MSX Revival - second wave. ASCIIstore starts sales of MSX Magazine 1, 2, MSX Game Reader and MSXPC 20th anniversary model

The contents of the official MSX Magazine website have been changed completely. The website announces that, due to the extreme popularity of MSX Magazine 1 (more than 50.000 copies sold), it was easy to make the decision to make a second Magazine, which is scheduled to be hit the streets on December 3rd, 2003.

The website leads us to a special section on ASCII Store where MSX Magazine 2 can be pre-ordered, as well as the last copies of MSX Magazine 1. Of course there's a special offer for people who want to order both magazines. Even better, the ASCII MSX Store offers the possibility to pre-order the MSX Game Reader and the limited MSXPC 20th anniversary model.

But lets get back to MSX Magazine 2 first. Here's a list of the contents already known:

• An article on Kazuoki Ono
• An interview with Kazuhiko Nishi
• An article about 8bit gaming
• MSXPLAYer manual
• Great comics
• Work report (roadmap?)
• A letter from 'Building G'
• The result of the MSX-BASIC programming contest
• MSXPLAYer tips
• Project MSX
• An introduction to MSX groups outside Japan, specially focusing on the Netherlands, Spain, Brazil and Korea
• An MSX lecture
• The source of MSX Knowledge?!
• Letters from readers
• A lecture from a Musician
• MSX-DOS2 reference manual
• more...

MSX Magazine 2 comes with a CD-ROM which contains an updated version of MSXPLAYer, capable of emulating the MSX turboR and running MSX-DOS2. However, its system requirements are quite high. A Celeron 2000 is needed to emulate the turboR at full speed. More details will follow on PocketPC Requirements. Apart from the new MSXPLAYer several games will be added to the CD-ROM as well. Here's a list of the games that are scheduled to be published:

• Dungeon master
• Warroid
• Penguin Wars 1
• Penguin Wars 2
• Professional Mahjong Goku
• J.P.Winkle
• Fleet Commander 2
• Madoh story 1-2-3
• Haja Fuin
• Tir-nan-og
• Dires
• Pink Sox
• Master of Monsters
• Super battle skin panic

More than 20 other games are planned to be added to the CD-ROM, including some titles developed by the 'amateur' MSX Community.

On the ASCII MSX Store one can pre-order MSXGR, the MSX Game Reader. The MSX Game Reader was announced before on the MSX Resource Center as the USB ROM Cartridge reader and that's exactly what it does. Connect this device to the USB port of your Windows machine running MSXPLAYer and you can directly play games from ROM Cartridges. Although the cartridge reader designs are finished, more than 3.000 readers have to be pre-ordered in order to make actual production possible. On the website a counter shows that 392 readers were already ordered the first day. A counter tracks the sales real-time. There are 59 days left to pre-order the MSX Game Reader. The price of the Game Reader depends on the amount of reservations. If 3.000-3.999 sets get sold, the price will be 12.500 yen (about 100 euro's). With 4.000 - 4.999 sets sold, the price will decrease to 11.000 yen (about 88 euro's). If more than 5.000 MSXGR's get sold the price will get as low as 9.800 yen (about 78 euro's). If you want to have a look at the design of the MSXGR, have a look at the ASCII MSX Store. The MSXGR is scheduled be released in the end of March, 2004. People who (pre)order goods at ASCII-store automatically join in a lottery where they can win several interesting goodies, like a special edition of the MSX Magazine with a luxurious cover.

However, there's still more. Apart from the MSXGR, ASCII offers another new hardware product which is related to MSX: The MSXPC 20th anniversary edition. A computer of which all components (Motherboard, harddisk, memory etc.) are fit into the keyboard, which really brings back the MSX Feeling. To top things of, the machine comes with a ROM cartridge connector and runs MSXPLAYer. Apart from a unique serial number and an MSXPLAYer logo the full name of the person ordering the MSXPC will be printed on the machine. The specifications of this machine are as following:

Intel Celeron 2.4GHz processor, 256MB DDR (PC-2700) RAM, 40GB Harddisk, 48-speed CD-ROM player, Windows XP Home, SIS651/952 chipsets, USB2, Firewire, LAN, Audio, VGA (D-SUB15) and PS/2 connectors. Only 100 machines will be produced. 22 machines were already sold at a price of 98000 yen (about 780 euro's)

Relevant link: ASCII MSX Store
Relevant link: Official MSX Magazine website