
MSX's co-creator Kazuhiko Nishi has announced plans to provide support for gaming across its upcoming line of new MSX machines.
Over on Twitter, the Japanese businessman and early computer pioneer posted an image of a Sega SG-1000 emulator running Space Invaders on the MSX0 Stack and stated that the company has plans in the future to add further support to its line of machines, with the inclusion of other emulators for the Nintendo Famicom, NEC's PC Engine, the Atari 2600, and the Colecovision / Coleco Adam.
Right now, it is only possible to play MSX games on the MSX0 Stack, and the process is somewhat convoluted, as Ashley Day found out when he reviewed the portable system for us earlier this year. There's currently no easy way to load your own ROMs on the device, with the main alternative at the moment being to add disk images instead — though this has somewhat mixed results in regards to compatibility.
According to Nishi, there is still quite a bit of uncertainty over how this functionality will be delivered to MSX owners, with the main concern being the lack of permission from the copyright holders. Distribution of software without the copyright holder's permission is punishable with arrest in Japan, so Nishi states they will have to be careful with how they proceed with this.
One proposal is to let players copy their own ROMS over to a cartridge, which they could play using an in-development adapter for the machine. But it seems like nothing is quite set in stone yet.
We'll try and keep an eye out for any future updates and will be reaching out to Nishi for more information.
[source x.com]
Comments 6
Nishi seems to have no idea of the value of focusing on one thing at a time?
I really think this is a bad idea. Not just because Japan is a legal quandary when it comes to emulation, not just because Nintendo is especially litigious right now, but because you made a niche product for a purpose - a MSX for MSX fans. I don't know how big that market base is, but if they wanted to play Famicom, Atari and PC Engine there are a zillion options for that already.
@MegaManFan and let's be honest, with emulation, if it's something that the public wants from this device then just give them a year or two and they'll build it themselves.
SG-1000 at least makes sense to emulate because it is practically identical in hardware components to the MSX1 (legality of software distribution is another matter).
SG-1000 doesn't utilize a BIOS so there is nothing really that Sega could copyright claim on, assuming the user is left to the matter of obtaining the game ROMs.
I've heard that loading cartridge ROMs through disk images is at least something period-accurate software pirates did.
@N64-ROX Precisely!
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