Tak What are some hidden gems on the MSX?

[Xavier]

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 ports that you can download on the Everdrive.

On the Mister it uses a IMG file system similar to Amiga with it's WHDloader.
I would just rather pick a file and use it.
The Mister has to unpack it all the subsystem file folders and it can take forever.

Lots of good emulators on the PI and PC. PSP and I have a Odroid Go that plays them pretty well.
The system file is called VHD, to bad they arn't the real VHDs.
I wonder how many VHD games were made, even the net has done a poor job documenting them.

There's dumps of the LD games.

Anybody else can play along not just TAK

 

[Takumaji]

Some of my faves include Zanac, Spelunker, the Gradius games, Penguine Adventure, Knightmare, Pastfinder, H.E.R.O., the Metal Gear games, Hinotori Hououhen Firebird, Super Laydock, the Aleste games (I, II and Gaiden), Ys: Ancient Ys Vanished, Boyknight Haunted House, Makaijima Higemaru, King's Valley, Vampire Killer (Castlevania), Hyper Sports, Raid on Bungeling Bay and a ton of others...

It's difficult to find an all-in-one romset because the games were spread across three types of media, floppy disk, tape and cart. Most people go for the carts/cart roms but there also are a lot of great disk releases that cannot be got in other versions so make sure your emu or sd cart supports it.

Speaking of sd carts, IMO the good old MegaFlashROM cart is still #1. Can be hard to find these days, dunno, bought mine when it was new.

 

[Neo Alec]

You should be able to buy MegaFlashROM here:

MSX Cartridge Shop

Nice recommendations! I have a MegaFlashrom cart, but I haven't used it for much other than capturing video of a few games, since I have my brother's fairly decent sized collection of original games.

The cart is a bit more difficult to use than an Everdrive. I recommend using a program called Sofarun to make loading games easier.

If you like Contra games, the MSX one is worth a go, even though it's only 1-player, and a bit on the easy side.

 

[Takumaji]

Yeah, it's a bit more complex but it also offers WAY more options to run your games than any other SD cart I know. It has its own (optional) command line and comes with added sound chips and extra RAM, haven't found a game that wouldn't run on it, bit on the expensive side but totally worth it.

I bought mine from just the shop you linked to, it's the homepage of the maker of the cart, he's located in Spain which had a big MSX scene and there still are lots of fans down there. Other MSX-heavy countries include Japan (of course) and The Netherlands, Philips also released a number of nice MSX(2) machines.

Oh, and check out the MSX thread I posted a while ago: MSX games and discussion thread.

 

[Burning Fight!!]

I am Team Carnivore2. And honestly these are only hard to use if you don't actually know how to use a MSX, and this is pretty mild gatekeeping since unlike JP-only micros there's a lot in english or german or whatever language you use (even arabic).

Don't forget to play the greatest msx1 game ever made:

GAME OVO

 

[Takumaji]

I see your Porno Man and raise you a Super Drinker -

Escape from the cops chasing you, drink wine, get drunk, have fun.

 

[Neo Alec]

Vampire Killer / Akumajo Dracula (MSX2, cart)

Vampire Killer was what Konami wanted the Castlevania series to be like. It got made at the same time when the NES version also was in development but they decided to focus on the platforming approach on NES while on MSX, there's action platforming, a good dose of RPG-style elements, non-linear levels and backtracking, for example to unlock treasure chests to get those much-needed powerups. It looks a lot like the NES version but actually has better graphics, sound is better on NES but they still did a good job with the MSX music. There also is a shop system in the form of old white-robed guys sitting in hidden spots who offer you all sorts of stuff like holy water or health in exchange for hearts if you whip them a couple of times. All the well-known enemies are there, zombies, bats, jaguars and of course all the bosses we know and love. It has 7 stages, divided into subsections of varying numbers, the main task of the player is to find the keys to open the doors between them.

