parallax games?

Still looking for Akin?

The two disks will be a prize for a special quest coming in our christmas quiz this year!

I don´t want to spoilsport, please don´t missunderstood! But is it free soft? Was there a HD version out?

I appreciate it, but someone else actually did send me .dsk files on the sly shortly after I posted in this topic previously, which I felt a liiiiittle guilty accepting -- but then literally only maybe a month later, a copy of Akin actually showed up on eBay (disks and manual only, but... well, was there ever a box too, or does that count as a complete copy?), which I snagged immediately alongside five other '90s European homebrew games (Pumpkin Adventure III, Eggbert, The Witch's Revenge, Pixess, and Shrines of Enigma). The latter two games don't work with my 64k MSX + Musical Memory Mapper, but all the rest do (though Witch's Revenge has some weird graphical glitching), and they were all between 5-10 euro apiece, so I feel like I got my money's worth -- and no longer have to feel guilty about accepting those .dsk files, either, since I now own the game legit!

Speaking of which, I have since beaten the game, and can definitely say that I really liked it... mostly. Graphically, it's one of the nicest-looking games on the platform, hands down, with absolutely gorgeous environments throughout. And aurally, too, it's great, with a really chaotic yet atmospherically fitting soundtrack (though I could've done without the constant "red alert" klaxon in the underground area). The story, too, was pretty intriguing, with some really cool concepts that I quite enjoyed exploring. And the level designs were nice, though the amount of backtracking you're forced to do did get really tiresome after a while, and it wasn't always made clear where you were supposed to go.

The big downside for me other than all the backtracking, though, was the ending, which was just... extremely abrupt and anticlimactic, and left me with more questions than answers. But I do get the feeling it was an unfinished game, or at least a game that was once intended to be MUCH LONGER but was ultimately cut short. Which is a shame, as I feel like this had the potential to be one of the best sci-fi experiences on the MSX -- it just fell ever-so-slightly short of the mark, ultimately.

Still overall a very good game that I'd highly recommend, and a testament to the ingenuity and creativity of indie homebrew game developers within the MSX community.

-Tom

Sweet! Guess I own a complete copy, then.

That would be Core Dump, right? I've played the alpha demo that you can download online, and it seemed very promising (and was even MORE impressive-looking than Akin!). Too bad it never got finished, as I would've really liked to see where they took the story.

-Tom

Hmm, I have to take a look on my copy. I'm not completely sure if I have the box. Likely not, but I let you know after double checking some day.

I should have all released Parallax games as complete as possible.