MSXdev'06

Hello ! As many other computers/consoles communities, the MSX community is very active ... and new games are developed now in the 21st century

I will post here all the news about the MSXdev'06 contest ... I must begin with the 8 first news !!!

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17/04/06

And there it is, for the fourth year in a row: MSXdev, the annual MSX1 game development contest that took the MSX community by surprise. After a slow start, MSXdev'04 resulted in 16 new MSX1 games, whilst MSXdev'05 even surpassed that success with 21 brand new MSX games for the whole community to enjoy. Now, the time has come for MSXdev'06!.

Previously organised by Eduardo Robsy, the MSXDEV contest is now organised by a team composed of 3 MSX fans : Jon Cortazar (aka viejo_archivero), Sjoerd Lammertsma (aka BodyHammeR) and myself, Benoît Delvaux (aka mars2000you).

The new MSXdev website contains a lot of information (and downloads) of the previous editions of the competition. In short, these are the rules for MSXdev'06:

- Games have to be supplied as .ROM files and can be up to 128KB in size. Of course, smaller games are allowed as well
- All games should be 100% compatible with the first generation of MSX computers, being an MSX1 with 16kB RAM and 16kB VRAM. The games should also work on MSX2, MSX2+ and turboR computers
- It is allowed to use additional hardware like SCC, MSX-MUSIC, GFX9000, R800 et cetera. This time those add-ons will be taken into account when judging the entries, even giving them extra points!
- Although original game concepts are preferred, remakes and ports will be accepted
- Games have to be completed before December 31st, 2006

So, for now, people can start developing their MSXdev'06 entries and -like in previous editions- sponsors are free to contact the MSXdev team for offering new parallel contests, following the same sponsorship system we saw on the last edition. At the moment there is only one nice prize to be won: a Panasonic FS-A1GT MSX turboR computer!

Developers: you have more than 8 months left to develop your games so you have no excuses. Happy developing, and good luck!

http://msxdev.msxblue.com

20/04/06

TT-VIRUS : First MSXdev'06 entry submitted !

Only 2 days after the launching of the MSXdev'06 contest, a first entry has been submitted by a new team called "Brain Eaters", and is being developed by Dioniso (Alfonso D.C.) (T-Virus, Magical Stones, Gniffel, Penguin Race) and WYZ (Stratos, Teki Paki), two well-known and experienced spanish MSX games developers.

TT-VIRUS will be a shoot 'em up and seems to be the sequel of another classic MSXdev entry : T-VIRUS developed by Dioniso for the MSXdev'04 contest !

http://msxdev.msxblue.com

22/04/06

Cyberware: Chapter IV ~ Katarsis episode II ~ : Second MSXdev'06 entry submitted!

Only two days after the news about the first MSXdev'06 entry being
submitted, the second entry has been submitted by The New Image
http://www.tni.nl

Cyberware: Chapter IV ~ Katarsis episode II ~ will be a so-called Platform Shooting Adventure and pretends to be the new MSX space epic!

Visit the official MSXdev website at http://msxdev.msxblue.com.

26/04/06

3rd entry in the MSXdev'06 contest : LUX by XL2S Entertainment

The winners of the MSXdev'05 contest, XL2S Entertainment, with the game The Cure, have announced their participation to the 2006 edition with LUX, a platform adventure game.

This is the third entry in this contest since his launching on 20 april !!! It looks like that the 2006 edition will be fantastic for the developers and the gamers !

MSXdev site : http://msxdev.msxblue.com/

XL2S Entertainment site : http://www.xl2s.tk/

27/04/06

4th entry in the MSXdev'06 contest : the Infinite mystery !

Since his launching on 17 april 2006, the MSXdev'06 contest has a great success. Now the Infinite group (Edwin, Wolf) has announced his mysterious entry. As usually they will speak only in morse until the very last instant (remember Universe: Unknown in the 2005 edition). The only thing we know about this very secret wip game is that it is a platform-adventure game!

Infinite website : http://www.infinitemsx.org/

MSXdev website : http://msxdev.msxblue.com/

03/05/06

MSXdev'06 : a three-head jury !

Since his launching on 17 april 2006, the MSXdev'06 knows a high success and many projects in progress are the perfect proof that the MSX community is alive and kicking.

Now the MSXdev team has announced the formation of the jury. Contrary to the previous editions, the jury is no more based on one person, but it's a three-head jury, because having more than one person involved in the jury could allow to obtain results with mixed points of view.

