The great MSX2 TOSEC crawl...

Expert (78)

07-12-2006, 16:56

Well, here goes: my quest for MSX fame and fortune (and a thread even longer than the SymbOS thread). I'm attempting to document every single game in the TOSEC MSX 2 Floppy library. Feel free to comment on and add to any of my mini-reviews.

Game: 123 (19xx)
Don't bother. This appears to be either a demo version or a mis-filed Disk 1 of Compile's Madou Monogatari, an old-school first-person view dungeon crawler.

Game: 1942 (1987)(Ascii)
A perfectly solid conversion of Capcom's classic WW2 airplane blaster. Has some flicker problems (at least in blueMSX) and the sound is just as annoying as in every other version of the game. If you just play on an emulator, you're better off playing the original in MAME, but this is fine if you have a real MSX2.

Game: 3 Square (1993)(Emphasys)
A very "scene-ish" puzzler. Some nice sounding FM music, but nothing to really reccomend it otherwise.

Other: 31 (1995)(Meuse Soft)
Some utility in Dutch.

Game: 3D Fire (1987)(Octopus Bros)
A 3D space shooter. Not very good at all. Not even self-booting.

Game: 4Th Unit, The (19xx)(Data West)
A menu-driven adventure game. 100% in Japanese, but the writing is all kana so if I had more than a few minutes, I might actually be able to figure out what's going on.

Game: 4Th Unit 2, The (19xx)(Data West)
The sequel to 4th Unit one. More of the same.

Game: 4Th Unit 3, The (19xx)(Data West)
The next of the 4Th Unit series. Contains a new interface and nicer graphics but the text is also more complex (beware, there be kanji in these woods)

Game: 7 Narabe Nights (1990)(Satico)
Seems to be sort of like dominoes with playing cards or something. Not really sure how it works exactly and given the name it may contain H scenes between rounds or something (I was never able to beat the first round to find out)

OVERALL PROSPECTS FOR SOFTWARE STARTING WITH NUMBERS: Very few games and nothing to get excited about. 1942 is good for some fun if you have real hardware and for all I know the 4th Unit series could be quite decent (after all, there seem to have been three of them, each showing some technical improvement over the last)

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By Sylvester

Hero (577)

07-12-2006, 21:24

You could also place a comment on every game in the Generation MSX database

By dvik

Prophet (2200)

07-12-2006, 21:34

I'm attempting to document every single game in the TOSEC MSX 2 Floppy library.
Nice

It would indeed be nice to have these remarks in genmsx.

By snout

Ascended (15187)

07-12-2006, 22:00

I second that... Generation MSX might not be perfect, but it's an amazing job done already. As much as I like seeing a lot of posts on the MRC forums, comments like this do sound like a valuable contribution to GenMSX... and I'm sure the team are open to other ideas to improve the site as well

By madcrow

Expert (78)

07-12-2006, 23:10

I'll certainly consider adding my comments to the MSXDB, but I'd also perhaps like some help. Maybe different people could volunteer to do different letters. I'm already half done with A (not posted yet) Any volunteers for B?

By PingPong

Prophet (4093)

08-12-2006, 12:17

Game: 1942 (1987)(Ascii)
A perfectly solid conversion of Capcom's classic WW2 airplane blaster. Has some flicker problems (at least in blueMSX)

Flicker problems on sprites are common on msx. It's a hardware limitation on sprites due to slow ram access. you will notice frequently it on msx games that use HW sprites.

Also this defect was common on those days on computers that have HW sprites.
Also the amiga could not display hw sprites if you use heavily the blitter because it have the precedence over hw sprites.

By Manuel

Ascended (19299)

08-12-2006, 20:38

Quite some GenMSX entries already contain a short remark or a few lines of short review. Wataru made quite a lot of those

By madcrow

Expert (78)

09-12-2006, 16:19

Almost finished with the As. Will post today, hopefully.

By pitpan

Prophet (3155)

09-12-2006, 19:55

Mmm. But some of those games were originally published as megaROMs.

By madcrow

Expert (78)

09-12-2006, 20:00

Mmm. But some of those games were originally published as megaROMs.

I know. I'm going through TOSEC and reviewing the files found there. When something in TOSEC is mis-named or a dodghy, non-working ROM->disk conversion, I note the fact.

