- Gameplay category: Miikka Poikela
- Graphics category: Toni Gálvez
- Sound category: Maarten van Strien (Wolf)
- Polish/Overall category: David Fernández (Imanok)
- Compatibility category: Manuel Bilderbeek
- Originality category and additional remarks: All of the jury
Burn Us
Gameplay: 5 / 9
You move with 4-directions and use bombs/throw knives (once collected) with the fire button/spacebar. The objective in each stage is to collect a lighter and a gasoline can, then reach the exit to burn yourself up. Later on in the game more obstacles like water sprinkles and one-way doors are introduced.
Three points were removed from the score due to the bomb mechanic: For a lot of times, you need 3 bombs (too many) just to make one hole, and you can only carry one bomb at a time, making plenty of playtime being just you moving in circles. Not only that, but sometimes when you blow up a hole, you either accidentally fall through the hole, or worse yet, get stuck in the platform, forcing you to kill yourself by pressing F5.
One more point was removed from the score due to level transitions not waiting for the player’s input, making it possible for the player to miss out on vital game information (especially true about the information regarding using knives on broken ladders).
Miikka Poikela
Graphics: 6 / 9
Some aspects of the graphics could have used a bit more attention.
Toni Gálvez
Sound: 4 / 9
The title/game song is the kind that has this detailed demoscene flair about it. Unheard of in the 80’s, and largely forgotten about in the 90’s. Very well done. There are small non-level tunes (like the passage between levels) which sound rather ‘normal’ in comparison. Somewhat dull I might even say. Where was the level of detail that graced the title/game song?
Later on, I was informed that the cool song is one of the demonstration songs for Vortex Tracker II. That does change things quite a bit. Had this been an original song, I would’ve awarded it with a solid 8 score! However, as this is a contest in which we rate the merits of the contestants, I should kind of disqualify this entry. or else I should limit myself to the other music in this game, which were less impressive. That is unfortunate, as this game is a fun game. The player probably doesn’t mind, and probably prefers good music from third parties over dedicated bad music. As I’ve mentioned before, as a gamer I would rate the music an 8, but as a member of the jury, in which I rate the merits of the contestant, I’ll end up with a 4.
Maarten van Strien
Polish/overall: 6 / 9
In general, the game works quite good. There are some issues though: the player stops moving while pressing diagonals, sometimes you get stuck when jumping at exit doors and it’s a bit difficult to guess which patterns will explode after setting a bomb.
Visually it’s a little bit confusing because of the colours used for the background and the tiny items. Anyway, it’s a decent “King’s Valley” clone, with an original crazy plot and also some original elements like using your knife to climb broken stairs.
David Fernández
Compatibility: 4 / 9
It doesn’t run at all on MSX AcidTest1, or Sony HB-F500P (split main RAM).
It doesn’t run correctly on MSX AcidTest2: no sound, missing graphics on
cover page, seems to hang up after starting.Strangely enough it starts up in Spanish on the VG 8000, CF-1200. But
language can be easily changed.Music speed seems very irregular on a Daewoo CPC-61W (at least on the
title part).Crashes on the Al-Alamiah AX170 after starting the game. Tried on most
Arabic machines I have, and it crashed on all…Strange that the game needs keyboard to start to play with joystick… not very sofa-friendly.
Bilingual is a nice extra for language compatibility.
I can forgive a bit about the I/O ports, but the fact that it doesn’t run on machines like the Sony HB-F500P is costing points here.
On top of that, there’s the crash on the Arabic machines and the strange
Manuel Bilderbeek
sound speed issue on the Daewoo. The strange default language choice and bad compatibility with sofa-players doesn’t help.
Comments
One of my least favorites from MSXdev’18 games. There’s some good ideas there, but the execution left something to be desired. I also encountered a couple of bugs that didn’t help my experience. For me the best part of the game was the music.
Miikka Poikela
It reminds me a bit of King’s Valley, in concept. The story behind it is original, but a bit far-fetched and macabre. Not everyone will like the black humour.
Manuel Bilderbeek
Buddhagillie
Gameplay: 8 / 9
You move with 8-directions. Attacking is done with the fire button/spacebar: once for a single attack, twice in a row for a double-attack, and three times in a row for a triple-attack, which also shoots a projectile if you have collected enough mantra (1-3 for a normal shot, 4-5 for a penetrable shot, 6 for the strongest wide shot). You block enemy projectiles, aka karma, by keeping the fire button/spacebar pressed down and facing in the right direction. Each karma projectile that you block with your sword, will be changed into mantra.
