Don't shoot the messenger.

Why is it that MSX retro activety is hardly noticed by any european magazines.
Look through the postings of the MSX in the media. Non big source have reported about a real new MSX project. The bigger source are just mentioning MSX a long as history mostly thanks to the developpers.

If C64 and ZX-spectrum and quite some others system can get quite some pages in these european magazines then I wonder why I haven't seen any MSX news. (Last time I saw something was Wammes Column in PC ACTIVE.)
I personally think that the future if the organisation is done good looks much better as for most retro systems. But then again how come there is no info in any of the magazines while the other old systems do have press acitivety.

Is the MSX-propaganda machine not working these days ?

I thought Bazix send out a press release? However it makes me wonder to whom they did send it actually since I do think that if it was put correct it would have been mentioned by quite some magazines !
Or is this just caused by the delay in production and shelf hitting. For some magazines I don't think it is and I ask myself if BAZIX actually send something to them.
So maybe we should do a new competition next year get THE CURRENT MSX ACTIVETY in the media.

Ohyeah and about PCM. Did they report in the magazine or just online.
After all this doesn't matter since PCM is really a quite lame magazine.
(Most reviews they do give me the feeling they don't know what there doing.)

Let it grow free.

Funny you mention it. One of the reasons for starting the MSX in the Media is to create an initiative for -getting- more attention for MSX in the media. I do feel the MSX community has done little to keep media attention for MSX, where other platforms might have done a better job. I'd really like to do another MSX in the Media challenge next year in which -getting- MSX in the media is a lot more important than -spotting- MSX in the media. Any ideas on how to accomplish that are, of course, more than welcome.

About the Bazix pressrelease: the first pressrelease was an announcement of who we are and what we're going to do. Although I would not have minded to get more media-attention (and yes, I personally have wondered why some sites reported about similar activities with other computer systems and not about Bazix/MSX) I think most media will start covering the things Bazix is doing/going to do as soon as it becomes interesting for consumers. E.G. When WOOMB.net is launched.

Another reason why you probably haven't read about it in the magazines yet is that most magazines get printed several weeks in advance. The Bazix pressrelease could very well be an 'we'll do that one next time, as they aren't selling anyting yet'-pressrelease. About PCM: afaik the article will be published in the upcoming VNUnet magazines PCM and Computer Magazine (french).

However apart from Bazix there are many other things interesting enough to report about when it comes to MSX. General Retro articles, attention to MSX fairs, info on the One Chip MSX or MSX for Robo-Education, the increasing activity of the MSX community, Obsonet, MSX running as a webserver (C64 running a webserver got global coverage, the MSX webserver only a post on some mailinglists and the MRC)... there are many MSX-related things that could potentially get media attention if we all work on it. At the moment, I'm afraid you're right that if you replace MSX with C64 or Spectrum it would get media attention a lot easier. Somehow the editors of websites and magazines have forgotten about MSX and it's up to us to remind them about what MSX was, is and will be.

So the next time you see a newspost on the MRC of which you think 'hey, that might be cool for other media as well', why not submit it to a few sites you like and often visit? (or magazines you often read, for that matter). Lets see if we can be a lot more optimistic in the near future

Quote:

Let it grow free.

Then it would become a pest which I'm sure nobody wants.

Lets add an intersting sub-question to it. Regardless of the news topic (so it could be about a BASIC tool created by a 10 year old MSX fan who joined the MRC today to Mr. Nishi signing the largest deal in MSX history).... in which media would you like MSX to appear? Which websites do you think should pay more attention to MSX? Use your imagination!

Interesting question ... I suggest Yahoo! and CNN

you could start 'small' by informing sites like retrogames.com or vgn other emu sites..maybe they already picked it up; dunno.
Tweakers.net was a good call but I believe it didn't carry on much yet.
Tulip (even though theyre kinda silent atm) had that pretty well covered with their c64 announcements; they were featured on most games, emu-related and c64-related sites, along with many others....
maybe try and get slashdotted
A little warning though; so far most responses I've read were either positive or pretty neutral... eventually there'll be negative feedback as well. But maybe that's still better than no feedback at all.

