TnC Internet Adventures : MSX logos Part 1 - Yahoo

To find some background info or covers about MSX stuff I am blogging about, 
I use a lot of times search words with word MSX added to. And when I search for pictures 
I get lots of strange pictures that had nothing to do with MSX computers. 
The word MSX is nowadays commonly used for all kinds of things. 
From motors till Viagra pills, anything is possible. 

I decided it was interesting enough to search for MSX logos, what they mean and for which products they use the word MSX for. 
Well, I can tell you there will be no Microsoft on this list. 
They give their name to the MSX standard (well if that is true is for another post), but they totally forgot about it. 
You might say, world domination fallen with MSX, but with Windows, it worked out fine. Enough about big MS, let's see how other companies use MSX for their products.

This is a collection of MSX logo's I got with a Yahoo search ( it's mine default search engine, cause I use McAfee ), here we go in random order:

MSX was never going international, but there were plenty of countries

where MSX computers were sold. 

I think the logo was to use for all MSX groups and seemed 

to be forgotten.

Honda made a motor called MSX 125 in lots of variations, a fan made this cartoon picture.

Somebody uploade an animated MSX logo in different versions on YouTube, 

but for what use ? I could not find out. 

 

Yes, there is an MSX radiostation and no they dont play MSX music, 

but it's a fake radio-station in GTA games itself.

Check out the D&B music on big YT.

This is a logo from a graphic designer company, do they work as a trio ? 

Cant find the 3 names of these designers.

Next is a musicshop which sells CDs with sounds from real instruments. 

But why do you want so many different cymbalsounds ?.

Here is some other graphic designer company, dont know where the logo was used for.

The site was not very helpfull.

Yes, MSX energy drink !! 

If enough people at Microsoft drink it, maybe they produce 

an MSX-3 as a new X-Box game-console.

 

 

Logo for a bikersclub, for mini bikes only. Mmm, does the M in MSX stands for Mini ?

Well, some people do. 

That other logo seemed to be for another motorgang, 

for some very bad-ass MSX-ers, but the link is broken.

 

The logo of a never existing magazine, somehow I'm glad. Do I like to play Space Manbow on a MetroSexual computer ? So weird.

Another logo from a graphic desgner studio, purpose yet unknown.

I like it. Put this logo on any MSX-3 computer and I will buy it. 

Here is a company called MSX contents and uses MSX in the name of their product, 

like MSX Pressforce... Maybe handy for any magazine publisher.

Strangely their website is called: fivecom.

Does that mean they have only 5 computers and employees ?

A shop that sells outdoors stuff, I like the title MSX Mainstream, it's a good title for a new MSX blog. I dont think I need any of this stuff, I'm too lazy for that.

Well, that all for now. Next time a new search engine. BTW the original MSX logo in this post, came from a very interesting blog of Dave Voyles. In this post, he described briefly the history of MSX computers in a very good article. Take a look to his other posts.

Fan Of De Raggende Manne

Again it's time to post about some of my Dutch Music Memories. Ow, I am sorry. 
This is the Fan Of Series. Good to know.

I was always a big fan of college rock or punk rock and when I heard the song 
"Poep In Je Hoofd" on the radio, I wanted to find out more about this band "De Raggende Manne". Later I saw them playing live on TV a kind of ballad "Allemaal Voor Jou" . 

For me 2 reasons to buy the CD called "Rooie Pap". Lucky for me there were enough other great songs and lots of Dutch humor too. Like a song for the Dutch king with a duration of 10 seconds. 
Their greatest hit was "Nee's Niks" (see playlist) with a duration of say... 7 seconds, however, it was not included in any chart, cause the song had to be at least 30 seconds long. 

