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Post by 1upsuper on Aug 6, 2018 21:53:50 GMT -5
Thanks a lot for the continued suggestions! And thanks, Tom, for the info on getting an MSX.
I've actually been meaning to check out The Sword of IANNA for a while but I didn't know it also got an MSX version -- I was only familiar with the similarly impressive Speccy version.
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Post by Bumpyroad on Aug 6, 2018 23:35:11 GMT -5
Also, what's the best MSX emulator these days? At the outset: blueMSX. Alternatively you can try openMSX or RetroArch. |
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Post by mainpatr on Aug 7, 2018 0:05:39 GMT -5
That does remind me, though: there are some very good movie-licensed games on the MSX as well, and some are... rather unlikely choices. Like, the 1985 horror comedy movie "House" got turned into an MSX game named after the Japanese release of the movie ("Mashou no Yakata Gabalin"), and it's not only weirdly faithful to the movie, it's also a really engaging and pretty unique experience that kind of combines Zelda-style flipscreen dungeons with... Commando? Like I said, it's really odd, but honestly... it works! And is another unsung gem of the system IMHO. -Tom Project A2 is a good one too if you like Simon's Quest style games. |
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Post by wyrdwad on Aug 7, 2018 2:18:25 GMT -5
Oh, yeah, Project A2 is awesome! There are two other Jackie Chan movie games on cartridge as well: Police Story, and Protector. I haven't played Police Story yet (though it looks pretty decent), but I absolutely *love* Protector. It's such a simple game -- basically just a "knock out all the thugs on the screen, then move on to the next screen" puzzle beat-em-up platformer -- but it's really addictive, and makes for a great pick-up-and-play game when you only have a few minutes to spare. There's also Project A, which is a Spectrum port available only on cassette AFAIK. It looks... bad, as with most Spectrum ports on cassette. But with Project A2 being such an excellent game, I'm willing to give Project A a try sometime, if I can ever track down a copy. So far, the Jackie Chan games I've played on MSX are two for two in terms of awesomeness, and Police Story looks like a third winner, so if Project A is also good, it could be a clean sweep for the Chan man.  -Tom |
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Post by retr0gamer on Aug 7, 2018 2:20:13 GMT -5
Have to give another shout out to space manbow. Despite the slowdown it's probably my favourite mess shooter and the soundtrack is absolutely incredible.
I'll also mention Mr. Ghost. One of the rarest max games. I've not seen it appear for sale ever. But I've played it on an emulator and it's a really fun innovative game.
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Post by wyrdwad on Aug 7, 2018 2:26:30 GMT -5
Have to give another shout out to space manbow. Despite the slowdown it's probably my favourite mess shooter and the soundtrack is absolutely incredible. I'll also mention Mr. Ghost. One of the rarest max games. I've not seen it appear for sale ever. But I've played it on an emulator and it's a really fun innovative game. Mr. Ghost, a.k.a. Yuurei-kun, is available on eBay right now, actually... if you have $425 to spare. www.ebay.com/itm/YUREI-KUN-MSX2-MSX2-ROM-JAPAN-JAPANESE-GAME-yuurei-ghost/142894598019?hash=item21452e8783%3Ag%3ABP8AAOSwAPlXhff2&LH_PrefLoc=2&_sop=10&_pgn=2&_nkw=msx&_from=R40&rt=ncI actually managed to grab a copy of it earlier this year for $130, which is the cheapest I've ever seen it by a HUGE margin... and is also just about the most money I've ever spent on a loose cartridge. I felt a little buyer's remorse until I popped it in, but... yeah, the game absolutely rules. It's like the Little Samson of the MSX: goes for ludicrous amounts of money, but if you ever do manage to get your hands on it, you've at least got yourself a genuinely great game you can be proud to have in your collection. ...Now, a BOXED copy of it is another story. I've seen that come up for sale once, and it was over $1000. -Tom |
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Post by retr0gamer on Aug 7, 2018 2:48:33 GMT -5
If only I'd seen that before I got burned out on chasing holy grail games and nearly putting myself into debt  |
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Post by Bumpyroad on Aug 7, 2018 10:16:53 GMT -5
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Post by vnisanian2001 on Aug 7, 2018 13:28:53 GMT -5
Also, what's the best MSX emulator these days? At the outset: blueMSX. Alternatively you can try openMSX or RetroArch. No one updates Blue MSX anymore, unfortunately. |
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Post by retr0gamer on Aug 7, 2018 15:42:29 GMT -5
Have to recommend the two Kings Valley games and Treasures of Usas. More Konami MSX goodness.
