Amazing short MSX-1 demo: Wintergatan Marble Machine by Guillian & WYZ

I was just browsing for diskmagazines on MSX Games World (yes, they have them too). Then I found a collection of known and unknown MSX demos. Including this one.

 "Wintergatan Marble Machine". The screenshots made me curious about the demo, 
so I watch the YouTube video. It was unbelievable, moving pictures on SCREEN-2 while playing PSG music ? 

 I did not believe it, so I downloaded the Rom and played in BlueMSX. Yes, it really played on SCREEN 2. How was this possible ? I still don't know. But the composer WYZ (see logo below) has a lot of stuff made on Soundcloud using only (MSX) PSG and SCC soundchips.

Of course the pictures were "borrowed" from the original YouTube video
 but it is still amazing how only 2 people, WYZ and programmer Guillian made this short MSX-1 demo.
The original song is much longer, but I guess the Rom had its storage limits.
There is also a maybe even more impressive Minecraft cover completly made with redstone and noteblocks. Enjoy.

PSG Tracker videos

I was searching for Eschers on in my collection MSX disks and MCCM CD-Roms, 

when I found a disk called PSGTRCKR. As a regular user of FAC Soundtracker, Moonblaster and PRO Tracker I was of course very curious what a PSG Tracker would look like and what the possibilies were. I have not many music-editors for PSG that are more than a 3-tones organ.

PSG Tracker started with a nice logo in SCREEN 5, but after loading, the editor showed only 40 columns!!! Why create a MSX -2 logo and use only 40 columns of a MSX-1? 

But more trouble to come. There was only an incomplete manual inside the editor, 

no separate manual as txtfile and only 1 demo song . A converted Impact song. 

Well, the layout look a bit like Moonblaster and just like Moonblaster is PSG Tracker capable to convert a FAC Soundtracker music-files. Not the drumtrack (OH NO !!) and only 3 channels of the regular 6. I didnt test the conversion with every FAC Soundtracker version, but the editor had some nice features ( remember last input, easy delete), worked very fast and then I discovered the SELECT button I could change some more settings. 

I did expertments with PSG drums, which was not so easy to create. If you have only 3 channels sound, the PSG drums will collide with one of them.  

After I puzzled how the editor worked I converted my first song of Ernst Schuller ofUnicorn Corporation, "Shizo-Frequency". Its more a loop than a song, but I liked it so much 

I converted the original FM-Basic listing into a FAC Soundtracker musicfile and now into PSG Tracker. Choosing the right 3 channels was not so difficult, the PSG drums took a lot of time, cause I did not know how to copy part of tracks and I tried to make the song less boring by experimenting with different drum-riffs. 

When I finishing it I liked the result so much I recorded it and send it to YouTube. 

After convertIng my first FAC Soundtracker song I wanted to do more, 1 song of all the great MSX groups that used FAC Soundtracker, 1x Impact, 1x Unicorn Corporation, 1x FAC. 

-Sorry if I missed other MSX groups -

So I was looking for a nice song of the FAC, some kind of ballad. I found "Basic Principles" but editing the drumtrack in almost 80 tracks was no fun. Also the song swapped channels, so after converting 3 channels some part had only a bassline in PSG Tracker. 

I edited the song, so every channel was in use during the whole song and I noticed that the editor had no feature to create different PSG voices, every voice sounded the same if the same octave was used. Pity, I was going to like the program. 

I finished the song put it to YouTube. 

Then what? I had put so many hours in Basic Principles I had no strength left to convert another one. Maybe a song of TwinSoft ? There was another important feature missing in PSG Tracker, a MSX Basic replayer. Now you cannot use PSG Tracker songs in your own Basic programs,  like other music editors can.
I put a question in the MSX.org forum, but if seemed the original maker lost all sources 

and documentation. I don't think I get a proper answer from anyone.

If you want to try it, here is the zip with 2 disks, 1 program disk and 1 music disk. 

You have to switch disks, cause PSG TRACKER only works with 1 drive.

MEDIAFIRE PCLOUD  ( beware dont save on your programdisk it's copyprotected).

The MSX-1 DrumComputer (COMPDRUM.BAS)

Before I owned a Philips Music Module I liked to messin' around with SOUND command and created random-sound-geneators and my own sound-effects for use in MSX-Basic games.

