MSX in Kuwait - A personal history by Danderma

Many MSX fans know that MSX was also available the Arab World, but despite spotting the odd Sakhr MSX computer or a Holy Quran application on cartridge it is rare to get information about the popularity our favorite 8-bit platform had in the middle east.

Today we are proud to tell the story of Danderma, a female blogger from Kuwait and author of the book "The Chronicles of Dathra, a Dowdy Girl from Kuwait" (of which a second volume has recently been published). On her blog she writes a lot about books, shopping, travel, and local cuisine, but also about MSX in her Blast from the Past series of posts.

Over here you can read her story and find out how the life of a Kuwaiti family changed when the Sakhr computer arrived and how MSX inspired Danderma to become a computer engineer. You will find out that MSX was so popular that its games were once played on a TV series. In fact, it was hard to find someone that didn't own an MSX at the time! In a nutshell: a must-read!

Relevant link: MSX in Kuwait - A personal history by Danderma

Comments (17)

By FiXato

Scribe (1741)

06-01-2013, 20:14

I'd like to read more stories like this.

By Jorito

Mr. Ambassadors (1784)

06-01-2013, 20:16

Cool

By shwaikh

Expert (83)

07-01-2013, 08:22

FiXato we have a tons of such stories on the net if you trust Mr. Google translation I may send you some links

By Manuel

Ascended (19216)

07-01-2013, 10:08

Feel free to put links in a reaction here As you can judge it, is Google Translation quality acceptable for Arabic?

By supmsx

Master (158)

07-01-2013, 11:23

shwaikh wrote:

FiXato we have a tons of such stories on the net if you trust Mr. Google translation I may send you some links

Yes indeed,I read a lot of arabic forums (especially old one ones between 2005-2010) where a lot
of people are very happy to rediscover MSX games of their childhood,talking about the penguin and
the castle and many links to emulators such as BlueMSX ,OpenMSX and fMSX as also how to use its
... and of course many many thanks

By snout

Ascended (15187)

07-01-2013, 13:29

@shwaikh/supmsx: be that as it may, those stories rarely reach(ed) us and I think many of our readers will find it an interesting read.

By FiXato

Scribe (1741)

07-01-2013, 15:43

Indeed, I would appreciate a couple of links to similar stories, especially if you think Google Translate does justice to the translation.

By hap

Paragon (2042)

07-01-2013, 19:41

FiXato: and vice versa too, I bet! =)
People unfamiliar with Dutch/West-Europe culture would love to read about our childhood MSX memories.

By FiXato

Scribe (1741)

07-01-2013, 19:51

I guess so; hadn't thought of that.

By snout

Ascended (15187)

07-01-2013, 20:31

Well, it would certainly be nice to publish more "MSX in..." articles in the future. If anyone feels like writing...

By syn

Prophet (2113)

07-01-2013, 23:59

Nice story good read thank you for sharing.

By shwaikh

Expert (83)

10-01-2013, 08:13

OK! lets give it a try but please let me know if it's going good with you :

this is a good article :

http://www.true-gaming.net/home/22718/

one more :

http://alblogy.com/?p=2351

and this one also :

http://alhotah.net/vb/showthread.php?t=15741

and this is a TV commercial :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUMZ6-w1NJ8

By supmsx

Master (158)

10-01-2013, 10:32

Many Forums as ....

Play online MSX games (here Knightmare)[/url]

Some pics on

Also this one

and many with downloads links to games and emulators

By supmsx

Master (158)

10-01-2013, 12:38

supmsx wrote:

Some pics on

Collection for sale

By FiXato

Scribe (1741)

10-01-2013, 13:08

Sadly Google Translate doesn't seem to do a lot of justice to the blogs. However, it was interesting to see you also had a topography/geography game. I remember wasting away many hours playing the Dutch game Topografie: Nederland by Radarsoft, as well as the Europe and World editions (and still not knowing where a lot of the countries in the world, or places in the Netherlands, are located ;P)

By spl

Paragon (1470)