The openMSX Team has just released a new version of the emulator that aims for perfection! openMSX 0.7.0 contains several exciting new features, some of which have been on the feature request list for a very long time already. As usual, the complete changelog of the new release is tremendously long, so here's an overview of the most essential new features and improvements:

• Save states, with the nice side effect that it is now possible to have multiple emulated MSX machines in memory (comparable with tabbed browsing)
  
• Fully automatic host-to-MSX keyboard mapping (enabled by default), with support for a whole list of keyboard types
  
• Fully transparent dir as disk (by default)
  
• Improved and extended debugging facilities
  
• Recording movies in higher resolution: 640x480 using the "-doublesize" option
  
• Major speed optimizations and accuracy improvements in processor, VDP and sound chip emulation
  
• Most MSX1 and MSX2 software now runs realtime on a ARM9 200MHz CPU, which you can find e.g. in a GP2X handheld console
  
• Screenshots can now be made of the MSX screen only (using the "-msxonly" option)
  
• New On-Screen-Display (OSD) framework, which will be useful to control openMSX in full screen mode and especially on hand held machines like the GP2X
  
• Amount of horizontal stretch can be tweaked by the user (horizontal_stretch setting)
  
• Support for new mapper types
  
• Several new machines were added
  
• Added Brazilian OPL3 Cartridge
  

You can find the complete change log, the source code and more information on this popular open source MSX emulator on this website.

Relevant link: openMSX Home Page

Following up on the release of openMSX 0.7.0, Necocan@mac has put out NekoLauncher 0.8, a graphical launcher for OS X 10.4 and up. NekoLauncher is similar to openMSX's own Catapult, but comes as a native Mac OS X application in Universal Binary format.

Relevant link: NekoLauncher 0.8

The night before MESS 0.129, MAME, a multiple arcade machine emulator, got updated too. Aside from nice updates unrelated to MSX, like being able to play Soul Calibur, two drivers for arcade hardware based on MSX were submitted:

• Forte II (Pesadelo) [Mariusz Wojcieszek, hap, Alexandre]
  
• Spinkick / Super Free Kick [dox]
  

Relevant link: MAME

The list of MSX fairs and meetings has just been updated with information on all 2009 meetings of MSX Vriendenclub Mariënberg, MCWF, PC & MSX Gebruikersgroep Nijmegen, RetroMadrid and the upcoming MSX fair Nijmegen.

Special mention go out to the MvM meeting of February 14th, during which a large and traditionally well visited auction will be held - lucrative for those selling MSX goodies and very interesting to those who want to obtain some nice additions to their MSX collection! A bit earlier, on January 24th comes a great opportunity to wish your fellow MSX fans a happy new year in Nijmegen, but we already reminded you of that, didn't we?

The infrequently updated MSX Fairs & Meetings list tries to give an as complete as possible overview of MSX (related) fairs and meetings around the world. If you organize or know of an MSX (related) fair meeting not listed, please inform us at fairs@msx.org and we will add it to the list!

Relevant link: MSX Fairs & Meetings list

A new version of MESS has been released. MESS is the Multiple Emulator Super System available for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. New in this version, regarding MSX:

• Update of Panasonic MSX disk ROMs
  
• Update of Toshiba HX-20, HX-23 memory map

You can download the official MESS binaries for Windows 2000/XP/Vista here or the improved SDLMess sources here.

Relevant link: MESS

Today the Nowind developers released a new version of their usbhost program v3.2. New in this version:

• new error recovery protocol
  
• better detection of harddisk images/partitions
  
• cleaner sources
  
• works good with libusb v1.0 now

A currently known issue is that when the MSX is turned off, the usbhost program must be restarted also (not needed if the MSX is only reset). This is an issue that's being worked on at the moment.

Relevant link: Nowind website

On the 14th of March, RetroMadrid 2009 will take place. This fair goes back all the way to 1995, when it started out as MadriSX. In 2004 the name changed to MadriSX & Retro, featuring more retro systems than just MSX. In 2008, the name of this event changed to what it is now: RetroMadrid.

Activities one can expect are competitions, sales, demonstrations of new software and devices, all for vintage consoles and vintage computers. An impression of RetroMadrid 2008 can be seen at YouTube.

The location for this event is the El Greco Cultural Center, Madrid (Spain). The two relevant underground stations for this location are Batán (line 10) and Alto de Extremadura (line 6). The place is open from 10:30 to 19:30. Entrance is free!

Relevant link: RetroMadrid

Source: Gamespite

Konami has released two free minigames based on Metal Gear Solid 4: guns of the patriots on Konami Play. Especially the first game, 'Special Mission 01 - 2D games' brings back good memories to that other big Konami classic called... errr... Green Beret. Well worth having a look at!

Relevant link: MGS4 - Special Missions

Source: Insertcredit

Gamers around the world have frequently praised Hideo Kojima for the accuracy of the predictions he made in his Metal Gear saga. An old post on Insertcredit pointed us to the company LS9 who, believe it or not, have come a long way in making Oilix (see Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake) a reality. Not knowing their classics, they decided to call it LS9 DesignerBiofuels (renewable petroleum), which is hardly as catchy as Oilix, but the product is impressive nonetheless. Whether or not Kio Marv is a listed employee of the company is yet unkown.

Relevant link: LS9

A new version of SCMD, the multichannel PCM and multichip soundplayer for MSX has been released. In this release, a bug concerning the p command was fixed and the loading speed of SDT files was increased on emulated systems. An English version of the MML compiler manual (albeit an automatic translation) is available now as well.

The SCMD player allows you to play multiple samples on one or even two SCC cartridges at the same time, which is similar to playing MOD-files. SCMD also supports 'ordinary' sound playback on PSG, MSX-MUSIC and SCC. Several mp3 files of the results can be heard on this website. A special MML compiler to support this functionality is available on the SCMD website as well. More SCMD music can be found over here.

Relevant link: SCMD website