FINAL RANKING

01 Caos Begins – 78 points – WINNER !
02 BeTiled! – 74 points
02 Txupinazo! – 74 points
04 Lotus F3 – 72 points
05 Mr Mole – 60 points
06 Penguin Mind – 43 points
07 Italian Stallion – 41 points
07 Night Driver – 41 points
09 Yahtzee – 36 points
10 Crazy MSX Frenchies – 29 points
11 Bag Man – 21 points
12 Balloon City – 20 points

Each game joining the contest, obtains a (+1) point just for participate. The other 99 points are given by the jury: 18 points for GFX, 18 points for Music and SFX, 18 points for Gameplay, 18 points for the Originality, and 18 for the Polish of the game. They can rate the game add-ons (those options that enhanced the game over the minimal config required) up to 9 points. So 18+18+18+18+18+9+1=100 points maximum per entry.

01 – Caos Begins (Hikaru Games) 78 points

BEST GFX!! Graphics/Visuals 16/18
- The graphics in the game are really very good, but the backgrounds are not so good.
- Excellent graphics, detailed characters.
- Can’t get better than this. Graphics can be different but not better. Animated blocks and everything looks just like it should and objects fit to backround perfectly. Full points!

BEST MUSICS!! Musics/SFX 16/18
- The music makes you feel like a hero in a greek legend!!!!
- The PSG melodies are awesome, very epic!
- I like the musics in this game. Different musics in different levels work all very well. Also sound effects work well.

Gameplay 15/18
- The game has good keyboard response with a really smooth movement of the character.
- Fun to play and very challenging.
- From technical point everything works really well. Character moves feel natural right from the start. Enemy moves are interesting while still not unpredictable and there is no delay on screen change. The object handling is also interesting and challenging and the texts that appear to bottom of the screen help you just enough that you get started. Objects that you get also have real meaning. With roller skates you can move like in Blade Lords, with boots you can jump higher etc. Definately Konami quality game if we look only these things.

Unfortuntely the actual gameplay has been spoiled. Soon when you really start to play this game you will notice that map designer has had much more fun than the player will ever have. You make one wrong move and you end up going trough same screens over and over again. In early 90′s game developers finally understood that monsters that respawn every time you turn your back are not actually entertaining but fustrating. This is true expecially when you are in a maze where you have no glue what you should do next, where are you or where you should go. Unfortunately this is one of the lessons that Hikaru Games have not realized.

Another thing is that this game is incredibly big while considering this is only 32KB game. This is a good thing but when you implement big game without any kind of continue possibility it is like shooting your self to leg. You can be pretty sure that when you get killed in 5th level there are no many people that just bite their lips and start running the huge maze around all over again from the start without any of the stuff they have collected. Konami realized already on early MSX years that they have to add continue to middle of level, sending ship every time to beginning of stage is just fustrating.

It really looks like typical example of game where gameplay planning is done by developers. Trust me, it’s not fun to just run around beating same monsters again and again even if you know exactly what you are doing.

Now don’t get me wrong here. I’m really not glad to say this because I can see how much love and time has been put to make this game happen, but it fustrates me that it is so close and still so far of being a true classic. With continue option, little more problem solving and lot less monster beating this would have made it. Now it’s just yet another game that you try few times and think that you have to test again someday when you have more time.

Unfortunately good playability is a narrow line and this game has lost it.

Originality 12/18
- Too close to Maze of Galious.
- Good story to make a game.
- Well… Running around, killing monsters, picking up stuff and using it is not very original idea. Originality in this case comes from the originally good implementation.

*MOST POLISHED!! Polish 14/18 * Shared with BeTiled!
- It’s nice in this kind of game to tell players the game history.
- It has an introduction story.
- Yes, yes and YES! This game is really well polished, no doupt about it. When it is delivered with extremely professional looking manual, cover and back there is only one possible doom: Full points!

Add-ons +4 (+1 for joining the contest)
- MSX2 palette + 50/60 Hz selection
- Emulation of MSX1 palette on MSX2 or higher
- This is because the manual really adds extra to this game and because you have done really impressive work by packing this game to 32KB.

