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Emulator

An emulator for a machine nearly 20 years old that didn't see a commercial release and used a custom chipset - a bit optimistic aren't you?

Well, actually - thanks to the fact that the Flare one technology was sold to Bellfruit, it's not just a possibility, it actually exists. Now of course, there is a caveat. It's not actually a Konix Multisystem that's been emulated; it's the Bellfruit implementation of the Flare one chipset which was the basis for the early Multisystem prototypes. The difference is that a different processor was used in the Multisystem (an 8086 over a Z80), slightly more ram was used, and the Flare one chipset was condensed from four chips down to just the one Slipstream ASIC.

Enough has been learnt about the differences for a programmer to take the Slipstream technical reference document and emulate the Bellfruit Cobra motherboard. There are still things the programmer is trying to work out, but as more code becomes available to him, the better his understanding will be and the more accurate the emulator will be.

So we now have a working flare one emulator - if we ever find copies of the game code that developers were working on for the Multisystem, it would not be a massive stretch to modify the existing emulator to accommodate the Multisystem.

Then... a quick game of AMC anyone?

Site News

August 18th, 2010:
Forum!
I have now created a Forum specifically for this website. Please feel free to register and start talking, asking questions and sharing opinions. Just click the Forum link on the navigation panel, or follow this link

August 9th, 2010:
What happened to the Multisystem after the collapse of Konix might be more interesting than I first thought. When Konix became MSU it started to get really interesting. I've been talking to former Employees and they weren't happy Bunnies, and I think I've uncovered a picture (an MSU mock-up) of what the Multisystem 2 would have evolved into and it's quite sad! For the moment, head on over to the MSU page for a quick look, I will try to develop the MSU pages a bit more as it's not just a footnote to the story; it's a whole new soap-opera in its own right!

August 2nd, 2010:
I was kindly given a scan of a proposal for a the Sailing game by ODE on the Multisystem, I thought you might be interested to read it to see how games companies were pitching their ideas to Konix for the right to develop on machine. Download the PDF

July 21st, 2010:
Time for a bit of a revamp, I've looked back in horror at all the typos and will do something about them.
Also, what with Sony Move and Microsoft Kinect, the whole world is going crazy for new ways to interact. I wonder if Wyn is thinking of a comeback?

February 17th, 2009:
Don't get too excited - no major news I'm afraid. I have been contacted by a former employee of MSU who gave me some interesting information about the company Wyn formed after Konix. I'll massage the info into the site when I have some time. I'd also like to say that I'll be tweaking the site a little, hopefully fixing up some of the embarrassing spelling mistakes and maybe making it a little more organised. I'll also re-write some of the stuff that's now out of date.

April 4th, 2008:
Sorry for the outage, my hosting account lapsed while I was away on business. All fixed now.

April 4th, 2008:
No news to report on trying to contact Jeff Minter for an interview, although I have recently been contacted by one of the developers from Bellfruit who offered his assistance where possible

Recommended links

View all 23 Multisystem Videos

Wyn Holloway - creator of the Multisystem Interviewed

Download the actual Multisystem technical reference document
Warning, it's 25Mb click here to start the download