MSX BASIC game videos

Manuel Bilderbeek, the curious MSX fan and devoted openMSX developer, is lately reminiscencing about old MSX Basic games, as we all do some time. Think about the hours of work typing in a magazine listing, perhaps changing the copyright message to your own name, and then trying the result before saving it to tape or disk. Many MSXers were left with a trauma when they found out the game locked up.

Dutch MSX magazine Basic game listings were plentiful in the eighties. Compared to current amateur games, such as the ones released in the MSXdev contests, Basic games were very simple. Still, some were fun to play, especially to MSX owners that didn't own many games. Manuel has uploaded many gameplay videos, sharing his reminiscences with us. Let's get onto the list of included games already: Alien Attack, Balspel, Break-It, Dip Shit, HAL, Het Verlaten Kerkhof, Jake in the Caves, Kripy Jack Junior, Miraculus, Missile Attack, Proxima Centauri, Q'Bert, Rabbit Hole, Space Walk, Stuntvogel, Super Heli, Viper.

If you think any game is missing from that list, post a reaction here. Maybe Manuel will make a video of your favourite MSX Basic game. Games from Spanish, French, or even Japanese magazines are also very welcome.

Relevant link: Manuel's YouTube channel

Comments (39)

By Huey

Prophet (2705)

06-05-2010, 11:46

It's fun to see those Basic games.

Not sure if all of these fall under the 'basic games' category. But these are also fun to watch.

By Hrothgar

Champion (479)

06-05-2010, 13:00

I owned the Robtek King Size collection, consisting of 50 games, and also recorded some of the latest Basicode-3 games transmitted on Dutch radio. Do you have any of these?

I'll have to look through them in order to pick out the most playable ones. Only Stuntvogel seems to be in your list.

By cidra

Master (202)

06-05-2010, 16:24

Well, if you only knew brazilian Basic games, you would understand what pure art really means...

Cave Flight
http://www.playfire.com/a/game/cave-flight

Bumerangue
http://www.playfire.com/a/game/bumerangue

Maze Up
http://www.playfire.com/a/game/maze-up

Rambo II (I think it's brazilian, not sure, anyway)
http://www.playfire.com/a/game/rambo-ii

Star Trek - Text Adventure
http://www.playfire.com/a/game/star-trek-3

Platoon - Text Adventure
http://www.playfire.com/a/game/platoon

By Manuel

Ascended (19817)

06-05-2010, 16:37

Hrothgar: Stuntvogel is a game published in MSX-Gids, that's why it's in the list. That Robtek collection was quite not 100% legal, if I remember correctly. They took some basic games from magazines indeed.

Also, the stuff that was broadcasted as Basicode wasn't in my target list.

Anyway, what is your favourite MSX game published in magazines??

By Manuel

Ascended (19817)

07-05-2010, 00:35

Added more games: Q'Bert (as was on MCM disk 7), The Attack of the Miserable Aliens (MSX-Gids 5) and Alien Attack (MCM 7).

By AuroraMSX

Paragon (1902)

07-05-2010, 11:08

Worst frustration of my MSX life: Jake in the Caves. Typed in the whole damned game only to find out that at the very first run it (a) just crashed and (b) destroyed the disk I saved the game on

By Hrothgar

Champion (479)

07-05-2010, 12:01

My biggest frustration was the game Shocking Ball from the MSX Gids (IIRC). It generated an "Internal error" which, according to my manual, meant the MSX itself was malfunctioning. To this day I'm wondering if it was indeed that (the machine worked correctly in general), or if it was just an incorrect machine code call that caused this.

By wolf_

Ambassador_ (10160)

07-05-2010, 12:02

Additions added.

By Manuel

Ascended (19817)

07-05-2010, 12:12

Shocking Ball?? Hmm, that doesn't sound familiar... Will have to look that one up!

@Wolf: thanks

@AuroraMSX: I had also recorded Jake in the Caves (as one of the first), but I forgot to tell hap to put it in the list... Wolf fixed it now

By KNM

Master (172)

08-05-2010, 21:32

I downloaded the .BAS file from funet and I cannot run it on BlueMSX . Appears the basic error "Undefined line number in 110 " . I´ve readed all the code and seems there´s no mistake. How can I fix this? I love this game . I´ve played it a lot in my first MSX times with my VG-8020

By hap

Prophet (2049)

08-05-2010, 21:46

which game KNM?

