Xmas 2017: Forgotten MSX Demo's

Maybe this will be the last post about Xmas. Every year I am afraid I have run out of ideas. Let's face it, there is not much MSX Xmas related stuff to find. And there is too much Xmas music in any genre to post about. Just Google and you will have it. This year my idea for an MSX post about Xmas was: collect all Xmas Demo's of any Diskmagazine I could find, upload it to YouTube and blog about it. I started with the famous Sunrise Picturedisks and I found one. Then I browsed to all files on the MCCM CD1 and CD2 trying to find more. 
Just 2 more.

While I tried to buy any diskmagazine on any MSX fair and was subscribed on Future Magazine, MCCM and Sunrise, still my collection was incomplete and the Xmas came nearer and nearer. I decided to put the 3 demo's I found on YouTube and finish that MSX post about Xmas 2017.

That wasnt easy, cause somehow my video-editor did some terrible things with the original audio,  making it sound like a speaker with bad wires. I had to re-record the sound and put it together with a silent video to make it work. I was always a big fan of Microsoft Movie Maker, but in Windows 10 it just kept on crashing. For these 3 demo's I used a very old ShowBiz DVD 2 of ArcSoft from 2004. It's still works on Windows 10, but most of the Export formats are no longer functioning.

Hereby info about each demo:

DTC XMAS Demo: 

This is the intro demo of Paradise 2, 
a Dutch  MSX diskmagazine of MSX Club DTC. There were not many issues, only 3.

Their most famous member was JetSoft, who made very nice pictures on MSX-2. 

The demo itself is short and makes good use of the standard MSX-2 startup screen. 
It had no sound so I search at MSX.org for Xmas music made on a MSX computer. 

They had a competition MuSiXmas with the original MSX format and a mp3 version.

The first mp3 track I played was Iceworld of Frederik Boelens. I loved it for the start and it fits the DTC XMAS Demo like a glove. 

IOD XMAS Demo : 

This is one of the demo's on Sunrise Picturedisk 10, made by a famous MSX group called Instruments Of Darkness. 

Their little demo puts falling snowflakes to a small animated picture. And the worst MSX version I ever heard of "Jingle Bells". 
The samples are funny enough, but they better asked member DanDan to compose some sounds.

The easiest way to play the demo on a MSX is by starting XMAS.LDR, otherwise you have to play some levels of Pixess to get to the demo.

Harald Stutz / Patrick Leijt Kerst Demo:

I am not sure if Patrick Feijt changed more than just the Dutch xmaswish at the end of the demo, but Harald Stutz made a nice demo with 2 animated parts with music. 

It's completly written in MSX-BASIC,  but uses some BGM files ( Bit2 Synyhesaurus ) to play music. That BGM replayer is so good ,you can execute other Basic commands without interupting the music. 

The first part looks a bit like the IOD XMAS Demo, I prefer this one. Great job mr. Harald Stutz and thank you Patrick Feijt for sending it to the Dutch MCCM, so I can add this nice demo to my collection.

All these 3 demo's can be found on a playlist on YouTube.

Earlier I made an other playlist with MSX XMAS Demo's.

I hope you enjoy these demo's. Happy Holidays !!!

Btw : I have no plans for post I ng about New Year, but you never know.

Xmas 2017: Alternative Christmas music

2017 is almost gone, so we prepare ourselves for the holidays at the end of the year.  First comes the Christmas days and then the Happy Old/New Year days. And everybody is pushing Xmas stuff to the internet, hopefully, somebody picks it up and you have your own viral video, tweet or...

I feel like I have to post something with Xmas and this year I had no ideas at all. One evening I let my son listen to some tunes of the 8-bit universe, cause I know he likes to sort of chiptunes music (Zombie Party). Well...not from 8-bit universe anyway. Then I finally had my first idea for a post about Xmas this year. Searching for Xmas chiptunes I found:

This Week in Chiptunes

With 2 episodes about Xmas or at least Xmas spirit.

But I wasn't satisfied, I want more Alternative Xmas music. So I search for Xmas DubStep, Trap, EDM mixes on YouTube and found out that DubStep was already 5 years old (at least on YouTube). There were so many mixes and YouTubers that repost the same mixes with a different screenshot I gave up. This is not alternative, it's already very common.

