Sorry for a typo... game name of course was "Great American Cross Country Road Race" and pictures shown are from "Stunt Car Racer".

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That's it, let's talk about what can still be done in an MSX... [...] - Multidirectional scrolling plataform games (but if scroll is in 8x8, sprites must scroll smoothly). [...]

Leandro, do you remember total parody, is this that you mean by "Multidirectional scrolling plataform" ?

Altered Beast.

I've been playing the arcade (MAME) and I'm quite surprised with the ZX Spectrum version and the port for MSX made by New Frontier. Although the graphics are bad (and very dark in comparison to the original), those adaptations capture a lot of details of the arcade (the graphics and the moving pupils in the intro, the quote "Rise from your grave" at the beginning of the game, the main character throwing the spirit balls and the beam of ligth with that big head after defeating a boss,...).

As for blocky graphics in a game, as suggested by MäSäXi: I think programmers and artists would prefer to choose a game genre that can be done nicely instead of a game that can only be done semi-ugly. This might explain why certain games are made on MSX and others aren't. I mean, have you ever seen a -for its time!- ugly Konami game (apart from Green Beret)? I wouldn't think so. Esp. the MSX2 games are all great, why's that? Why are Compile games also classy? Why are Microcabin games also classy? Why did no-one of 'em make an 'impossible' MSX game with 4x4 blocks? I'd say it's because those companies chose quality over technical challenge, and because they chose what the MSX could technically do without sacrificing too much artwork. While the scene itself may like technical challenges, the scene typically used demos to express those technical jokes, not games. Take XL2s' Maze for example, has there ever been a game made with it? Afaik it's only a maze, and some huge-sprites here and there. I don't even think one could do a quality game with it in the first place. Maybe with lots of hacking and sacrificing there be some kinda game concept based on that engine, but would it really be a great game? I'd rather have a quality platform game like Usas, Vampire Killer, a quality shooter like Space Manbow, a quality RPG like Xak/Randar3/DS6/SD-Sn. or some quality puzzlegames.

Oh, and Micro Machines, of course.

micro machines would be hard to make on MSX without losing some significant playability in the progress. The idea would work with single screen tracks, though (but that makes the tracks smaller and the graphics very tiny)'.. so, that makes it more like BMX, I think (or better: slicks 'n slide, if you know that old pc game)

Tempest... well, we have Beam Rider ....Tempest 2000-like would be great but that's again something I don't think an MSX can do in such spectacular fashion. However, it's definately possible to make a fast paced shmup with some fancy berserk colors and effects, of course

Pinball.... some Rollerball-like game for MSX2 would be nice.

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Leandro, do you remember total parody, is this that you mean by "Multidirectional scrolling plataform" ?

I mean MSX plataform games that scroll to all directions, just like in Theseus. I don't care if the scroll is blocky, as long as sprites still move smoothly (Magical Kid Wiz and F1 Spirit are nice examples). A Micromachines clone could work fine in this way.

To Wolf: Konami's port of Contra sucks due to lack of scroll.

And a Tempest 2000 would be cool, considering that the original Tempest 2000 relies heavily in a cool sound track and fine tuned gameplay. Eye candy is not its selling point.

Omnidirectional scrolling is not widely used on MSX, Since only the MSX 2+ and Turbo R are equipped with Hardware fine Scroll for both horizontal and vertical.
If you only want normal vertical and horizontal scroll, like into some RPG engines and normal platforms it could be implemented, diagonal scroll is a little uncommon even on other platforms (but not for MSX2+ demonstration programs) . Imagine something like the Golvellius game but using scrolling and attacking on diagonal , or making 180-320º attacks!

Parallax (multi layer, or even some simple divisions on the screen) scroll do not seems to be so difficulty as previous believed too ...

Yukio: parallax scrolls are not difficult to do at all. It's just that the brute-force algorithm doesn't perform well on MSX. If you'd like, take a look at Akin or the Coredump promo - heavily optimized parallax scrolling routines (by Parallax, how ironic is that?)

Leandro: Perhaps Contra is better on other platforms.. but so are many more games. Outrun on the original Arcade also runs circles around the MSX version. Still, is Contra a bad game because it lacks scrolling? I'd say it's a fine game, not their best, but then again: it's a platform game just like Usas and Vampire Killer are, and those games aren't bad, are they?

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micro machines would be hard to make on MSX without losing some significant playability in the progress. The idea would work with single screen tracks, though (but that makes the tracks smaller and the graphics very tiny)'.. so, that makes it more like BMX, I think (or better: slicks 'n slide, if you know that old pc game)

Not sure why Micro Machine would be so difficult to make... The hardest part is mostly the physics of the game and the AI of other cars. You could have cars in 16x16 and lrge scrolling track without too much problems tho

micro machines scrolls rather fast in all directions.... I think that might be a problem. Like that Sonic game on MSX... nice effort, but kind of lacks what makes Sonic... well, Sonic.

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Leandro: Perhaps Contra is better on other platforms.. but so are many more games. Outrun on the original Arcade also runs circles around the MSX version. Still, is Contra a bad game because it lacks scrolling? I'd say it's a fine game, not their best, but then again: it's a platform game just like Usas and Vampire Killer are, and those games aren't bad, are they?

IMHO, a good conversion is not a game that looks like the original, but a game that still keeps the feeling of the original. Both versions of Outrun (Outruined) for MSX are sad examples. Try to imagine a different kind of MSX Outrun, with a game engine just like GP World or Life in the Fast Lane, changing its graphics with some similar to the arcade ones and of course playing that excellent tunes (US Gold Outrun is quite good in this department). That would be a perfect Outrun conversion to me.

Sadly, both Outrun conversions to MSX don't feel like the original, they only even don't feel like you're driving a car.

Usas is a great plataform game, Goonies too. I never liked Vampire Killer though. Can't tell you why.

It's prolly too hard Usas is a very easy playing game, and musically sounds better as well.

Phoenix Wright ace attorney!

Oh, and while we're at it, Gradus Gaiden and R-Type Delta would be really nice...