Here's a list of the games included:

Aliens (doesn't even work in paraMSX default settings)
Alpha Squadron
Champion pro wrestling
Computermates Spread Sheet
Crazy train
Designer's Pencil
Dragon Slayer 4 (MSX1)
Dragon Slayer 4 (MSX2)
Goonies
Grog's Revenge (Wheel, italian version)
Hydlide 3
Indian no Bouken
Inspector Z
Issunhoushi no Donnamondai
JP Winkle
Jump Coaster
Kage
Karuizawa
King Kong 2
Kings Valley
Kings Valley 2 (MSX1)
Kings Valley 2 (MSX2, 2 times)
Knightmare
Konami Soccer
Konami Tennis
Kung Fu Master
Labyrinth
Laptick 2
Lemans 2
Leonard
Lode Runner
MTBase (hacked by Speedy Hacking)
MUE (Music Editor)
Macross
Magical Kid Wiz
Magical Tree
Mahjong
Mahjong 2
Manes
Mappy
Metal Gear
Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake
Midnight
Mobile Planet
Monkey Academy
Monster's fair
Mopi Ranger
Mouser
Mr. Chin
Mr. Do's Wild ride
Music Studio G7
Musicwriter (PSG)
Mystery land
Nekketsu Judo
Nemesis 1 (twice)
Nemesis 2
Nemesis 3
Ninja
O'Mac Farmer
Oil's well
Othello
Outrun
Pacman
Panda
Parodius
Pashka
Pastfinder
Payload
Penguin
Penguin Adventure
Pillbox
Pine applin
Ping pong
Pippols
Pooyan
Predator
Protector
Q-Bert
Quarth
Rally-X
Rambo
Replican
Riseout
Road Fighter
Rollerball
Salamander
Shalom
Ski Command
Skyjaguar
Snake it
Sokoban
Space Manbow (twice)
Space Maze Attack
Space trouble
Spelunk
Star soldier
Starship simulator
Super Boy II
Super Laydock
Super Rambo Special
Super cobra
Super ninja
Super snake
Super soccer
Super synth
Supper runner
Tank batallion
Tawara
Tetra horror
The return of Ishtar
Thexder
Thunderball
Timepilot
Top roller
Twinbee
Uranio (Italian crack of a Buck-Rogers alike game)
Usas
Valis (Fantasm Soldier)
Vampire Killer
Volguard
Warroid
Wonder Boy
Wrangler
Xevious
Xyzolog
Yie Ar Kung Fu 1
Yie Ar Kung Fu 2
Zanac
Zanac Ex (twice)
Zaxxon

Some of these games were included on the MSX Magazine in Japan, others were released by Konami on iMode or similar platforms recently. I really don't think they did it all by the book.

Then take a look in the arcade section. Parodius. Is that the Parodius arcade version from Konami ?

What strikes me the most is that if there's any country outside of Japan where the producers of such a magazine should know their (computing-) history and thus know what MSX is/was, it is the Netherlands... What kind of serious journalist doesn't know anything at all about one of the main home-computer systems of the eighties, produced by Dutch company Philips, for crying out loud...
So they should very well have been aware that MSX is not abandonware, which I presume is the assumption PC Magazine's editors made...

---OFFTOPIC--
Sorry to say but I think that 90% of most computer magazines redactions are filled with idiots.
Why do you think that tests of equipement are quite lame and that you can find on the internet quite easy some sites that are put there by amateurs but are much better.


In fact there is only one good pc magazine and that is the German version of C't.

The Dutch C't and PC-Active are okay. They at least try do there best. Still they aren't as good as the German C't But they allways show that they are willing to learn. Something which seems allready hard for most so called experts.

Why did I buy this bad magazine then ?

Because Systemworks 2003 was on one of the cd's. In the other case I wouldn't have it probally noticed that there was (illegal) MSX stuff on cd with this mag.

Quote:

pc magazine is a brand of ZDnet, one of the largest pc magazine publishers in the US. I think we should tell this to the msx association. But please let them decide what to do. I don´t think it´s a good idea to make contact with this magazine first. Please tell the msx association first, and then let them decide what to do and if we should play any role in this legal matter. Looking at how things are at the moment, it is not our business. And please note that any initial talks with this magazine could give the magazine the impression that the things we say may be those of the MSX association, which isn´t true. If you notice a bee-hive in your friends garden, please notify him first. Don´t stick your hand in right away.

I agree fully that we let MSX-Association decide themselves and bring it under their attention. Perhaps we can do the same as with the letter as regards the Tilburg-fair so that is gives a signal that we see this as a thread to new MSX developments where we fighting for !
But let we sent also a duplicate to Konami, I believe they would even be more furious.