I felt there was not much Xmas spirit left in me, my last attempt was Xmas rock mixes.
Between the same old mixes with the same old Xmas rock songs, I found this gem.

alexrainbirdMusic 

He collects very regularly the finest indie music and creates one big video of it, with all the links to the artists you hear in the mix. If you like the soundtrack of the game "Life Is Strange" you should listen to his mixes on YouTube. I subscribed already after maybe 5 minutes playtime. Of course, there are Xmas mixes too and I made a playlist.
Here it is.

Now I will search for some MSX XMAS stuff to post about. 
Happy Listening and Merry Christmas to you !!!

Xmas 2016: Just 1 Xmas music link

It's already Christmas if you are reading this, but I wish you Happy Xmas to you all anyway.
I was busy preparing a nice playlist of all kinds of Xmas music from the 1 of more than 50 CD-Rs I made years ago, but I run out of time to post it before Christmas.

Well I am not so disappointed I didnt make it on time, cause while I was listening to the tracks from the CD-R and to Sky Radio 
(The Christmas -Radio-Station) I noticed the 3 differences between good and bad Christmas songs.

1) A Christmas song must give you a happy feeling
2) Giving a random song the name Christmas makes it no Christmas song
3) Sang or play a famous song exactly as others is only fun for your fans

And looking back at the songs I selected from my first CD-R, only a few could stay on the list if I checked the songs on these 3 rules.
So I dont try to finish the list today, but give you the link to a website with very different Christmas radiostations (and a lot more). They only play Xmas music that conform these rules ealier mentioned.

Here is the link: http://www.accuradio.com/christmas-music/

 
 

Xmas 2016: More MSX Xmas games feat. Xmasman

I promised more  MSX Xmas games, so here is Xmasman (or in Dutch: Kerstman) !!!

But I had to hurry, cause it's almost christmas and I was still busy putting sound, music 
and better controls...

Sorry only a couple of beeps this time, I couldnt insert the sounds and music and still be able to post it before christmas, however it has better controls than the original and it's easier to see how far you are in the game.

It's a memory game with a nice xmas twist, you have to remember the 2 presents you don't see behind Xmasman sleigh.There are 10 rounds, each more presents to remember and you get for each round just 2 tries. It's not so easy as it looks !!!


I wanna thank Jeroen Overvoorde, who made this nice MSX-2 Basic game in 1986.
Yes, it's a MSX-2 game only and runs in SCREEN 8.
The game was published by MSX Club Belgie Nederland on one of their disks.

 Downloading from: MEDIAFIRE / PCLOUD

NB 1: I like the simply but colorfull backgrounds the game generates itself, just look at the screenshots. 
NB2 : Maybe I will add some sounds and music later, but even without these it's a good looking, very playable MSX Basic game.

Xmas 2016: More MSX Xmas games feat. Xmas Quarrel

I already post about MSX Xmas games like Penguin Adventure of Konami and The Snowman of Quicksilva, both commercial released games. But what about all those MSX users who's programs were published on (disk-)magazines, listingbooks ? I tried to find some "home-made" MSX Xmas games, but there are just a few. Would it be a great idea if some big MSX website makes a yearly competition of creating new MSX Xmas games.
Well ?

I started my search on the Millenium CDs of MCM, the Dutch Magazine and lucky for me I found 2 Xmas MSX games on the Clubmagazines of the Belgium MCM. My search is not over yet, but I doubt I can find more Xmas games in my MSX diskcollection...


So the here is the 2nd Xmas game I found, Xmas Quarrel and English title for a Dutch games. Yeah, we Dutch use English words a lot, cause they sound better than the Dutch ones.

Here is a short translation of the controls screen:


SPELER = PLAYER
TOETSENBORD = KEYBOARD

If you choose 2 players with keyboard, the 2nd player had
to use w-a-s-z and shift

SPELER 1: DRUK EEN CIJFER = PLAYER 1: PRESS 1, 2 or 3

Xmas Quarrel is a 2-player game only, so you cant compete again your MSX.  It's a kind of a early PvP game,
like Vortex Raider of Eurosoft with snowmans throwing snowballs at eachother.
Funny, a Xmas fighting game, while real Xmas meaning is totally the opposite...

