It's high time for a new poll already. Prior to introducing the new poll, let's have a look at the previous poll: what to do with the big pills in Pac Man. After 37 votes, here's the result:

1. Eat Joey, Paul, Willy and Franky 40.54% (15)
2. Run Naked in a Field of Flowers 37.84% (14)
3. Eat the other pills in peace 21.62% (8)

For most voters, hunger prevails over tactics and running naked prevails over hunger. With 37 votes it's hard to superimpose these statistics upon all of us, but they probably wouldn't be far off. And with that, time to leave these ghosts where they belong: in those dark pill-infested corridors with repetitive music in the background.

The new poll is more serious for a change. Konami's SCC chip was a nifty invention: rather than relying on musical developments from the regular manufacturers, Konami supplied their own sound extension with their games. How far could one stretch this concept among MSX fans today, from conservative purists to progressive developers? Imagine that someone makes a physical ROM game containing a CPLD today. With an SCC implementation this would be like any Konami SCC game, and probably very acceptable. But what if this CPLD contains a new custom-made video chip, with the cartridge containing its own video connector (like the Graphics9000).. would that be acceptable? What if this CPLD also contains its own timer and maybe even a co-processor to unload the Z80 or R800 of your MSX? Would a custom video chip which is in line with the V9938 or V9958 be acceptable? What if that video chip finally has direct VRAM access the way it should have been? For sure, it'd be possible to make great games and demos with such an extension. But would it be an MSX game or demo, or would it be be a game or demo from a completely new console that uses the MSX as power supply unit? You may recall an 90's Nintendo extension for MSX like that. If you don't agree on such a device being an MSX game anymore, where to draw the line when Konami's SCC is more or less the same concept?

It's basically the old question 'what defines an MSX' again. Let us know, cast your vote! Of course, if you have a more detailed opinion about all this, just let us know in the reactions. If you have an idea for a interesting poll, send your idea to poll@msx.org and we will consider running your suggestion for a month.

Relevant link: Poll results

The sixth and final round of forum-voting in the 'Best MSX Demo Ever' megapoll has just begun. 8 great MSX demo's are still competing for this prestigious title and on March 14th only 4 will appear in our winner-takes-all frontpage poll. You can decide which four are going to make it, by casting a complete votesheet in this forum thread. This sixth round closes March 13th, 23:59 CET. Happy voting!

Relevant link: Best MSX Demo Ever megapoll [round 6]

Almost 24 hours later than expected, the fifth round of voting in the Best MSX Demo ever-megapoll has just begon. You can help us determine which is the best MSX demo ever by submitting a votesheet in this forum topic. All you have to do is give your scores to a list of 14 pairs. It's simple, it's fun and every single vote matters. You can cast your votes until March 5th, 23:59 CET. Happy voting!

Relevant link: Best MSX Demo ever megapoll [round 5]

Quite a while ago already we started a poll about what you miss the most from the 80's, apart from MSX. It's high time to seal this one and continue with a new poll. Before we hop on to the new poll question, let's have a look at the outcome of the 80's poll. After 65 votes, here is the outcome:

• The music - 52.31%
  
• The TV-series - 23.08%
  
• The movies - 13.85%
  
• The hairdos - 6.15%
  
• The clothing - 4.62%

More than half the votes went to the music. Not surprisingly perhaps. The 80's was the era where analogue synthesizers (and later on FM-synthesizers) got cheaper. This revolution has meant that more and more people could afford these cheap means of production. As a result, the synthesizers were everywhere, replacing the more traditional acoustic instruments of the decades that preceded these highly popular 80's era. In the 90's, samplers got cheaper and its memory increased: the sound of acoustic instruments returned to pop music. With the bright and unnatural tones of the analogue and FM-synthesizers disappearing (and let's not forget what impact certain drum machines made on the tone of the 80's), so did the sound of the 80's. And with this piece of significant music technology history, we'll wave the 80's goodbye..

