This is the era of 3D graphics, movie-like games and full quality sampled game music.

When I show people nice MSX games, roughly one half of it doesn't understand what I'm still doing with that "ancient" stuff, the other half, however, actually think it's cool.

A while ago, me and two friends spent a whole day drinking beer and finishing that Peach Up puzzle game (remember that game? Where you are a knight that slays slimes, ghosts and swordmen).

And ofcourse, for the sake of antiquity and computer history, I show people games like YS III, Space Manbow, Aleste 2 and state these games are more than 10 years old.
Or I show games that are even older (and "uglier" to current standards) but have a better gameplay than any of those "modern" games.

What do you show when you intend to "impress" someone with "the power of MSX"?

Do you show them Ease and say "Look, we had Windows too"?

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A while ago, me and two friends spent a whole day drinking beer and finishing that Peach Up puzzle game (remember that game? Where you are a knight that slays slimes, ghosts and swordmen).

That's a brilliant game! One of the best puzzle-games I ever finished on msx .. map 3 from world 3 is evil

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What do you show when you intend to "impress" someone with "the power of MSX"?

I now and then send some opl4-tunes to some c64 friends, while they like it, they're nagging about the opl4 being an extention while their SID is standard ..

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Do you show them Ease and say "Look, we had Windows too"?

They would ask: show me some applications made for this, other than the calculator and the other built-in stuff.. GUIs on msx just never work..

There's also an older version of that game, where you don't get to choose worlds, but just go from stage to stage.
Did you know? I believe it's on Peach Up 1 or 2.

The SID argument... Can't argue with that.

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What do you show when you intend to "impress" someone with "the power of MSX"?

Ys 3, Aleste 2 and Space Manbow

And of course some MoonSound musics

Oh and why not making some small BASIC program or something to show that the computer can immediately be programmed without having to install something?

10 print"hoi"
20 goto 10

Pacman

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Oh and why not making some small BASIC program or something to show that the computer can immediately be programmed without having to install something?

Yeah, I remember an event a long time ago, when I showed my MSX to someone and changed soundchips by simply turning off the computer and exchanging them.
Did make an impression. REAL plug and play!

Hehe... Usually friends of mine are impressed when showing products in the development of which I participated (even The ATP! ).

They're not impressed, Rieks, they are -stunned-

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.... and exchanging them. Did make an impression. REAL plug and play!

That means you actually took one of them out at some point!?

Impressing people by showing of the technology is getting increasingly hard. Compared to current standards only the gameplay can still measure up. And how! The fun I used to have playing MSX games has rarely been exceeded since I got my PC. Which may be the reason I hardly play any games anymore. But it takes some time to find out how impressive that is, so the alcohol angle may just be the answer.

Personally I loved playing Ys and Xak. Also played BMX simulator a LOT, but you should probably let that one wait till people are ready.

I think it's increasingly hard to get people to appreciate the capabilities of any machine these days. The first time I played a Roland GM-Synth I thought 'how on earth can a device create sounds this realistic, warm and smooth!? Cool!!'. I think every MSX user recalls the first time he heard PSG, SCC, MSX-MUSIC or MSX-AUDIO. Same goes for the VDP. In days about everything is possible with massive 3D capabilities, it's hard for people who did not use computers in the early days to appreciate the tricks that are pulled to get amazing results from a VDP

Well uhm.. it's simply a generation-difference.. the young generation simply assumes that games are 3d, smooth and hi-res .. while not knowing the history of computers and computer-games .. who can blame them for that ?

I don't think it's just a generation-thing. I think that new and old technology does not easily surprise people anymore.

Ahh, the days of counting how many scanlines a routine of some sort takes and trying to fit everything you want to do together. I still love coding in C/C++ on a hyperfast machine, but that did add a special flair to things.

Today the problem is really the same with most media, too much is released too quickly in order to be able to enjoy it. And everything is old technology a day after you get it. A friend of mine got Halo 2 off the net a few days before it was released last month. He actually even finished the game before the official release date as wel. Apparently it was a simple matter of blasting your way through in a couple of hours. That just seems very odd to me. A learning curve doesn't appear te be necessary anymore.

Edwin

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He actually even finished the game before the official release date as wel. Apparently it was a simple matter of blasting your way through in a couple of hours.

I remember that my brother and I had spent weeks (and weeks, and weeks...) to finish "Vampire Killer" or "Nemesis 1" (that one was so hard that we were thinking that programmers had not "tested" it).
I wonder if kids, today, would be patient enough...

I'd show them Knightmare, because it's simple and addictive (it still is.)

As for modern 3d gamez, they're nice- but also boring, after half an hour- it's just more of the same.