Again MSX Games World suprises me nicely, so here you can Download and play (Run) it.  Grab your annoying nephew
and show him who is King Snowman. 

MSX Xmas game 2016: The Snowman

Almost I year ago I post the best MSX Xmas game evere made, Penguin Adventure.
And I was sure that there was no other MSX game that had also thart Xmas style.
Until I searched for MSX Xmas demo on YouTube And found a serie of 4 gameplays of...

It's a very old (1984) platform-game from Quicksilva, but with nice looking sprites
fast game play and a little bit falling snow makes it a fun game to play.
Check out the animation if you loses a life...

I know a snowman is not really part of Xmas culture, but do you remember songs like "Frosty the Snowman" and "Let it Snow" ?
That's why I declare "The Snowman" as a MSX Xmas game.

You can "Download" and or "Run" it online at the www.msxgamesworld.com website, so this time no waiting for Mediafire or Pcloud downloads.

And if you are a bit lazy, watch the playlist Penko Tia made.

More Xmas posts will be there noon...

Xmas 2016: The MSX-1 Xmas demo I searched for a long time

I was busy thinking about Xmas and this blog and to me there is not enough Xmas demo's in the MSX-scene. You have to count the snowfalls and open fire demo's to it to get some.
Every year there should be new MSX Xmas demo's made, just to let everybody know MSX is still alive.

Well my search for MSX Xmas demo's brought me to the MCM archive to number 35 with some open fire listings in it,
I browsed through the pages of the PDF and there it was !!!

The listing I was searching for year after year !
I guess I missed it in my MSX disk-collection, cause it had such a common name, KERST (the Dutch word for XMAS).

In the same issue there was a Christmas song called WEWISH and the author of the magazine wrote that it would be nice if WEWISH put together with KERST to get a nice MSX-1 Xmas demo with animation and music.
That was a good idea, so I thought about it a lot and came with a solution that was not perfect, but does the job.

I noticed the animation could use some more speed and playing music at the same time, would ruin the animation completly. So I inserted the music between the animated screens.

Every demo has an intro which has its name and makers in it, this demo hadn't.
Real shame, cause I liked the little animations a lot. Again I thought hard and wrote in a notebook how it should look like, with (of course) a little animation.

My drawing skills are not that good and SCREEN 2 colorspill doesn't help a lot, but I created an intro that I think fits the demo very well.
Finally I changed also the name of the demo from KERST(WENS) to XMASWISH.BAS, so you will see the differences between the original and my modified version.

If you think you are waiting too long, you can press 1 key to go to the next part.
There is an intro and 3 other parts, so it's a short demo.

I also uploaded a video of the XMASWISH demo to YouTube to show that even in MSX-1 Basic you can make a Xmas demo with some animation.
You can see it here.

You can download the XMASWISH listing at: Mediafire / Pcloud

More Christmas posts are on its way, so watch out !

Ho Ho Ho this MSX Xmas demo you dont want to miss !

 Yeah I'm too late for the holiday's, but Alberto Sgaggero did such a new job with programming this MSX BXmas demo in Basic, I could not let this wait until Xmas 2016.

Wait, Wonder And Enjoy the graphics and music of MSX Merry Christmas 2015 - (BASIC) 

It really shows the hidden powers of MSX-1 Basic....

NONE Xmas songs - MSX Style - part 3

Yes there is a part 3. I wasnt planning it, but the New Year demo of part 2 was MSX-2 only
So I got the idea to create an MSX-1 New Year demo,
but because of the limitations of MSX-1 Basic (and my own limitations) I decided to make a Happy New Year Picture demo for MSX-1.

I re-used the sounds, sprites and greetings of the original, search on the net for pictures, converted them with my fav tool,  did some testing and here it is...

Gavitex LZH DSK
Mediafire LZH DSK

It took me 8 hours to finished, most of the time I was searching and converting the pictures. If you dont like it ? Well...search on YouTube for MSX demo...

But I wish you all a Merry Xmas and Happy New Year !

MSX Xmas game: Penguin Adventure

When I think of Xmas and MSX games, the first name that I can recall is Konami's Penguin Adventure. It has snow and even Santa Clause. It's a really good but hard game to handle.
I made it once to stage 3, so you know my gaming skulls now...

