Fan of Alannah Myles

There are a couple of female  (rock) singers I really liked the music from.
Most of the time I just bought 1 album, cause most of the time the 1 after was not worth buying. But not Alannah Myles.

She had a big hit with the blues song "Black Velvet" from her 1st album, but the second single "Love Is" was a failure, more an nice album track than a potential hit single. The 1st album was loaded with fresh pop rock songs and some rock ballads which were a little cliche.

So I bought her 2nd album blindly, cause the 1st single
"Song instead of a kiss" , was a very sad song with lots of violins and very different from the style of the 1st album.
The 2nd album was a little different than the 1st album, sadly the songs seems repeat themself in the endings.
Still I enjoyed it enough to buy a 3rd and a 4th album.
After that no new album came out and the last thing I found out , was the announcing of a "Best of" with some new songs. At that time I was less interested in buying a full prize album for a couple of new songs...


I think her first album was the best she's ever made, although she recovered recently a new version of her big hit "Black Velvet", with no suprises. She has still a great voice, but the songs are just not really catchy anymore.

Some links to websites:  Google+  and a strange Polish (?) website


A lot of female artists covered her "Black Velvet", so I choose different ones, a duet with Ali Milner and a group called The Johnson Report


BTW: I remembered that Ernst Schuller of Unicorn Corportation made Alannah Myles covers
in FM Basic.

I searched and found them on The Library Series #1, full of own compo's and great MSX-fan musics.
If you like you can download it from Gavitex or Mediafire. I liked some of the songs that much that I converted them into FAC Soundtracker or Moonblaster musics. Which ones ? In another post maybe...

The Colour Demo's of EMP-Soft

Thinking of a good title was the hardest part, while creating this post. 

When my MSX co-worker at EMP-Soft, Elko, had an FM-Pac, he started creating a lot
of short melodies in FM Basic, includng some covers and some just melodies. 

But the duration these melodies was so short, to short to upload to any MSX BBS. 

So when Elko had some blues melodies and some spanish melodies I decided to create a music demo for each set of melodies and in a different languages.
The Blues demo is therefor in English, the Espana demo in Spanish, the Bang Bang demo
in French and the Musikbox demo in German. 

But why I called it the Colour Demo's of EMP-Soft ? 

The Blues demo was made in black/blue cause these colours seems to fit best for that style of music, and Espana was made in yello/red, which seems to me the best colours to describe Spain. 

The last 2 were made in the colours I not had used before, that is why The Bang Bang demo is in yellow/green and The Musikbox demo is black/white.

Yes, these FM Basic music demo's were all made for MSX-1 and all GFX was created by me by using a special drawing program VSTEKEN. 

I think it was a listing from MCM (once famous Dutch  MSX Magazine), but of course I change it a little to make it better.

I never finished all my modification, so I never uploaded my version VSTEKE2.BAS.

VSTEKEN had just 1 good feature, it could create a Basic program from the drawing you made.
So every line, circle, paint was correctly recorded and exported to a Basic program with linenumbers and all...
Very rare for a drawing program. 

I already described the Blues and the Espana demo, so next is the Bang Bang demo.

Bang Bang was just another MSX FM Basic listing I found somewhere, the maker is Japenese (Gan-P) I guess...

It's an amazing piece of music, with just lots of drum sounds  and lot of basslines...

I loved it so much that I stripped the listing, so I could easily make my own versions.

The first is the original,
the 2nd is with other
"more cooler" instruments, the last one uses total random instruments. I love random...

The 4th demo, Musikbox, was more a collection of short PSG musics I converted to FM Basic versions, the title of the songs can be found in the listing itself, some titles were already lost, when I made this demo.
Still, the 5th song is the best of them all...

All 4 demo's are in 1 LZH file and a DSK file, so you can choose.
Hope you like it, I had a great time reviewing the demo's for this post.

Well, I had some spare time so I translated and updated the original VSTEKEN.BAS into English, called VSTEKENE.BAS.
So you can try creating better drawings than the ones in these demo's...

Gavitex LZH DSK

Mediafire LZH DSK

PS: For the DSK version I created an MENU.BAS drawn by VSTEKENE.BAS....

Happy Halloween: Bit2 Slasher demo (MSX)

When I uploaded the "valis - the fantasm soldier 2 - scary part" I remembered I had somewhere a Japanese demo which had also some kind of horror in it. I first though it was from T&E Soft, but after searching more than 20 disks, I had to admited it was Bit2.

Yes, the guys that made nice programs like Quinple, Nyancle Racing and Graphsaurus.
Then I watched this demo, very dark and no happy ending. Was that the same Bit2 ?

Because of all the Japanese titles I dont know what the demo is all about and more important I could find out what the title of the game was. 