By KNM

Master (172)

08-05-2010, 21:57

Space Walk and Kitchen

By MSX-ALL

Resident (39)

08-05-2010, 23:07

There is also a site dedicated to programs in Basic for MSX, maintained by Renato Lopes and hosted at MSX-ALL.

http://www.basic.msxall.com

By KNM

Master (172)

08-05-2010, 23:48

added to my bookmarks.Thanks a lot for this info!

By hap

Prophet (2049)

10-05-2010, 16:34

KNM: Jake in the Caves + Kitchen Chaos:
http://home.kpn.nl/koele844/crap/jake_kitchen.zip

*edit* woops, you wanted Space Walk, not Jake..
http://home.kpn.nl/koele844/crap/spacewalk.zip

link(s) won't be available forever

By NYYRIKKI

Enlighted (6129)

11-05-2010, 00:53

... and then trying the result before saving it to tape or disk. Many MSXers were left with a trauma when they found out the game locked up.

http://www.msx.org/forumtopic4678.html

By KNM

Master (172)

13-05-2010, 21:06

Hap : Thanks a lot ! Already downloaded and going to try it now !!

EDIT : ( 5 minutes later ) Great !! both work fine !!!!

By Manuel

Ascended (19817)

15-05-2010, 14:29

Better use this link: http://msx.vanloef.com/msxgames.htm

By Paulo Volkova

Expert (104)

13-01-2015, 05:51

Manuel.

Where I can find the MSX-BASIC listing game "Kripy Jack Junior"?
Thanks.

By Hrothgar

Champion (479)

13-01-2015, 12:14

The listing is in MSX Gids 17 IIRC. Although it was simply called "Kripy Jack" not Junior.
I haven't been able to find an online resource of either the magazine or the game, BTW. This part of Dutch MSX history is sadly underdocumented.

By Paulo Volkova

Expert (104)

16-01-2015, 05:58

Hrothgar, I found the "Kripy Jack"game in http://www.msxarchive.nl/pub/msx/games/basic/.
It a .BAS file (KRIPY.BAS) but the program listing is corrupted.

Excerpt:

3310 SOUND0,250-TM:FORB=1TO15:NEXT
3320 IF TM<0 THEN 3660
55298 6,0:PRINT"TIME"
50188 0,255-TM:FORB=1TO15:NEXT
21526 M=TM-1:NEXT
50208 0,0:LOCATE1,10:PRINTA$:GOTO 2290
14890 REMæ
14900 REMæ
45886  SPRITE 1,(-32,-32)
33352  A=10TO1STEP-1:FORB=1TO180:SOUND0,B:NEXT
55378 5,10:PRINT"TIME TUNNEL IN ACTION"
33372 B=180TO0STEP-A:SOUND0,B:NEXT
55398 5,10:PRINT"time tunnel in action"
33648 :SOUND0,0:ST(P)=ST(P)-(INT(RND(1)*3)+2)
55418 5,10:PRINT"transfer to stage ";ST(P)
33412 A=1TO6000:NEXT:LOCATE1,10:PRINTA$
21646 M2(P)=TM2(P)+25:IF TM2(P)>150 THEN TM2(P)=150
35224  1900
15010 REMæ
15020 REMæ
35766  D1>D2 THEN RETURN
55488  X/8-1,Y/8:PRINTK$(8);
46026 SPRITE1,(-32,-32),8,4
35796  VR=-3 THEN LE(P)=LE(P)+1:VR=0
50398 8,15:FORA=TMTO0STEP-3:
50408 0,A+3
55538 6,1:PRINTUSING"####";A
55548 0,1:PRINTUSING"#####";SC(P)
3590 SC(P)=SC(P)+1:SOUND0,A:LOCATE0,0
3600 IFCINT(A/2)=A/2 THEN PRINT"SCORE"ELSEPRINT"score"
...

The lines between 3320 and 3590 is corrupted, but there are small errors throughout the program.
The idea was Manuel or someone compare the listing with the magazine MSX Gids 17 and correct the errors.

By NYYRIKKI

Enlighted (6129)

16-01-2015, 14:52

Too bad the BASIC-file is broken, but it is kind of funny how it is broken... It seems that there are total of 38 bytes missing from file. I would say most of the data (if not all) is not actually relevant and could be automatically recreated with some clever code... Making program to restore the original data from the corrupted file would be fun hobby project for someone.

