Help! Can't run MSX games!!

[vagrantcharly]

This rant is kinda long so I should start off:

I've dowloaded Ru-MSX and Br-MSX (don't remember the other one right now... fMSX?).
All of them seem to work fine, but I haven't been able to find any proper help on how to run the games!

The most I've been able to achieve is changing the font color and so... I've had no luck trying to mirror a drive or actually running any files, since I don't know what I'm doing.

Please!
Any help? Anything would do!

All I want is to play Metal Gear, Metal Gear 2 and the original Castlevania on MSX!

... ... ... ...

[JadeSaber]

I checked this out just for curiosity sake. I actually have no idea about MSX emulators at all, but ont page I found in a search may have some answers..
http://members.eunet.at/lexlechz/RuMSX.html
I am not sure why you don't use FCE Ultra for Nintendo emulation to play Metal Gear, Metal Gear 2 and Castlevania (all of which I have for NES) unless the MSX is totally different or you can't play FCE Ultra on your computer.
If you are using a MAC, I don't know anything really about those either.

[crusher]

I now why he's not playing them on a nes emulator.
Metal Gear for the nes is a really bad version of the original msx version. Metal Gear 2 for the nes is not made by Hideo Kojima and has nothing to do with the other games. But why he don't want to play Castlevania on a nes emulator bothers me too.

[Mikemaster]

Ah, the MSX!



I recommend you download ParaMsx. It's the easiest emulator to use, download it at http://my.dreamwiz.com/sharksym/.

Make sure that the games you download are in .ROM of .DSK format (you can make your own .DSK-files if the gamefiles are in the original format). You can find the games on www.msxgamesbox.com.

The original Castlevania is called Vampire Killer on the MSX. And while we're on the subject of those great Konami-classics you might as well download Penguin Adventure, F1-Spirit and The Treasure of Usas as well.

It shouldn't be hard to get the emulator running but just ask me if you're still having problems.

[vagrantcharly]

Heh!

Actually, I do play NES emultors a LOT!

But the reason I want to try out MSX is because KONAMI (one of my favorite game companies) supported this platform with many great games!

Metal Gear and Castlevania (Vampire Killer) were totally different versions on the MSX.

Anyway, thanks for the help!

[crusher]

I have to agree. Konami = GOD!!

[JadeSaber]

Konami also = Dance Dance Revolution!
I think I might check this emulator out if there are different versions of the games.
Since I have no experience with this emulator, what should I know?
My comp specs: 433mHz with ATi Rage primary integrated and 3Dfx secondary (althought that will probably not do anything) and Windows 98

Also, since these games appear to be tape or cartridge or something, I assume they are ROMs. Exactly what do they classify as? MSX? Arcade? I don't even know where to find them! (except for the links above)
I will try doing searches, but if you have any good info that I need to know, I really would appreciate it.

Oh crap! I sound like a newbie!! NOOOOO!!!

[vagrantcharly]

MSX was a somewhat old computer system that didn't catch up over this side of the Pacific.

It was very popular in Japan though, hence, KONAMI supported it.
I don't know the details, but it WAS distributed in America and Europe.

Sorry, I don't have system specs on-hand, but since it wasn't such a powerful Computer compared to those we have today , I expect you can run MSX/MSX2 on a PI/PII with 32 RAM and a crappy video card!

Games were distributed in 3 1/2" floppies and other kinds of disks; you'll find the games in .ROM & .DSK format.

Do a search for "The MSX Resource Center", I found this page some time ago, it has links and stuff for MSX fans.

Gotta GO!!

[JadeSaber]

Hey, thanks! This is very cool! I will try getting it to work when I have more time.

By the way, I went to the link, but they don't have the Castlevania game there unless it is named something different.

Did you know there is a Castlevania game on MAME? I think it is called Haunted Castle. I am about 90% sure. I used to have it, but it has gone missing. Anyone else know where to get it? It's pretty hard, but the graphics are really quite good.