..only to stay there, as the subject of our next poll is as retro as it can possibly be! This next poll is a simple one, a silly poll perhaps, but judging some of the related videos you see on YouTube, not everyone seems to agree on it. We're talking about Pac-Man! More specific: we're talking about pills. When playing Pac-Man, what is your strategy when eating the large pills? Have one, and cast your vote!

Relevant link: 80's poll results

With the first round of one on one-voting done, a "too close to call" situation arose in our quest for the Best MSX demo ever. As a result, there are now still 26 (instead of the expected 24) demos running in our megapoll. You can help us determine which is the best MSX demo ever by submitting a votesheet in this forum topic. All you have to do is give your scores to a list of 13 pairs. It's simple, it's fun and every single vote matters. You can cast your votes until February 27th, 23:59 CET. Happy voting!

Relevant link: Best MSX Demo ever megapoll [round 4]

Within 20 hours after starting round 2, the 11 votes necessary to decide which 48 out of 71 demos move on to the "one on one style" third rounds had been cast. Now, we are ready for the really tough task. You can help us determine which is the best MSX demo ever by submitting a votesheet in this forum topic. All you have to do is give your scores to a list of 24 pairs. It's simple, it's fun and every single vote matters. After this third round of voting, only 24 demos will move on to the next round. You can cast your votes until February 21st, 23:59 CET. Happy voting!

Relevant link: Best MSX Demo ever megapoll [round 3]

It's been a while since MRC organized a megapoll, high time to revive this spectacle from the attic! In this megapoll we get to choose Miss MSX, which is the best looking female character in an MSX game. Here is a set of rules:

• Miss MSX is a female character from an MSX game who, at least, has a clear portrait in the game somewhere (statusbar, introdemo etc.).
  
• Games which are ports from other systems, or MSX games that have also appeared on other systems can compete as well.
  
• There is no distinction between realistic persons (e.g. digitized), cartoon persons (e.g. anime-style) and cartoon-fantasy (elfs, half-animals, spirits/goddesses etc.).
  
• Everyone can nominate one or more persons by submitting a relevant image, such as a facial portrait or a full-body image.
  
• The nominated person can originate from adult/erotic games, but the image should not be about plain nudity. For example: if you nominate someone from a game in which the person slowly gets undressed: nominate the dressed image. Miss MSX is mainly about facial characteristics, fashion wear and personality/style.
  
• You can nominate persons from games of which the setting dictates that these persons go partially undressed. Think of mermaids, persons living in prehistory or warmer regions and so on.
  
• Persons appearing in more than one game (or a game series) can be nominated only once.
  
• You can create a single image containing a collage of the same person from the same game, e.g. facial close-up, full pose, in-action etc. (recommended!)
  

So, crank up your favorite emulator, run a game containing a good candidate and make one or more screenshots. For a uniform looking list of nominees, best would be to avoid scanlines and blur. To make sure all images are available during voting, we'd like to host these ourself. Mention your nomination in the relevant thread, and send your nomination to miss@msx.org, even if you have reliable hosting yourself. There are already two nominations to demonstrate what such a nomination could look like. As picking and preparing these images may take a while, the nominating round is one for which we haven't set a deadline yet. We'll see how fast things go and will announce a nominating deadline when we feel it's relevant.

Relevant link: Miss MSX - nominating round

Time flies when you're having fun: the first round of voting in our quest for the Best MSX demo ever has already been closed. All entries have now moved on to the second round, in which they will compete in a different order. Only the top 66% of both rounds combined will move on to the third round.

So, are you ready to voice your opinion(s) and help us decide which games are going to make it to the final frontpage poll? Cast your votes right here! This round closes as soon as 11 votesheets (the same amount that was submitted in the first round) have been cast. Happy voting!

