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To get back at the Marat-being-angry-part. MSX Resource Center got their hands on a beta version of MSXPLAYer which was not intendet to go public at all. Because the beta version seemed to spread already, we decided to spread it ourselves. For a day or two, this beta was available for download on the MRC (our site was down due to heavy traffic for quite a while ). After that, we were approached by ASCII and MSX Association and asked to put the beta version offline. It was not MSX Association's decision to spread this beta, it was ours. And looking back on it it might not have been the smartest decision we ever made. From what I heard Kazuhiko Nishi went to an awful lot of trouble to get a Microsoft license to distribute the complete MSX ROMS (including BASIC) in Japan only.

May we read this as. MRC putted on line this beta-version during the negotiations between Marat and MSX-Associations and that Marat was upset that he found the news already on the internet before he had given his definate signature to the agreement with MSX Associations?

Please bear in mind also, that Nishi had the initial plan to set up a distribution server for msx software. They would distribute the player for free, and make some money with selling software through this msx software distribution platform.

My guess is: because Project EGG started already and Konami didn't want to go along because of their own distribution platform trough J-Sky, Nishi probably though that inventing this wheel again would be throwing away money.

So, apart from MSX rom licensing issues, this is in my opinion the reason why the player isn't GPL'ed. They need to earn some bucks, one way or another.

The question why the player isn't distributed in Europe is partially answered because of the licensing costs involved. I think the rest of this answer lies in some figure facts.
Remember: of the 5 million MSX computers sold worldwide, more than 3 million where sold in Japan. Of those 3 million users, 30.000 former and existing users bought the MSX Magazine released last year. 10.000 of them joined EGG to download software.

Of the 2 million MSX systems sold in the rest of the world, how many of those users speak and or understand the English language? How many of them use the Internet so that they can be informed about a English version of the player and magazine, let alone a English distribution platform to obtain software for it?

Nishi probably thinks a lot about this. Will the necessary costs involved, return enough money to cover the costs and earn more, to legalize futher investments in the system, hardware and software?

What do you think? Of the 15.000 unique ip-addresses msx.org recieves each month, how many of those users will actually buy a magazine and player and pay for software?

Believe me, we want a english version as much as you do. But looking at the rate donations are coming in for this site, I wonder if people really want to invest money to keep the msx system and his news sources alive. I mention our site here also, because we really want to negociate with Japan for you, but that will cost money too.

I think we should embrace the efforts that people in Japan make, because that is the only place where people actually are prepared to take risks and invest money in an 20 year old system on a large, professional scale.

We will profit from all things happening in Japan. Some will be useless because of the language differences, but some will surely add to our msx experience.

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What do you think? Of the 15.000 unique ip-addresses msx.org recieves each month, how many of those users will actually buy a magazine and player and pay for software? Believe me, we want a english version as much as you do. But looking at the rate donations are coming in for this site, I wonder if people really want to invest money to keep the msx system and his news sources alive. I mention our site here also, because we really want to negociate with Japan for you, but that will cost money too. I think we should embrace the efforts that people in Japan make, because that is the only place where people actually are prepared to take risks and invest money in an 20 year old system on a large, professional scale. We will profit from all things happening in Japan. Some will be useless because of the language differences, but some will surely add to our msx experience.

MRC is not the only who can help with negotiate ofcourse. But as regards the money your comparison donations versus a complete setup of new msx system is not quite right.
But allright that point is to give an indication that it is not direct possible.
Even Sunrise cannot , we can affort us to make two complete series of IDE of 25 copies and the 25 copies of CF-cartridge and with it 50 adapters rightaway.
But that is it.
But help the Japanese with idea's to see a new chip coming namely the all in one that's the profit for all.
They appreciate that only from people who they trust .
They do as regards us, MRC. I am e.g. not allowed to tell more about the rom-reader, and promised that to Tusjikawa.
Donot forget we learned about Marat , the only thing you get is trouble and expectations you cannot make true.

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May we read this as. MRC putted on line this beta-version during the negotiations between Marat and MSX-Associations and that Marat was upset that he found the news already on the internet before he had given his definate signature to the agreement with MSX Associations?

Something like that. At that time we got most revival news from a Japanese contact who was not clear on what news/software we could and could not spread.

I don't know if you remember that Beta version. It looked a lot like fMSX indeed, and nothing even remotely looks like what the MSXPLAYer has become.

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But as regards the money your comparison donations versus a complete setup of new msx system is not quite right.

I know. But I could try!

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What do you think? Of the 15.000 unique ip-addresses msx.org recieves each month, how many of those users will actually buy a magazine and player and pay for software?