Yes, I only have the intro-demo, not the game itself. Kinda sad, it could be a very good game if it had the graphics of the demo. 

Why I called it the Bit2 Slasher demo...watch this

Of course this was not the entire demo and I saved only the best part, cutt off the disk loading times otherwise the YouTube movie should be to boring too watch. 

I saved the Japanese texts, music and soundeffects cause that's part of the story the demo tries to tell.

Happy Halloween !

TnC Collected Works: TnC ToolZ & DemoZ part B

I started to release that 2 screens full of programs, was not enough to show all the tools and demo's I already selected for part B. I had the modify MAINMENU.BAS to screen 5 to have 4 screens. That was so much work, I felt like I had to start over again. Only the submenu's with Manual/Program were untouched...

In the end I was proud of the result, although I had difficulties writing for every program a short description and still use no more than 112 files. I manage and I'm planning to use this MAINMENU.BAS for the rest of the series,well sometimes with another logo of course.

BTW: the TnC characters was made in Philips Videographics after converting the MSX-2 start-up screen screenshot made in BlueMSX emulator into a screen 8 picture with the best picture to msx convertor every (and online): http://msx.jannone.org/conv/

And for screen 5 picture I took a screenshot from the screen 8 picture with the TnC characters and converted to screen 5 with ...the MSX Screen Conversor 

Here are the links to Gavitex and Mediafire 

The screenshot show the new MAINMENU.BAS in screen 5, the crazy textfile changer DIALECT v2.1 and the simple scroll-demo of EMP-Soft, simply called EMP-demo. 

I am still proud of this demo, cause it was written completly in MSX-Basic without any KUN complier or Turbo-Basic, with it's own characterset and adjustable speed of the scroller. 

The music was a song called Thunderblade and I converted the FM Basic listing to FAC Soundtracker format so both FM-Pac and Music Module users could listen to the song. Lately I listened to the FM Basic listing and the EMP-demo, I have to say the FAC Soundtracker version is better...

On YouTube I found the song was called Type II from Thunderblade.

TnC Collected Works: TnC ToolZ & DemoZ part A

 It seems as a good idea to collect the best tools, demo's and music I had created in the period I was most active on my MSX-2 computers.

And when I had a couple, I realized most of the programs where written in Dutch, not very handy if you want to share it with non-Dutch MSX-ers around the world.

Translating was too much work, so I created a short description what the purpose was of each program...

But I wanted more, a nice menu so you had easy access to the programs, without typing to much...

So the first version of MAINMENU.BAS (or MM.BAS) was created in screen 8, and with only 2 screens, not a lot of programs could be displayed.
Still I could fill an entire disk, and called  it "TnC ToolZ & DemoZ part A".

First I started collecting my tools and demo's and when I'm out of tools, I will continue
the serie with "TnC SoundZ & DemoZ part A", with of course lots of noise.

I used my very first TnC logo as background in MAINMENU.BAS, when I start with a "SoundZ & DemoZ" disk I will use one of my new logo's, created by SupMSX

The screenshots show the MAINMENU.BAS, the PCX Picture Show and the Silly Prompt Changer (in Dutch). There are plenty of interesting programs on this disk and if you really want an English version of any program, leave a comment...

Here is the link to Gavitex, or Mediafire

TnC House Classics presents : Open Your Mind

There are so many versions of this classics, but this original can still compete against them.
It´s really hypnotizing song that stays in your head for a very long time once you heard it.
The breaks, the samples, the main loop, everything is in place.


But then I read the comments on YouTube, it's just a speedup version of the Simple Minds song "New Gold Dream" !!!  Yes, really !!!

And the sample came from the first  "Total Recall" with Arnold Shwarzenegger.

The video is also special, seeing miss Thatcher morphing into mr. Stalin. and back...

Cant fight it,  I want more U.S.U.R.A.
And more....

Ok that's enough for now, bye !

TnC House Classics presents : Is There Anybody Out There ?

When housemusic started, there were producers that just put some synths, some housebeat, a rapper and a lot of samples together and called it housemusic.

Most of that stuff in the early 90s sounds nowaday sooo old, but this one of The Bassheads is a long time favorite of mine.

And yes, "Is There Anybody Out There" has that old school formula for making

house music...

Somehow I still like it, it just fits and the changes in the track are very enjoyable.

Wanna hear more, here is the Extended and the Non Verbal Communication goes were Extended stops, with great use of panflutes and whale sounds ???

PS1: I tried to copy the piano riffs in FAC Soundtracker for use in my own house-track
"No-Acid part 3", but I failed.

PS2: What happened to "part 1" and "part 2" ? Well, they were never finished, but parts were all re-used in "part 3"

PS3: In a desperate attempt to finish it, I converted the FAC Soundtracker song to Magic Music Module, added some effects and created a very simple animated demo for it, called...

