Today's the day hardcore Woody Poco fans such as Hydragon have been waiting for. Not long after the announcement a few days ago, the translation by Tsunami, Max Iwamoto, with a bit of help from Vampier, is done. Like their previous translation, it's very polished, and contains a couple of bugfixes and features not available in the original game, notably:

• Created a variable width lowercase font and the means to display texts that span more than one text window.
  
• Completely recoded keyword system. Now all keywords can use English letters and numbers.
  
• Added support for (FM-)PAC SRAM.
  
• Added a feature to enable or disable the R800 mode on MSX Turbo-R computers.
  
• Added a special password as was intended to be in the game.
  
• Added Dedicated ROM Loader for English translation of Woody Poco.
  
• Optional +3 trainer patch.

To be able to play this translation, apply the IPS patch to the Japanese ROM. Some emulators, like openMSX, allow you to skip this step through soft-patching. Be sure to read the included documentation for background information on this translation. Enjoy!

Relevant link: MSX Files

Ba-Boon!, an MSX1 banana-ape game originally intended to be competing in MSXdev'09, has been postponed until further notice. With the deadline speeding towards them, RELEVO Videogames didn't have time left to polish and test it. Fortunately, they have a backup under the hood. This surprise game is practically done, and will be released tomorrow, so don't worry about a viejoless MSXdev.

Relevant link: RELEVO Videogames

Following this forum thread, a twelve-autumns-young English translation of the Daisenryaku II manual was added to our ever-growing maze of MSX downloads. If you were too young and shy to give thanks to Takamichi Suzukawa and MRC resident Quibus 12 years ago for creating this translation, now's the time.

Relevant link: Daisenryaku II English manual

Remember.. remember.. the 5th of December. MSX fans will conquer storm, lightning and rain, to visit RU 36a Barcelona, Spain! The place where games, MSX fans and new hardware will blend, and that's where the poetry should end. Jokes aside -the weather is more suitable for The Netherlands at the moment-, this RU in Barcelona is on course of becoming an interesting event once again. The current list of participants:

• AAMSX will inform visitors about last news on the AAMSX affairs, and sell cartridges of Traffic Jam, Perfect Fit, Operation Wolf and Majikazo games. Two new cartridges are for sale, and much more.
  
• Z80ST Software is going to show the latest version of the (almost finished) game: Qbiqs. Also, the new project KNT may be demonstrated.
  
• Konamito will have MSX T-shirts and 2nd hand games for sale. Also, games of the MSX-BASIC games contest will be demonstrated using a 1chipMSX.
  
• Nerlaska Studio will sell the extended version of Monster Hunter, on a 4Mbit cartridge.
  
• The Pets Mode are going to present a better version of Escape from Dwarves' Goldmine, the game presented in the second MSX basic games contest, organized by Konamito.
  
• RELEVO Videogames and 1BEER MSX will have a booth together. Games that will be on display are La Corona Encantada, Ba-Boon! and more. For free beers and MSX gaming, 1BeerMSX has been sent from heaven to provide you with both.
  
• SuperSoniqs will demonstrate Franky, the all-new SEGA-meets-MSX cartridge.
  
• Alifort chapas will have all kinds of MSX merchadising for sale, like sheets, turnkeys and magnets.
  
• AUIC (Asociación de Usuarios de Informática Clásica) will inform the visitors of the most important retrocomputer meeting in Spain: RetroMadrid. Also, some merchandising will be presented.
  
• Sd-snatcher, application developer for Obsonet, will demonstrate the new ethernet card for MSX.

For a list of scheduled activities and any other details concerning this fair, consult the AAMSX website.

Relevant link: AAMSX

A short month ago, sharksym updated his MMC/SD BIOS, which brings it up to version 4.01. For more information regarding this release, refer to the thorough user's manual on his website.

Upgraders should be aware that the partition table from BIOS 3.xx is incompatible with the newest version, and will have to be reinstalled.

Relevant link: MMC/SD BIOS 4.01

With a very small week to go, entries start creeping in now. Paxanga has come up with an unannounced entry: Cow Abductors. A modest game of 16KB that requires only 8KB RAM. Paxanga Soft is a veteran regarding game development, with games such as MSX Hot Numbers, Yupipati, Parachuteless Joe or the recent Cold Blood. This new game Cow Abductors follows the same fun/quality path. The main goal is to be the fastest alien in the universe by abducting the maximum number of cows. You can play versus the computer or against a friend using a nice and funny two-players mode! ROM label and a quality English manual are provided as well. Mooh!

Relevant link: MSXdev'09

Vampier has uploaded six fly-throughs of MSX shooters to his YouTube page. Featured are all the main levels (not the bonus levels) including the demo cut scenes. These videos are of course an interesting insight into these games, in case you have never managed to get all that far yourself.

But is Vampier really such a shooting wizzard? No, he was testing a brand new feature in openMSX: reverse. This is a function you may know already from emulators such as meisei, where you just 'rewind the tape' if you made a fatal mistake. As the current formal version of openMSX (0.7.2) was released half a year ago, this new version of openMSX is obviously a development version.

The six fly-throughs Vampier has uploaded are:

• Nemesis
• Salamander
• Nemesis 3
• Parodius
• Space Manbow
• Universe: Unknown

Relevant link: Vampier's YouTube page

This month, the second issue of OLD!Gamer arrived in Brazil. This magazine is aimed at a number of old computer platforms, including MSX, and it's very famous in Brazil. This issue features MSX right away: Marcelo Tini, of MSX History was interviewed. This fresh bimonthly magazine is targeting at collectors of old systems and games. Other platforms featured in the magazine are Arcade, Atari, Dreamcast, Master System, Mega Drive, Neo Geo, NES, SNES and various others. These make up for a very wide era of gaming, and to have our MSX between these is of course something truly special!

Relevant link: OLD!Gamer - issue 2

DB-Soft's Woody Poco is a colorful adventure from 1987 that was virtually unplayable without any knowledge of the Japanese language. Tsunami Translations and Max Iwamoto have translated this game for you to enjoy, it will be released as an IPS-patch. To wet your appetite, a video of this translated game has been posted on YouTube. Keep your eyes peeled for a release soon!

Relevant link: Woody Poco - YouTube

In two months the fifth edition of the annual MSX Fair in Nijmegen will be held. It's the only major pure-MSX fair left in The Netherlands after the annual Bussum fair was discontinued. As of today, the registration form is online! Tables for this fair have a width of 1m40 and cost €7 each. Traditionally, the day will end in the nearby Chinese restaurant. If you want to participate in this feast, you are encouraged to reserve your seat, as there's a limit of 35 persons. Another aspect to think about is the stage act. If you have a fun idea for the stage: make yourself known.

What would this fair bring to us? Perhaps the highly anticipated Nowind, and what about Franky, the SEGA-meets-MSX project from SuperSoniqs? If you want to find out: be there or be grey, all come to Nijmegen!

Relevant link: Nijmegen - registration form