[crusher]

I think you can download it from emusanet. I remember playing it a long time ago. I didn't like it as much as the other CV games. Simon looked like a hunchback. =P

[JadeSaber]

LOL! Yup, that's it! It may not be as good as some of the others, but I still like the creepy feel. I like creepy type games in general, for that matter. Castlevania, Resident Evil, some of the Aliens games (Aliens vs Predator is my favorite of those.)
You know, it's off subject, but I do wish there were more games where you get to play as the awesome bad guys for a change. That's why I like AvP so much. I love playing as the alien!

Well...I am going to try the emulator when I get up tomorrow. Thanks for all the info!

[crusher]

Ya playing as a Alien is awesome Crawling in the roofs is cool.

[Mikemaster]

Great, finally somebody is taking an interest in my favorite old system (instead of asking for the lastest ISO's)!

Anyway, the MSX didn't have a harddisk so the games were provided on cartridges (which are dumped as .ROM-files) and the floppy-disks (which are dumped as .DSK-files). While the system was capable of doing a lot of things it was mainly used as a gamingcomputer. In my country (Holland) it was the big competitor of the Commodore 64. A lot of games were released on it, but Konami really dominated the MSX gaming-market. The best games of Konami were released as Megaroms.

MSX is considered to be 'TOSEC'. If you don't know what TOSEC exactly means, go to http://tosec.org/

You can find a lot of info on www.msx.org (the MSX resource center). You can find most games on the Funet FTP: ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/msx/ The direct link for Vampire Killer (Castlevania) is ftp://ftp.funet.fi/pub/msx/games/msx...mi/vkiller.lzh
If you're really having trouble to find a specific game, ask me, I have all .ROM and .DSK images ever released.

Don't worry about if your PC is capable of running the emu, the MSX2 had a main memory and a video-memory of both 64kb.

BTW. I still have my original MSX2 up and running!

And yes, castlevania was released on Mame as Haunted Castle and you can find it here: http://www.angelfire.com/ks2/cvgames/emulation.html

[msxgamesbox]

The webmaster himself of one of the above cited websites (The MSX games Box). Nice to see there is some interest in the MSX. A little history about the system; it appeared back in 1983 and has been a huge success accross Europe (Netherlands, France, Spain and italy), Russia, Brazil but most importantly in Japan. About 6 million MSX systems were sold in its 8 year existence, dying with its last generation the MSX Turbo-R. Just to giive you an idea how big MSX is still nowadays see the Yahoo Japan Auctions Listing . Interesting is that the MSX was NEVER sold in the USA.
It was a faboulous standard who was created by ASCII Corp and Matsushita, and was the first attempt to set a computer standard that was cloned by over 20 manufacturers. Biggest supporters were Sony, Toshiba, Philips, Panasonic, Yamaha... to view all 250+ models ever made check my second website www.msxmuseumbox.com ...

The OS was made by Microsoft. Early MSX1 models just had one or two cartridge ports, MSX2 models got a DD floppy disk drive. Konami released about 60 titles including the superb Penguin Adventure, Metal Gear's, Vampire Killer but also great shoot'em ups like Nemesis, Space Manbow, Knightmare...
There are over 3000 MSX games available.

Hope this gives some insight for those of you who don't know the system. If you want to have the MSX all in once on your PC, why not order The MSX games bOX CD-Rom with all emulators, over 1400 games and loads of MSX memorablia Check it at The MSX games BOX

Well, that's all for now!

[vagrantcharly]

Hey, I'm back!!

Hope you're still following the thread...

Got one question:

Was Snatcher released on MSX/MSX2 (Not SD Snatcher)?

I've heard this game was great (From Hideo Kojima methinks...), but I guess was born in the somewhat-wrong decade, since playing great games from old would be imposible if it weren't for emulators...

Thank (...)* for emus!

*: Place Name here...

Also, if you're looking for Castlevania on MSX, it was originally called Vampire Killer, as stated above!