Gyruss now available for MSX

Gyruss is a fixed shooter arcade game designed by Yoshiki Okamoto and released by Konami in 1983. Gyruss was initially designed for dedicated machines, before Konami released their own self-distributed conversion kits for the game. Parker Brothers released contemporary ports for various consoles, like the ColecoVision. That port has now been converted to MSX and the upgraded version of it is available as a game cartridge.

The gameplay of Gyruss is similar to that of Namco's Galaga but presented in a forced 3D perspective, with the player's ship facing into the screen and able to move around the perimeter of an implicit circle. Stars come into view at the center of the screen and fly outward, giving the impression of the player's ship moving through space. Gyruss is the second and last game Yoshiki Okamoto designed for Konami, after Time Pilot.

This game has now been released for MSX and comes as a physical game cartridge. The software conversion is based on the ColecoVision version. The MSX cartridge is enhanced by the embedded SN76489, so the original music and sound effects are preserved. Conversion of the game was done by gdx and immortalized on cartridge by Eric Boez.

The following enhancements were made during conversion:

• A loud blaster sound was added, just like on the arcade game
• An enemy destroyed sound was added as well
• The characters were changed to Konami's well known font

Those who are interested can have a look at this MSX gameplay video. The non-enhanced version is also playable online at tfh's.

This cartridge version works on any MSX with 64K of RAM (additional sound doesn't work on 1chipMSX/Zemmix Neo) and comes in two flavors: blue and orange. As both cartridge versions are now up for pre-order, only 20 cartridges will be available in total.

The Price is €34,00, excluding shipping costs (€8,00 for EU - €9,00 for other countries). Delivery will be end of April 2017. Choose your cartridge version and send Eric Boez your pre-order by mail or contact him on Facebook. The first ten buyers will receive an additional papercraft mini arcade cabinet model that you will have to cut, fold, and glue yourself.

Relevant link: Repro Factory MSX Shop