Then I found this program, called DRUM a listing in the Dutch MSX Computer Magazine 10.
It was ( and is still)  an amazing MSX Basic program, made by  Eric Madrange, where you can listen to a lot of different drum-patterns (check out JAZZ ROCK) or create your own.


Of course the last feature, the drum-editor, was the best, cause you could save and load your home-made drum-rhythms easily.

Well, it was very basic, you can only add a bass-drum, snare-drum and a hihat to your drum-pattern. So no tom-tom or cymbal like in other editors (Moonblaster).
Still it impressive how it works, without reading a manual or remembering pages of key bindings.

Specially for this post I created some new drum-patterns and translate it were needed
the listing into English. You find the downloadlinks below.

* Good old Mediafire *
* The new Pcloud *

And I made specially for this post a short video, here.

I like uptempo PSG songs (YouTube part): FUNKY TOWN by LIPPS INC.

In every YouTube part, I mention 4 different kind of video's of the song.

So when I tried to find the original clip of the song, and I found more than 1 version.
But the one I liked the best (not because of the dancing lady) was deleted by YouTube,
just before I could post.
Now I have a TopPop clip of the single version (TopPop was a very famous musicprogram about the Dutch Top 40, sort of Top of the Pops).

The song itself is so good and has many different parts, so finding a good old
remix or 12" was easy.
Again I had to change the link, YouTube was spoiling all the fun, luckly I had
2 links so here is that other link
As long as YouTube won't delete it also.

The newer remix is from Ipaneema, it has a funny clip about finding Funky Town
travelling in a old orange BMW with beautyfull people in it of course.

And when I looked in the wikipedia about the background of the song and the group
I found a story about a cover version made by PSEUDO ECHO, and I really liked it.
Rock and disco together, well mixed.

Final note: YOUTUBE STOP DELETING MUSIC VIDEOS !!!

I like uptempo PSG songs (MSX part): FUNKY by TERJASOFT

Another song made by TERJASOFT and I found it on a MSX/Spectravideo cassette
I bought from the C.U.C, which was not a real MSX-club cause they also started off
an an Spectravideo computerclub.
Strangely Spectravideo computers were almost the same as MSX-computer
so Basic-listings could runs on both systems with some small changes.
Yeah I know better now, thanks to the internet.

Ok, I liked FUNKY very much, with the great bassline and really great PSG-drums.
It had a nice title-screen, but the was a strange part in the song when just a couple
of drumhits should be the bridge of the song....
I didn't understand that, so I made my own drumroll bridge.

When I heard the original song on YouTube I found out, it was the break before the
chorus....which wasn't included by TERJASOFT, ooooh noooooo !
The song could be so much better if TERJASOFT had finished it...

So the version I made in Soundtracker 1.0, it was based on the PSG version
of TERJASOFT with no chorus at all.
And what about the FM-version ? There is none, I tried to converted the drums
properly but failed. In Soundtracker 1.0 it was much easier to create a drumloop.

There is an TnC FUNKY MSX-disk ofcourse:

* Depositfiles
* Mediafire

I like uptempo PSG songs (YouTube part): AXEL F / Theme from Beverly Hills Cop by Harold Faltermeijer

The instrumental song was no more than the theme song of Beverly Hills Cop,
but the movie and the song was such a succes, that even today people still remember
the song (but forgot the title ;-).

Here is the original song, with the original clip, so you see a lot of Harolds,
not much Eddie Murphy (aka Alex Foley)
The clip is filmed in black and white, very stylish.

The old 12" remix I will link to, has a bit of a story.
Years ago I made a cassettetape with songs I though my older sister would like.
I asked my friend at that time if he had some songs I could record.
At the end I had some spare tape with a duration of maybe 1 minute, so I asked him:
"Have you another song for me ?"

He record a rap-version of Axel-F for me and I always thought it was Eddie Murphy
rapping.
I wanted the complete song so I search a long time for a Alex Foley/Eddie Murphy rap-version of Axel-F/Bevery Hills Cop. No luck.
Until I searched on YouTube for remixes of Axel-F, it were the Club Rappers

This is different version than I had on tape, but who cares, Axel-F is perfectly shaped
for rap-versions (as long as the rapper doesn't screw up).

