MSX Games recomendation

[apachacha]

I'd like to ask if anyone here knows any good MSX games. I already went and played through Parodius (which I liked) , Penguin Adventure (which was a liiiittle too long ) , Psycho World (realy awesome game) and Andorogynus (which is realy good, but can be a tad slow on the scrolling, especialy before the boss fights).

Also, not a big RPG player.

[SuperDeadite]

Akumajou Dracula
Zanac
Zanac EX
Aleste
Aleste Gaiden
Aleste 2  (Play this on 2+/Turbo-R mode)
Space Manbow (Again 2+/TR)
Gofer No Yabou Episode II
Gradius 2
Metal Gear
Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake
Contra
LayDock
Super LayDock
LayDock 2
Mr. Ghost
Thexder
Firehawk: Thexder 2
Salamander
Fray (Turbo-R version)
Undeadline

If you really want to see what the MSX can do.  Play Aleste 2 on a 2+ or TR.
It is insane.  Beating the first stage mid-boss is a real feat.  All the youtube videos
are pansy players playing it on "standard 2 mode" which has much less bullets, and
is a lot slower paced.

[apachacha]

Akumajou Dracula
Zanac
Zanac EX
Aleste
Aleste Gaiden
Aleste 2  (Play this on 2+/Turbo-R mode)
Space Manbow (Again 2+/TR)
Gofer No Yabou Episode II
Gradius 2
Metal Gear
Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake
Contra
LayDock
Super LayDock
LayDock 2
Mr. Ghost
Thexder
Firehawk: Thexder 2
Salamander
Fray (Turbo-R version)
Undeadline

If you really want to see what the MSX can do.  Play Aleste 2 on a 2+ or TR.
It is insane.  Beating the first stage mid-boss is a real feat.  All the youtube videos
are pansy players playing it on "standard 2 mode" which has much less bullets, and
is a lot slower paced.

I fully admit I'm a pansy then

[Arkhan]

If you're not an RPG player you should still try Fray.  Because I said so.

Super Deadite doned prty good there with the game suggestions.

I'd also like to suggest
Gall Force
Knightmare
Maze of Galious
Kings Valley 2
Ninja-kun
Manbow 2 (a homebrew game)
Gulkave
Candoo Ninja (funny nonsense)
Ganbare Goemon
Relics (MSX 2 version. You might not like it)

When I get home i'll dig through my pile more and pick some others.

[grahf]

If you really want to see what the MSX can do.  Play Aleste 2 on a 2+ or TR.
It is insane.

That is pretty cool. I was under the impression that all of the MSX games had Ys III style scrolling. Maybe it's just Youtube, but Aleste 2 looks really smooth. What's the deal?

[apachacha]

If you're not an RPG player you should still try Fray.  Because I said so.

Super Deadite doned prty good there with the game suggestions.

I'd also like to suggest
Gall Force
Knightmare
Maze of Galious
Kings Valley 2
Ninja-kun
Manbow 2 (a homebrew game)
Gulkave
Candoo Ninja (funny nonsense)
Ganbare Goemon
Relics (MSX 2 version. You might not like it)

When I get home i'll dig through my pile more and pick some others.

I looked up Candoo Ninja and it looks like a regular ninja game with low quality graphics. How exactly is it nonsensical ? :O

[Arkhan]

oh, the game in general is just funny because its so dopey. lol

As for the scrolling on MSX:

Not every game is a victim of blocky scrolling.  even so, the games that do have blocky scrolling (Konami shooters whut whut) are still playable.  Anyone who disagrees is a toolbag.

Alot of games had work arounds and managed smooth scrolling, even on the MSX2.  Even on the MSX1 actualy.  Golvellius did, Aleste, Manbow, Manbow 2, Gulkave... lots of games were smooth.  It just depends if the programmers wanted to do the extra work to make it happen.  But this is all irrelevant to playing games!

It was more prevalent with the MSX2+. Some people put the MSX2+ video chip into the MSX2, making it a 2+ also.  The 2+'s video chip is nicer.

and then the TRBBRBRBRBR, it is positively epic.   If you use the R800 inside of it, games with slowdown (undeadline) don't get bogged down.  Yay.