The three MSX'ers that have kindly accepted this difficult task are :

- Cas Cremers, founder of the well known MSX software company Parallax in 1989 and creator of legendary MSX pieces with one thing in common: to push the MSX system to its limits (Vectron, Arc, Magnar, Black Cyclon, Blade Lords, Akin, Core Dump promo) ;

- Jesús Pérez Rosales (aka [DK]) , member of the excellent MSX game development group Team Bomba, responsible of the very nice gameplay, level design and major improvements to masterpiece Bombaman ;

- Philip Pera (aka msxgamesbox) , webmaster of the famous site The Msx Games bOX, organizer of the MSXart contests and supplier of lots of information about homebrew MSX games and a photo gallery covering most MSX computers and consoles.

More infos and links on the MSXdev site :

http://msxdev.msxblue.com

10/05/06

5th entry in the MSXdev'06 contest : Dash by XL2S Entertainment

The winners of the MSXdev'05 contest, XL2S Entertainment, with the game The Cure, have announced their participation to the 2006 edition with Dash!, another platform game.

Formerly planned as a possible MSXdev'05 entry, it looks like this awesome Boulder Dash clone will make it for the actual edition of the contest.

This is the fifth entry in this contest since his launching on 17 april and
the second participation of XL2S Entertainment to the MSXdev'06 contest
(first participation is LUX, a platform adventure game)

MSXdev site : http://msxdev.msxblue.com/

XL2S Entertainment site : http://www.xl2s.tk/

15/05/06

MSXdev'06 6th entry: Malaika - Prehistoric Quest by Karoshi Corporation

Less than one month after his launching, the 2006 edition of the MSXdev contest seems to become really a great edition, as 6 entries have already been announced and we guess that other projects are also planned, but for the moment kept in private area.

The 6th entry is made by the founders of this great challenge, Karoshi Productions (Jon Cortazar and Eduardo Robsy), who have released in the previous editions a total of 8 games (Duck Hunt, Factory Infection, Griel's Quest for the Sangraal, Guru Logic MSX1, Picture Puzzle, Saimazoom, Snail Maze, Soukoban Pocket Edition).

With an atttractive intro screen, Malaika - Prehistoric Quest will be another platform game ! And we guess that Karoshi Corp. has other surprises in preparation

MSXdev site : http://msxdev.msxblue.com/

Karoshi Corp. site : http://www.karoshicorp.com/

:thumb_up:

Let the contest begins!

Note :
Most of the entries were marvelous judging from the look of the title screen. Will check it out.

MSXdev'06 7th entry: Monster Hunter by Nerlaska Studio

Time now for another different genre entry, one of the top genres in the most wanted games for the MSX: a brand new RPG ! Prepare your armour, weapons and magic spells for Monster Hunter !

This 7th entry for the MSXdev'06 contest is very promising as it will include a turn based fighting system and SCC music !

The team entering the contest with this promising game, Nerlaska Studio, is new into the MSX development, but expert in developing videogames for PC, mobile devices and even PlayStation 2, as you can check in their corporate website.

The author of this project started to code in 1988 with his MSX-1: now, he decided to enter the MSXdev contest with this good looking MegaROM !

MSXdev site : http://msxdev.msxblue.com/

Nerlaska Studio site : http://www.nerlaska.com/

In full summer heat, there's no rest for the MSXdev' team as we are proud to present you the first finished game for the 2006 edition of this great contest : a full MSX conversion of a Spectrum game released by Taito in 1987, Operation Wolf !

Not only this version is better than the poor port made by Ocean in 1988, as it uses all the MSX capabilities, but this version detects also if your machine or emulator has external or internal MSX-MUSIC and can therefore enhance also the musical experience !

Enjoy this conversion made by the TOYBOX team

Tip for blueMSX users : add manually the rom file in a cartridge slot and select the 'mirrored rom' mapper type. The game will be added later to the blueMSX database.

http://msxdev.msxblue.com

Time now for another kind of game in the MSXdev'06 contest. The Dutch Darkstone group has announced his participation with a puzzle game called Beez, without any other precision (so, it will be a surprise !)

In the past, Darkstone has released Bouce Mania and a Xmas'demo.

MSXdev site : http://msxdev.msxblue.com/

Darkstone site : http://darkstone.neovamp.net/