Final Comments
- From a coding point of view this kind of game is very complex and it costs a lot of time to make. The good music and correct graphics make this game a really good one.
- Excellent adventure game.
- This game is technically absolute masterpiece! When taking game size into consideration these words are not even enough. How ever don’t think you can play it trough on real MSX without throwing your MSX out of window. Boot MSX emulator with savestates before you even start or patch your self infinite lives as I did.

02a – BeTiled! (ComputerEmuzone Game Studio) 74 points

Graphics/Visuals 12/18
- The graphics works fine in the game and the use of various sets is good.
- Good graphics in the game and in the story.
- In game screen is good looking and tile graphics are nice. Unfortunately demo graphics and font does not appeal to me that much. It is anyway more matter of taste.

Musics/SFX 13/18
- The intro music is very good and the SFX are good too, but it would be nice if there would be music while you are playing.
- Superb music and good effects during the game.
- All musics have good feeling and some musics are even great. During the gameplay there is no music, but sfx are ok. This might have been even good idea. Repeating music all the time may become fustrating pretty easyly.

* BEST GAMEPLAY!! Gameplay 16/18 * Shared with Lotus F3
- It’s a really addictive game, you can’t stop playing it.
- Very addictive. Fast and smooth movement.
- The basic gameplay is good. I like that in the end the game will show where you could have done your move and if you play so that you can’t continue the titles will be automatically rearranged. Because of the Arcade mode I would have added a possibility to continue after each 5 levels. I also think that the timelimit is too tight from the start. I think we have here the typical problem that developer has played his own game so much that he can’t set the start dificulty low enough anymore. For beginner the game ends before he has even learned how to look the tiles.

Originality 11/18
- I think there are too much puzzle games for MSX.
- Very original game.
- I’m not expert of tilegames, but I don’t remember seeing this kind of tile game for MSX before. It is actually pretty good idea to have exact goal to get into next stage. The storyline is a bit weird with UFOs etc. but it feels messy and does not cause feeling that I have to pass to next phase to see next part of the story.

* MOST POLISHED!! Polish 14/18 * Shared with Caos Begins
- The intro and ending graphics are very good.
- There’s a storyline in the background.
- Yes, this game is polished. Expecially I want to mention the cover that I like very much. It would have been nice to see backcover and manual with such a great graphics as well.

HIGER BONUS POINTS!! Add-ons +7 (+1 for joining the contest)
- MSX2 palette + MSX2 SFX + SCC
- SCC music, palette changes on MSX2 and different tilesets.
- MSX2 palette support is implemented nicely. SCC is also supported.

Final Comments
- Good intro and a very addictive play system. After level 4 the difficulty becomes incredible and makes you want to continue playing.
- I’m hooked with this game! Excellent storyline.
- It’s a good title game and in the end you really feel like Hitler.

02b – Txupinazo! (Imanok) 74 points

Graphics/Visuals 14/18
- The use of the colour in the graphics is incredible and the bull’s graphics are really good.
- Based on “Kukuxumuxu” characters. They are very colorful and they also look funny.
- Good and fun, fit very well to the game. Some little variation could have been nice between levels.

Musics/SFX 15/18
- The SFX are really good and the music sounds incredible.
- Excellent music for each moment of the game.
- It is easy to hear that music and effects are specially made for this game. They fit very well.

Gameplay 13/18
- If you begin to play this game you won’t be able to stop playing it.
- Fast, fast, run, run, or the bulls will cath you!!
- Gameplay is good, but simple. It carryes only first level. Adding something would have been needed… Maybe helping friend, collecting wine bottles to awoid slowing down or something like that…

MOST ORIGINAL!! Originality 15/18
- The idea of making a San Fermin game is really very original.
- The first “encierros” of San Fermín Festival game.
- Game idea is one of a kind but in the other hand when you take the idea and graphics away the game engine is not original at all.

Polish 12/18
- Intro screen, history introduction and calendar sheets really do this game good.
- Nothing to mention.
- Story is fun and cover is also fun, but maybe a bit messy. In this Game there is no much to polish, but the little needed has been done.

Add-ons +4 (+1 for joining the contest)
- MSX2 palette + 50/60 Hz selection
- Excellent SCC Music
- MSX-Music support is nice. Banjo really sounds like banjo.