Another plus for "Rooie Pap" was the multimedia part. Yes, it was an audioCD and a CD-ROM together. It was made with an old version of Quicktime of Apple and so it worked on Windows and Apple computers. The multimedia part was showing different parts of the body of De Raggende Man and by clicking on each part you got a different interactive part full of bizarre Dutch humor. I liked it a lot and made a video about the intro and menus. Not showing all the content, cause that would ruin the surprise, just making all watchers curious was my goal. Check it out, here.

After "Rooie Pap" I bought their CD "Zaad". It was noisy, avant-garde music with sometimes a bit of melody and strange lyrics. I only liked 2 songs 1 was a cover from Willeke Alberti 
(by then famous Dutch female singer) "Telkens Weer" (see playlist). 
I liked the jazzy style of De Raggende Manne and the way singer Bob Fosko performs this song I decided to create a 10-hour version...Telkens Weer means Once Again. ..get it? 

Still "Zaad" was a bad buy and I bought the album they made after "Rooie Pap", called "Omschudden". Once again I didn't like most of the songs, it seems everybody was starting and stopping together at the same time but in between they go just randomly making music. 
Only the protest song "Denk Daar Eens Over Na" ( about no drilling for gas or oil in the Wadden Sea, a famous Dutch nature area) was worthy to listen too. After that I never bought anything from De Ragende Manne... except a single from Bob Fosko the lead shouter of the band...and that is the other story...("Me Vader Is Behanger")

Their live performances were the best, but did never last more than 30 minutes, after that the band and the public were exhausted. I browsed YT and created a playlist of I think the best tracks you can find of De Raggende Manne, maybe it is even better than their Best of album called "Het Rottigste van De Raggende Manne."

Like so many groups they had their own comeback, at that time I already lost interest in them. However, the lead-shouter Bob Fosko is still active in all kind of activities, check out his website.

My Music Memories: Poep In Je Hoofd - De Raggende Manne

"Poep In Je Hoofd" is the most famous song of De Raggende Manne. 
It was released on single and came from the album "Rooie Pap" ( see post Fan Of ...). 
It just a short punk-rock song with Dutch lyrics, which is very rare for a Dutch band, 
cause every Dutch band who wants to get famous use English lyrics. 

Not De Raggende Manne. "Poep In Je Hoofd" is just plain Dutch and hard to translate.
I used some online translators and it was still rubbish (or "Poep" in Dutch). 
And I tried it myself to create lyrics, so you could sing it in English but I came not far than:

"Shit in your head, shit in your head, it doesn't matter, you're already dead" 



Yeah, it should rhyme. Still, it is an ideal song to get the shit out of your head.. 
More reason to love it. 

A Japenese group N.A.T.T.O. covered the song live and that sounded very strange. Dutch is a strange langhage for  foreigners. 

I think "Poep In Je Hoofd" was the best rocksong 
De Raggende Manne ever made. 
Only Bob Fosko could create such a lyrics.

Here is an example of an online translator.
I forgot the name, but the result was always the same...

(As you can see, it's not hard to remember the lyrics, 
but you have to sing as hard as you possible can, 
without losing your voice before the song ends... )

"Poop in your head.
 
I'll have your skin beating in your mouth!
Or do you already have poop, poop in your head.



I'll make you feel well in your mouth
Or do you already have poop, poop in your head.
I'll make you feel well in your mouth
Or do you already have poop, poop in your head.
I'll make you feel well in your mouth
Or do you already have poop, poop in your head.

Poop in your head, poop in your head.
What does it matter if you believe.
Poop in your head, poop in your head.
What does it matter?
 
I'll make you feel well in your mouth
Or do you already have poop, poop in your head.
I'll make you feel well in your mouth
Or do you already have poop, poop in your head.
I'll make you feel well in your mouth
Or do you already have poop, poop in your head.
I'll make you feel well in your mouth

Nice, tasty, yesaaaaaa (Solo)

Poop in your head, poop in your head.
What does it matter if you believe.
Poop in your head, poop in your head.


What does it matter?
 