So I search in my own MSX archive and found an old BCF demo, that seems to be forgotten on YouTube.

When I started the demo I knew why. It had 2 little animation demo's with the famous SNOUT humor   ,
a converted picture from the cartridge box, some credits, all location of the traders, santa claus and all warps and a slotmachine just like in the game.

Only the slotmachine had some music (stolen from the MSX-2 game Red Lights of Amsterdam) and some mostly annoying PSG sounds.
So instead of uploading a video of the demo to YouTube,
I decided to search for other YouTube videos about the game Penguin Adventure.

But here you can download that old 1989 demo of BCF:
Gavitex LZH and DSK or Mediafire LZH and DSK

BCF became more famous when they created some games and their DiscStations, but of course you knew that already.

And here some great video's I found about Penguin Adventure:
1. Penguin Adventure MSX Konami overview
* The review is very nice made by a none MSX-er, it gave me a new inside info 
about the game itself *
2. Soundtrack Penguin Adventure Konami MSX
* Not the real OST from Konami, but nicely arranged, better than any so called remixes *
3. Weird Video Games - Penguin Adventure (MSX) 
* Forget all that nonsense about speed and more, just listen from 11:30 to the Penguin Adventure Rap, hilarious !!! *

  

 

NONE Xmas songs - MSX Style - part 2

This post is related to the song "Happy New Year" of ABBA. I can't remember much
"Happy New Year" MSX-demo's, with fireworks and stuff...

"Yeah yeah yeah, MCCM once published an firework listing that worked with MSX- and GW-Basic (PC), but it was so slow on MSX and PC, I had to use the KUN compiler on my MSX-2 and a Turbo Basic compiler on my PC-XT to get something that looked like fireworks..."
Noo, I won't put the listing in my blog, go to here and click on nr.35, good luck with typing in...

Well, in 1988 I got the idea to create a simple MSX-2 screen 8 New year demo with the use of my selfgenerated firework sounds and some of my creations made in Philips Designer...

So here it is, it's very old, but the listing is very readable for beginning MSX-ers or MSX-ers who forgot how to program in Basic (like me).



Mediafire: LZH or DSK
Gavitex: LZH or DSK

NONE Xmas songs - MSX Style - part 1

Of course I wanted this Xmas to have some MSX stuff in my blog, so I thought hard about the earlier Xmas posts (My Music Memories) and then it struck me. For both NON Xmas songs I could create a MSX post, so here is the first one.

On the tape I purchased from the C.U.C. composer TerjaSoft created, for both Spectravideo  SVI (side A) and MSX (side B) computers,some very nice PSG songs,
even with some animation.

At the end of the tape was WEALL, yes an nice with MSX-1 animated sprites PSG song.
Because it took a lot of time to load all the sprite data I included an timer and soundeffects to keep the waiting less boring.

So here is all SVI and MSX computers: We All Stand Together is glorious 3-channel PSG version...

At Mediafire: as file or DSK
At Gavitex: as file and DSK

I was curious about the story behind Spectravideo, so I found some info and
some fan websites.

Wikipedia
Roger's
Spectravideo Sweden
Thomas's




I think all MSX-ers should know there were once Spectravideo computers, which were almost MSX computers. And I remember C.U.C. club, who published lots of SVI/MSX related info, listings and programs, and bought lots of magazines and other stuff
at the fairs in Holland. I tried but can't find anything about C.U.C. on the net.
They really deserve their own archive of their magazines and tapes...

My Music Memories: 2 favs Xmas songs

Every blogger should have some post every christmas, so I tried to find some fresh ideas
to post. Here is part 1.

Some artists just record christmas songs almost exactly like the originals from the 50s, 60s, etc., that's ok by me. But I like the songs more, if the artists use new arrangements
to sound a little different than the traditional ones.

It was difficult to choose 2 favs songs and even more difficult to find an artist who made
a nice arrangement to that classic song.
When I finally had 2 favs I browsed YouTube to find a nice arrangement of those songs...

After 1 hour searching and listening to failed attempts of all kinds of (amateur) artists
I was so disappointed I decided to browse in my own CD-collection.
Within 15 minutes I found for both favs an nice new arrangement.

