MSXdev21 #18 – Raven | MSX Resource Center

Meet our hero: J-J ! To save the world from the evil Raven, J-J has to make sure the Raven stays in its cage or bad things will happen…

This arcade platformer is a good example of an MSX title where gameplay is at maximum. This game by Micha Mulder calls for tactical thinking, as your next step might be the last... Turn all the tiles to black, making sure you won't get caught by wandering animals.

Contestants have until the end of August to submit their entries. If you are enjoying this MSXdev game, why not consider donating to the prize money. 100% of the donations will go to the game developers.

The MSXdev21 contest runs from Jan 1st to Sep 1st, 2021.

Relevant link: Raven
Relevant link: Play online

Media browser (2)

Comments (24)

By valkyre

Paladin (697)

05-07-2021, 20:12

Quality

By tfh

Prophet (3421)

05-07-2021, 20:24

Real fun to play Smooth and nice colorfull sprites.

By Maggoo

Paragon (1218)

05-07-2021, 20:29

Excellent game play and nvery nice details!

By santiontanon

Paragon (1830)

05-07-2021, 20:59

Love it, starts easy, but gets tricky quickly, very nice game!

By JMeric

Resident (51)

06-07-2021, 00:29

Fun to play, I love it
Congratulations

By albs_br

Champion (498)

06-07-2021, 05:32

Excellent multicoloured sprites. It looks like MSX 2.

By Pippo

Hero (521)

06-07-2021, 06:08

Excellent game, colors, sounds and playability, Micha!
The Pdf is very nice too!
Great release overall without a doubt!

By Randam

Paragon (1431)

06-07-2021, 07:32

Great game and very fun to play. At first I thought an unfinished game by Karoshi called Raven was finished. So it was different than I thought at first but the game is very very nice.

By Briqunullus

Paladin (750)

06-07-2021, 09:34

Wait, wait, this is just a 16kB rom? That's a lot of punch for that size. This is a contender.

By ray2day

Paladin (752)

06-07-2021, 16:13

Very very nice! Like it very much. Indeed very smooth game play and cool graphics!! Congratulations!

By mzoran

Master (161)

06-07-2021, 19:04

Very nice graphics and careful sprite placements....

By pitpan

Prophet (3156)

06-07-2021, 21:05

Amazing. I have no words to express the feelings that this game produce: brilliant yet easy concept ang gameplay and perfect craftmanship: nice music, colourful and detailed graphics, great polish. And imagine all this packed in just 16 KB. Congratulations to Micha Mulder!

Because the polish level is so high, it surprised me that just before the main menu it appears to be a screen full of graphic blocks. Maybe it is intentional. If not, let's DISSCR.

By Micha

Expert (110)

06-07-2021, 21:41

Thank you all for the very positive feedback! I hadn't been programming for MSX since 1990 or so, and this is my very first game written totally in assembly language. I like playing the classic arcade video games (like pacman, galaga, donkey kong, frogger, dig dug, etc.) and I fancy creating games in that genre. I also studied the game play mechanics from older games, read many 8 bit graphics books, read a lot about what makes video games fun, and derived my own theories from that which I incorporate in my games.
I'm glad that the MSX still has a very active, helpfull and positive community here on msx.org, and that motivates me to make more (actually my second MSX game is almost finished...). Thanks !
regards, Micha

By Pbk71

Expert (101)

07-07-2021, 11:17

Cool game!

By wimpie3

Champion (436)

07-07-2021, 16:21

Definitely my favorite for this year.

By gdx

Enlighted (6421)

08-07-2021, 02:14

Very nice Q-bert like game. The realization will be impeccable if you turn off the screen so that the following image does not appear for a short time.

The music is quite repetitive but since the game is addictive we don't pay much attention to it.

By ARTRAG

Enlighted (6976)

08-07-2021, 08:35

Very nice graphics and nice gameplay. I like the progressive addition of game elements
My favorite entry ATM

By Micha

Expert (110)

08-07-2021, 10:22

About the graphic glitch: It comes up only once, when the graphics initialize and I decided to keep it in, because it reminds me of an arcade cabinet starting up. I also like the fact that you see a 3 fold repetition which is very typical for the MSX. If it came up after every game then I would probably have it removed.

By gdx

Enlighted (6421)

08-07-2021, 11:19

It's a good idea! I had not made the connection because it goes so fast.

By Udderdude

Supporter (13)

08-07-2021, 19:51

Fun game!

By Micha

Expert (110)

30-07-2021, 21:13

After 2 months of playing I finally managed to reach the final level myself (at 60 hz)... with a score of 38150 without cheating of course.
I am curious how far you guys got ?

By Randam

Paragon (1431)

31-07-2021, 10:05

I keep dying in level 6 with roughly 10k points. I need some more practice but it is a fun game.

By ewsnatcher

Rookie (20)

10-09-2021, 10:44

In my opinion the best arcade game for the MSX in years. It does reminds me of playing Fruit Panic in the past (and replaying it every now and then). This one is definitely one of the games I'll come back for.

I do have a question to Micha though: What's the purpose of the round called Mayhem? Is there a way to beat it?

By Micha

Expert (110)

10-09-2021, 15:39

ewsnatcher wrote:

I do have a question to Micha though: What's the purpose of the round called Mayhem? Is there a way to beat it?

Thanks for your comment. Round 13, Mayhem is actually a kill screen (like in Donkey Kong or PacMan). There is no way to beat it. I feel that arcade games should have endings, so you don't have to play the same rounds over and over again. This is quite a brutal one, but in Pac-01 the ending is more rewarding...

MSXdev21 #18 – Raven

Media browser (2)

Share

Related content

Comments (24)