I'll make you feel well in your mouth
Or do you already have poop, poop in your head.
I'll make you feel well in your mouth
Or do you already have poop, poop in your head.
I'll make you feel well in your mouth
Or do you already have poop, poop in your head.

I'll be fine, you're aaaaaaaaah
Poop in your head."

I made 2 silly jokes with De Raggende Manne first hit "Nee's Niks" and "Poep In Je Hoofd" called:  "Nee, Da's Niks" and "Nee's Niks An"
Be annoyed, be very annoyed !!!

TnC GameMusic Selection: Micro Machines 2 Turbo Tournament

Yesterday I listened to an very old cassettetape (converted to mp3), which was the first tape I made with CD-tracks from CD-ROMs (mostly games). I used tracks from an unknown Pinball game, a Kaleidoscope program and Micro Machines 2 Turbo Tournament. 

When the tape was ready, I didnt listen very often, cause a lot of tracks were clipping or should I say the recordings were too loud. However I liked the idea of creating tapes with the best CD-tracks of a lot of games I played, that I started recording the Pinball and Race Track tapes.

Back to that first tape, it was called "CD-Rom Noises 1", which was also the last one.
And the best tracks of that tape were the ones from Micro Machines 2 Turbo Tournament.

I used one track to start the tape and recorded all 5 of them. Why ?

It were the best instrumental rocksongs I ever heard with a great solo-guitarist.
He plays all the classic rock-tricks in his solo's, but when you hear those tracks 
you want to play this game or any other racegame.

Sometimes the tracks seems to repeat itself too often, but most races last longer than 
3 minutes, right ?

Check them our here

If you want to see the gameplay (with more good rock music in the menu's), go here
I always remember the game, cause the controls were very difficult to handle.
 

Some Basics 4 MSX Basic ( part 2 )

Here is already part 2 of my tips and tricks. Have fun !

Problem: Test if the right disk is in the drive

 
Solution: Using FILES and ON ERROR GOTO instead of DSKI$
 

Example:

100 PRINT " Check disk with HELLO.BAS"110 ON ERROR GOTO 150
120 FILES "HELLO.BAS"
130 PRINT "Disk okay"
140 GOTO 180
150 IF ERL=120  AND ERR=53 THEN 190
160 PRINT ERR,ERL

170 ON ERROR GOTO 0
180 END
190 PRINT "Wrong Disk"
200 RESUME 170

As you can see, it just checks of the file HELLO.BAS exist on the disk. 

If not if and there is a disk inserted, it prints that it's the "Wrong Disk". 

When other errors happened, like no disk in drive, it just prints the error + error line 

and stops. I use ERL=120 to check where the error starts (in the line with FILES)  

and ERR=53 (File not found) to be sure I test only if HELLO.BAS exists.

I used this trick in the mainmenu's of the WORDSTORE Picture Demo's 
to check if the demo was on the inserted disk or not.

Some Basics 4 MSX Basic ( part 1)

And here is part 1 of my programming tips and trick, in the serie Some Basics 4 MSX Basic. 

Problem: Checking firebuttons

Solution: Using IF THEN and GOTO, instead of ON STRIG GOSUB and STRIG ON
 

Example:
 

10 PRINT "Press FIRE"
20 IF STRIG(0) OR STRIG (1) THEN 40
30 GOTO 20
40 PRINT "FIRE !!!!"
50 END

This solution is easier than using ON STRIG, but if you use this routine more than once, 

you must insert a short sleep routine, like:

50 FOR T=1 TO 200: NEXT

Just to make sure it also wait the 2nd time for the fire button, otherwise it will skip the 2nd test and go on.

I use this trick often in the last posted 112 MSX Basic games, cause I wanted to play those games without pressing any key on the keyboard.

The routine checks only the spacebar (0) and firebutton 1 of joystick 1 (1), which is mostly
enough for all single player games.