Now, some people call Vampire Killer MSX a port but it was an original creation that came out only a few weeks after the NES version. The non-linear approach and other Metroid-esque elements may suggest that it was aimed at a more mature audience, this also gets underlined by the fact that it has a very high difficulty level. Some spots are downright frustrating but at the same time incredibly rewarding if you master them, and this is what keeps you pushing forward. Personally I'm more leaning towards the simpler action platformer style of CV1 and 3 on NES and Bloodlines but I have to say that Vampire Killer really got me with its Metroidvania thing, gives the game lots of depth.

Tak, I hope you don't hate me too much for my new video (it's been in the works all year).

 

[k'_127]

Knightmare 2: maze of galious: early metroid-styled game from Konami

The Castle / Castle Excellent: puzzle solving / exploration game. Might look too slow, but there is a speed-up button on the keyboard

Metal Gear 2: not-so-hidden, but don't miss out on it. I had low expectations, but it turned out great.

The King's Valley

 

[Takumaji]

Tak, I hope you don't hate me too much for my new video (it's been in the works all year).

I must have missed that reply, sorry for that.

Watched your review, and... I'm not hatin' It's just that you have a quite NES-centered point of view which doesn't do the MSX version real justice. First of all, the difficulty (minus some slightly unfair bits) is what it is, hardly a reason to complain IMO because it's all doable with (lots) of practice. The level layouts can be tricky with some of those leaps of faith and whatnot, that's something I agree with.

However, the best part of CV MSX is the options it gives to the player how to play or complete the game. The items you can get from merchants can be very helpful but you don't strictly need them, you can tackle the game head-on and only use the weapons you can find, or you can choose a more exploratory approach and use the extras to find new ways around the levels or beat/dodge enemies without losing energy. Proper extras management takes away a bit of the difficulty in my opinion.

Still, very well made review, gonna check out some of your other stuff.

 

[Neo Alec]

Thanks for watching, Tak. Making it NES-centered was the obvious choice since that's where I'm coming from, and the majority of the audience as well. The problem with the difficulty in the MSX2 game is a lot of it comes from the jankiness of the hit detection (they give you a longer life bar to cope).

I agree that the design and items allows more ways to play than the NES version, and therefore it could be argued the MSX2 version has superior replayability.

 

[Tron]

All ways thought about getting a msx myself with a flash cart since i don't have the money or the room for a msx collection.

 

[Takumaji]

All ways thought about getting a msx myself with a flash cart since i don't have the money or the room for a msx collection.

It's mostly the money, MSX games have become quite expensive, specially on disc or cart. Some like the Konami games go for hundreds of Dollars. Tapes can be found cheap-ish but waiting for them to load isn't everyone's pint of beer and you also won't find the later games on that format.

So yeah, SD cart all the way.

 

[Xavier]

I found a nice list of English translated games

download.file-hunter.com - The Complete MSX Download Archive

Directory listing of download.file-hunter.com/Games/Translated (English)/

download.file-hunter.com

 

[Takumaji]

I found a nice list of English translated games

download.file-hunter.com - The Complete MSX Download Archive

Directory listing of download.file-hunter.com/Games/Translated (English)/

download.file-hunter.com

Awesome, thanks for the link.

Now I can finally play Shiryou Sensen 2 (War of the Dead 2) in English. There's a IPS patch floating around but I've never been able to find a version of the game with the right CRC32 checksums.

The game is really cool with great spooky graphics, that is going to be my Halloween game this year. Kewl.

 

[Neo Alec]

It's great to see you still have so much love for the MSX, still spending quality time with it after these years. Our Youtube channel, actually has another MSX-centric video coming up, This one is about a pretty decent game concept that unfortunately came out pretty janky.

 

[Xavier]

Awesome, thanks for the link.

I'm playing Mystical Ninja and the rom seems to be only half translated and I saw a video on YouTube with it totally in English so that's how I found it.

I've always wanted to play Randar

 

[Takumaji]

It's great to see you still have so much love for the MSX, still spending quality time with it after these years. Our Youtube channel, actually has another MSX-centric video coming up, This one is about a pretty decent game concept that unfortunately came out pretty janky.

