Philips NMS 8250

The Philips NMS 8250 was a professional-styled MSX2 desktop with separate keyboard, 128 KB RAM and a built-in 720 KB floppy drive.

Its New Media Systems branding presented MSX2 as a productive home-office and creative platform rather than solely a games computer.

Notable Features

• Professional desktop enclosure
• Single built-in 720 KB floppy drive
• MSX2 graphics and memory mapper

Historical Significance

• Its New Media Systems branding presented MSX2 as a productive home-office and creative platform rather than solely a games computer.

Collector’s Notes

• The front plastics and floppy belt can be fragile; model labels distinguish it from the outwardly similar NMS 8255.
• Memory, storage, displays and expansion hardware should be documented because configurations often changed during a system’s working life.

Specifications

Technical Information
Name	Philips NMS 8250
Manufacturer	Philips
Launched	Thursday, January 1, 1987
Country	Netherlands
CPU	NEC D780C-1 / Z80A compatible
Units Sold
Form Factor	Desktop with separate keyboard
Power	Mains AC
Networking	None built in
Operating System	MSX BASIC 2.0 and MSX-DOS
Expansion / I/O	Two cartridge slots, cassette, printer, two joystick ports, RGB and composite video
Keyboard	Separate keyboard with numeric keypad
Storage	One built-in 720 KB 3.5-inch floppy drive
Sound	YM2149 three-voice PSG plus noise
Colours	512 palette; up to 16 or 256 onscreen by mode
Graphics	Yamaha V9938: up to 512 x 212 pixels with sprites
Display	Television or RGB monitor
ROM	MSX2 BIOS, BASIC and disk ROM
RAM	128 KB main RAM and 128 KB video RAM
CPU Speed	3.58 MHz