I don't want to necessarily defend this PC magazine, but here's a thought i had: what if the person who collected all the material for the MSX part of the CD visited ftp.funet.fi? This is an official ftp server of some finnish university (as far as I understand it), so should contain no illegal software. It does however contain a large collection of MSX software, so let's see if we can find any notice about the copyright status of the MSX titles that can be found on this server. For completeness sake we'll start in the ftp-server's root directory /. Here we can find a README file which also contains a section called "WHAT IS `FREELY DISTRIBUTABLE' ?" Here's a snippet:

Quote:

A big portion of the software available here is not in the public domain, although it is freely distributable. Many are copyrighted by some person or organization, but can be distributed freely; there may be limitations on the manner of distribution and/or the usage of the programs.

From the root we go into /pub. There's another README there which is exactly the same as the one in the root directory. From there into /pub/msx. No README there, only a 00index which does not contain any mention about copyrights. Then into /pub/msx/games which contains no text file at all, so let's move straight on into /pub/msx/games/msx1. Once again no README, just an 00index.txt which contains a description of all the games in the directory, but without mentioning copyright status. The zip/lzh files containing the games you can download from there also don't contain any copyright status mention.

So, in my mind anybody visiting that ftp-server and reading through the README and the 00index files and bearing in mind the status of the ftp-server (university owned, so should be trustworthy) can only come to the conclusion that every file from the /pub/msx section is, quoting the README, "freely distributable".

Just my two cents worth.

As far as I know funet doesn't contain all these ROMS and not with the filenames as they are on the CD-ROM. Furthermore, Funet doesn't contain ParaMSX... Of course it's possible they got the files from some place that made them believe it's freeware now. But a magazine this big should triple-check things like this.

Quote:

Of course it's possible they got the files from some place that made them believe it's freeware now. But a magazine this big should triple-check things like this.

Right, they must've at least tried some of the ROMs to see if what they delivered would actually work. There you see a (c) sign. Without express written consent of the copyrightholder you are simply not allowed to copy it. Unless the copyright has expired, which AFAIK is 25 years for computersoftware.
There simply is no excuse for PC Magazine's actions...

..unless they somehow DID receive permission, just like MCCM did with the MCCM90 cd's. I can't imagine that happened, though.

Doesn't this PCM have a 'letters' section?

Now why doesn't someone make a nice and clear letter about this, telling them how alive and cool MSX is, and that even though it may seem abandonware, they should really ask permission next time (also for ParaMSX), and that big names like Konami would very likely not be happy with actions like these as they're very tight on their copyrights, and even rereleasing some of these games for mobile gaming.

But I'm not gonna write it .


~Grauw

msx.org wrote a letter to PC Magazine and this letter was published in their september issue.

This is what they wrote as a reaction:

'Nice to hear that MSX is still alive among freaks. There are many things to clear up about the way how emulationsoftware may be published on a cd or on the internet. One thing is sure, though. You can't put the emulator and systemroms of the games (note: what are they talking about here) on the same cdrom. That's why we didn't put the emulationsoftware on the same cd. And without this software the roms are simply not readable (note: Uhhhh, huh?).
On the retrogaming-cd we choose abandonware, demos and shareware. Because it's about old games, we, in case of doubt, checked well respected sites like Classic Games and Funet, a site where msx.org also has a link to. To make things very clear, we also put a firm disclaimer on the cdrom interface'.

It's incredible how such a big magazine thinks when it comes to retro, emulation software and necessary system roms. Using words like 'abandonware' to explain such an action to legalize it. The only place they should have checked is with the copyright holders themselves IMHO. I don't think any retro site is really a good way to check whether copyrighted titles are allowed on such media anyway.

If I may compress all this into one word: rubbish!

Quote:

Unless the copyright has expired, which AFAIK is 25 years for computersoftware.

Hmm... I do recall something about 50 years, but that might have been the timespan about copyrights after the author died.

Indeed. Because MSX.ORG links to a remote site (funet) that also contains some software that still has copyrights on them, it's okay to publish that software without contacting the copyright holders first.

That's like:
Because pc magazine mentiones msx.org, it's okay to publish their articles here. Hell, those articles are abandonware after a month, because nobody reads those articles anymore, everyone already moved to the next issue of that mag., right? Wrong.

Abadonware is a term made up by little children, while downloading Doom to their pc and burn it on cd. There's no such thing as abandonware, at least not when you can't find any notice about it from the original copyright holders.

Copy=crime. And it's a shame that a publisher of a magazine which has to deal with copyrights in every issue doesn't understand this.

Let's steal a car of that company. Tape the key on the rear window, with the text: only drive this car, when you are the legal owner. Thanks.