One point was removed from the score due to one aspect of gameplay: Blocking projectiles from the left is made more difficult than it needs to be. You only block from left while moving right. As soon as you stop moving, your character automatically turns to block from right again.
Miikka Poikela
Graphics: 7 + 0.1 / 9
Very funny scroll.
Toni Gálvez
Sound: 5 / 9
The speed of the in-game music is rather well chosen; it’s freaky, it’s rushing. But other than that, it’s not memorable or otherwise worth mentioning. Even though some of the PSG was dedicated to sound effects, I feel that with richer music, the game would’ve been better.
Maarten van Strien
Polish/overall: 8 / 9
Solid and polished shooter. The sprite flickering routine needs to be improved a bit and there are some sprite glitches when the action takes place at the top half of the screen (more noticeable in real machines than in emulators, and mainly in 60Hz mode).
The vertical scroll effect somehow makes you feel it’s inverted. Just like in other shooters by GW’s Workshop, the game mechanics are very original, but it takes some time to get used to them.
David Fernández
Compatibility: 9 + 0.1 / 9
Runs fine on all 3 AcidTest configurations! Well done!
As far as I can tell, the music runs equal on 50 and 60Hz machines. Wow!
I can’t find anything it won’t run on in my limited tests. Sure, it needs 16kB RAM, but hey, that was a rule.
Manuel Bilderbeek
Comments
Don’t know what to say about this game. It was definitely the most unique of the bunch and thought-provoking. I especially love the animation that the boss “Animal” does when they’re about to charge-attack. 🙂
Miikka Poikela
Game mechanics very cool.
Toni Gálvez
Although it’s basically a shooter, it also isn’t. You’re not shooting! This is a very original game concept and also very well executed.
I give it extra points for its originality and excellent execution.
Manuel Bilderbeek
Virus LPQ-79
Gameplay: 9 / 9
You move with 8-directions and shoot with the fire button/spacebar. Each shot spends energy, but it replenishes in time. If you have enough energy, pressing the M key or secondary fire button shoots a mega-shot. The objective in each stage is to save 3 survivors and then head to the exit before timer runs out.
Miikka Poikela
Graphics: 8 / 9
Great graphics style, with a dark atmosphere.
Toni Gálvez
Sound: 7 + 0.5 / 9
The style of the title song is alienating, but that makes it very unique. Certainly not a negative thing. The game music itself follows this same style; it’s not the type you’d whistle along. But then again (while fleeing from at least six zombies, have zombies ever been this fast?), whistling or humming along is merely a bonus aspect of music. If the music itself is good and fitting for the game, then that should be enough. Similarly, not all film music ends up in the concert hall, while working very well with the film. So, the Virus music probably won’t end up on your daily playlist, but in context of the game, it’s well done.
A score of 7, and I think I’ll toss in a 0.5 bonus for daring to be original. So: 7.5. Did you zombies see that coming?
Maarten van Strien
Polish/overall: 8 / 9
Cool survival zombie game, solid and polished. The overall impression is quite good and one must pay close attention to small details to find improvable stuff such as zombies walking over survivors.
More GFX variety would also be nice because many stages are too similar. There are not too many games of that kind on MSX, it’s much better than the crappy “Alien Syndrome” speccy conversion, for sure.
David Fernández
Compatibility: 7 / 9
Does not run on Acid2Test.
The intro screen seems corrupt on a Sanyo PHC-70FD2. Just shows some
konami waves? Very strange, works fine on the 70FD.Acid2Test isn’t very realistic, but it does mean you can’t get full points. And for the issue on the FD2, I also need to subtract a point. Still, not bad.
Manuel Bilderbeek
Comments
Pretty fun game where you kill zombies and rescue survivors through 32 levels. The length and graphics were good, but the game was too much on the easy side. I was never close to running out of ammo or time. I also saw no reason to ever use the mega-shot.
Miikka Poikela
I don’t remember a game like this, but it consists of some classical elements. The whole setting and story is also not bad, although zombies are not THAT original.
Manuel Bilderbeek
C. C. R. Anexo 1, El Algoritmo
Gameplay: 3 / 9
Press the fire button/spacebar to advance the text, and when prompted, press a number key to make a choice.
