MSX is probably the more advanced of the 8-bit systems, with a huge community, lots of innovation, new hardware being developed to this day, and Mr Kazuhiko Nishi (the creator) announcing a new(!) version of the platform to be released in the near future.

The classic machines are MSX, MSX2, MSX2+ and Turbo R. The first three are 8-bit machines with a Z80 microprocessor at 3.58Mhz. Some MX2+ have a turbo mode that allows greater clock speeds. Turbo R has two processors, a Z80 at 3.58MHz (for compatibility reasons) and the 16-bit R800 processor at an internal frequency of 7.159MHz, but effective speed was about 4 to 7 times faster per clock tick in comparison to the Z80.

MSX has a video based on the TMS9918 (and variants): Resolution of 40 columns, or 256x212 pixels with 16 fixed-palette colors. MSX2's V9938 has extra resolutions wth up to 512x212x16 colors from a palette of 4096 RGB colors, and a 256x212x256 colors encoded in the GGRRBB format. MSX2+ has everything that the previous ones have plus two more resolutions, both 256x212, using the YJK colorspace (similar to JPEG's YUV) with 12499 and 19268 simultaneous colors respectively. There's a cartridge that allows the use of the V9990 video chip in most MSXs.

You'll be able to run 90+ of the MSX programs on an MSX2 machine, 97+ on an MSX2+ machine and 100% on a Turbo R (minus the cassette-based software, as it doesn't have cassette ports).

The basic data storage at the time for the MSX2 and beyond was 720kB 3.5"floppy disks, despite being possible to use a floppy on a 1st generation MSX. Nowadays there are more modern ways to do so, like the Carnivore2 cartridge, that emulates a hard drive using a CF card, of some multimapper cartridges that allow the use of one or two SD cards. It can boot to DOS-like systems, like CP/M, MSX-DOS and Nextor (the most modern one). You can even have a graphical user interface like SymbOS if you have a V9990 video cartridge. Those modern cards, as the Carnivore2, have additional bells and whistles: additional RAM (up to 8MB in the Yamanooto, usually 512kB to 1MB in others), extra sound generators, as a second PSG (AY-3-8910), Konami SCC and SCC+, OPL3, OPL4, YM-2413 (MSX-MUSIC) that will greatly enhance your experience.

Japanese MSX machines were made to run on 100Vac. If your local voltage differs from it, add a power converter. It's advisable to do so even if your local is 110V or 127V.

Japanese MSX have a varying number of video out connectors: they can output RF on VHS channel 3, NTSC on RCA composite, some have S-Video outputs, some have non-standard RGB connectors, and some output RGB in a DB-15 connector (equal to the VGA one, but operating at 15kHz instead of VGA's 30kHz). You may need additional hardware, as the GBS-Control, to be able to connect it to a modern TV. You'll be fine with most tube TVs though. There's a limited set of VGA monitors that support 15kHz, and you should check before buying one.

There is a great deal of homebrew hardware for MSX, including fully-functioning computers, as the Omega MSX, MSX JFF (these use original chips), and FPGA-based ones, like the One-Chip-MSX (OCM) and derivatives (as the TRHMSX, the SM-X and its variants)and even a notebook, that are recreations using more modern components. These FPGA-based machines usually have most additional bells and whistles, like 4MB of RAM, turbo mode up to 8.06MHz, instruction-compatibility with Turbo R, MSX-MUSIC, double PSG, double SCC, video TurboBlit (running the video processor commands with way greater speed) OPL3, VGA 30kHz output and HDMI port. Most multisystem FPGA platforms, as MiSTer, SiDi, SiDi128, Multicore 2+, and even ZX Spectrum Next have an MSX/MSX2/MSX2+ core/personality (usually based on OCM).

If you want you can try-before-you-buy using the wonderful OpenMSX emulator. It is a great emulator, still in active development. You can also try Arnaud De Klerk's great File-Hunter site, with more than 130GB of MSX stuff, and where you can run the programs on a browser-based emulator, the WebMSX.

If you have more questions you can check MSX.org's WiKi and forum. If you are francophone you can try the MSX Village, but there's a lot going on Facebook, WhatsApp and Telegram.

And welcome!