TnC Internet Adventures: Lord Music Academy & Lord Vinheteiro

Lord Vinheteiro is a Brazilian piano-player who can play almost everything from Bach to Lady Gaga. He has very original ideas for his videos and has interesting things to say.
Lord Music Academy is the more serious YouTube channel, mostly in Portuguese so translation in English is very handy. The Vinheteiro channel is the more fun channel with lots of music and some English comments. He wants to show his public that classical music is not boring at all and he proved it with lots of humor.

For example try: How To Destroy Classical Music 1 and 2.
The interaction between the pianist and the drummer staring at you is a must-see.

I always look forward to the next video he uploads, cause every time he comes with a new fresh idea in which he can perform his piano skills.

More examples coming up:
- 13 Types of Pianists
- How To Make Girls Fall in Love with Music
- Happy Songs in Sad Versions
- Evolution of Music (1680 AD - 2017)
- Top 10 of EDM of the 2000s  !!!

 

Some MSX-links: RuMSX emulator of Lex Lechz

I mentioned the RuMSX emulator of Lex Lechz. It's very outdated and it works as an emulator, still, lots of features are still missing and there are no signs it will be updated ever.
Why bother then?

RuMSX has just one feature that all other MSX emulators are missing, a complete interactive reference of all MSX Basic commands with examples and lots of information for experienced MSX-ers, like VDP registers etc.

When you click on Help and MSX help you see the page above with almost everything
you want to know about MSX (if you interested in programming of course)
Many times its information got me on the right track to solve my MSX-Basic problems.

Get it if you want to start programming in MSX-Basic, now !!!
 

TnC Internet Adventures: Online Image Editor and Gif Maker

On regular basis, my son had to make some Powerpoint presentations for speeches or overviews for books. And he needs a lot of pictures, but there are always problems like, 
it's too big or too small or it must be transparent to fit on the page, etc. etc. 

Yes yes, there are many many free image editors online, but they all have limitations and you have to pay to get these limitations removed. Not this one.

http://www.online-image-editor.com/ 

Does what it promissed, just a lot of wizards and tools you always wanted to try out on 
your images or photo's. It may be look like an ordinair image editor, it has alway great fun features for photo's. And it's totally free !
I use the transparantcy tool often, it works okay but it takes some time to get the best result.
Well, it's much easier and cheaper than using Photoshop, any way !!!

But wait, there is more.
By accident I clicked on Animation button and discovered another treasure:

http://www.online-image-editor.com/gifmaker/ 

It is so simple to create an animated GIF with this tool, you will not believe it.
Just upload your pictures (make sure they have the same resolution), change the transition (delay between showing the pictures), choose from different transitions by clicking on the box and click on create animation. Then the animated GIF will be made in seconds and by clicking with rightmousebutton, you can save the GIF with your own chosen name. 

I used the GIF maker a lot of times in the latest posts, for me a new way to show more pictures without messing with the texts.

 

Some Basics 4 MSX Basic ( Introduction)

I am not proud to present a new series of posts. 

My  Introduction of the Wordstore+ Picture Demo's series was longer than I expected, 

due to some technical details about the files on the disk I wrote about. 

It seemed to me like long boring stories and remove the too technical issues. 

Then I got the idea to share some of  my MSX Basic tips and tricks, I used the software 

I wrote for the Wordstore+ Picture Demos. Now I am not planning to create a complete course of MSX Basic programming, there is enough for you to find at msx.org. 

I just take simple tricks I use often, explain it with an example. Nothing fancy. I learned MSX Basic with the manual on disk Wegwijs op uw MSX ( it had also some games, 

see my 112 posts about Hexapion) and the MSX Handbook of Albert Sickler (???), 

which was not really a study book, more a reference book with good examples. I used the book so much, lots of pages got lose and I throw it away. 
Nowadays I use RuMSX as my MSX handbook when I want to know how to use an MSX Basic command. I will create a post for RuMSX later.