Here it is (as long as YouTube dont remove it).
"Winter Wonderland" of Steve Overland


"Have Yourself A Merry Christmas" of Tomorrow People

These songs can also be found somewhere on the Modern Christmas Tapes 1/2/3
( Another Xmas Post (Part III) )

My Music Memories: 2 NOT favs Xmas songs

Part 2.
There are xmas songs that me run as far as possible from any loudspeaker or if I cant escape I pretend I dont' hear it at all.

My choices may suprise you and you will probably disagree, well...you can always left a comments or stop reading...

First: my most annoying xmas song:

"Blue Christmas" of Elvis Presley
His Christmas album wasnt that bad at all, but this song was worst. Sadly this is the only song you hear from Elvis during the Christmas periode.

Why ?
Here is comes:
"Ahaahaa haahaa haahaa haahaa ffffff a blue xmas without you"
And:

"And I have a blue blue blue blue blue xmas"

Even a duet with Maria McBride cant save this song.

Second: my most boring xmas song:

"12 Days of Christmas" of ...that doesnt matter
It's just a memory game set to music, and it repeat itself over and over again.

Want proof:

Here it comes:

"On the first day of Christmas
my true love sent to me:
A Partridge in a Pear Tree"

On the second day of Christmas
my true love sent to me:
Two Turtle Doves
and a Partridge in a Pear Tree

On the third day of Christmas
my true love sent to me:
Three French Hens
Two Turtle Doves
and a Partridge in a Pear Tree

and we are just at day 5 !

If my true love send the same prenents every day I would tell her to stop,

No, the fool in this song wants all the same presents, 12 days long.

Stupid !

Even the Muppets with John Denver couldnt make the song less boring...

My Music Memories: 2 NONE Xmas songs

Here is part 3.


I looked to a couple of the "Best Xmas songs ever" and similair titles (what may help to sell those recycled CD collections) and saw in the tracklisting some songs, I think ,should never be part of any Xmas song collection.

First one: We all stand together - Paul McCartney.

Why is this a xmas song ?
It's a song for a animated children film with Rupert the Bear and in the musicvideo (just a rip from a short movie
"Rupert and The Frog Song" I see no snow, no xmas trees, no santa or reindeers, just a container full  of frogs !

Here is the complete movie to see for yourself if this is really a christmas movie.

Second: Happy New Year - ABBA.

Is this really a xmas song ?
Sorry, I think it is a song about New Year, Christmas is already gone then.
Yes, at New Year you can play that song from your Christmas CD, but nobody is waiting
for the next song like "Jingle Bells" or "White Christmas".

Here is the original video of ABBA and despite the "Happy" refrein, the lyrics are kinda sad.

DJ Riko:, Xmas mixer and Mashup DJ

There were times that I listened to Sky Radio, days before Christmas.
Every day I heard Wham, Slade, Maria Carey, Mud, Slade and of course somebody singing White Christmas.
I had made some tapes with our favorite songs from me and my wife and some weird tapes with modern xmas songs in rock, reggae, chillout styles.
But I thought maybe unknown artists can cover christmas songs better or even make new ones....
So I collected over 50 CD-Rs with christmas mp3 songs from artists I never heard of, who  shared their songs on a free to download websites like mp3.de and simulair.

While I was collecting, I found some Christmas mixes and podcasts full of new music. Great cause I like mixes and remixes. So one day I stumbled into:

who made almost every year a new X-mas mix !
Free for everyone to download on his own website djriko.com.

I liked DJ Riko very much, cause I discovered Mashups when listening to his other tunes and other mixes. He doesnt make much new stuff ( look at the New page), but his Mashup "P-Funk In Playing My House" is really great and even released on vinyl ! DJ Riko repeats himself in the longer mixes, so if you play 3 of his longer mixes, the rest dont matter.
His X-mas mixes however, are not to miss and a must have to play on every Christmas day. Here is the page, so download them all !

Last note: his ringtones are no ordinary tunes, check it out

Another Xmas Post (Part IV)

I think this will be the last part, cause I could not find that MSX-1 Xmas Basic demo
I was looking for.

It had at least 3 parts, the last part were best wishes in a lot of languages in animated different coloured boxes, maybe I find it some day...

