The holidays are over, a new educational and professional year is afoot. Overlooking this society of new MSX developments is our download machine. This twin brother of Little John registered which software was downloaded the most in the past month, and here's the result of what you all did!

MSX downloads Top 10 - August 2010

1. King's Valley remake (207 downloads)
   
2. 666 The Haunted House (66 downloads)
   
3. Sprite Converter (58 downloads)
   
4. Protracker (57 downloads)
   
5. Pyramid Quest (56 downloads)
   
6. Rick Dangerous (52 downloads)
   
7. SymbOS MSX (45 downloads)
   
8. Car II (42 downloads)
   
9. PCM Encoder (39 downloads)
   
10. DSKPro (36 downloads)
    

MSX Related downloads Top 10 - August 2010

1. Metal Gear 1 (95 downloads)
   
2. Kings Valley 2 (70 downloads)
   
3. Goonies - Goonies R Good Enough (49 downloads)
   
4. Aleste 2 - Area 1 (43 downloads)
   
5. Metal Gear - Red Alert (42 downloads)
   
6. Maze of Galious - Castle (38 downloads)
   
7. Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake introdemo (37 downloads)
   
8. Solid Snake 2007 (33 downloads)
   
9. Metal Gear 2 - Solid Snake intro 2008 (32 downloads)
   
10. Metal Gear 2007 (29 downloads)
    

Our download database contains over 1000 entries of freeware MSX downloads. If you feel that your software should be in this list, make sure to send us your entries. And maybe next month your entry will grace the top 10 charts!

Relevant link: MSX downloads database

After a considerable amount of reverse engineering, Lars The 18th finally managed to decode the complete password (banknumber) system from the MSX version of Ghostbusters. With this knowledge, Lars wrote an Online Ghostbusters Password Generator! Now you can generate your own account, just enter your name and the amount of money you would like to have and the generator gives you an account number. Generated Passwords can be used in the MSX and C64 versions of Ghostbusters. Need more help fighting the undead? Who you gonna call? Try this, a Ghostbusters FAQ/Walkthrough!

Relevant link: CINIC Systems

At the moment, the MSX Info Update party takes place in Helsinki. Among other activities, there are competitions going on. Here's news fresh from the party floor: the entries by Lieves!Tuore!

• Adnukes, a slideshow for MSX1 using rapidly alternating tiles, like you may have seen earlier in dvik&joyrex demos
  
• Ebykti, a catchy and highly detailed PSG song by Yzi
  
• Silence of the Pigs, a PSG song, equally detailed, by Roz

More news will without doubt follow within the next few days. Until then, enjoy these fresh entries!

Relevant link: Lieves!Tuore

When the news of SuperSoniq's PlaySoniq was fresh out, it was announced that this device was targeted for August, and it just made it, just in time!

PlaySoniq is a PCB with lots of fun things on it, and will eventually be presented with the famous large Sunrise cartridge cases by the end of the year. By then, buyers can apply for a free product box (cartridge case is included from the start). Highlights of PlaySoniq include: Sega Master System 2 video chip, Commodore SID chip, 16MB RAM, Spartan FPGA running at 80MHz, SCC/SCC-I (FPGA), and lots of other features. The price of this remarkable device (who could've believed this, back in the 90's?) is set to 150 euro, and orders will be processed from september the 6th.

Relevant link: SuperSoniqs

Sunrise, a longtime MSX foundation providing hardware and software, has informed us with the following news flashes.

• Still being a popular device, the new batch of Compact Flash readers has been ready for quite a while. Those who want to obtain one simply need to contact Sunrise.
  
• Sunrise now also ships The Goonies 'R' Good Enough.
  
• The latest version of Denyonet's BIOS, made by konamiman, is about to be tested. It's scheduled to be ready for the MSX Fair in Nijmegen, January 2011.
  
• There are plans to re-issue software from Parallax.
  
• Sunrise will sponsor the box of PlaySoniq.

Relevant link: Sunrise

MSX Solutions has been silent for a few months, but cartographer only_69 is back on the map again. This time he has tackled Relevo Videogames' Invasion of the Zombie Monsters. Due to the multilayers of the game, the map can't be 100% authentic, but it's still more than enough to give an impression of the game's five levels. It must have been a tricky business making a single map out of dual layers!

Relevant link: MSX Solutions

For quite some time now, MSX developer Z80ST had been brooding on a product which easily qualifies as one of the most anticipated MSX games over the past 4 years. Since its announcement, QBIQS sparked enthousiasm among the MSX scene for being a remake of Konami classic Quarth. However, QBIQS would work on any MSX machine instead of only MSX2 and higher, having all the gameplay elements and extras featured in the original and more, while at the same time maintaining a pixel-perfect smooth scroll, contrary to Zemina's interpretation Block Hole which was heavily inspired by Quarth as well.

Alas, the development of QBIQS was plagued by delays, causing it to miss several contest deadlines, but finally - this MSXdev edition the official release is a fact. This is good news, since until now there was only one entry yet, namely NeoPONG512 - but well, you know how it usually goes with MSXdev, total silence at first and when the deadline gets in sight, a flood of great new MSX games. Let's hope QBIQS is the wrecking ball demolishing the dam which holds back all those future entries. Without more ado, if you feel like having a relaxing brain-workout while witnessing what a simple MSX machine can be capable of, don't stall any moment longer!

The game comes as a 48KB ROM and requires 16KB RAM. Manual and sticker are present as well. Go get it!

Relevant link: MSXdev

Spanish MSX developer Pepe Vila has released a new demo of his Time Out remake which we reported about a while ago. Already featured in this version:

• it's already possible to fire, although there's only sound for now - sprite of the bullet is not seen
  
• you can duck and jump
  
• game map features 6 screens

The packages contains two versions; one with, and one without slowdowns, showcasing that there's still plenty o' room for extra fun! Pepe has stated to be open to your opinions and suggestions, so feel free to submit and discuss them here.

Relevant link: Konamito - Time Out demo

Here's something you don't see every day! During the world famous Assembly '10 demo party in Helsinki, last week, a couple o' guys were interviewed on Assembly TV: Evilpaul/Ate Bit, TMC/Role and.. Haohmaru, otherwise known as BodyHammeR. In this interview (in English), the MSX demoscene was discussed among other things. The MSX bits have been edited together by NYYRIKKI and uploaded to YouTube. Enjoy!

Relevant link: Assembly TV

Those who have planned a holiday to Majorca at the end of next month should feel lucky; on September 25th the city of Palma will be the location for the first edition of Retromallorca: a classic computing and videogaming meeting. It will be a fair/exposition organized by a few local retrocomputing enthousiasts, where visitors will be able to see and even use some of the home computers that were popular a couple of decades ago.

Of course, the MSX system will play an active role on that fair. Not only will there be MSX machines among the exposed computers, Konamiman will even give a speech about InterNestor Lite and will perform a practical demonstration on how an MSX computer can be connected to Internet; as a proof of concept, the Twitter utility MSX trivial tweeter will be used to tweet live from the meeting!

The place is open from 11:00 to 21:00, location is Palma, Majorca (map). If you happen to be there, and the Mediterranean Sea starts to bore you, let this be your cultural day out!

Relevant link: Retromallorca (Spanish only)