Three points were removed from the score due to most of the choices being insta-deaths, forcing you to restart the game from the beginning and reading the same old unskippable texts again, again, again, and again. Another three points were removed due to the terrible font used that is almost unreadable. A game all about texts should be easy to read.
Miikka Poikela
Graphics: 5 / 9
Screen graphics could be more polished, with more definition, mostly the use of colour.
Toni Gálvez
Sound: 6 / 9
When it comes to music, I feel there could’ve been more. There are some nice ideas here and there, but merely ideas aren’t good enough. Ideas have to be fleshed out, and that’s where this game can be improved. Especially in story games, the music needs to – somehow – suck you in. The more convincing the sound, the more you get sucked into the game. Had the music been richer (better arrangements, use of echoes), it would’ve been a 7. As it lacks these techniques, I’ll pick a 6 score. Mere notes can be enough if you have real instruments playing the music, in that case the musicality mostly comes automagically. In case of a PSG (and other music chips for that matter) the musicality has to be programmed manually. Without such musicality, it’ll remain a simple beep-fest.
Maarten van Strien
Polish/overall: 5 / 9
“Choose your own adventure” kind of game. The text fonts are a bit hard to read and some GFX could be improved a bit as well. The game is quite short and it doesn’t let you play again when you finish it.
I just know two other games of the same genre for MSX, both by Relevo Videogames, so it’s quite original.
David Fernández
Compatibility: 5 / 9
Only in Spanish, that’s a pity. For a game like this, it’s unplayable
for me. (I only got the Spanish version to judge, not the English one
which I am very happy that appeared as well!).No instructions in English, but is required by the rules.
Tape (WAV) version provided. Nice bonus.
Does not run on Acid2Test.
I cannot choose options 2 and 3 on the VG-8000.
I cannot choose option 3 on Russian machines.
Not sofa-compatible, needs keyboard. Could have been avoided.
Failing Acid2Test, but the keyboard problems on some machines,
Manuel Bilderbeek
makes the game unplayable on them (should have used the BIOS?). So that costs a lot of points. For the rest it’s pretty much OK.
Comments
I was initially pretty excited about this game, since I have a thing for visual novels, and this one had nice visuals and music. Too bad that the game isn’t very fun to play for a couple of reasons.
Miikka Poikela
Looks like a multi-choice text adventure with some pictures. I don’t recall something exactly like this. Story seems quite original as well.
Manuel Bilderbeek
Dreams Puzzle
Gameplay: 8 / 9
Super-simple. You move slides with 4-directions.
One point was removed due to the lack of a preview feature, showing what the finished picture should look like. It’s a common feature in puzzle games like this, so its absence was surprising to me.
Miikka Poikela
Graphics: 8 + 0.1 / 9
Impressive artwork screens using GFX9000.
Toni Gálvez
Sound: 7.5 / 9
This game has FM-music, basic Moonblaster arrangements, the kind you may have heard in disk magazines from the 90’s. For this kind of puzzle game, music serves as background music, rather than with e.g. an RPG where music is an integral aspect of the storyline. For this purpose, this music fits the game like a glove. It’s not overly pretentious, it just sits there and plays, not taking away the attention. Muzak, as it’s sometimes referred to, there’s actually a kind of late-night vibe to it. Several tunes are present; original work and covers. So, now the hardest part; how to rate this game against the other games that merely have PSG music? I think I should rate the music in this game as a solid 7.5.
Why? There are several easy-going tunes, and they are well done for their purpose: background music for a puzzle game. Some of the arrangements are well done, others are at least adequate.
Maarten van Strien
Polish/overall: 7 / 9
Simple and precious puzzle game. The quality of the artwork is really high and the digitizations take advantage of the GFX9000 capabilities.
The keyboard response seems a bit laggy, although it could be an emulation issue (I don’t own the minimum required H/W). The game itself is the typical panel puzzle game, not original at all.
David Fernández
Compatibility: 8 + 0.1 / 9
No music can be heard on Acid2Test, although it does contain MSX-MUSIC; the rest is OK.
Alas, no music if there’s no MSX-MUSIC on board.
Joystick is supported, but can’t be used to start the game: not sofa-friendly.
Compatibility rating is 8 out of 9. Well, if you have a GFX9000, but this is the freestyle category, so that can be required. Just subtracted a point because of Acid2Test.
Manuel Bilderbeek
Comments
Oh no, it’s a sliding puzzle game. I’ve never been a fan of these, despite knowing how to play them. At least the artwork is REALLY beautiful and the music pleasant to listen to.
Miikka Poikela
Well, it’s just a shift tile puzzle game. But MY GOD, it looks absolutely amazing!! And that’s quite original.
I give it extra points for the fantastic graphics and execution and being a GFX9000 game.
Manuel Bilderbeek
Linez
Gameplay: 8 / 9
You move the cursor on a grid with 4-directions. You select a face with the fire button/spacebar. After selecting a face, you move around the grid and on each tile you press the fire button/spacebar to draw a line. To complete the line, you select another face with the same color.
One point was removed due to the drawing line mechanic. I don’t know why you have to click on every tile separately to draw a line. It would be more efficient to click on a face once, then just move the cursor around to draw a line, and when you reach a face of the same color, it would finish the line, otherwise pressing the fire button/spacebar would cancel the drawing process. That being said, very good puzzle game and one of my MSXdev’18 favorites.
Miikka Poikela
Graphics: 7 / 9
A good graphic style.
Toni Gálvez
Sound: 2 / 9
A puzzle game doesn’t always need music. An addictive game like Linez certainly doesn’t. While there are short bursts to signal e.g. the start of a level, I’m not sure those should be labeled music. They could perhaps be labeled musical words, rather than music (which you could see as a paragraph of text or even a whole story). As such, I feel there’s not really something relevant to review here.
Maarten van Strien
Polish/overall: 6 / 9
Nice matching game. The game works correctly but it’s tedious having to press direction + fire so many times to draw a long line. Listening to some music during the action would be cool too.
It’s an original game similar to “Match Maniac” from Abyss, but with some different mechanics.
David Fernández
Compatibility: 9 / 9
Passes all 3 Acid tests! Congratulations!
It just runs anywhere I tested! Great job!
Manuel Bilderbeek
Comments
I’ve played puzzle games like this one before and enjoyed them. This one was also enjoyable. The game was just the perfect length.
Miikka Poikela
No manual, but the game explains itself.
Never seen exactly this on MSX before. But I guess the idea is not original. If it is, it is brilliant.
Manuel Bilderbeek
Bumper Ship Racing
Gameplay: 9 / 9
You accelerate with the fire button/spacebar and rotate with the left and right directions. There’s three different ship types to choose from: Nimble (fast turns, slow acceleration), Jack (Jack of both trades, master of neither – a balanced option), and Radaccel (quick acceleration, slow turns). If you value your sanity, never choose Nimble. 😉
Miikka Poikela
Graphics: 7 / 9
Very decent graphics.
Toni Gálvez
Sound: 2 / 9
Apart from basic sound effects, no music to review.
Maarten van Strien
Polish/overall: 7 / 9
Cool static screen racing game, solid and polished. It works well, but personally I find it too difficult to master due to the excessive use of inertia. There are 3 different ship configurations (where turning speed and ship acceleration are adjusted) and several game modes allowing up to 4 players to play simultaneously, which is a great feature. At the ship selection, the cursor moves too fast the first time you move it and after that it works ok.
There’s not music at all, which would be a great add on. There are not too many games of that kind on MSX (as far as I remember, only “Greatest Driver 2D Special”), so it’s quite original.
David Fernández
Compatibility: 7 / 9
Passes all 3 Acid tests! Congratulations!
The keyboard isn’t working properly on the VG 8000 or Russian machines for the 4th player.
Well, it’s very compatible, except if you want to play with 4 players. Then you can’t use the keyboard controls when the key matrix is not like the international one (should have used BIOS?). Still, it is only valid for 4-player mode, so it is not that much of an issue.
Manuel Bilderbeek
Comments
Racing with bumper cars, or ships rather, is a fun concept. Controls really well (especially when you’re not using the Nimble ship). The bumping mechanics takes some time getting used to, but it adds a nice twist to a racing game (and can be VERY irritating at times). The game really could use some music, though. Selectable CPU difficulty wouldn’t hurt either.
Miikka Poikela
I have seen this concept before, but not as well worked out as this one. MSX needed this version!
Manuel Bilderbeek
Any Treasure Day
Gameplay: 8 / 9
It’s the usual text-adventure fare, where commands are entered in the “<verb>” or “<verb> <noun>” format. That being said, I found this one more flexible than many others text-adventures of the past. For one thing, it accepts both lowercase and uppercase commands (oR CoMBiNaTioNS oF BoTH!). It also has shortcut commands (‘l’ for ‘look’, ‘x’ for ‘examine’, ‘i’ for ‘inventory’, etc.). And if that wasn’t enough, the game also accepts ‘it’ as a noun, referring to the last noun you used (for example, after the ‘take lamp’ command, you can type ‘light it’ instead of ‘light lamp’) .
One point was removed from the score due to the location descriptions not always telling you all the directions where you can move, making navigation a bit troublesome sometimes, especially when backtracking to previous locations.
Miikka Poikela
Graphics: 1 / 9
Text adventure without graphics.
Toni Gálvez
Sound: 1 / 9
The sound of silence.
Maarten van Strien
Polish/overall: 5 / 9
A classical text adventure without GFX and music. Not original at all, but it seems well done… although I didn’t manage to get too far.
David Fernández
Compatibility: 9 / 9
Passes all 3 Acid tests! Congratulations!
Runs perfectly on anything I tried it on! Well done!
Manuel Bilderbeek
Comments
I’ve never been good at text adventures or liked them much, but this is the first one I’ve ever completed due to its simplicity and shortness. I still don’t really like text adventures, though.
Miikka Poikela
It seems like a quasi standard text adventure to me.
Manuel Bilderbeek
This games looks interesting.
Toni Gálvez
GRAVITICA
Gameplay: 8 / 9
You move with 8-directions and generate gravity by pressing the fire button/spacebar. While generating gravity, you can move past enemy lasers, but all the projectiles on the screen will follow you until you stop the gravity. The objective in every stage is dodging enemy projectiles and lasers for a while, until the boss appears at the end. After you defeat the boss with its own projectiles, you go to the next, harder stage.
One point was removed from the score due to the game being a bit too much on the repetitive and boring side. No new elements are introduced later on in the game, but mainly my problem was the game becoming challenging way too slowly. The game sessions in a good, simple high scorer, shouldn’t take too long. Speaking of long sessions, the ability to pause the game would be nice.
Miikka Poikela
Graphics: 6 / 9
Decent scroll and simple graphics.
Toni Gálvez
Sound: 6 / 9
Interesting game concept. I just wish I wouldn’t suck so much, playing this game, or… actually that’s the concept. 🙂 It has a bit of Nemesis flair around it, and not just because of the graphics. Regarding music it’s a solid entry.
Maarten van Strien
Polish/overall: 5 / 9
Original shooter(?) game. Cool concept having to play with gravity to avoid lasers and using enemy bullets to attack stage bosses. There are issues with the design of some patterns used to simulate the smooth scrolling. GFX are quite simple and not too varied.
Moreover, the game turns repetitive too soon.
David Fernández
Compatibility: 8 + 0.1 / 9
The game doesn’t pass Acid2Test, but otherwise everything is fine.
Manuel Bilderbeek
Comments
A shoot-em-up without shooting… what? One of the more unique MSXdev’18 entries. The game goes on forever, the only goal being getting a high score.
Miikka Poikela
Never seen a game concept like this before. It’s a very good idea! Well done!
It receives extra points for the originality.
Manuel Bilderbeek
Barbarian The Duel
Gameplay: 8 / 9
This game, as the name implies, isn’t a remake of the full game, but its 2-player versus portion, either against another player or the CPU. If you know how to control the original 1987 game, you also know how to control this version. The original gameplay is very well replicated. You move/crouch/jump/roll/defend using the 8-directions. The same 8-directions are also used for various attacks, while the fire button/spacebar is pressed down.
One point was removed from the score due to the CPU opponent being too easily exploited by just rolling and attacking with “Web of Death” (there’s probably other ways too), and not having an option to make the CPU more challenging. Sometimes you can also win a game straight away by just doing the flying neck chop attack in the beginning of the match, ending the match in 1 second. This game, in its current state, is more enjoyable to play with another person.
Miikka Poikela
Graphics: 6 / 9
Graphics are not well polished. Not many details on them.
Toni Gálvez
Sound: 5.5 / 9
The music for MSX-Music sounds mostly reasonable. It’s a port from the original C64-game, but it doesn’t pull out the last juices from the MSX-Music as e.g. Micro Cabin could.
Now, it may be unfair to compare it to Micro Cabin, but more could’ve been done for this chip for sure. There are OPL4-samples for sound effects. The sound effects are suitable for this type of game, with swords and painful moaning.
