What I’m Playing Right Now #04
October 22, 2024 2 Comments
I’m enjoying this so far. And thanks to everyone who’s been leaving comments. I’m on Facebook too. So, what am I playing?
This.
Well, I teased on Facebook a few surprises with this Contra streak I’m on. Indeed, before I move onto Super Contra, I wanted to give the MSX2 build of Contra a shot. I really need to do more MSX games at IGC. Then again, isn’t it time that Konami and everyone else who programmed games for this wonderful platform pull the sticks out of their butt and celebrate it? As an American born in 1989, I didn’t know crap about the MSX until recent years. I first learned about it via Metal Gear. When I looked into the NES version, I found out that a lot of people consider it vastly inferior to the MSX game. That and its version of Castlevania is “the weird one. No, not the arcade game. The other weird one.”
It’s called “Vampire Killer” and it is, indeed, weird. Single screens. Keys. I’ll be doing this one sometime soon.
I’ve played enough games for it now to know it deserves to be known in the United States as more than a curiosity from across the ocean. This thing is a bonafide gaming juggernaut, with a seriously loyal fanbase, so I’m not sure why everyone who made games for it has allowed it to fade into oblivion. In the late 90s, there were a whopping three 10-game compilations for MSX on the PlayStation and Saturn, plus an all-in-one collection of those three collections (30 total games) exclusively on Saturn. Sadly, those were Japanese exclusives. It had the best name ever for a collection too: Konami Antiques MSX Collection. Antiques! Come on, that’s precious! Also, MSX got Virtual Console releases on Nintendo Wii and Wii U, but again, only in Japan.
I think with retro collections as scorching hot as they are right now, the time has come for MSX to be celebrated globally. I think Americans would be chomping at the bit to play these, and from what I’ve played so far, the games of MSX stand out. Take Contra. It’s NOT Contra like you or I know it. It has 19 levels, among other things. Oh, and no scrolling. I’m pretty sure MSX doesn’t really do scrolling in most action games. So far, I’ve only reviewed four MSX games. The first came in February with Parodius, which I didn’t love. Then there were three in Pac Man Museum: The Games They Couldn’t (or Wouldn’t) Include. I didn’t love the MSX builds of Pac-Man and especially Pac-Land (one of the worst games I’ve ever played), but the MSX Pac-Mania was genuinely fun and scored the first YES! for an MSX game. I suspect the second YES! will happen later today. And it won’t be the last MSX game of 2024 that I review. Oh no. Tetris for MSX will be a bonus review in Tetris Forever: The Definitive Review. Much like with Making of Karateka, I’m tacking-on some games not included in the collection as “just for funsies” reviews at the end that have no effect at all on the main reviews. It’s 2024 and I’m most excited for a Tetris game. Party like it’s 1985! Let’s all drink New Coke and sing We Are the World!
Rotating is down? Buttons are instadrops? Yea, I’m going to need to remap.
Indie Gamer Chick 
The MSX feels like the secret 80s computer outside of Japan. Here’s something that really surprised me: I never heard of it in the 80s, in the UK the main home platforms in that decade were the ZX Spectrum, the C64 and the Amstrad CPC with the first one being dominant. If pushed we knew about the Atari 8-bit, and the BBC Micro was in schoosl, and we’d heard of the NES. But the MSX? No idea.
But just about everything that was released for the main 3 platforms got an MSX port. True, it was usually a lazy port of the Spectrum version which frequently didn’t bother using things like the hardware sprites and often ran slower, but those ports were there because somewhere out there that market was there. And now it’s not possible to deal with retro computing without bumping up against it in some way and discovering just what a huge library of games it has, and of course people are still developing for it, as much as the Spectrum the C64 and the Amiga.
“The MSX feels like the secret 80s computer outside of Japan.”
That carries over historically too. I started IGC in July of 2011 with basically no knowledge of non-American consoles or gaming PCs (except the Nintendo 64DD). It didn’t take long for ZX Spectrum fans to begin my education of THEIR childhood/adolescence/young adult gaming scene, which continues to this day. The same goes for classic game consoles. NES fans, Sega fans, and Atari fans wanted me to discover their libraries. But MSX? The fans are amazing, but too quiet. MSX entering into casual gaming conversations was few and far between. When it did, it was the the two most predictable games: Metal Gear and Vampire Slayer. MSX is a MASSIVE gaming platform, and yes, there’s some half-hearted ports, but that’s true of every platform. The gems though? I didn’t hear about them in the same way ZX Spectrum, Apple II, any Commodore or Atari computer, or even early Mac fans made me aware. And it’s not like they didn’t exist. The platform is overflowing with them. I just didn’t hear about them.
But, I’m aware now, and so very excited to do more MSX coverage. This platform deserves its place in gaming’s Cooperstown. And I’m going to do my part.