates was always teh evil!!!!

  • Yeah guy, you're right!

  • good old days

  • People may say whatever they wish, but MSX had a lot of firsts:

    The first computer to use 3.1/2 floppies

    The first home computer with video imposing capabilities integrated on and supported natively on the OS without extra software.

    The first music computer with MIDI capabilities (actually Yamaha developed MIDI for the MSX originally)

    And they had MS Windows in mind for MSX2 ...

    Funny enough IBM got sued and was obligated to open the IBM/PC standard. MS dumped the MSX and went patriotic... lol

  • I used to go to the Earls Court Computer show every year.

  • I think it is quite sad that we lost the variety in the computer world. Compatibility is all very well but half the excitement was seeing how far programmers could push a certain machine to beat the others. Those who say that the market was unsustainable should look at today's games console market where games are still written for several different platforms successfully.

  • It is worth noting though that deep down, the console platforms aren't that hugely different either. While the hardware is all over the place, the actual rendering is based on either OpenGL or DirectX. Hardware abstraction lets them get away with a lot of flexibility.

  • LMAO at that Commodore numb-nut trying to big up the +4 and Commodore 16

  • Horrible horrible business descision. The plus 4 was susposed to be a low priced computer to compete at the timex sinclairs level.

  • Commodore outsold sinclair by millions so i don't know what the interveiwer is talking about british taking the lead in computers. Maybe I heard it wrong. The msx computers were pieces of junk its funny how history turns out.

  • MSX was very popular elsewhere in the world. Many of today's game franchises all started on MSX such as Metal Gear. As far as Clive Sinclair, he was known to...blatantly lie to puff up his own company and status. It's disappointing that there are so few ITV Database and BBC Micro videos available to view online these days.

  • Since the video references Dragon going bust (1984) and the CBM 64 still cost £399 at the time compared to £150 for Spectrum, I doubt they were ahead at the time the programme was made.

  • They had destroyed Ti by this time and the spectrum was never considered more than a toy in the united states.

  • @Lumotaku I know this comment was a long time ago, but I just have to comment on it. The MSX was not junk by any means. The MSX1 standard was more capable then a Sinclair, not the other way around as Sir Clive states. The graphics capabilities of even the MSX1 blow the Sinclair out of the water. 2 words - Attribute Clash. The problem here is that there were a LOT of crappy ports of spectrum games to the MSX in the british market. Game companies who wanted to get their game quickly onto the MSX

  • Continuing previous post - And did not bother to take advantage of the superior hardware of the MSX. This is just talking about the MSX1, this says nothing about the MSX2, MSX2+, or the MSX Turbo-R. I own an MSX Turbo-R and a Sinclair +3, the top of the line of both ranges, and let me say there is no comparison. I challenge anyone to look at the BEST sinclair game they can find and compare it to the likes of Space Manbow or Snatcher/SD Snatcher etc and say the spectrum is better. 

  • And by the way, I love the speccy, it's great in it's own way. I run a computer museum here in Vancouver, BC and every classic machine has a place in my heart. By the way, for all the speccy lovers out there, you should see some amazing extensions to the spectrum standard coming out of Russia right now. Check out the PentEvo/ZX Evolution from NedoPC. Have any questions about NedoPC's products, write to Roman from NedoPC, he's a great guy and he speaks english well, he will answer your questions.

  • Insightful vision from Bill Gates, but of course, Sinclair was right. This was the days before high-level hardware abstraction, so trying to keep software compatibility by keeping hardware the same can't have seemed like a good idea (and it turned out it wasn't) what with Moore's law and whatnot.

  • gail wellington from commodore seems like shes reading from a script :|

  • Nishi's Eng'R'ish is funny.

  • LOL @ the Sinclair QL with "the bit out the back". Could you imagine these days buying the latest laptop and finding that the unfinished operating system was on a PCB board dongled out the back?

  • @SNK038 when you think about the number of software updates on PC's, consoles, BluRay players and phones Sir Clive was ahead of the curve on delivering half finished, ill thought out machines that left you at the mercy of the manufacturer.

  • Or Sir Clive Sinclair come to that....

  • I can barely believe that asshole from "Data Base" actually interviewed Bill Gates

  • This is the origin of the Xbox. Bill Gates' decades long obsession with integrating Microsoft products with computing into the TV set in the living room.

  • Wow, brings back memories. Those were the days.

  • lol i used to love these old machines.. looking at em now is awsome even though my fkin mouse is probably more powerfull xD

  • I like this music in the intro :D

  • same here

  • Yeah, sound like Prog Rock.

  • it was actually rick wakeman who done the theme tune.

  • Thank you very much for the information.

  • yeah i remember i saw a video on here and it was about music and computers, and it cut to him playing the theme tune on the keyboard in the studio. the video isnt on here anymore though :(

  • :(...

    Oh, that's pretty sad.

  • lmao @ clive sinclair epic failing.

  • Sir Clive Sinclair is on crack. MSX and the so called japanese companies did very well in both markets. Wow this guy is full of it.

  • He's just as much a marketing guy as he was an inventor, so what do you expect?

    But I dont' recall them ever for sale in the UK.

  • The guy swap the cartdridges without turn off !!

    I did damage my Mega-Ram Cartridge doing it... lol...

  • I used to see these computers come out at the Goodwill clearance outlet back a few years ago before Goodwill got greedy and started to sell computers seperately.I rememer in 2001 people would scramble to get their hands on a pentium1 and damn if they were lucky to get a Pentium 2 .These machines were left to rot somewhere in a dump site.They probably have historic or sentimental and nostalgic value.Next Windows OS name should be - For Sake of Windows 1.0

  • Little did the people in this video back then know that 25 years later modern-day computers would be as advanced as they are.