PS4: In the profile of Zooitroep you can see a glimp of that "No Acid" demo, maybe the only MMM demo every made...

Happy Halloween: Fantasm Soldier II intro (MSX)

I have said it before, the most scariest part of
any MSX game was the 2nd part of the intro demo of Valis - Fantasm Soldier II for MSX-2.
So special for Halloween I uploaded only that part
to YouTube.

Enjoy !

The link is here

Happy Halloween: Thriller

Another candidate for some scary MSX stuff, suprising rare.

This is not a real musicdemo, but it have some MSX-1 animation and the music is of course "Thriller"of MJ.

The music is very good arranged, keep in mind if you used FM-drums you had only 6 FM channels left.

Hope you like it, I think it's one of the best covers in FM Basic I ever heard.
Marco Dufour did a good job.

To download: Gavitex or Mediafire

If you want to see the videoclip of MJ again, watch this.
Yeah it's the longer version, but that's a bonus, right ?

I was planning to create a top 5 of horror games on MSX,
but sadly I knew not enough games that can be qualified as horror, like the Resident Evil series and so much more on PC.

Happy Halloween : Nightmare on Elm Street 4 demo (MSX)

Halloween is really an unknown event in the MSX World, I tried to find the most scary, spooky, creepy or haunted musicdemo's and ended up with no more than 3 possible candidates.

This is one of them. The Unicorn Corporation with their "Nightmare on Elm Street 4 demo" with some MSX-Music and some animated screen 8 digi's.

The "Nightmare on Elm Street" movies were very populair, because of the story behind it ("don't fall asleep"), the bad guy and his remarks. But the last movie "Freddy vs. Jason"
was the worst of them all, I watch it only to know if I bet on the right monster to survive...

By the way, Freddy is on the left...

Here is the demo (together with more Unicorn stuff): Gavitex and Mediafire

My Music Memories : Nightmare ( Happy Halloween )

If you have a Halloween house-party than this track is a most.

Show the videoclip on a widescreen and you have a great time. 

The combi of the creepy bells and the sinister violins is really spooky. 

Other Brainbug releases are more of the same 

Lots of violins, but not another "Nightmare".

When I first hear this track on a Trancemaster compilation, I knew this was the best track mixing house with horror.

My Music Memories : Fall of the House Of Usher ( Happy Halloween )

Sitting in a room alone with no lights, listening to these 5 parts of music was the most scariest experience with a piece of music I every had. 

If you dont know what the story, behind this track is about, watch this old movie.

Alan Parsons Project have made lots of instrumental classics, like I Robot and Mammagamma, but this music was part of a LP full of music influenced by Edgar Allan Poe.

There are more haunted music on it, like for example The Tell-Tale Heart 

I wonder which heavy metal band dares to cover this song, NO NOT YOU Slough Feg...

So when it's Halloween, and you are in the mood for a scary story transformed into music.

Here it is...

MSX-1 Beatles FM-Music demo

After I posted "Fan Of The Beatles" I remembered that EMP-Soft  (which I was a member of) released a small Beatles FM-Music demo, completly made in MSX-1 Basic, but the music was made MSX-Music not MSX-PSG.

In this demo all music was made by Elko Duijm and all gfx by me.But to make the music more interesting I changed sometimes the solo instrument during the songs.
Why MSX-1 ?
I just wanna proof that MSX-Music or FM-Music wasn't only MSX-2(+) or higher, it runs fine on every MSX-1, but nobody made any MSX-1 software.
If you dont believe me, check out the menu program in the original FM-Pac, its made in MSX-1 colors...

About the music, you can hear some small mistakes in timing, but some arrangements are 

very fresh, like Blackbird, Eleanor Rigby and Michelle. The music was arranged and converted 

to FM-Basic in SynthSaurus 2.0, so that why the drums seems a bit monotone.

I made a program to generate weird FM-sounds and because the screen took some time
to be generated I added these FM-sounds during the waiting, still fun/annoying to hear...

PS there is a hidden song in the demo, but that one will be easy to find...


I uploaded the demo in LZH and ZIP, cause LZH is more used in the MSX-world, and ZIP is more common in the PC-world.
Hope you enjoy this little demo, I had to create 3 parts, otherwise all songs didnt fit in a single MSX-Basic program...

Gavitex LZH
http://gavitex.com/share/cdmwoflhy

Gavitex ZIP
http://gavitex.com/share/3tud0eho5

Mediafire LZH
http://www.mediafire.com/download/vtvxpx9yi0vda6a/BEATLES.LZH

Mediafire ZIP
http://www.mediafire.com/download/a43irzq92i1z0ku/BEATLES.ZIP