MSXPLAYer and magazine at WPC Expo 2002

Source: RetroPC and Gigamix

The WPC Expo is a large exposition in Tokyo, Japan. In no less than three days the leaders of the computer-industry show their products of the future to the rest of the world. This exposition is known as Asia's number one IT show. ASCII and the MSX Association promoted the MSX PLAYer and the return of MSX Magazine at their booth. This is the first public promotion of the stand-alone MSXPLAYer and thus the first official sign of the MSX Revival.

As reported earlier, the MSX PLAYer is becoming the official MSX Emulator, intended for multiple platforms like PC and Macintosh, but also for mobile devices like pocketPC, PDA's and mobile phones. Because Microsoft doesn't like the MSX BIOS to be distributed freely, it was impossible to make the emulator entirely free. As a result of this, the MSX Revival team had to be creative in order to make the MSXPLAYer as low-cost as possible. EGG already released several games running on the MSXPLAYer core and Syntax created a MSXPLAYer version of their magazine NV. Unfortunately, it was not possible to run other software on these MSXPLAYer-based releases.

That is where ASCII came in. They decided to release an MSX Magazine about the history of MSX, containing a CD-ROM with the stand-alone MSX PLAYer and some free software. This magazine, due to be released in December this year, was promoted at WPC Expo 2002. For pictures of the MSX demonstrations at WPC Expo 2002, with MSXPLAYer running on various platforms, head to the diary of Gigamix.