You have to be careful with playing games on Turbo R sometimes.  You can enable/disable the R800 cpu on the Turbo R when you boot it up.  Some games dont work right on the Turbo R.  Metal Gear 2 locks up sometimes, for example.

[apachacha]

oh, the game in general is just funny because its so dopey. lol

As for the scrolling on MSX:

Not every game is a victim of blocky scrolling.  even so, the games that do have blocky scrolling (Konami shooters whut whut) are still playable.  Anyone who disagrees is a toolbag.

Alot of games had work arounds and managed smooth scrolling, even on the MSX2.  Even on the MSX1 actualy.  Golvellius did, Aleste, Manbow, Manbow 2, Gulkave... lots of games were smooth.  It just depends if the programmers wanted to do the extra work to make it happen.  But this is all irrelevant to playing games!

It was more prevalent with the MSX2+. Some people put the MSX2+ video chip into the MSX2, making it a 2+ also.  The 2+'s video chip is nicer.

and then the TRBBRBRBRBR, it is positively epic.   If you use the R800 inside of it, games with slowdown (undeadline) don't get bogged down.  Yay.

You have to be careful with playing games on Turbo R sometimes.  You can enable/disable the R800 cpu on the Turbo R when you boot it up.  Some games dont work right on the Turbo R.  Metal Gear 2 locks up sometimes, for example.

The only game where it bothered me so far was Andorogynus. Mostly because 1. the levels are rather longish and when you have a slow ass descent through an empty space with nothing in it, you expect it to be the boss room and it turns out you're just half way, 2. It always takes around 20 plus seconds to descend to the bottom of the boss room even if you already know it is a boss room , 3. The game makes you redo the first 6 stages again, just as a woman. I like that and all, but when you have to go through the same levels with the same speed problems, you tend to lose your patience.

Stil it's a top to bottom vertical shooter, and you don't have too many of those (I can't remember a single one besides this game).

Also outside of Parodius and Andorogynus, are there any other quirky shooters on the MSX ?

[Arkhan]

Well Adorogynus isn't slow scrolling due to hardware issues, its just by design.  They wanted it to be slow for whatever reason. 

What alot of people dont notice with blockscrolling is the games scrolling at the same rate whether its block or smooth scroll.  Its just more visually destracting when its block by block.  Thats all.  Eye tricks.

Anyway, as for quirky shooters, I think Andorogynus takes the cake.

You could try my friends game, Equivocal.  Its a contest entry MSX2 game that rips Aleste alittle, and uses funny bird names to make the game sound perverted.

[SuperDeadite]

You can disable the R800?  Never knew that, how is it done?  I've played through Metal Gear 2
twice now by just turning it on with the cart in, never locked up on me.

And again all the youtube vids I've seen of Aleste 2 are only being played on a 2.
On a 2+ the bullet count is tripled and they move faster.

[Arkhan]

You can disable the R800?  Never knew that, how is it done?  I've played through Metal Gear 2
twice now by just turning it on with the cart in, never locked up on me.

the cracked disk version locks up, I should have specified.  Its the version hes likely to be playing since the real versions f*cking expensive.
Im not sure if the cart ROM crashes.  I dont recall it crashing.

I play the real one too, but the disk one is nice to figure up when youre too lazy to get the nowind out of the msx, lol

Anyway you hold 1 down while booting up lol.  or it might be 2.   Im pretty sure its 1 though.

[SuperDeadite]

Ah ok, yeah i only play originals.  I always thought the R800 was only
being used when that one special LED turns on.

[grahf]

Thanks for the info Arkhan, and sorry for clogging up your thread apachacha.

I'll go ahead and recommend Metal Gear II. If you like the MG Solid series, it's cool to see where 90% of the "new" gameplay features actually came from. That, and it's worth it just for the 80s action hero rip-offs.


One of these days i'm gonna pick up an MSX myself, but I've got no space. I was really interested in that "One Chip MSX", but those are frackin expensive now.

[SuperDeadite]

The One Chip sucks.  A lot of games are not compatible with it.  Neat idea, but you can get a real Turbo-R for the same price and have no compatibility issues.

[grahf]

That's too bad. I don't like how big most of the MSXs are, so I was hoping to be able to put a tiny system together.