Final Comments
- This is an example of a game that’s well designed with a lot of details!!!!!!
- Fast, fun and funny!!!
- Fun game, download it if you have nothing to do on your coffee break. It will entertain you well for 5 minutes.

04 – Lotus F3 (dvik & joyrex) 72 points

Graphics/Visuals 11/18
- The graphics aren’t the best aspect of the game.
- Not many details on the tracks. Need more trees, houses, people, etc.
- The opening screen looks neat with animation. It is clear that it is made by MSX artist that knows the VDP limits. The championship medal looks also nice with blinking stars. During the game smooth scroll makes it impossible to make complex graphics. The in game graphics are anyway more than enough to implement good gameplay and 2 color player sprites look very clear. In menus most of the texts are also graphics. You can see that fonts are nice, clear and have custom width…

Musics/SFX 13/18
- The game music makes you feel like you are on the road.
- Excellent music but regular sound effects.
- Music does not turn me on, but it does not bother me either. In this light the custom sound engine has not really succeeded. Sound effects are typical for this kind of game.

*BEST GAMEPLAY!! Gameplay 16/18 * Shared with BeTiled!
- The control of the car is very good and, once you learn it, the gameplay is a lot of fun.
- Very addictive!!
- First I want to say that the ghost car in time trials is great! Also opponent cars give you good challenge and I must say that I love the adjustable difficulty level option. These things make this game one of these games that you just have to test “one more round”. How ever I feel that the playability is a bit too oldskool. Hiting opponent or grass is like hitting a wall. All the speed is gone right away and opponent dissappears from sight. You can also take all corners with full speed and although you can hear tires slipping it has hardly any meaning. I just mean that with a little adjusted gameplay this game could have been even better. Maybe Dvik & Joyrex should have played few more games of C64 “Rally Speedway” before starting. How ever I think this is best MSX1 car game released since F1-Spirit!

Originality 12/18
- Race car games are not very original.
- Not many microcars racing games for MSX.
- Although lap records on net was already implemented first time in F-Nano 2′ I think this is first MSX1 game with internet scores. The smooth scroll of this game makes this game already one of a kind. Full points.

Polish 13/18
- The championship mode, with display of each circuit and the possibility to compete with the races of others, is a good point for this game.
- Many options.
- As we are already used to in Dvik & Joyrex productions the products are very well polished. Same goes for this game. It’s hard to find anything bad to say about game polish even if you look very hard. (Ok, found finally one missing pixel from one letter “T”) The games www-page is also good looking and it has similar layout to the game. Manual and sticker are simple. You can look them once and forget. Maybe possibility to look best race summarys would have been a good idea. This way you could update all your scores to www-page after playing.

Add-ons +6 (+1 for joining the contest)
- MSX2 palette + SCC
- Excellent music and the online ranking is very original
- Adding SCC does not make me to like the musics any better, but it makes the sounds more rich and makes some more sense to the music. The www-page scores are really great add-on.

Final Comments
- The first impression of this game was not very good, but after playing the second race, I can’t stop playing it. It’s very, very addictive.
- Racing a whole championship it’s a nice experience. Brilliant music.
- Really good game.

05 – Mr Mole (Nerlaska Studio) 60 points

Graphics/Visuals 13/18
- The graphics are simple, but correct. They work in the game, but more elaborate graphics would have been nice.
- Good graphics but the backgrounds are very plain.
- Graphics are simple and clear. They fit very well to the game and simple animations on blocks add the final touch that makes the game look very professional.

Musics/SFX 15/18
- I think the music is the best point of this game, but the SFX are not so good.
- Excellent rockin’ music.
- Music and effects are very good and they fit well to the game. There are not too many musics, but they are all excellent quality while still sounding traditional. After a while you may find your self whistling along.

Gameplay 13/18
- You can play this game for hours without becoming bored.
- Fast’n fun
- It is just what you could expect. Nothing extra, but working well. Sometimes rarely you can make the ball go between block corners, but it can’t be called a real problem. If you still like to play Arkanoid kind of games it is easy to recommend this version. It is a good version of this game. There are just few things that make me wonder… If you can continue with password, why not also with “F5″ or something like that? Why you can’t use keyboard to enter password? (AFAIK only Zemmix machines came without keyboard…)

Originality 6/18
- It’s a Arkanoid clone. I think this is a game idea often used in the video game history.
- Many break-out games. But here we play with a mole!
- This is just another Arkanoid clone. The storyline is somewhat different than we are used to in Arkanoid clones and bat is replaced with rodent, but it does not really help.

