Development
Holloway approached Flare and proposed a merger of their respective technologies to create an innovative new kind of gaming console with the computer hardware built into the main controller and in July 1988 a partnership was formed. Development work was carried out by Flare, with assistance from British games programmer Jeff Minter.
Konix wanted the machine to use a 16-bit processor, so the Z80 was removed and replaced with an 8086 processor. They also demanded that the colour palette be expanded to 4096 colours, the same as that of the Amiga. To reduce manufacturing costs, the Flare One's four custom chips were integrated into one large chip. In order to keep the cost of software down, it was decided that the software media would be 3.5” floppy discs rather than ROM cartridges used universally by consoles up to that time.
The embryonic console was revealed to the computing press at a toy fair held at Earls Court Exhibition Centre in February 1989. It boasted market leading performance, MIDI support and revolutionary peripherals including a light gun with recoil action and the Power Chair, a motorised seat designed to ape in the home what “sit-in” arcade games such as After Burner and Out Run delivered in the arcades using hydraulics. Another innovative feature was the ability to link 2 MultiSystems together to allow for head-to-head two player gaming. Release was slated for August that year.
Read more about this topic: Konix Multisystem
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