By madcrow

Expert (78)

09-12-2006, 20:29

TOSEC MSX-2 Disk Game Review Part 2: A

Game: Abunai (19xx)(Agorm)
An unplayably slow and horrible hentai dice game. Poor artwork and bore factor
make this one to avoid.

Game: Acrojet (1985)(System Soft)
Non-working (in blueMSX) disk hack of a cart game.

Game: Advanced Dungeons & Dragons - Heroes Of The Lance (1991)(Pony Canyon)
Yet another non-working (in blueMSX) cart->disk conversion.

Other: Aerobic (1986)(Idealogic)
A digital aerobics instructor video, complete with bad 80s music spewing out
of the PSG. Good for a laugh but gets boring fast.

Game: Afterdark - Harajuku (19xx)(Kogado)
A menu-driven graphical adventure with what appears to be a detective theme.
Mode 7 graphics are sharp, but look converted from PC-88 or PC-98.

Game: Agees (19xx)(Kogado)
Some sort of hybrid RPG/Platformer. Mediocre graphics and only in Japanese...

Game: Akanbe Dragon (1988)(Hidaka)
Finally, a halfway decent game. Actually, cute graphics, a bizarre mix of chess
and fighting and some cute MSX-Music tunes make this at least worth trying...

Game: Al Capone (1987)(Msx-Studio)
Avoid the ghosts in a maze. Would be a fun little MSX 1 game, but doesn't really
use the power of the MSX 2 at all.

Game: Aleste (1988)(Compile)
Gorgeous graphics, epic shoot 'em up game play and a cool soundtrack make this a
must have... But you already knew that, didn't you.

Game: Aleste 2 (1989)(Compile)
Like Aleste 1, but with even pretty graphics, better gameplay and bigger levels.
You probably have this game already too.

Game: Aleste Gaiden (1989)(Compile)
Commando meets Aleste. Overhead run n' gun fun ensues.

Game: Algo Wars (1989)(Msx Magazine)
Some sort of robotic combat game. I'm not quite sure how it works as on-screen
instructions are lacking.

Game: Alice (1989)(Wao)
Actually this is Toshin City/Toushin Toshi by Alice Soft, an 8-disk RPG. Nice
graphics, but gameplay value is unknown. Presumably there are H-scenes for those
who are so inclined.

Game: Alien Slime (1990)(Ax-Alex & Raketto)
Bizzare little game that I have no idea how to play.

Game: Aliens 2 (1987)(Activision)
Won't start with my blueMSX setup.

Game: Amazonas (1987)(Idealogic)
A spanish text adventure. Decent illustrations, but I have no idea about the story
as I can't type in spanish to play the game.

Game: American Soccer (1987)
Standard 8-bit sports fare. Bizzare name, though.

Game: American Succes (19xx)
Sticks at the title screen playing some silly FM tune. No idea about the game.

Games: Am-Pah-Mata (19xx)
A shooter of some sort. Starts off with a set of title screens from the Laydock
games, the continues a cartoony title sequence. Seems to be a scene production from
the Land of the Rising Sun.

Demo: An Uncle In Brazil (1995)(Abyss)
A short, funny little cartoon-demo about a dutch kid whose clueless mother sends him
to Brazil to get him away from his MSX...

Other: Anatomie De L'Homme (1987)(Forum Micros)(Sp)
A Spanish translation of a French anatomy study program. Lame! Still, as it's
written mainly in BASIC, you may well be able to learn something about menu
creation or something.

Game: Ancient Ys Vanished Omen (1987)(Falcom)
First game in the famous RPG series ported to just about every Japanese computer and
console. English version available, if you know where to look.

Game: Ancient Ys Vanished Omen 2 (1988)(Falcom)
More RPG fun in the land of Ys. People seem to like this game, but there's better
versions available.

Game: Ancient Ys Vanished Omen 3 (1989)(Falcom)
More Ys fun. If you speak Japanese, have fun. Otherwise, play it on some platform
where it got translated.

Game: Andorogynus (1988)(Telenet)
Bizzare, but decent looking shoot where you're falling though a maze and have to
shoot bugs. A bit on the slow side.