  • Great video!

    My MSX Sony HitBit..... and Sir Clive speaking... what emotion :)))

  • Bring back Windows 3.1!!!!!

  • lol It's a hell of a lot more stable than Vista !

  • haha thats a nice one :D

  • Oh my, white Canon V-20!!

  • did you know the theme tune was written by rick wakeman

  • bill has incredible vision and it shows through his business success

  • Ahh, but do you know the behind story on how archived such 'business success?'

  • He pronounced sony wrong lol "sonny"

  • That's how Sony originally invosioned their name, they thought it sounded like "Sunny".

  • @GuruLarry

    Sonus + Sunny = Sony

    "Sonus" is a latin word for "sound" while "sunny" was in reference to how bright the people who founded and worked at Sony were.

  • @c64kid Pronouncing it "Sonny" is actually the correct way!

  • (skip ahead) Bill Gates interview starts at 1:56

  • very cool. thanks for posting this!

  • thanks for sharing this video, that was the golden era of computer industry

  • hi,who can tell me what's the title of the music at the start of the video?I've hearted it before,but it's been deleted. thank you.

  • Comment removed

  • Rightly or wrongly, Bill Gates was pretty much spot on in predicting the future and Sinclair just looks a like a complete willyboy, when you watch this vid

  • Sinclair research..lol cause he was so arrogant,he's bloody company is no more...MICROSOFT BITCHES!!

  • ZOMG imagine if i could run games on both my toshiba and my asus! that will make poor IBM go bankrupt!

  • ya well, IBM became Lenovo, they were never the same :(

  • IBM never became Lenovo. IBM decided to completely remove itself from the consumer PC market and to do so, they SOLD their consumer lines, namely the Think Pad, to Lenovo, a completely seperate company.

  • its like a sega mega drive  lol

  • my dad raided his liquor cabinet and the chip prices got fucked up yeah the materials are made with slave labor bill gates is ok with slavery you are his slave enjoy we couldnt do better thanks asshole i can't kill you

  • is this da computer fair @ san francisco..?

  • Computers were much more fun in those days.

  • I wonder what happened to that Gates chap...

  • Can I go back in time and refund my copy of MS-DOS and buy Microsoft stock instead?

  • im lonely

    oooouch!! ne

  • That Sinclair fellow got it exactly wrong!!!

  • Annoying intro music!

    I used to have a Toshiba MSX - Great machine with a really nice keyboard.

  • bill gates is tha man!!

  • Ok, that first message was a response to aufsturz, and the second to bluekads (stupid youtube commenting system).

  • sign me up

  • I remember playing a role play game on my Dragon, still have it in the attic (dont think it will run Vista)

  • I didnt remember that you could hot swap the cartridges!! nice one ! I never had an MSX but some friends did and I remember how desirable the SONY MSX was !!!

  • You are true! You might do it but you had to reset the computer in order to run them!

  • Theres a notch on the cartridges that MSX computers could use to embed a power switch in the cartridge slot, which would automatically switch off the computer if you are pulling out the cartridge, to prevent damage. The NES has a similar mechanism, I think.

    Ive never actually seen it though, I think it was only used in some MSX1 computers. And I would not recommend the practice, especially on an MSX without such a switch, as I experienced myself once :).

  • What happened?

  • ....The Bit about the 'Dragon computers' 'going bust' scared the cr*p outta me!!!!

  • Awesome video! And it was made the same year I was born (bit of useless info for you)

    You gotta love these tech relics, I miss my speccy 128k, amstrad and amiga 500! I never had a Commodore 64 as my mate did so we would swap computers because I loved Fiendish Freddys Big Top'o Fun (more usless info for you!)

    Great stuff as usual Larry.

  • I wish the MSX was released here...

    T_T

  • Being from the UK i never even heard of the MSX until reicentley. But then i was only two at the time this video came out :-/

  • Wahaha, I just noticed he's hot-swapping a Konami Antarctic Adventure cart from the left machine to the right at the beginning...jeez, I wouldn't try that myself.

    And Bill Gates talking about a one-chip MSX...in 1984 :) Of course, the "built into a TV set" idea sounds like one of Sony's very old fascinations with a set-top box that does everything (the PS3 is closer to that goal, but we're still not there yet)

  • ask bill gates, "yeah , i know the homie snoop."

  • bill gates is a nerd

  • Then, I want to be a nerd.

  • A RICH one might I add!

  • its ot for the money, its for the talent

  • As a Spectrum owner I worshipped Sir Clive. But him stating that a Spectrum was twice as powerful as an MSX is absolute rubbish: the machines even shared the same Z80 processor! :)

  • I agree. MSX superior to the Spectrum. Although they had the same processor, video display on the MSX was better and so was the sound.

  • Sir Clive should've hammered away at the price difference, I think.

  • If ITV started putting programmes like this out again, at this quality then I'd definitely start watching them again.

  • the same software running on different computers??? wow, can't wait for that

  • I like the ripping bass alongside a... pan pipe?

  • The MSX was an awesome idea, just a little early to catch on worldwide. A few years later we had IBM compatibles and they turned into the PC we know today. This was really innovative to have lots of manufacturers making compatible computers.

    I had a Sony HIT BIT MSX, with SO many cassette games! I learned BASIC and lots of hardware interface programming before I was 9 years old!

  • how did that work out for you?

  • Lol poor misguided Clive Sinclair, I loved my Spectrum 48k, I was sure Spectrum was destinedto dominate the market right up until 2004, I wonder when Clive will stop believing :D