I dunno how pitpan meant 'free' exactly, but I agree (if he meant it that way) that you need to give it some time, the announcement of Bazix is only recent and especially paper media is usually finished weeks before it ends up in stores.

Nevertheless, some nice issues are raised here. Snout: next time, I'll send a press release of the Bussum fair to the local newspapers, ok? .

Anyways, if some stupid company which sells painted keyboards can be featured in all the newspapers and magazines, surely you can get this news about Bazix in there? ^_^


~Grauw

p.s. BiFi: I'm not sure what you're trying to say there.

As for dutch websites, www.tweakers.net should report about MSX more. They have an 'MSX' option in their user profiles, but other than that they appear to be boycotting MSX. Really strange given that much of their target audience is (ex-)MSX'er.

MSX on TV is always the coolest IMO.. It's really a mass media.
MSX in newspapers is ok too, but that already happens now and then.

What I'd really like to see is MSX billboard advertising A few of those really large billboards they hang on buildings being renovated

MSX Renovation ^_^

>>>Anyways, if some stupid company which sells painted keyboards can be featured in all the newspapers and magazines, surely you can get this news about Bazix in there? ^_^

Haha! yeah, I read that one. Bazix should be able to do better than that!

/me starts painting keyboards...

actually they have a patent on that one... ;P

but maybe a deal can be made so they make MSX ones

Try sending something to your local newspapers. Outside Netherland, Brazil and Japan, MSX was exotic or nonexistent. If you where editor, would you care a lot about BK0010, Vector06.02 or Orion-128 revival? Do you even know what are those? Hint: it's not a pregnancy test.

Hmmhmm, but one of Bazix future plans could be to bring PC98/X68000 games to the world. Pretty unknown stuff to us, but, because of emulation, and the bigger interest in retrogaming in general, there's a perfectly fine opportunity, IF adressed correctly. I don't think Bazix should try to run on the MSX name alone, since that probably won't work in many countries. But as a globally oriented company that tries to bring 'those retrogames you always wanted to play but never could' ...I think that could work.

Magazines:
C't (German version) probally the most powerfull and best( European) magazine we have. And don't come with SHIT like ehh this is not working since a couple of issues ago a C64 meeting got a whole page in the news section !. Infact C't allways shows respect to any scene if they deserve it.

Good change that if you get C't (or at least announcements on the Heisse news pages) that other magazines will pick it up. Trust me this magazine is the leading magazine for computers these days. ANd if people think I'm giveing these folks to much credit then tell me why do some folks at the other side of the ocean who need a dictionary and poor altavista translation to understand stuff have a subscription.


EDGE - One of the best game magazines and they allready did some stuff in the past.

Games tm - One of the fast groweing multiplatform magazines which actually does have a special retrogames part in it.
The influence of these 2 seems to be prety big on the rest of the european magazines. - We should contact this last one right away because there site is not listing MSX on there Classic Machines retro sites part. Or should we see it positive and see it as they don't think it's that old ;-) so it doesn't deserve the title yet.
Now if someone has some time and is smart then teach these guys a small history lesson with help of Gradius V (It's there game of the week so it gives us a better change of dropping in. !) If we do this good then you have a good change of attention !

sites (possible options.):

IGN, GAMESPOT , Slashdot., The register, gamefaqs
IGN and gamespot are good options with the MGS3 and Gradius V and NEO CONTRA releases. Now I know we could go for the retro gameing sites however the fact is these are the games sites people come and we want to hit the masses.

Also some more attention on gamefaqs might be nice. There is a MSX part over there allready but it's quite bad. They still seem to be a quite good source for other systems.

I know that the register is totally unreliable. However thise is like a bad gossip magazines everybody says we don't read this or trust them however they seem to reach a prety big audience in the end.

sites (harder but with some good article/story and support might be a option !)
CNN, YAHOO.