Well, back to the subject now.

The tricks and tips I want to post about will work on any MSX unless I mention it. 

However, I don't own a TURBO-R or an MSX-2+ ( I sold my Sanyo to an MSXer called Peter Schellekens so he could play MSX-2+ games - we used to go together to any MSX Fair, he rarely bought something,  I bought way too many ;-), so most tips will be MSX -1/2. 

I don't have much experience in MSX Basic programming,  I mostly modify existing software and write simple stuff like all kinds of menus. Stil, I believe my tips and tricks can be helpful, but remember there are multiple solutions for the same problem. So my solutions are just one of the many possibilities. 

First I will post about the tips and tricks I used in the 112 series, Wordstore+ Picture demos and the Fourseasons MSX disk. When I am out of ideas I have some old note books written by me, where I wrote all kinds of useful info ( like cheats for games and high scores) . 

There are some very clever tricks written down in it.
 

Have a look at the posts and leave a comment with your version of the solution to my problem.

Each post will have the same layout:

- Problem
- Solution
- Example

 So from now follow this series to get a couple of tricks to use in your MSX Basic programs.

My Music Momories / TnC House Classics presents : Flashdance - Deep Dish

I was not sure if this song belongs to My Music Memories or TnC House Classics, 

cause I never owned this track. 
It is a kind of dance track, so here it is in 
both series.

The track is a sort of cross-over between rock and dance, a bit repetitive and very hypnotic, the rock-riff stays in your head 
for days.

The original came from the soundtrack of Flashdance (...What a feeling..) and was called "He's a dream" by Shandi Sinnamon.
 I listen to it, but the whole song was ruïned 
by the producers, it started okay, then in the middle...you better listen for yourself...

So Deep Disk took the best parts of the song, hired a better singer and WHAM !!!

Whole Flashdance track is 
so simple, so lots of remixes made their own versions.

Most of them could not add more interesting stuff for having an excuse creating long remixes of Flashdance with a duration 9 minutes or longer.

But some remixes are not bad at all, check these out.

There was a DJ Sultan who made an interesting cross-over remix with Money for Nothing of Dire Straits and Flashdance of Deep Dish, called "Flash for Nothing"

Lately, I was searching for Icebaer remixes and a guy called Sim0ne remixed it just in the style of Deep Fish Flashdance, but more monotone.

More Wordstore+ Picture Demo : Tug Of Peace - Paul McCartney

Here is the 5th and last Picture Demo, called Tug Of Peace. 

If you know more about the Loup Picture Demo's, check this.

Tug of Peace is a kinda funk version with bits and pieces from Tug Of War song
and the Pipes Of Peace (the Xmas) song. Well, the lyrics are.
And if you search for the message behind the song, good luck to you.

But I like the song from the Pipes Of Peace album a little better than Hey Hey
from the same album, it's just less boring.

Now I think, I said enough about the Pipes Of Peace album, I was very disappointed.
If Paul had recorded more songs in the same style, it could save the whole album.

Somehow I still believe a lot of songs on Pipes of Peace were left-overs from 
the Tug of War sessions.

Any way.
Enjoy the intro in Wordstore+ and listen to the full length of the song in slowly nature animation

More Wordstore+ Picture Demo : Old Siam Sir - Wings

Another song of Back To the Egg Album, the last album of Wings.

It's a solid rock song, and had a great intro which I sampled it in Wordstore+.
When I was listening to the whole song, I was missing something.
 

The song keep repeating itself, so in the end it's quite boring.
If Old Siam Sir had more lyrics or some great guitarsolo's...

The new Wings members were just recruited session musicians, 

so not much input from them.They just play as they told to.

Well I found a nice medley of the best songs of Back To The Egg, 

with a video made from the TV-special to promote Back To The Egg album.

This YouTuber rockchick2112 did a great job.

Enough said about Back To The Egg album, but I found more other interviews
from Steve Holly and Laurence Juber, the newest ex-members of Wings.