You should keep track of the stats a bit more often. Last month we had over 25.000 people from unique ip-addresses visiting us

Excuse me, but what are the differences between MSXplayer and fMSX for Windows? Please let me know. Apart from a nicer shell, what's the difference? Both emulate MSX computers, and that's exactly what you get. And they have got the same bugs and they also need a high-speed computer.
BrMSX and NO$MSX both run at full speed, full frame rate in a configuration as low as i80386 at 25 MHz. With fMSX and MSXplayer, what do you need? 300 MHz? 400 MHz? Just to emulate de 3.58 MHz machine. Curious. As Martin Korth states: "Optimization dies. Only heros live forever".

Well, for starters MSXPLAYer doesn't have the same bugs. The released version could easily get along with NLMSX and openMSX at the time. Furthermore, the high system requirements of MSXPLAYer are mainly due to the fact it runs on Intent.

However, I agree with you that the art of optimization seems to be forgotten :/

Most of the bugs that are in fMSX have disappeared in the MSX-PLAYer, but not all the bugs. For example, you can run without any problem the MSX-FAN disk magazines, but if you try some demos with special VDP tricks, then the MSX-PLAYer works like fMSX or doesn't work at all.

Why ? Because by default the emulated RAM in this emulator is limited to 128 Kb and some demos require more RAM to work ! You can't modify this feature easily, you must use an hexadecimal editor and know exactly what you do !

Don't forget also that MSX-AUDIO (or MOONSOUND) is not supported by the MSX-PLAYer. A bettter version is maybe in development (including the Turbo-R ?), but all we hear from Japan is only silence ....

So, it's really better to use other emulators than this limited clone of fMSX. By the way, I must notice that since the official issue of the MSX-PLAYer in Japan, it seems that the development of fMSX by Marat is dead .... Strange, isn'it ?

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So, it's really better to use other emulators than this limited clone of fMSX. By the way, I must notice that since the official issue of the MSX-PLAYer in Japan, it seems that the development of fMSX by Marat is dead .... Strange, isn'it ?

I think the latter has more to do with Marats attitude to MSX and the fact that only little people are willing to pay 35 dollars for an emulator that isn't as good as other freely available emulators.

I think that fMSX is still under development, at least, Marat's pages say so.
Apart from that, fMSX is free for all platforms but Windows and DOS. And of course, you can get the code and compile it by yourself, as long as you do not make any profit using the code.
I agree with you that 35 USD is too much money for an MSX emulator, because there are some excelent freeware emulators. But you cannot blame Marat. He has done an excelent job in emulation world, and he is one of the main contributors to MSX resurrection. If emulation didn't appeared, MSX would have been even more minoritary.
The MSX presence in the web boosted (like MSX users, new and recuperated) after the generalization of emulation.

MSX PLAYer runs software (demo's with VDP tricks) that fMSX does not run at all. MSX PLAYer really has a MUCH compatibility rate.
You cannot say fMSX emulates the MSX system just like MSX PLAYer/NLMSX/openMSX do, because it simply doesn't. A lot of things are hacked together or simulated, not emulated properly. The fact that Marat works on dozens of emulators at the same time is probably the cause of that.
And, many of the features and bugfixes in fMSX have been made by external contributors, not Marat himself. In fact I don't see how he can call fMSX 'his' at all anymore!

I personaly think that some people can't forget that the first reliable MSX emulator, that's it, fMSX, was coded by a non-MSXer. Marat isn't a freak MSXer: is a PC user.
But fMSX is HIS emulator. By the way, which versions are you comparing? Because the state-of-the-art fMSX for Linux version is supposed to be highly compatible. If you are using v.1.6 for MS-DOS (ported by Marcel DeKogel) I agree: it's out of date.

But this thread isn't about Marat Fayzullin and fMSX. Is about Japan ignoring the rest of the world, as usual.

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I personaly think that some people can't forget that the first reliable MSX emulator, that's it, fMSX, was coded by a non-MSXer. Marat isn't a freak MSXer: is a PC user. But fMSX is HIS emulator. By the way, which versions are you comparing? Because the state-of-the-art fMSX for Linux version is supposed to be highly compatible. If you are using v.1.6 for MS-DOS (ported by Marcel DeKogel) I agree: it's out of date.

Version 2.6 for both Windows and Linux. Either way, the Marat was helped by many people out of the MSX Community, and another Emulator that is worth mentioning is the CompuJunks emulators which was - at the time - a LOT better.

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But this thread isn't about Marat Fayzullin and fMSX. Is about Japan ignoring the rest of the world, as usual.

True So lets keep discussing.

The COMPUJUNKIES MSX emulator was great! The only pity was to split the ROMs in 8 KB files in order to load them. And it was extremely fast: it worked fine in my 80386 at 33 MHz.

And it had features never seen again in other emulators: direct load from hard-disk without creating DSK or mounting directories. And directory commands from BASIC!!!! I miss those features!