By JohnHassink

Ambassador (5696)

16-01-2015, 15:53

Volker Becker has put his old MSX BASIC games online:
http://www.v-becker.de/msx/msxdownload.htm
I remember some of them being pretty fun.

By Hrothgar

Champion (479)

16-01-2015, 20:00

NYYRIKKI wrote:

Making program to restore the original data from the corrupted file would be fun hobby project for someone.

It would be a bit simpler to actually type the missing/corrupted lines and upload the corrected .bas file. I tried to do that (by saving the corrupted file as ASCII, editing it in Notepad and loading it in MSX again) but even though it looks fine now in Notepad it gives me an undefined line number while loading...

By meits

Scribe (6583)

16-01-2015, 21:18

This listing is totally weird...
I listed it to check around a bit and accidentally pressed stop too late so I typed
list 3000-
which should list from 3000 onwards...

btw, my prompt is always files' ;)

By Manuel

Ascended (19817)

16-01-2015, 23:19

3320 IF TM<0 THEN 3660
3330 LOCATE6,0:PRINT"TIME"
3340 SOUND0,255-TM:FORB=1TO15:NEXT
3350 TM=TM-1:NEXT
3360 SOUND0,0:LOCATE1,10:PRINTA$:GOTO 2290
3370 '
3380 '
3390 PUT SPRITE 1,(-32,-32)
3400 FOR A=10TO1STEP-1:FORB=1TO180:SOUND0,B:NEXT
3410 LOCATE5,10:PRINT"TIME TUNNEL IN ACTION"
3420 FORB=180TO0STEP-A:SOUND0,B:NEXT
3430 LOCATE5,10:PRINT"time tunnel in action"
3440 NEXT:SOUND0,0:ST(P)=ST(P)-(INT(RND(1)*3)+2)
3450 LOCATE5,10:PRINT"transfer to stage ";ST(P)
3460 FORA=1TO6000:NEXT:LOCATE1,10:PRINTA$
3470 TM2(P)=TM2(P)+25:IF TM2(P)>150 THEN TM2(P)=150
3480 GOTO 1900
3490 '
3500 '
3510 IF D1>D2 THEN RETURN
3520 LOCATE X/8-1,Y/8:PRINTK$(8);
3530 PUTSPRITE1,(-32,-32),8,4
3540 IF VR=-3 THEN LE(P)=LE(P)+1:VR=0
3550 SOUND8,15:FORA=TMTO0STEP-3:
3560 SOUND0,A+3
3570 LOCATE6,1:PRINTUSING"####";A
3580 LOCATE0,1:PRINTUSING"#####";SC(P)
3590 SC(P)=SC(P)+1:SOUND0,A:LOCATE0,0

By Paulo Volkova

Expert (104)

17-01-2015, 02:49

Manuel.
It is possible to place the complete listing because there are other lines corrupted throughout the program?
Thank you very much.

By Manuel

Ascended (19817)

17-01-2015, 09:18

I'll try to arrange a replacement of the corrupted file.

By Hrothgar

Champion (479)

17-01-2015, 16:27

I already have a replacement of the corrupted file, however when loading it (not running) I get an error message whereas the listing looks OK in Notepad. What could be wrong?

By meits

Scribe (6583)

17-01-2015, 17:08

How big is that listing? Got enough free ram?
Can't see a reason why a bas file wouldn't want to just load...

By Grauw

Ascended (10862)

17-01-2015, 18:51

I wouldn’t be surprised if loading an ASCII listing requires more RAM temporarily.

By NYYRIKKI

Enlighted (6129)

18-01-2015, 09:25

I just could not help my self... I had to try to write a software to fix this source... It kind of worked... It fixed the lines that were originally reported broken and all line number issues, but it's still not perfect solution...