Interview with the drummer Steve Holly, the last Wings drummer.
An audio interview with Steve and Laurence

The reason of the end of Wings was of course the cancelled tournee in Japan, cause Paul McCartney got arrested with some soft-drugs.

More Wordstore+ Picture Demo: Reception - Wings

This is already the 3rd Picture Demo I post about.

Reception was the first song of the Back To the Egg album of Wings.
It's a short instrumental, which should have been a great intro for
a funky song. Maybe with even a rappin' Paul in it ?
But no, lucky for us it was edited, cause the long version I found
was more boring than the original.

Did they just record a radio playing in the background ?

There is not much to talk about Reception, the song, so I continue
with my thoughts about the Back To the Egg album.

Back To The Egg was the last Wings album I bought, and it was almost
my favorite album of Paul McCartney and Wings.
But that was before I heard songs like After The Ball, Million Miles,
Love Awake, Winter Rose, and The Broadcast.

Those songs should be perfect on McCartney II, not on a Wings group album.
It seems to me that Paul had not enough songs to record with Wings.
So side 1 "Sunny Side up" was okay, side 2 "Over easy" was a big disappontment.

In some songs Paul sang like he was yelling the whole night before.
Listening at the songs, I can help that some of them are just leftovers
or just other versions of the songs from London Town.

Later I found out Paul was smoking during the recording period.

It sounds good when he have to rock, but when it's a ballad he sounds a bit off-tune.

My favorite songs were Spin It On, Old Siam Sir, Rockestra Theme, To You,
So Glad To See You Here, still not enough to like the whole album.

I found an interesting interview with Laurence Juber, ex-Wings guitarist,
who was playing on most recording of Wings in the period.

More Wordstore+ Picture Demo : Valentine's Day of Paul McCartney

When I had collected all songs from the Beatles I started to collect Paul Mc Cartney albums

and started with his first solo-album, called...you guessed it! (no, not with an I at the end ).
 
He played all instruments and Linda sang sometimes in the background (well, she tried).

I didn't know any song from the album, so I let the record play in the music store.

I heard the first song, Lovely Linda, I didn't wanna buy it anymore.
But the people in the shop were very busy, so I listened to the second song 
(That Would Be Something). Even worse...
Paul tried to sing like Elvis in a song nobody wants to hear, it sounded like a never 
finished demo.

Then the 3rd song began: Valentine's Day and I expected it was another ballad going nowhere. No, it was a short instrumental with a raw guitar, solid drum riff, bass 

and acoustic guitar.
Not too long, just right, and when Valentine's Day ended, I bought the record.

Until now, nobody made a nice video for the song, it certainly deserves one.
And you won't find it on any Valentine's Day album, cause it's not a sweet song.

The rest of the McCartney album had more unfinished than finished songs, 
and the songs that were finished, I didn't like very much.
 

So I liked Valentine's Day (of course), Every Night (Paul has performed this song a couple
of times live) a bit boring, OO You (I will talk about this one later), Sing Along Junk (instrumental version of Junk, ( I liked it better than when Paul sang it) and the first part 
of Momma Miss America, with the catchy keyboard/piano loop and pounding drums,
the 2nd part was a sort of Valentine's Day part 2. What a waste of talent.

Well, you can judge for yourself now.

Some tribute band called Flying Horses tried to play Valentine's Day live, 
no thumbs up from me.

More Wordstore+ Picture Demo: 99 Luftballons of Nena

The first Picture Demo in the series.

99 Luftballons was the biggest hit of Nena, mostly successful in the German language. 
The English version called "99 Red Balloons" had other lyrics, which the band members afterward did not like, so they always played the German version.

I thought it was the only hit Nena had. But it depends on which country you live.
In the Netherlands, we knew almost nothing of Nena, while in America, UK and of course Germany the group had a couple of hits.
 