As I said in the MSX birthday thread, it's the Japanese take on micros and games that got me interested in MSX back then. I remember when a local electronics chain called Photo Porst who cooperated with Spectravideo started selling the SVI-series of Spectravideo computers, SVI-318, 328, etc. They had a game on display called Armoured Assault and I really loved it and started saving up, it was so different to what I was used to on the Speccy and C64. These machines were precursors to MSX, later on Spectravideo released the 728 which was the first fully MSX-compatible machine. After I had checked it out I knew that I had to have one but bank account said noooooo...

Fast-forward 10 years into the early 90s, 16bit machines were the order of the day. People wanted Amigas, Ataris STs, SNESs and Mega Drives so the second-hand market got flooded with older 8bit machines. This was when I picked up my first MSX computer, a Philips VG-8020, in a nice package with disk drive, two tape recorders and a box full of games for 200 Deutschmarks which was about $120 back then. The Castlevania cart alone which was part of the package costs a lot more than that today.

Bought a Philips NMS 8220 MSX2 system a year later which completely broke down in 2016, tried hard to get it repaired but it would have cost more than a used machine in good condition to fix it so I gave it away for spares and got me a Panasonic FS-A1 which I still have. I also have a Yamaha CX5MII/128 MSX1 system with builtin 8-voice FM synth (basically a FB-01) that I use for my music but it's in need of maintenance. Great machine, tho, built like a tank just like the other Yamaha computer and music stuff of that time.

 

[Gremlin]

MSX2 rules. There's still some great games on the first MSX but it's slightly too primitive for my tastes.
I've had problems running certain games with my Carnivore2 but I'm still not sure if it's the romz or my setup. Like mentioned the MSX is a bit of a wild west, no "complete sets" floating around or anything like that.

I also think Sony F1-XD is the coolest looking computer ever made (wish I didn't settle for a HB-F1II):


King's Valley 2 is my GOAT MSX/MSX2 pick.

 

[Takumaji]

Nice system indeed, the red casing around the floppy drive looks really good.

That's another thing I like with MSX, there are many different machines to explore. However, this also caused some problems with software developers who ignored the standards and went with what they were used to on other more monolithic machines like the C64. As the MSX standard does not cover all hardware aspects of a system, some manufacturers like Kyocera or Yamaha added custom hardware to their computers which was no problem as long as coders stuck to the style guides. Needless to say this was not always the case so on his MSX journey, one may encounter programs that don't work on a certain machine without some serious poke'ing.

 

[Neo Alec]

Here's that new MSX video I mentioned:

 

[Burning Fight!!]

I know you don't want to awbacon it but you should post your brother's videos more often too. They cool

 

[Takumaji]

Interesting, there's less fiddly RPG stuff in the game than I thought, gonna give this a try. Nice review, very indepth.

Pressing and holding Delete on a Panasonic FS-series MSX computer during boot bypasses the inbuilt productivity software suite with memo, calendar, etc. IIRC, there's a mod which gets rid of the ROM and lets the machine boot straight into BASIC, gonna do that one day since I've never used the software on my FS-A1 (it's all in Japanese anyway) and prolly never will.

 

[Neo Alec]

I actually did all the footage for the MSX version of Fray for the video, since the MSX is at my place. We even live streamed some of it.

We're getting some comments from folks saying the game looks good. I think he should've been harder on the game in the video. It was not a very fun play through for me. Great presentation, but horribly flawed game play.

 

[Xavier]

Remake, looks good! Arcadie.. good for 15-20 minutes play here and there.
There's a converted version you can play on the Master System with an everdrive cart.

Three enemies in a room, a snake, scorpion and a bat.
Three random vases in a room, a mummy, a gun which doesn't hurt the mummy and an Unkh symbol that opens stairs to the next level.

There's a recent GameGear homebrew, Draculas Castle or something that uses a similar formula

Bonus:
MSX2SMS

Dropbox

www.dropbox.com

GG2SMS

Dropbox

www.dropbox.com

 

[roker]

Games? Just put this soundtrack on repeat: