Another great news story for you all, as if you followed our previous write up in regards to Attack of the Petscii Robots; A game which was originally developed by David Murray, with a later port for the Commodore Amiga by Vesa Halttunen. Then you'll be pleased to learn that as of today, you can now try out the MSX version! A new version of the game by Robosoft, which was released some time back for the Atari XL/XE, Atari, Apple II, C64, C128, Plus/4, and VIC 20 by David Murray aka The 8bit Guy.
Sometime in the future, robots attempt to take over human settlements on various planets. Your goal is to infiltrate these settlements and destroy all of the robots. To do this, you’ll need to locate weapons and other tools. The game features multiple rooms, enemies to destroy, items to find and as the developer says " This version is true to the original, but is enhanced with updated graphics and sound using the V9990 display cart. " So yes certainly another game worthy of a playthrough on the MSX!
Links :1) Source 2) Play Online
Looks fabulous... Especially the title screen. Always surprised about how good the MSX2 gfx can look like.
ReplyDeleteWait, so this requires an expensive display cartridge as well? Or it can just make use of it if you have one?
ReplyDeleteYes, this needs a V9990.
DeleteGraphically it looks identical to the Amiga/SNES/Mega Drive (my favourite) version. But where is the fantastic music in the video?
ReplyDeleteOn my Amiga?
ReplyDeleteHad a really bad headache when I wrote it, sorry dude! Should say "on your MSX". The Amiga version is still available lol :)
DeleteHm, seems like the opl4 is missing to render that prime audio output in the video
ReplyDeletePero' come si lancia ??
ReplyDeleteNON funziona nessun tasto con Openmsx le ho provate tutte ma nisba, cambiato porte joy 1 2 ma non funge e' come morto !!
Qualcuno sa come lanciarlo....??
Con il file cmd (batch) non funge nemmeno quello.
Avevo avuto lo stesso problema con Space Manbow 2 anni fa,cercando di giocare tramite Bluemsx ma non funzionava! Ho risolto giocando dall'emulatore online,prova cosÃ!
DeleteThe V9990 is a separate, advanced video card for the MSX. I understand from the MSXDev homepage that it requires this, as the OPL4 sound extension as well. This means that you can not compare the graphics to the one of a stock MSX2. I guess the requirements mean that only very few people will ever be able to enjoy this game on real MSX hardware.
ReplyDeleteIt's unfortunate when developers do that. What is the point of developing for a vintage platform if you are going to require some niche, expensive hardware upgrade. Just develop it for the MSX and let it look how it looks.
DeleteI fully disagree. For starters, the hardware is still vintage. It is not current tech. Moreover, there are emulators. Additionally, targeting specific hardware is not in any way a motive to lack "a point". Lastly, for V9990 owners like myself, the release of new titles is... fortunate.
DeleteThe hardware is a niche because they lack titles. Releasing titles is a good way of growing the niche.
If you really want to play this specific game, just buy a V9990 or stick to emulators.
Tried to emulate this on Blue MSX (Retroarch core) and it doesn't appear to support V9990 in its GUI options. OPL4 music seems to work on the screen that it presents asking for V9990 and OpL4 support. I tried some of the different cart mapper types, but with little success. Any tips to get this one running? Is there a way to enable the V9990 capability through a config file? Would be a shame if there's no way to get this one running. + wondering why the dev didn't build this for MSX Turbo+ instead? it could've easily supported the requirements.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately I do not have any experience with Blue MSX. However, I have just tried to run the game on OpenMSX, using the Sunrise GFX9000 graphics extension and the Sunrise MoonSound sound extension. I also had to switch the video output to the GFX9000. With these settings, the game works. You may be able to start the game with respective settings on the emulator of your choice - if that supports the mentioned extensions. In real life, there are also other (at least some modern) extensions with the same chips, these should work as well.
ReplyDelete