Best non-japanese MSX games?

Yeah ASCII Corporation sent me a letter inviting me send stock of several titles; Pyxidis, Video Grafitti and Meteor Shower/Birds of Orion. But the killler for me at the time was that I needed to send 1,000 copies of each title. Being 16 at the time, and my only income coming from working part time at a games store, I couldn't afford to buy all of the blank tapes, let alone work out how I would actually duplicate them all. All my tape covers were only black and white photocopies too. It did kick me into a gear though, as a short time later I started getting quite a few orders for my games, and ended up earning enough money, that it would have been a lot easier. Everything is all about timing
Can't complain, have ended up writing good of software, just not in the games industry.
Am still looking at making a cartridge compilation of the machine code titles, and all of the BASIC ones will be available for download for free. Still having problems reading the source disks. Ordered a MSX 2+ from BAS, but it did not survive the trip (long way to Tassie). I'll get there eventually Been a bit busy with normal work, plus work+ (i.e. all the apps I get asked to write - and get paid for), so hobby stuff ends up coming a fair way down the list.

Wow, thanks for sharing this story! Actually I would have logistics trouble with 1,000 tapes today, let alone in the 80s and being a teenage!
So, how did you distributed your game without the strenght of a bigger publisher like ASCII? Self-published, mail order through ads in local magazines? Method seemed to work for Kings Quest PC MS-DOS early game in the US!

IMHO the recent Majikazo, Caos Begins and Deep Dungeon are as good as the best Japanese games.

- Trailblazer
- Life in the fast lane
- Final countdown (fabulous graphics)
- Thing bounces back
- TNT

Krak-Out! (sorry, Spectrum conversion, and no in-game music, but good game indeed!)

Hey, MäSäXi, Krak-out! has one of the best musics (IMHO) for MSX. Gremlin Graphics games usually had very good tunes.
Maybe there are several versions arround.
Game is quite "Spectrumish", but menu screen has some MSX-glitches. Gameplay is very fast and FX are good.

Very good conversion indeed.

If you have ever played Commodore 64 version in the 1980s, you know what I am talking about. Of course it had my favourite MSX musics, it had title screen theme and game over jingle, but that´s it. Commodore 64 version had SEVERAL ingame tunes (maybe four?), so every level had it´s "own" tune. I got Krak-Out in February 1988 on "10 GREAT GAMES" compilation and liked it VERY MUCH even it was straight spectrum port (except music part). But I couldn´t help it thinking how much better it would have been if it had same ingame musics too (Do you remember Gremlin Graphics, MSX has three channel AY-chip instead of beeper? So good sounding ingame musics are possible on MSX) Yesssssss, I still must say, that someone please make decent conversion of KRAK-OUT!! I surely know Dioniso´s unfinished clone, it´s very nice looking, of course I would like to try it on MSX if it ever get finished, but still I would like to get MSX style (read: DECENT) Krak-Out! which has ingame musics too and hopefully scrolling ingame floor (like Dioniso had made) too and please hurt my eyes light synthesizer too straight from C=64 conversion. It also has some other features missing from C=64 version, like that fast "pilot´s head", which was very fast, but if you catched it with your bat, it gave random extras to you. Nah, Krak-Out! is just one of those games I would like to own a DECENT conversion which does not put MSX to shame!!!!!!!! That´s it. Spectrum port is playable, but it could be much better with better graphics and with those missing ingame tuens etc etc. By the way, if dioniso (hopefully) is still wanting to finish his krakonia, please ask somebody to arrange that Atari 800XL Jet-Set Willy tune to your game, as it fits your game perfectly!!!! (yep, that Youtube video has such tune, though cannot remember if it was original or 10 channel spectrum beeper version in that video?)

By the way, one of my favourite games (from the classics times) is Gauntlet. A 100% MSX conversion. A good-old-time-suction-cup-joystick breaker

Better joystick breaker: ACTIVISION DECATHLON!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What a wonderful game, with wonderful graphics!!!!!! I still remember the feeling in 1500 metres race...... If one hadn´t ever played that game in good old times, that one cannot know how it feels, when you have to waggle joystick all the way to RUN 1500 meters...... Konami Track'n'Field was EASY, just waggle short time and that´s it.... in 1500 metres race, first YOU started to exhaus, then PLAYER started to exhaust and then YOU had to WAGGLE JOYSTICK MUCH MUCH MUCH MORE to get your player run even fraction of original speed!!!! Excellent designing!!!!!!!!!! By the way, if you feel like that 1500 meters race is horrible to your arm muscles and wrists, you may like to know, that few years ago, some Commodore 64 guy made a hack of C=64 version of ACTIVISION DECATHLON´s 1500 meters race. His hack has MARATHON race instead...!!!!! How about that!!!??

- Final countdown (fabulous graphics)

Only one Final Countdown I vaguely remember from the eighties had something to do with "Europe"....

By the way, had anyone said Livingstone I presume already? Or Pepsi MadMix Game?

Also I would mention Level 9´s adventure games. later versions had good colourful graphics!!

Yab-Yum!