The rating reflects the fact that the music is a cover. It might not bother the average gamer, but I’ve got to include that detail in my rating. After all, it is a contest…
Maarten van Strien
Polish/overall: 8 + 0.1 / 9
Barbarian MSX conversion at last!. Good fighting game with cool technical achievements, like the flames effect at the title screen and the use of really big characters performing a lot of different movements. The default speed is too fast for the beginners to fully enjoy the game, so it’s recommended switching the easy mode (where the speed is more similar to the original game) while booting.
There are only a few selectable characters, so the big fun of the game (apart from training until upcoming sequel of the game arrives) is facing a duel with friends.
David Fernández
Compatibility: 6 / 9
Does not pass Acid1 and Acid2 Tests, alas. Also doesn’t run on Sony
HB-F500P.Nicely reports when the system requirements are not met.
Those Acid tests… but who cares, we’ve got an excellent Barbarian on MSX now! And all the extras…
Manuel Bilderbeek
Comments
As a fan of Palace Software’s original “Barbarian: The Ultimate Warrior” game for the Commodore 64, released in 1987, I was really looking forward to play this one. It’s only downfall is not being the fully-featured game. Here’s hoping the developers will continue working on this game with more scenarios, enemies and resources, as they said in the manual. Heck, if the developers are able to remake the original game in its full form and add more extra features, I’d want to see this game being released physically on cartridge as well. *wink wink*
Miikka Poikela
Regarding the originality, it’s a game genre not often seen on MSX and the character designs are original.
This game obtains (0.1) technical bonus points.
David Fernández
XRacing
Gameplay: 8 / 9
You accelerate with the fire button/spacebar (direction ‘up’ works too, when using automatic gears). Directions left and right rotates your car. The secondary fire button/M uses brakes (direction ‘down’ works too, when using automatic gears). Pressing the Return key respawns your car. When using the manual gears, directions ‘up’ and ‘down’ works as gear up and down respectively.
One point was removed from the score due to the game’s difficulty and the lack of a password system (even some continues would be fine). Nothing is more annoying than having to start all over from the beginning and losing all your progress.
Miikka Poikela
Graphics: 9 + 0.3 / 9
An incredible way of taking advantage of MSX1 graphics.
Toni Gálvez
Sound: 7 / 9
The in-game music is very adequate. The tunes won’t become evergreens, but that’s mostly due to the structural nature of these tunes. They’re ongoing background tunes with a certain drive, rather than hum-along material.
Maarten van Strien
Polish/overall: 8 + 0.1 / 9
Great top view racing game. The flag animation effect at title screen and the smooth scrolling management during the game are technically very impressive. The game works ok, in general, but there are a few circuits where cars controlled by the CPU get stuck in some obstacles (if you overtake them, they will reappear ahead in the circuit after a while).
There are nice add ons like the shop to trade for better cars, the statistics panel and chatting with your manager. The game is an original mix of the great “Lotus F3” (by Dvik&Joyrex) gameplay and “F1 Spirit” story mode, having to improve your driving skills along different racing categories, driving fastest cars every new season.
David Fernández
Compatibility: 8 + 0.1 / 9
It runs very smoothly on all machines I tried it on.
It doesn’t pass the Acid2Test, but otherwise everything is fine.
Extra points for a fantastic execution. It’s a very playable game.
Manuel Bilderbeek
Comments
A really good but hard racing game reminiscent to top-down racing games like Super Cars. I also see some similarities to Konami’s F-1 Spirit. The agent Skid Vicious, named after one of the opponents from Stunts/4D Sports Driving, has a really short temper. I hate that guy, heheh.
Miikka Poikela
Not a very new concept, but very well executed! MSX could use more games like this. The fact that we are lacking them does make it more original than you’d think.
Manuel Bilderbeek
This game obtains (0.1) technical bonus points.
David Fernández
Certainly, in my opinion, it is the best game from this contest edition.
Toni Gálvez
PWND3
Gameplay: 9 / 9
Snake moves automatically in one of the 4 directions you control. To beat a stage you need to eat all the flowers on the screen without touching a wall or your snake. Touching an exclamation mark icon turns certain blocks into blue, which the snake can pass through.
Miikka Poikela
Graphics: 7 / 9
Very colourful, but confusing.
Toni Gálvez
Sound: 1 / 9
Apart from a beep, there’s nothing to judge here.
Maarten van Strien
Polish/overall: 5 / 9
Third game in the PWND series. The game works ok. There’s an issue with the blocking arrows, as you can step over them from the side and after that you can move in any direction. In some stages it takes a little time to find where the snake is at the beginning… maybe just making it flicker a few seconds would be enough to solve that.