I listened to some and I liked "Nur Getraumt", "Rette Mich", "Lass Mir Ein Pirat Sehen", "Leuchtturm", "Es Regnet", "Irgendwie, Irgendwo, Irgendwann" in the original German or English versions and the remakes of 2002.
I prefer the German version more than English, the translating is fine, Nena just sounds better in the German language. "Anyplace Anywhere, Anytime" (with Kim Wilde) and other remakes of 2002 are a bit different from originals, mostly just better.
 
Which is rare, I remember Alannah Myles and her own remake of the "Black Velvet" hit 
and it was like she sang along the same old music tapes.
Still, still a great song...I mean...99 Luftballons of course.

More Wordstore+ Picture Demo's (Introduction)

It has been a long time since I released the last Wordstore+ Karaoke demo. 
To be precise, 7th of December 2014. In the meantime, I was now and then working on the Wordstore+ Mixer Demo's, cause I didn't know what to do with the other Demo's, 
with the working title Wordstore+ Mega Demo.

As you may know, when you play a Wordstore sampler with the Basic replayer, 
you can't execute any other Basic commands. So any animation during playing the sample is impossible. I already tried a couple of ideas for creating some kind of animation and make it interactive, like in my LOUP demos. I just could not find fresh ideas for those demos for the Mega Demo. Until last year, 2017.

After creating some kind of workflow for my Mixer Demo's, but it seemed so much work 
I did not dare to start building it. Instead, I throw away the idea of a Mega Demo and start to create a Picture Demo. I searched for pictures, convert them to SC2 and SC8, just like in the LOUP demos, made a better loop for each Wordstore+ sample and collect them on separate disks. Each demo was not more than 1 SC2 or 2 SC8 pictures that were shown while the sample was played. A bit boring. 

So I had the idea of creating a Mega Picture Demo on 1 disk, with a nice menu and where you could choose between 1 Picture Demo or all Picture Demo in any order. 
There were 5 Picture Demos, so the menu had to show 5 pictures, I used Photoscape album page function to do the trick, but I had to edit a lot to get the names of the demos at the right position. Then all fall down. 
The Picture Demos and the menu pictures didn't fit on a single 720kb disk, which is my standard format (2DD if you like). 


I had the rethink the whole project and I felt like I never gonna finish it.
After a while, I realized it could be a 2 disk Picture Demo so some demos would be on disk 1 and other on disk 2. However, this was also the end of playing all demos in sequence.
You can only play 1 demo at the time, then you had to start the menu again.
Not the best solution, but I believed it was the only way to release those 5 demos.

And more trouble was coming my way. I had to check somehow which disk was in the drive and I want also the Picture Demo to work with 2 drives so it could start any demo from any drive.I searched in my toolbox, checking on diskname and number of drives. 
Checking on disk name means editing the boot sector and starting a demo on disk 2 from disk 1 and otherwise, were new obstacles for me. 
I did not like the idea that you had to modify the boot sector, before the demo would work on a new disk. And starting a demo on disk 2 from disk 1 was too much for my computing skills. I didn't know what to do with it. 

This was all done in 2017. Then it was March 2018 and I had just finished some small videos and a disk of Fourseasons MSX Software, with a new menu I made from scratch.
I found my Wordstore Demos map again, start my latest unfinished software and saw what went wrong. No so much and I liked the menu as it was. 
New ideas came up for a much easier disk check and I disabled the 2 disk support.

First I made the SC8 menu (which was maybe 70% already made in 2017) complete, 
then I found out I need to make a SC2 menu too. So again I started to collect new ideas how to create a nice SC2 men, without the MSX-2 features I used.
The colorspill on SC2 was always a bit of a problem, but it look okay now, I think.
When the SC2 and SC8 menu were finished, I had to look at the AUTOEXEC.BAS.