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Post by 1upsuper on Aug 7, 2018 17:26:32 GMT -5
Yeah, I've played that one. I'm a huge Gradius fan and the three MSX Gradius/Nemesis games are excellent. The second and third are especially interesting and bring a lot to the table that were never seen in the series again. Back when NIGORO went by GR3 Project they made a brilliant game called GR3 which was a very faithful homage to the MSX Gradius games that is absolutely worth checking out. There are three different editions of the game and unfortunately they were all made in old versions of Java so it can be a bit tricky running them correctly, but they're worth the trouble. Have to recommend the two Kings Valley games and Treasures of Usas. More Konami MSX goodness. Cool, thank you! I actually just read about Kings Valley in the HG101 book on Contra and other Konami classics so I'll be sure to check them out along with Treasures of Usas. I've said it before but Konami is pretty much my favorite game company and I'm consistently impressed by their diverse game library. Konami helped pioneer and arguably popularized the horizontal shmup, the dating sim, and the metroidvania (I wish we had a better term because it's very anachronistic to call Maze of Galious or Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap a metroidvania). How crazy is that? |
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Post by wyrdwad on Aug 7, 2018 19:48:12 GMT -5
Oh, speaking of Metroidvanias, I also feel compelled to recommend the MSX2 version of Dragon Slayer IV: Drasle Family. At first glance, it doesn't seem much different from Legacy of the Wizard on the NES, just without scrolling. But in actuality, this is the last version of the game Falcom developed, and there are quite a few changes under the hood -- item placement has been shuffled considerably, for one, with items being in more logical places than where you find them in the MSX1 or Famicom/NES version. More importantly, though, the map is also significantly altered, with Lyll's section of the dungeon in particular being almost 100% different (and much more interesting!). The functionality of the crown warps has been changed, too, and there are more OF them, so you can actually start warping to new places with Roas even after acquiring only one crown, and can in fact use this to skip Xemn's section of the dungeon entirely if you're good enough: www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRFh49ietl4Also worth noting: you get Pochi's original theme song, and the full version of Meia's theme song (complete with intro and rad breakdown). All in all, the changes aren't so enormous that they completely alter the experience, but they're enough that they've cemented in my mind that the MSX2 version of the game is the best out there, without question. -Tom |
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Post by Allie on Aug 9, 2018 8:19:04 GMT -5
Have to recommend the two Kings Valley games and Treasures of Usas. More Konami MSX goodness. I was kind of surprised (in hindsight) that Konami never did a GB version of King's Valley. |
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Post by KGRAMR on Aug 9, 2018 15:30:58 GMT -5
Pretty much any Konami games on the MSX, though i have to also give shoutout to Aleste, Zanac, Puyo Puyo, Bank Panic, Eggerland and some of the Activision ports.
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Post by wyrdwad on Aug 9, 2018 16:02:58 GMT -5
If you end up liking the King's Valley games, then I'd also highly recommend a few other similarly styled puzzle platformers: - The Goonies - Rise Out From Dungeons (which is actually more like Lode Runner, but IMHO better, so I figured it was worth a mention here) - Godzilla-kun And in the realm of indies, if you can track either of them down, there are three superb examples that all made their way into my top 10 list that I posted on the previous page. I already talked about BitLogic, but the other two are ILEVAN and Eggbert. ILEVAN is... well, I can't quite do it justice, but read this review of it and you'll have a sense of why it's so special: www.msx-center.com/articles/10/ilevan-review-msx-english-versionAs for Eggbert, the full title of it is "Eggbert in Eggciting Adventure," and believe it or not... it's the first Toki Tori game. Have you ever played any version of Toki Tori on any of Nintendo's consoles or handhelds? There are a gajillion of them, and they're all pretty good. But what very few people know is that the series got its start in 1993 as Eggbert, on the MSX2. And I don't just mean Toki Tori was inspired by it; no, Eggbert IS Toki Tori. Same creators, they just slightly redesigned and renamed their MSX puzzle game many years later and somehow managed to score it an official release it on Game Boy Color as Toki Tori, and the rest is history. You'd think that would mean the MSX game is inferior to the later Nintendo releases, but honestly, the MSX game is very much on par with them. It's a little slower-paced and less involved, sure, but the level designs are unique to the MSX game and are EXCEPTIONALLY good. If the game has any flaw, it's that there are only 40 levels, as you'll definitely want to keep playing well beyond what's there. -Tom |
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