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Kingston Upon Hull

Anyone using 8bc may have already seen this, but just in case...

What I have here is an Al Alamiah AX170 computer - an Arabic MSX.

Two cartridge slots, 64K RAM, and comes with a truly astonishing game called "Pretty Sheep".
Tested it today and it's working fine.
The keyboard is dual English/Arabic, and from what I've read it came with extra Arabic front-end firmware installed, but you can override it by holding LeftCTRL while booting, taking you directly to MSX-BASIC.
The Arabic/English keyboard can be toggled by pressing Right Alt.
there's a bit more info on the firmware here:
http://www.msxblue.com/manual/ax170_c.htm

A little bit more info can be found here:
http://www.homecomputer.de/pages/f_info … AX170.html
(If this page comes up showing the Canon V-10 just click on the little image under "Related Pictures" to see the machine I'm talking about).

Pictures:






The MSX isn't boxed but I have the manuals and leads. The manuals are bilingual so you don't have to be able to read Arabic to use them. The game is boxed, but the box is a little tatty.

If trading, I'd prefer something I can use to make music. I'll but a ballpark sale price on it too, but I need to research a little first to find out what it's worth. Don't want to overprice, but don't want to totally short-change myself either.

Any other questions, just ask. smile

Last edited by Filk (May 31, 2010 6:17 pm)

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East Kilbride, Scotland
Filk wrote:

No particular price in mind so if you're interested just let me know what it's worth to you. If trading, I'd prefer something I can use to make music.

Why do people never read the rules?

"Please indicate prices on items you are selling, if you are trying to see what you can get for it use an auction site like ebay."

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Kingston Upon Hull

Ah pants, sorry!

I'll just leave this for trade for now then because I really have no clue what it's worth.
I'll have a hunt around and put a price down when I have a little more idea.
(In my defense, I have dyscalculia which makes putting monetary values on things a bit tricky for me without help).

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matt's mind

i've actually used the arabic basic OS before, just for shits and giggles (i know absolutely no arabic (written at least).

its pretty fun and has a great deal of kitsch value...  good thing this has msx-basic as well, otherwise almost pointless....

great find!  i'm curious about what price you decide upon smile

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Brooklyn NY US

I have nothing of value to contribute to this thread other than: that's a fuckin' cool machine.

And that I disagree with that one rule.

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Milwaukee, WI

I'd be all over this if it was japanese, msx2, and if you were in the states.  sad

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Pretty Sheep: the absolute most manliest game ever created. ever.

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Kingston Upon Hull
arlen wrote:

Pretty Sheep: the absolute most manliest game ever created. ever.

Damn straight! Playing it's like injecting a pint of testosterone straight into each eyeball! My girlfriend tried it and instantly grew a beard.

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Eanske, Holland

actually it is worth something in msx circles. Al sakhr or alamiah "made" these msx-es, well they didn't since
it's essentially a sanyo made msx in the "wavy" series ( like the sanyo wavy 23, in blue grey).
It's rare in that sense that the casing has arabic on it and the rom contains arabic writing, so.
They're not realy useful, but they're collected regardless.

this is the one I got in that wavy line. I forgot what # the arabic ones are exactly

Last edited by poke-1,170 (May 28, 2010 1:25 am)

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How did you come across this? I got my first MSX recently and saw these Arabic machines on various sites, and was just curious as to how they'd ever make their way into Europe! Both of the Wavys are very fucking cool.

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Kingston Upon Hull

Used to be a shop near me that dealt in second hand stuff, but they had a "No Computers" policy. If anything like that came in with a batch they'd usually just dump it.
Luckily, I'd spotted this out back and managed to convince them to sell it to me anyway, thus rescuing it from destruction.
Some may call me a hero... tongue
Anyway, it was a tiny business and I don't think they knew much at all about computers, so I guess they were worried about unwittingly selling faulty products and getting lots of returns and angry customers. Makes you wonder what sort of shit-hot stuff they might have dumped though.

*edit* Sorry, that didn't really clear up the mystery of how it got into the country. I like to think a rich oil baron brought it with him on a business trip, then part-exchanged it for an Amiga before returning home. wink

Last edited by Filk (May 28, 2010 4:28 pm)

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Filk wrote:

Sorry, that didn't really clear up the mystery of how it got into the country.

Still a cool story though! I hope the oil baron's happy with his Amiga, I know what I'd prefer!

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Eanske, Holland

alas, in terms of use it isn't any different then other msx computers. it's an msx, not an msx2 (the wavy 23 is).
Still, you're lucky to have one smile

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Kingston Upon Hull

Yeah, I like the novelty value of it though, and the colour scheme's a little different too. Sits nicely next to my grey boy.

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Kingston Upon Hull

Just a quick heads-up to let anyone who may be interested know that this is now on ebay.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? … :MESELX:IT

Cheers all! smile

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New York City

Oh, just when I got another sampler! sad