Polish 8/18
- In this kind of game it is a good idea to insert a password system.
- It has a password system to continue playing.
- This game is very well polished. Cover is also nice and gives good impression of the game. Back cover and manual with pictures could have been nice.

Add-ons +4 (+1 for joining the contest)
- Good SCC sound.
- When SCC is added music gets even better. Finally non-Konami SCC musics that really sound great!

Final Comments
- This game is designed well, everything in the game matches perfectly. Mole is a funny character and gives a feeling of classical 80′s games.
- Very fun break-out game for MSX.
- Nice version of Arkanoid with great SCC music.

06 – Penguin Mind (MSX Café) 43 points

Graphics/Visuals 9/18
- The graphics are funny and work very well in the game.
- They look good.
- Graphics are simple but working. Somehow these cartoon style cars are even quite cute.

Musics/SFX 7/18
- The only music of the game can become a bit boring at times.
- I can stand the music no longer than 1 minute. I hate the keys sound during the game.
- Music in this game is something you like to turn off pretty fast.

Gameplay 9/18
- It can be a bit boring to cross the road 5 or 6 times.
- Fun at the first moments but it turns mechanical after a while.
- This game is harder than Frogger because you have to go both ways. When you add Mastermind and timelimit the game becomes really hard to play. No hard feelings, but I think I rather still play Frogger and Mastermind as different games.

Originality 11/18
- The game is an evolution of classical Frogger, but it’s too close to the original.
- Very good idea to mix two games!
- Well… I must say that I have not seen Frogger and Mastermind mixed before, but can’t say this is mind blowing original idea.

Polish 5/18
- Not applicable.
- The game lacks a continue mode.
- Box, manual and cover does not cause any feelings. They are ok, but nothing special. How to play information is also not accurate and does not give good picture of the gameplay.

Add-ons +1 (+1 for joining the contest)
- This was only game with a box!

Final Comments
- Good for mind games-loving people. Boring for others.
- Maybe something like Mastermind and Shokoban next time?

07a – Italian Stallion (Impulse9) 41 points

Graphics/Visuals 12/18
- The character graphics are big and the transparency of the player character is good.
- Good graphics for the fighters. The screen looks very colourful.
- Graphics are very nice and expecially animation of all of the enemys and the player it self is really impressive!

Musics/SFX 6/18
- There’s no music in the game besides the intro music, which isn’t good.
- Simple music but good sound effects during the game.
- Effects are not worth mentioning and music is something that should be forbitten by law! After hearing this I was thinking that I should give extra point for games that did not have music, but maybe that would have been too rude.

Gameplay 6/18
- It’s very difficult to play this game. Striking the opponent once is already a big success.
- It ‘s harder than hell!! Need to train everyday.
- Unfortunately it is nearly impossible to get a good touch to this game. At first it feels like player is just dancing in a swamp while being beaten up. Later you get a bit more touch, but you have to really carefully select what button you are going to press as pressing for example hit button and up/down at a same time causes nothing to happen. This is quite fustrating as opponent moves are really fast right from the start. In general this game style is all about controls and unfortunately they just don’t give you a feeling that you are the one behind them.

Originality 8/18
- It’s a game based on a known Nintendo games series, and there is a lot of MSX boxing games.
- I like to see the shadow for the player. Boxing games angle should be this one.
- Not really original, but it’s been way too long since we have seen last release of this kind of game on MSX.

Polish 8/18
- The option for rematch avoids having to restart from the beginning.
- It has a continue option, very useful.
- As I already said about graphics they are really nice and they also give a polished feeling. Unfortunately the feeling is almost completely spoiled by bad coding and worse musics. When you start the game you already feel like you are in a swamp because even entering initials really needs patience. Also trying to input capital letters will cause only “X”-letters to appear. The cover is well worth looking at, but the cartridge label sucks.

Add-ons 0 (+1 for joining the contest)

Final Comments
- It’s impossible to play this game, if you strike the opponent 5 or 6 times in the match it can be said that it’s a good result.
- Love boxing? Now it’s your time to be a MSX champion.
- Good looking game with bad playability.