GFX are simple and there’s no music at all, which would be a nice add on. Snake clones are not original, but some original elements have been added, like enabling/disabling walls.
David Fernández
Compatibility: 7 / 9
With Acid2 Test and on Arabic machines, part of the title screen is
missing. In fact, most of the white texts seem to be missing. Looks like
it wouldn’t be that hard to fix this to make it run normally, as the
rest of the game runs fine.Graphics corruption on Arabic machines.
No joystick control, so not sofa compatible.
Failing Acid2 test… and similar issues on Arabic machines. Still the game can be played on them. Worked fine on all other things I ran it on.
Manuel Bilderbeek
Comments
A simple single-screen snake game with 7 stages and 7 selectable speeds. No music.
Miikka Poikela
Originality? nope, not really. But clearly the author had fun creating
Manuel Bilderbeek
it and also learned a lot.
Shoulder Blade OVERDRIVE
Gameplay: 9 / 9
Use 4-directions and the fire button/spacebar. Holding left or right will move the yellow target marker to that direction. Pushing up switches the attack mode to anti-air, required for shooting flying enemies. Pushing down switches the attack mode to ground, required for shooting ground enemies. While holding the fire button/spacebar, your gun keeps firing. Double-tapping left or right quickly will make the player dash to that direction. Double-tapping up or down quickly will make the player jump.
Miikka Poikela
Graphics: 7 / 9
Good graphics, but sometimes they look too pixelated.
Toni Gálvez
Sound: 4 / 9
A major issue with this game is that the sound effects are so loud and nasty that there’s no way to listen to (and potentially enjoy) the music. Either have music, or don’t have music. If you do add music, then give it some room to play. Now it’s like sitting in a medium concert hall, listening to chamber music, while some office clerk is inserting paper into a shredder.
Maarten van Strien
Polish/overall: 8 + 0.2 / 9
Great 3D view shooter, solid and polished. Everything works ok, although the double tapping detection (to make evasive movements) is a bit tricky.
You are also not allowed to move the target up/down while moving it horizontally, what hinders your actions a bit. All in all a very addictive and original “Cabal” kind of game, with its own particular mechanics.
David Fernández
Compatibility: 9 / 9
Passes all 3 Acid tests! Congratulations!
Nicely reports system requirements if not met.
It worked on all machines I tried that are at least MSX2 with 128kB VRAM, as per the instructions.
Manuel Bilderbeek
Comments
Looks like SEGA’s Space Harrier, but plays differently. This is the most impressive looking MSXdev’18 game. Features cool music too.
Miikka Poikela
Reminds me a bit of Feedback, but there aren’t that many MSX games like this.
Manuel Bilderbeek
Personal favourite. I really enjoyed playing that one.
David Fernández
Quartet
Gameplay: 9 / 9
Use 4-directions to build perfect faces by moving the centered piece up, down, left or right. If you wait for too long or there’s no free slot available where you move to, you’ll lose a life. The more complete the faces, the higher you score. Clearing all faces from the board earns you an extra life and bonus points.
Miikka Poikela
Graphics: 9 / 9
Very polished graphics. Good looking style and a great use of MSX1 color palette.
Toni Gálvez
Sound: 5 / 9
The title tune is short, but at least well-produced. Nothing in-game, so there’s the equivalent of one Moonblaster pattern in this game, it seems. In a way it’s a game that doesn’t require more. At the same time, it’s tricky to rate a single pattern to another game that has many more notes. The music itself would be worth at least a 7, but in the end, as there’s not much of it, I would rate the music offerings (in context of the game) a 5.
Maarten van Strien
Polish/overall: 7 / 9
Cool action puzzle game. The game is solid and works perfectly. It’s a very simple, addictive and original concept, ideal for casual players… but maybe too repetitive to be played for a long time.
Some music during the gameplay would be appreciated.
David Fernández
Compatibility: 8 + 0.1 / 9
Fails the Acid2 Test (corrupt graphics, no sound).
Fully sofa compatible.
Extra compatible due to only needing 8kB RAM 🙂
Somehow it is very noticeable that the music runs slower on a 50Hz MSX.
Only failing Acid2 Test, the rest is very OK!
Manuel Bilderbeek
Comments
Very addictive and simple puzzle game. Game sessions are quick, making re-tries painless. Could use some music during gameplay, though.
