The MSXPLAYer is on Mars !

By mars2000you

Enlighted (5429)

02-01-2003, 12:16

THE MSX PLAYER is on MARS ! (my nickname is "mars2000you" - so, if someone of the MRC could change my login name by this nickname, I would be very happy !)

It's a good begin for 2003 !

I've just received from Japan the MSX MAGAZINE with the MSX PLAYER emulator ...

So, I think that you are very curious ....

First, the good points :

- ASCII is back for promoting MSX

- The MSX Magazine has 224 pages full of informations about MSX games, applications, BASIC (including the maps of The Castle and Castle Excellent)

- I'm very happy to have this MSX "masterpiece"

- with the emulator , you have a virtual MSX 2+ with PSG - SCC - FMPAC music and support for the PC drive

- the VDP emulation is good but not perfect (I've tried some demos to check that)

- the sound emulation is excellent

- the use of this emulator is very easy

Now, the bad points :

- the book is all in Japanese !

- the emulator doesn't have support for DSK, ROM or CAS files (the disks A, B, C, D with their contents are embedded in an IMG file)

- it doesn't emulate the Turbo-R

- no support for MSX-AUDIO (Music Module), MIDI, PCM, OPL4, Megaram ...

- the installation is not easy for a non-Japanese : I only yet have succeed to install the MSX-BASIC version of the emulator (the three other versions, that include copyrighted games, are in directories with Japanese names .... so, it's a problem for a non-Japanese version of Windows !)

What do we must think ? Is the MSXPLAYer really the begin of the way to the MSX 3 ? A thing is clear : the MSX PLAYer won't be the best emulator (you know my choice : NLMSX for the users, OpenMSX for the experts).

For the rest, we must wait and see ...

By snout

Ascended (15187)

02-01-2003, 12:43

I'm already working on an MSXPLAYer review for the emulator comparison. So far I'm quite impressed. The emulator does not promote the use of illegal software and thus ROM files can not be used. Sounds quite logic to me. Indeed, MSXPLAYer isn't the best emulator but it's very user-friendly... but I'm ahead of my comparison-conclusions now

about the change of nick: will contact you about that l8r

By konamiman

Paladin (995)

03-01-2003, 12:48

Indeed, MSX PLAYer is far to be the best MSX emulator. It is quite irritating that DSKs can't be used, but for me, it is even worse that it emulates only 128K RAM and this can't be changed; and there is no way to use DOS 2 with it.

Besides games are installed sepparately from the emulator itself, each game having its own entry in the start menu in Windows; and surprise: there are several different installation for the same games, one for each emulator skin (!!!)

Because all of this, I think that MSX PLAYer is not designed for experienced MSX users, but for people that actually doesn'k know what the MSX is, and wants to just check out some games and play a little with BASIC (besides, think on the large explanation about what a MSX is and the MSX BASIC course that appears in the magazine).

By FiXato

Scribe (1508)

03-01-2003, 14:56

about the change of nick: will contact you about that l8r

About this, maybe you can separate Username and Nickname

So let users be able to set a nickname different from their username ^_^

By mars2000you

Enlighted (5429)

03-01-2003, 15:34

It's also my opinion : compared with other emulators, the MSX PLAYer is a limited emulator. They are different reasons that explain this limitation, especially the copyrights reasons. When I see that you have in fact one "different" emulator by game and by emulator skin, it seems first strange, but when you think copyright, you have the answer.

So, as MSX experts, we can of course analyse the structure of an IMG file and create new IMG files that can work with the MSX PLAYer. But it's a waste of time, as other emulators are better !

The goal of this limited emulator is of course a new generation of users. The MSX PLAYer is a way to show the MSX feeling (with the MSX-BASIC and good games) to PC users. It's a first step to the MSX 3, a computer with the power of a PC, but with the real MSX feeling, adapted to new multimedia horizons.