07b Night Driver (Karoshi Corporation) 41 points

Graphics/Visuals 6/18
- This is a game not dependent on wonderful graphics.
- Very simple graphics.
- In “Original arcade” version graphics are very close to original. Only car is missing, but it is kind of hard to say should it be there or not as in original it was literally glued to the monitor. In “MSX enhanced” mode Karoshi corporation has made a bad move. How you can add green grass and blue sky to game that is called “Night rider”??? Why not middle line, opponent cars or something like that? The car it self has plenty of the outlook of original, but it is way too small.

Musics/SFX 8/18
- In MSX enhanced mode there is music added to the original version.
- Not many but the music during the game is fine.
- Where is the low “Hmmm” sound that motor should generate? The motor sound is barely hearable and it is related to gear instead of speed that causes it to be useless for thinking when you should change gear. where is the explosion sample when you hit the wall? Ok, there is something done on PSG but surely you could have added the original sample as well although the game would have not fitted to 8KB after that. The sound of slipping tires is completely missing. Ok, original version did not have music and that has been now fixed, but the music is nothing special.

Gameplay 9/18
- The movement of the road is very smooth.
- Real speed sensation.
- It was hard to think what I could expect from playability before starting the game because in original game the playability is very good but it is made with the wacky analog steering wheel controll and H-gearbox. This is something that MSX does not have. How ever I kept my mind open and started the race. First thing that I noticed was that someone has took away 3th and 4th gear! Well… ok… not that important. The gameplay has definately something of the original Night rider but this game is still so much different: The roads are much more narrow, the corners are not as sharp as in original, the car is way much smaller, you don’t get same kind of feel of speed and the tires are glued to the road. In original game you get the feeling that you are driving on ice after crashing, but that was gone as well. With keyboard controll I can’t expect exellent gameplay but this is not close to original gameplay even in other categorys. Ok, I must say that sound now a bit too tight, but this is because I like the original game and I know it much too well because one of these cabinets is currently burried under MSX stuff in my fathers garage.

Originality 7/18
- It’s a conversion of an Atari game in an unoriginal genre.
- It’s a faithful conversion but the idea has been very exploited.
- Well… There are not too many this kind of car games for MSX and it is always great to get conversion of old classic that has not been done before… Thumbs up!

Polish 9/18
- Possibility to choose between original game and enhanced game is lovely for old videogames lovers.
- It has a enhanced mode specially for MSX and the tracks flow very smoothly.
- The manual actually has really nice oldskool feeling. I like it. Unfortunately this game is not as close to original as I think Karoshi Corporation would have hoped us to believe. With more accurate port points would have gone up.

Add-ons +1 (+1 for joining the contest)
- It has several game configuration options.

Final Comments
- Old ideas are always good and a good game will always be a good game, but a MSX can produce better games.
- You can feel the real speed on your screens with this game. A faithful conversion.
- With this simple consept it is really hard to get good points. Maybe Karoshi Corporation realized it and therefore did not try hard enough(?) It’s kind of sad that port made over 30 years later for more advanced platform is actually worse than original.

09 – Yahtzee (Daniel Vik) 36 points

Graphics/Visuals 5/18
- The only graphics in the game are dices.
- Good graphics for this kind of game.
- Very minimalistic. It has two fonts and dices.

Musics/SFX 8/18
- The intro music is good, but once you begin to play there is only 2 or 3 SFX.
- Good music. Sound effects are everywhere during the game.
- Music is just what you could expect from BASIC play command.

Gameplay 6/18
- It’s difficult to play this game and the manual is not sufficient.
- Very fun with three players!
- As Dvik even said him self, controls are not good. Actually they are so far from practical that they make playing a pain. Not only that selecting and throwing are not logical but moving around the screen and field is also so slow that you don’t actually want to play this version for long.

Originality 9/18
- I have never seen another game based on this dice game.
- I haven’t seen Yahtzee like this before!
- Well this game is 27 years older than MSX standard… No major development done since then.

Polish 6/18
- It’s usefull the on game help, but it’s not suficient to play it.
- I like to see ingame instructions.
- If you try to enter name in small letters the game will crash. There is no extra material.