When I was searching for new versions of Axel-F I know I had to include
the Crazy Frog version here. I liked the crazy clip, the crazy remix, all of it.
Hillarious is the part the he rides on a skyscraper to the top.
Even without the crazy frog sounds the remix is one of the best I ever heard.
So get existed or annoyed by the frog.

Remixes of Axel-F are countless, I heard many of them at YouTube but most of them
just change the drums and the bass and that's it.
But below you find an interesting list of my favorite remixes, each with their own style.

Breakbeat: Westbam
Cheering: Djayjay Electro mix
Euro-Dance: dance club mix
Hardstyle: dj splash 2004
Changes: DHP remix
Modern: sixgr0unds remix

I like uptempo PSG songs (MSX part): AXELF by Aackosoft's MuSiX

I think there is no computer/game/demo music-composer that doesn't made his own
version of this instrumental theme.
But on MSX I only had an not finished version of AXELF in MuSiX (a music-composing program for MSX-1 published by Aackosoft).

It started with the bassline instead of the main theme, the drums were vanished
after the main theme, and were out of sync at the end of the main theme.
I tried to finish it and after 5 versions it was good enough for me.

Because MuSiX had no MSX Basic-replayer I could use it in my own demo's.
Luckly I found recently a very rare disk-version of MuSiX (long time ago I bought
the original on tape, I still remember that it took forever to load a song from tape).

Ok, so I made no FM-version of AXELF, but A.J. Minnaard version came as a listing
in MSX Computer Magazine, I type it in and had an FM-version.
His version was close to an PSG2FM conversion, soit was  good but not perfect.

Later I found a much better version than A.J. Minnaard, but I don't know who made it.
No remarks found in the listing.

But with the listing of A.J. Minnaard I created 3 Soundtracker 1.0 files and 1 Protracker file.
The differences between the versions are no more than different drumkits and other
instruments, I think.
The Protracker version was no more than a conversion from Soundtracker 1.0.

I found Soundtracker easier to use (ST plays from left to right, PRO from above to below).

Here is the AXELF TnC MSX-disk:

* Depositfiles
* Mediafire

Just a short note: I found a textfile with a manual of MuSiX on an old disk, so it's on the AXELF TnC MSX-disk.

I like uptempo PSG songs (YouTube part): SMALLTOWN BOY by BRONSKI BEAT

Most of the time I find the original song much better than the PSG-version on my MSX,
but this time it was different.
Ofcourse the PSG-version had only 3 voices, so a lot of the original song had to be cut away by the MSX-composer.
Still the PSG-version manage to get to the heart of the song.
When I heard and saw the clip of the original song, I got the same feeling as when I first heard BRONSKI played by my MSX...
And the 12" version is more haunted than the original.
The message in the song and clip is clear, so I won't discuss it here.

The newer remix has a long title Max Rocca Prophet 08 Reedit, and has it's own version
of the original clip, very instrumental, but still it's Smalltown Boy alright.
Enjoy !

When I was searching for covers I found 3 very different versions, and I could not decide
which one should be in or out.
Listen en maybe you can decide which of these is the best cover:

The rock of Paradise Lost
The chillout of Ciguri:
The  dance of Little Boots

I like uptempo PSG songs (MSX part): BRONSKI by J.M. DE BONT

Smalltown Boy from Bronski Beat was my first up-tempo song ever heard on my MSX-2.

I liked it a lot and I found out that there was the official MSX Computer Magazine version  (MCM), but ever time I downloaded it from another source (BBS or Videotex) it was slightly different from the original.

At the end I had more than 5 different versions, so I put all the changes into one version, which I called BRONSKI.VS7.
This song had some screen 0 animation, at that moment I liked to make an intro with more than just a few PRINT commands.
Listen if you can hear the parts that had been changed by...well not by me (except the intro).
I liked the song so much I created my first 12" version, a randomizer and a mixer.
But the mixer works not as good the FREEZ mixer.
I created ofcourse an FM-version of it and made also a Soundtracker 1.0 version, so I could listen to the song in MSX-STEREO (FM-Pac + Music Module).

You can find all these versions on the TnC BRONSKI MSX-disk:
* Depositfiles
* Mediafire

And if you don't like the picture: it's converted to SCREEN 2 (16 colors), cause all these PSG-songs were created on a MSX-1 (I think so...)