10 ' FIX.BAS   Load to #D000
20 DEFINT A-Z
30 SCREEN 5
40 BLOAD"kripy.bin",S ' = #FE,00,80,FF,CE,00,80  +  KRIPY.BAS
50 VPOKE &H8000,0
60 SCREEN 0
70 _TURBO ON
80 AR=&H8001:AD=AR
90 OL=LN:OA=AD
100 AD=VPEEK(OF+AR)+VPEEK(OF+AR+1)*256
110 LN=VPEEK(OF+AR+2)+VPEEK(OF+AR+3)*256
120 IF VPEEK(OF+AR-1)<>0 THEN PRINT"<- ",:GOTO 310
130 IF AD=0 THEN PRINT"---end---":FORI=OA TO OA+3:POKE I,0:NEXTI:END
140 IF LN<OL or ln>OL+100 THEN 230
150 PRINT"",LN,HEX$(OA+OF),OF,"("+HEX$(OA)+"-"+HEX$(AD-1)+")"
160 POKE OA,AD AND 255
170 POKE OA+1,AD\256
180 POKE OA+2,LN AND 255
190 POKE OA+3,LN\256
200 FOR I=OA+4 TO AD-1:POKE I,VPEEK(I+OF):NEXTI
210 AR=AD
220 GOTO 90
230 '
240 OF=OF-1:LN=VPEEK(OF+AR+2)+VPEEK(OF+AR+3)*256:PRINT"->",
250 PRINTLN,HEX$(OF+AR),OF
260 IF LN>OL AND LN<OL then else ad="AR+2" if>0 THEN AD=AD+1:GOTO 280
290 AD=AD+1
300 GOTO 130
310 IF VPEEK(OF+AR-1)<>0 THEN OF=OF-1:GOTO 310 'MISSING BYTES
320 PRINTLN,HEX$(OF+AR),OF
330 GOTO 100
340 IF VPEEK(AD+OF-1)=0 THEN ELSE END
350 LN=OL+10:GOTO140

After running this repair there are still errors on following lines:
(Mostly LOCATE commands are broken, but especially 2790 is in pretty bad shape.)

As I don't have original source, someone needs to look the exact format of these lines from paper version.
The program tells what lines are broken by printing "<-" to NEXT line after line number... "->" means automatically fixed line. (Yes, not very user friendly, but gets the job done and locates the errors more accurately than human eye.)

@Hrothgar: I bet your problem is that you haven't fixed the line 2790

Edit: Remember to press QUOTE before copy /paste the fix... MRC corrupts the BASIC source to even more unusable than the original source that we are trying to fix.

By NYYRIKKI

Enlighted (6129)

18-01-2015, 09:44

Ah, forgot the usage information:

1) Add the mentioned 7-bytes in front of KRIPY.BAS with your favorite editor (I used XVI32)
2) Write:

bload"xbasic.bin",r
poke &hf677,&hd0:poke &hd000,0
run"fix.bas"
poke &hf677,&h80
save"kripy.txt",a

By Hrothgar

Champion (479)

18-01-2015, 11:23

A .dsk file:

http://s000.tinyupload.com/index.php?file_id=181862964576464...

Not sure if I caught all errors but at least it starts now.

Thanks for the tips Nyyrikki. Indeed I got an error message after line 2790, but I didn't get why as that line looked perfectly OK after correcting it. It works after retyping again. Let me know if there are still errors.

By NYYRIKKI

Enlighted (6129)

18-01-2015, 17:50

The problem you had with line 2790 was that there was hidden LF+CR before last visible RETURN-command. For some reason Notepad does no understand when these are in reversed order. Most of the other text editors don't have such problems.

I included the listed lines from your fix to the source fixed by my script with MERGE-command and after that only difference was that you had changed some of the " ' " to "REM" and deleted one extra space... Therefore I'm pretty confident that we have restored the original functionality 100%

Good job, that was interesting project

By Paulo Volkova

Expert (104)

20-01-2015, 05:45

Hrothgar.

When I try running your "Kripy.dsk", gives the error "Out of memory in 170", after the title "KRIPY JACK 1988" appears.
I tried in openMSX with the MSX machines: Philips NMS 8255, Sanyo PHC-70FD2, Sony HB-F700P and Panasonic FS-A1GT.

By ARTRAG

Enlighted (7003)

20-01-2015, 07:15

Boot on msx1 pressing ctrl

By Hrothgar

Champion (479)

20-01-2015, 12:13

Indeed, with the listing it was already mentioned that this game is so large it didn't work for disk users. The magazine has 1) stripped all REM lines and 2) indicates you still have to boot with CTRL pressed until you hear the beep.

By ray2day

Paladin (762)

30-06-2020, 18:41

Quote:

A .dsk file:

http://s000.tinyupload.com/index.php?file_id=181862964576464...

Not sure if I caught all errors but at least it starts now.

I know this is an old thread, but does anyone (still) has this fixed diskfile (.dsk) from this great MSX BASIC game Kripy Jack Junior for me? You can contact me on my website: www.raymondmsx.nl

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