Game: Angelus (1989)(Enix)
Looks to be a menu-driven adventure game by one half of international RPG
conglomerate Square-Enix. You seem to be a PI investagating a strange poisonings.
Somebody who knows some Japanese PLEASE help with this, as it looks like it MIGHT
actually be decent...

Game: Anger (19xx)(Marx)
Euroscene game, probably a puzzler. Reboots after the intro sequence on blueMSX so
I don't have anything to say about this game.

Game: Animal Land (1987)(Enix)
Hmm, won't even start in blueMSX. Just constantly reboots over and over. Possibly a
dodgy cart->disk job?

Game: Ankoku (19xx)
Yet another Japanese menu-adventure. Doesn't even seem to have decent graphics.

Demos: Anmas Amusement Disk (1992)(Anma)
Scene eye (and ear) candy. Show off the power of your MSX2 to you friends stuck with
<insert other 8-bit machine here>

Game: Anoid (19xx)(-)
A nice clone of the classic "break the bricks" game, Arkanoid.

Game: Arctic (1987)(Pony)
Interesting puzzle games where you need to manipulate switches to get balls from one
place to another. Could get addictive...

Game: Arcus (1987)(Wolf Team)
Like Anime-style atrwork? How about old-school First Person RPGs a la the AD&D "Gold
Box" series? Read Japanese? If you answered yes to these questions, then this is a
game for you. Frankly, it's sad that this game never got a translation as it doesn't
seem any worse than the various Western games of the sort floating around in 1987...

Game: Arcus 2 The Silent Symphony (19xx)(Wolf Team)
Like Arcus, but with a standard JRPG top-down view rather than the Western-style
first-person view of the first game.

Game: Arcuso Arch (19xx)(Wolfteam)
A game set in the Arcus universe with SD characters, light-hearted music and a comic
plot. All in Japanese, of course...

Game: Arkanoid Revenge Of Doh (1989)(Taito)
Sequel to Arkanoid... Not really all that much to say... Just, if like Breakout-style
games, here's a good one for ya.

Game: Arklight (1990)(Scap Trust)
Seems to hand after the introductory stuff? Is this perhaps simply the first disk of
a multi-disk game?

Game: Arsene Lupin 2 (1988)(Toho Cinefile)
Lupin III, the world's favorite anime master theif stars in a not all that good
platformer, proving that licensed games stink no matter where they come from.

Game: Asada Tetsuya No Akyoo Mahjon (19xx)(Pony)(Jp)
A Mahjohng game endorsed by some pro player in Japan... Lame.

Game: Ashguine (1987)(Micro Cabin)
Actually seems to be Ashguine 3... The TOSEC naming people really suck...
Action-oriented RPG. Sort of in-between a Gauntlet-style game and a more normal JRPG.

Game: Ashguine 2 (1987)(T&E Soft)
Well, this doesn't seem to boot properly, which figures as it's yet another dodgy
spanish cart->disk conversion.

Game: Asteka 2 - Taiyou No Shinden (1987)(Falcom)
Dodgy eternally rebooting, non-playable Spanish cart->disk conversion... No clue about
the game.

Game: Aura Battler Dunbine (1991)(Family Soft)
A huge six disk strategy game. Amazingly playable and text-light... Even the menus are
in English. Seems like a sci-fi ancestor of Final Fantasy Tactics or something.

Game: Avenger Of Death, The (19xx)(System Breaker)
Won't start... Fails saying that line 110 calls an undefined line...

Game: Aventure Of Randar III (1990)(Compile)
Decent-looking JRPG with kana-only text, so you can actually play this game even if
you're not a Japanese expert. You'll still have to know the basics and how to use a
dictionary, though. Name is mis-spelled, BTW, should be aDventure... Sucky TOSEC
naming strikes again.

Demo: Axe The Real Scc (1989)(BCF)
A variety of tunes for the SCC, Konami's 5-channel wavetable synth cart for the MSX.

Game: Ayayo'S Love (19xx)(Disk Station)
Not even an H-game, but an AD for an H-game. Avoid like the plague.

SUMMARY
Games to play from this include the Alestes, Anoid, Arkanoid 2, and the Ashguines. Also be sure to watch Anma's Amusement Disk and An Uncle in Brazil for some techincal wows and some chuckles respectively.