Yeah, well, it tried to perform some tests to make sure it's a MSX-1 or higher with at least 64kb ROM, but how can I test it in Basic ? I decided to display a warning if the computer was an MSX-1. Wordstore+ works only on 64 Kb ROM MSX computers. 

And because all Picture Demos were also made for MSX-1, the AUTOEXEC.BAS will ask, 
when you have a MSX-2 computer, if you want to see the MSX-1 versions.

BTW: If you choose l (instead of y or n), you will go to the secret LOUP Demo menu.

I add it to disk 2, cause there was so much diskspace left and somehow the LOUP Demos seemed to be in its place on a Picture Demo disk. I included also the hidden ones, before nobody would notice them.


So on Disk 1, you find the Picture Demo's : ( Mediafire / Pcloud )
- 99 LUFTBALLONS
- VALENTINE'S DAY
- RECEPTION

On Disk 2, you find the Picture Demo's : ( Mediafire / Pcloud )
- OLD SIAM SIR
- TUG OF PEACE
- LOUP

I will go into details about each song in other posts, except  the LOUP Picture Demo's

Fan of The Nits ???

Well, not me. 

But my older sister was a big fan of the Dutch group The Nits and bought any album of them. To me, only some songs got me hooked, like their biggest hit In the Dutch mountains or Nescio or J.O.S. Days or The Train. 

I mostly remember The Nits as a quartet and trio with Henk Hofstede as the lead singer, composer and driving force behind the group. The interaction between Stips and Hofstede made the group steady a lot of years. 

After they split up, my sister was not fan anymore and I forgot all about them. 

Yes ,they had a comeback (and still have),  just like so many other groups, but for me the thrill has gone. Who wants to see some old man playing old songs they played better 10 

or 15 years ago ? I don't. 

The Nits were maybe the first Dutch group that disvovered the theater as a new form to get more audience for their music ( and more record sales). It is hard to describe their music, 

it's a sort of experimental pop with influences from other for away countries.

If you know there are no mountains in the Netherlands, only hills, but the Dutch people call them mountains, you get the joke of "In the Dutch mountains" and understand the musicvideo better.

 

My Music Memories : Eisbaer van Grauzone

Once upon a time, I found a way to download songs from Grooveshark.com, an online music service, like Spotify, without paying. 


Very illegal, but they didn't have much music 
I liked.I got the idea to collect all my fav rock songs to mix them together in 1 big mix. 

It would include favs like "Girls School of Wings" but also "Language of Love of Cliff Richard", "Downpayment Blues by AC/DC".

So it would be rock songs in all variations. 

Including some German stuff, I still liked, for example, "Major Tom of Peter Schilling",  "Dreiklangsdimensionen of Rheingold" and "Skandal Im Sperrbezirk of the Spider Murphy Gang". 

While I was searching on YouTube for finding the right title and artist names of these German songs, I found also this one, "Eisbear of Grauzone". Songs about an icebear are not very common and I started to listen to the video and the animated icebear. 

The song starts just like so many other soft rock songs, sang in the German language when its time for the chorus the song really starts. Uncontrolled guitarnoises backed up with weird computersounds. 

Of course the message of Eisbaer is not hard to miss. The global warming-up let the ice melt and the icebear has less room to live. And in the animated video, you see an icebear looking for a new place to live and ends up in a busy city. Although I found the song by accident, its seems to be a real rock-classic, lots of people tried to improve the song by creating slightly different mixes. I listened a lot of these and the only remix that really matters was the house version of Groove Zone.


The message is almost the same, it's hard to find any icebears in their natural habitat. Maybe we must find a way to cooldown our planet to get earth in balance again... 

Have fun with this My Music Memories.  Grauzone made more songs, 
This one caught my eye and my soul. 
Well, Nena (again) covered a Grauzone song ballad and she made it better than 
the original, a really lovely song.

After I wrote this, I found some really interesting remixes, see my playlist
I am sure there will be some mixes you will like too.