Add-ons 1 (+1 for joining the contest)
- The three players feature is very cool.

Final Comments
- The big problem of this game is that author doesn’t explain in depth the rules of the game.
- Nice game for MSX. And you can play with others!
- This is just another Yahtzee version. I guess it would have been ok as paper magazine listing in early 80′s.

10 – Crazy MSX Frenchies (Jipe) 29 points

Graphics/Visuals 7/18
- The intro screen isn’t bad, but once you begin the game you can only see scanned images.
- I like the faces on the cards but I not everything else I see on the screen.
- Nice, they fit to the game. No color spill

Musics/SFX 3/18
- There’s no music and only 1 SFX.
- What’s sound?
- No music and very simple effect.

Gameplay 7/18
- It’s correct in the cursor movement and you can play it without problems.
- Interesting at the first couple of plays… after that it turns into a boring game.
- Really hard game! Little minus because you can’t move cursor same time in x & Y direction.

Originality 7/18
- There are a lot of games based on this idea.
- MSX pairs games? Not many I think.
- Usually this game is played against opponent or against wrong guesses so this is a bit different, but I would not call it original. It’s good idea to use MSX user’s faces.

Polish 4/18
- Not applicable.
- An intro with characters introduction would have been a good idea.
- Manual and cover are very simple, but Ok.

Add-ons 0 (+1 for joining the contest)

Final Comments
- A simple game that can be coded fast and can give us hours of fun with our MSX’s.
- It could be better adding sound and different playing modes.
- Just too simple concept to be a success.

11 – Bag Man (AG Software) 21 points

Graphics/Visuals 4/18
- The background is solid and monochrome. The main character has a rather simple animation.
- The character is the best graphic in the game.
- 1982 quality. The 3-color sprite is actually nicely animated, but unfortunately that is not quite enough to give a full point.

Musics/SFX 4/18
- There’s no sound in the game except for SFX when getting an item or when dying.
- No music at all and sound effects are simple.
- Argh…

Gameplay 5/18
- The keyboard response is good, but sometimes it is difficult to leave the stairs.
- Almost unplayable.
- No… Not in this game. You are bored even before you finnish first stage because the only difficulty is to get that damn sprite to move away from ladders. Then you hope that maybe even different colors or some reason to see the next stage, but no… there is no reason. There is 9 levels and then it just loops. Idea is that you should find the correct order to collect the bags, but it is just not fun.

Originality 4/18
- The game is mainly a puzzle game, it reminds me of Boulderdash games.
- I’ve seen games like this but Bag Man is the “official” conversion to MSX.
- Hmmm… No.

Polish 3/18
- Not applicable.
- Too many bugs in the game.
- No.

Add-ons 0 (+1 for joining the contest)

Final Comments
- This game could gain a lot with more elaborate graphics and some music, because the game idea isn’t bad.
- Not very good conversion and not even a good game. Need to be polished out.
- … and way too simple.

12 – Balloon City (AG Software) 20 points

BEST SHOOTER!!

Graphics/Visuals 3/18
- Sprites are monochrome and the display is visibly being drawn by BASIC commands in stead of using invisible screen.
- Very, very simple sprites.
- Very basic, font is bold and balloons look like hexagons.

Musics/SFX 5/18
- There’s no music and only 2 SFX.
- I hate the keys sound!!!
- No music. Sound effects are really basic.

Gameplay 5/18
- The game can be played without problem, but it’s not very addictive.
- It’s boring from the very first moment.
- 3x speed would be nice, only one bullet at a time, round is just a counter with no meaning, always just two rows of balloons, ship has same speed as enemy. It’s easy to say that this game has no gameplay.

Originality 3/18
- It’s based on the legendary Space Invaders.
- Balloons attacking the City? Maybe, but the idea of the game is very old.
- Nothing new.

Polish 3/18
- Not applicable.
- Nothing to talk about.
- No extra material.

Add-ons 0 (+1 for joining the contest)

Final Comments
- It’s a simple game and a bit boring. If the enemy ships fire faster or move in vertical direction this game could be better.
- Boring, boring, boring. A pointless shooting game.
- This game is extremely retro. This was anyway first entry to MSXdev’07 contest. Bold font is done on ML… continue to that way.