But I have some more tapes for you !

After I made the 3 tapes I wanted to hear more modern Xmas songs, not only Elvis Presley with "Blue Blue Blue Blue Christmas" or Bing Crosby with "you know what I mean".

Just famous classics in a new modern music-style.

So I bought a couple of (cheap) Xmas CDs and collected the best songs on 3 tapes,
called: Modern Christmas 1, 2 and 3.
Yeah, I had to think hard for the right title...;-)

This time I even wrote what was on the tape...which CDs were used for recording.

Here is the list:
* Rockin' Christmas
* R&B Christmas Party
* Reggae Christmas
* Merry Mambo X-mas
* Rave the X-mas

* The Santa Clause (see above)
* Chill Out Christmas
* Raindance Christmas

I dare you to listen to 1 of these tapes, it's a real rollercoaster of Xmas songs
in different music-styles.
These tapes were made the same way I made those Moonblaster House Mixes
as Mixmeister TnC (at mixcloud).
So be warned !

I know it's a lot of Mbs, but every tape is 2x 45 minutes long, that's why...

Here are the links:
Modern Christmas 1: Mediafire / Gavitex
Modern Christmas 2: Mediafire / Gavitex
Modern Christmas 3: Mediafire / Gavitex

I had to confess I had not enough songs to fill 3 tapes of 90 minutes, so I fill them up
with more bits and pieces of Rave the -Xmas

If you enjoyed the rock version of Silent Night at a beginning of some tape,
that was Deliverance  on the What A Joke album.

Final note: sometimes tapes are so bad, it cannot be digitized.
Here is an example of Richard Clayderman going mad: Mediafire / Gavitex

Another Xmas Post (Part III)

Some time ago I was so bored about the songs that SkyRadio played on the radio,
that I decided with my wife to make our own Christmas Music tapes with the best songs
we had on CD.
The tapes were specially made for playing in our old VW Jetta, cause it had only radio and tape.
But we played them also at home, it saved us a lot of skipping tracks and changing CDs.

These 3 tapes I want to share with you. The sound is very loud and something out of tune,
but when I listen to them again, I hear a lot of forgotten goldies...

Some songs you always hear in every Top 100 or Skyradio, some are sang by Dutch singers and groups, some are not so famous but very enjoyable.

In other words, I have no idea what's on every side of the tapes...

Have fun with this collection:
Christmas Songs A:                     Mediafire / Gavitex
More Christmas Songs B:             Mediafire / Gavitex
Christmas Songs Once Again C:   Mediafire / Gavitex

Xmas post (part 2)

Every MSX-er who programmed some demo's, should have made one or more
Xmas demo's.
And EMP-Soft (me and Elko D.) was no exception. But we did it quick and dirty.

Elko ripped the Xmas picture out of the Philips NMS8280 demo and changed/converted
the titles, background and colours. He also composed the 2 MSX-musics.
I created the programs to put it all together to get a sort of picture-demo.
Mmmm...I must admit it's not a good demo, but the musics are okay.

Here are the links to the Philips NMS 8280 demo:
Mediafire
Gavitex (ex-DepositStorage)

PassionMSX has also a NMS 8280 demo, but somehow the zipfile was damaged,
when Itried downloading it. So here is my version.

If you still wanna see the EMP-Soft Xmas demo anyway:
Mediafire
Gavitex

I warned you !!!

A Xmas post (part one)

It's almost Christmas (or Xmas if you're a lazy typer), so everybody and everything
must be in Christmas style.
So I had to bring some Christmas spirit into my blog.
Here is the part one.

For me is the Toshiba Xmas demo the best Xmas demo ever made on a MSX-1.

The graphics are simple, but very colorfull.
The great PSG-musics  are short but great famous Xmas tunes.
And it has also a little animation in it !

I was amazed the first time, I think it's still impressive how they made it.
I had the demo somewhere on a disk, but lost it.
So I was happy to find it on PassionMSX (MSX Goodies)

On YouTube I found video's of other (MSX-2) Xmas demo's,
but this one deserve also a place on YouTube, it's less boring...
And I recorded the demo with my old BlueMSX emulator.
Here is the link for YouTube.

See ya at part 2.