Relevant link: Best MSX Demo ever megapoll [round 2]

Last week MRC visitors could cast their nominations for the 'Best MSX demo ever' megapoll. The result is a list of 74 great MSX demos from various groups that are now running for the prestigious title. During the next 3 days you can cast your votes in the first round of the megapoll right here. It's simple and fun! This round closes on February 14th, 23:59 CET. Happy voting!

Relevant link: Best MSX demo ever megapoll [round 1]

The poll publication scheme is a bit off at the moment, but nonetheless a new poll has been prepared. Prior to going to the new poll, let's have a look at the outcome of the MSXdev'09 poll which ran for the past 3 weeks. What could be changed for MSXdev'09 compared to MSXdev'08? After 40 votes, here is the result:

• Nothing, just let it be like MSXdev08 27.50%
  
• Something else 17.50%
  
• Go for six-month time frames 15.00%
  
• Stick to MSX1 but without further limitations 15.00%
  
• Go back to average specs 15.00%
  
• Go back to the smallest specs 10.0%

MSXdev'09 in the style of MSXdev'08 got most of the votes. It's not unthinkable though that people may have wanted to vote on multiple items. Based on the comments in the poll reactions, one can say that opinions are mixed. Ever since MSXdev got wide attention (somewhere during MSXdev'04, which caused MSXdev'05 to become the most popular edition so far), there have been discussions about specifications. Typically there seem to be two camps: the retro-minded MSX1 people, and those who want more RAM, more ROM, more recognition for supported extensions, higher MSX platforms, in short: more meat. The logical solution would be to move the high-specs developers to a different contest, question is whether this will work. There seems to be an odd attraction to MSXdev, which causes people to stick to it regardless of any other contest. This must certainly put the organization into a difficult position. At one hand MSXdev remains the contest aimed at all MSX platforms, although people generally agree that this keeps the core architecture of a game down to MSX1. While formally the term 'MSX1 contest' may not be agreed on by the MSXdev organizers, much more than MSX1+ (MSX1 with MSX2 features such as palette) is probably not something we can expect. On the other hand more and more people are complaining about the lack of games for higher platforms and, in a way, point to MSXdev for causing this. The MSXdev organizers could choose to ignore the requests for allowing higher platforms to compete (or completely free-style as some people have suggested), but there may be the risk that developers choose to leave their MSXdev tradition and just develop an MSX2/+/tR game on their own. This would hopefully still result in the release of a game -which is good-, but may leave the entry count for MSXdev'09 at the low side. On the other hand, the MSXdev organizers may state that there are other contests for higher platforms. There may be a point in that, but other contests may need to prove them self towards the large audience MSXdev already has gained over the years.
All in all it's a complex situation. As someone stated in the comments, it's almost inevitable that something must change. Because, while the entry count of MSXdev'08 was equal to MSXdev'07, there is this feeling that developers were perhaps a tad less motivated during MSXdev'08. Whether there will be changes, and what these changes may eventually be, is all up to the organizers. And with that, enough about this contest!

Do you still read your old (paper) MSX-magazines you collected in the 80's and 90's? And with reading, we mean: pick a magazine on a rainy day or before sleeping, and just read it all over again. Magazines from 1985 reviewing MSX1 computers, magazines from 1987 reviewing Konami MSX2 games, magazines from 1990 reviewing Japanese import, magazines from 1992 reviewing diskmagazines, magazines from any year featuring assembly courses, columns, background stories etc. Are are you like: 'nah, old news', or 'by now I know everything already, or I read it online'? In short, how do you value paper magazines with old MSX news?

As a second question, which you may answer in the reactions, we'd like to ask you whether you would read a paper magazine which follows today's MSX news, be it with a delay of a few months of course. Not as an alternative to any daily updated MSX website, but purely to have something in which you can read back all the MSX news and articles on the couch during a rainy day, in the train or before going to sleep.

May the vote be with you!

If you have an idea for an interesting poll, send your idea to poll@msx.org and we will consider running your suggestion for a month.

Relevant link: Poll results