Miikka Poikela
As the readme explained, it’s a MSX port of an existing game. That existing game is pretty original.
I give it extra points because of being an amazingly solid game for MSX newcomers and addictive as well.
Manuel Bilderbeek
Goal
Gameplay: 5 /9
You advance the text by pressing any key. When prompted, you enter a value/name and press the Return key. During match sections when you attack/defend the goal, you press the left, up, or right key, and hope for the best, since the end results are randomized.
One point was removed from the score due to the unskippable intro/title screen, which is almost one minute long. Any keys pressed during this intro will skip part of the game instructions that comes after the intro (press 4 times and you will miss them completely). Three points was removed due to the game’s repetition and heavy emphasis on luck over skill. Also, the game crashes when played on a Japanese MSX.
Miikka Poikela
Graphics: 4 / 9
Very simple graphics.
Toni Gálvez
Sound: 1 / 9
The title music is rather coarse and unrefined. As it all looks like BASIC, you could ask yourself what more there was to expect. But even BASIC can do better than this.
Maarten van Strien
Polish/overall: 2 / 9
Old basic football manager game. It needs a lot of polishing: you have to wait almost one full minute listening to the intro music until you are allowed to interact with the game (moreover if you press any key to skip the music, what will be really skipped are the game instruction screens just after the intro)… and what it’s worse, when you start playing, after the first round, the game breaks showing an error message.
David Fernández
Compatibility: 3 / 9
The game stopped with “Illegal function call in 1560” for several
machines, like Japanese ones (PRINT USING is not completely portable…).The game doesn’t run on Acid2 Test.
When entering Att/Def points, I didn’t know what to put there and got
the game to stop with “Overflow in 5710”.The game can only be played on machines with European/international BASIC machines. That’s not what I call compatible. Although I admit it is more the fault of MSX-BASIC, but it should have been taken into account; you can’t have an MSX game that doesn’t run on Japanese MSX computers.
Manuel Bilderbeek
Comments
I’m not into football. I’m not generally into football video games. I’m especially not into football manager games, which this one is. This game might be pretty decent for what it is, but it’s not for me.
Miikka Poikela
Manual seems to be missing, although the game contains an explanation.
Several of such games exist, like Footballer of the Year and Manchester United.
Manuel Bilderbeek
Some words from the jurors
Maarten van Strien (Wolf)
Two things keep lingering through my mind after playing the games from this contest. First; many of these are very tough to play. Now, a game is to be a challenge, but I’d hoped that difficulty levels would merely increase in time, after advancing in the game. I’ve felt many games were already darn hard right from the start.
Secondly, music is a good device to get you sucked into a game. It sets the mood, and a good mood consumes the player. Put the player in the right mood, win the player’s attention, and you can win a contest. I feel this aspect needs more attention in future contests. There are plenty composers around, who perhaps have little else to do. Just ask around, there’re some who could perhaps produce a good pack of music for you.
Miikka Poikela
When I was playing these games, I always started off with the maximum of 9 points and then decreased points as I encountered any issues with the gameplay. The bigger the issue, the more points I removed. I’m only judging these games based on their gameplay, regardless of what genre they represent, meaning that a simple text-only game can get more points for its gameplay than a more complex and visually impressive game would.
Manuel Bilderbeek
Procedure I used for compatibility test for every game from the contest:
- Just run the game to get familiar with it.
- See whether it runs on the 3 MSX AcidTest configurations.
- Check whether it runs on:
- A minimal MSX1 with 16kB RAM (as per the rules): Philips VG 8000 (which has a non-standard key matrix and is sensitive for wrong PSG port programming – so test with joystick) and National CF-1200.
- MSX2: Sony HB-F900 and Philips NMS 8250.
- MSX2+: Sanyo PHC-70FD2.
- MSX turboR (FS-A1GT).
- Sony HB-10P (T6950 VDP, doesn’t support some undocumented modes).
- Daewoo CPC-61W (RAM in slot 0-2).
- Brazillian Gradiente Expert XP-800 (BIOS).
- Russian Yamaha YIS-503IIR or IIIR (BIOS/keymatrix).
- Al-Alamiah AX-170 or 370 (BIOS).
- Check whether it is compatible with sofa play (joystick). Being so, is a bonus in my opinion 🙂
- Give rating and some words regarding compatibility.
- Give thought about originality.
All tests have been done in openMSX. If the contestant proves I found a bug
in openMSX instead of in his game, the test will be redone in some other
way… 🙂
