Happy 40th Birthday, MSX!

[Takumaji]

MSX came to life in 1983, 40 years ago, feels like yesterday, yadda yadda yadda.

I'm playing Space Manbow at the moment, also gonna give Bombjack and Penguin Adventure a spin.

Here are two MSX threads we had lately:

MSX games and discussion thread

I'm playing lots of MSX games lately and thought it could be a good idea to open a thread where we can talk about games and hardware, ask questions and discuss about all related topics. Let me kick it off with two classics: H.E.R.O. (MSX1, cart) H.E.R.O. (Helicopter Emergency Rescue...

www.neo-geo.com

Tak What are some hidden gems on the MSX?

Have you got around to playing the roms yet? This is one of the systems that it's hard to find a complete rom set of. There isn't one. Lot's of games. I've been on a retro kick for awhile now playing 8 bit games. The system is pretty similar to the Colecovision and SG-100 so I've played most...

www.neo-geo.com

Celebrate or dieeee -

 

[Takumaji]

Great port IMO.

 

[Opethian]

 

[GutsDozer]

We need an MSX mini console.

 

[Burning Fight!!]

Fuck a mini console, we need a mini computer. What a wonderful thing these 8-bit micros are for not only gaming but exploring computing in general, it's like a low grade business machine if you compare what it can do vs. things like C64 et al. which feel like toys in comparison.

Games are good too naturally

MSX (1) tends to be overlooked when talking about videogames, they're pretty cool and I'm sure people here can come up with plenty of examples

 

[Takumaji]

Fuck a mini console, we need a mini computer. What a wonderful thing these 8-bit micros are for not only gaming but exploring computing in general, it's like a low grade business machine if you compare what it can do vs. things like C64 et al. which feel like toys in comparison.

Yeah, there definitely is fun to be had with programming and tech stuff as well, it's not only about games. MSX Basic is much more powerful than the C64 where you need to peek and poke yer ass off to create hires graphics or sound while on MSX, graphics and sound have their own sets of powerful commands, and that's just one aspect of the tons of great features MSX Basic provides.

Then again, there are many awesome games on MSX/2/2+/Turbo that deserve a broader audience, that's why a MSX Mini would be a good way to get them out in the open. Just put the complete Konami collection on it and this thing would sell like hot cakes.

MSX (1) tends to be overlooked when talking about videogames, they're pretty cool and I'm sure people here can come up with plenty of examples

Games made in the pre-MSX2 days get overshadowed by the graphical splendour of the later releases but ignoring them would mean skipping the fat of the machine. For example, most of the great Konami games came out for the original MSX and among them are some of my all-time favs like Gradius or Circus Charlie, then there's Knightmare, HERO, Laydock, Pastfinder, Lode Runner, Magical Tree, etc., etc... so many great titles.

What's more, consoles like Sega's SG-1000 or ColecoVision have similar hardware layouts, that's why you can find some of those games on MSX as well, and vice versa. Yes, some of them may have jerky scrolling and single-color sprites but the sprites itself usually move very smoothly, and if a game is fun to play, all those niggles become meaningless anyway.

For someone like me who grew up with Western-style micro computers like the Speccy and C64, the Japanese take on home computing is very exciting to explore. There are some similarities but more importantly huge differences, specially when it comes to the software library, one of which would be the low number of license games (movie adaptions, etc.), which is great because that was what literally clogged-up the micro games markets in the mid to late 80s over here in Europe.