Muffie has just announced yet another conversion in his steady stream of conversions. This time it concerns a game from the SG-1000 Sega Console: Shinnyuushain Tooru-Kun, also known as Mikie at the Arcades.

The game's action takes place in a school, where Mikie, who's in love with the school's cheer leader, has to collect hearts in several different rooms while always trying to escape the Janitor, his teacher etc.

Features of this conversion:

• No custom intros or new copyright messages (unless you hold [1] during boot to see Muffie's message)
  
• Works with any 64KB MSX, even those with ram in different slots, like Sony HB-F500P
  
• Cool colors on MSX2 or higher (can be disabled by holding [2] during boot)
  
• Refresh frequency fix on MSX2 or higher
  
• Joystick and Keyboard support
  
• Released as a 32KB ROM file, enabling you to burn it on a Megaflash card or even creating yourself a regular cartridge

As usual, Muffie has published a YouTube video showing the game in action, and in the next few days the game will probably be released. Never taking a break, Muffie is already planning his next conversion, which may include some custom made graphics. We'll keep you updated!

Relevant link: Muffie conversions - Mikie video

Karoshi member and MSXdev co-organizer viejo_archivero has created a topic on his forum with an overview of games he is or was working on. Some of these games may get finished, others perhaps not. But whatever the state of these games: they're an excellent study for anyone who is even remotely interested in MSX1 graphics and design: the quality is remarkably high.

Relevant link: Karoshi Corp - viejo_archivero's projects

Celebrating ICON Game's victory on SBGames Independent Game Festival, two re-convertions from SG-1000 were just released! The first one is Three Dragon Story, a knightmare style game, with several improvements:

• new intro screen
  
• adapted cool colors on MSX2 or higher
  
• correct timing on MSXs with turbo
  
• cheat mode
  
• removed the annoying screen blinking on last stage

Also, if you want to see the game how it is, just hold SELECT while the game loads. This game will probably be released on Shockware.

The second game is Dr.Hello, a Dr. Mario clone. Both games can be downloaded at The MSX Files.

Relevant link: The MSX Files

A few days late, but nonetheless: a new poll! Prior to presenting the new poll, let's have a look at the outcome of the Videocard poll from October/November. How do we feel about the development of a possible new videochip/cartridge? Less votes than in earlier polls, but at least they've been made by registered MRC users, so we can assume that these votes are fairly accurate. After 71 votes, here is the result:

1. I will not buy it, current standards are good enough for me! 49.30%
   
2. I will buy it, no matter what! 28.17%
   
3. I will buy it as soon as there is cool content for it 22.54%

Conclusion? The vast majority of the voters is perfectly satisfied with what we have already, a smaller group is prepared to invest in a new videochip though, and a smaller group wants content first. The latter group is of course a perfect example of the vicious circle these projects have to fight. Creators of new video chips and cartridges may now have an indication of the possible sales numbers, whether it's enough in order to become a success is something only the future can tell..

The new poll is somewhat related. Not that there was any similar discussion going on about soundchips, but it may be interesting to find out your opinion on the matter anyway. MSX has a number of soundcards. Apart from the standard PSG, the majority of these extensions are FM chips. Konami and Yamaha in addition gave us the SCC and SCC-I while the Moonsound is a relatively modern sound chip with sample playback over 24 channels and a more advanced FM chip in addition. With the MP3 player we can even play anything we'd want from a mass storage medium, but regarding timing it could perhaps be less practical for intensive games. Nonetheless: we have enough choice. But are we satisfied? Do we need more? Should we stick to retro? Hit the right note and make your choice.

If you have an idea for a interesting poll, send your idea to poll@msx.org and we will consider running your suggestion for a month.

Relevant link: Poll results

A new version of XL2s' cross assembler Sjasm has just been released! New in this version:

• Fixed: 'unexpected' ascmap error
  
• Fixed: error reports without list file
  
• Fixed: more small bugs
  
• Added: page range to PAGE command
  
• Added: incbin.list, jr., djnz. and jp

Relevant link: XL2s

MrRudi from Engine Software (former MSX-Engine) has just released a new arrangement: Ship Theme from Dragonslayer 6 - The Legend of Heroes. The song can be streamed or downloaded from his VGMix website. MrRudi is considering doing more Dragonslayer 6 arrangements in the future. But for the moment, enjoy this one!

Relevant link: VGMix

Following his announcement earlier this week, Muffie has announced the availability of his conversion of the game The Three Dragon Story, by Zemina. Interestingly, another version of the Three Dragon Story has been released as well recently.

Main differences from this version to the other conversion:

• The release is a ROM file. It will work with for instance a MegaFlash cartridge and ExecROM.
  
• Nothing was changed from the original Zemina release, so the game looks exactly like the original, except when you boot the game while holding down the [1]-key.
  
• In addition to cool colors, there's a frequency fix that allows European MSX models to run at full speed. To disable this frequency fix and the cool colors, hold down [2] during boot.
  
• The ROM file will run on any MSX model, including a Sony HB-F500P.
  
• No modern multi-colored opening screen at the beginning.

In a few days, the ROM will be available from MSX História.

Relevant link: The Three Dragon Story, the conversion by Muffie (ROM file)

Last month we've put up a reminder for MSXart'08, as the entry count was a bit low. Eventually it seems it didn't work out and the yearly calendar has been created using material from the years 2002-2008. A winner has been declared nonetheless: Frank Romero has won MSXart'08 with his 25 Years Later artwork. If you simply had no time to make an entry this year but nonetheless had plans to join the yearly MSXart contests, MSXart unlimited will be announced soon! So: grab the two-inch brush, use odorless paint thinner, shake it off and beat the devil out of it! *grin*

Relevant link: MSXart'08 calendar on Lulu
Relevant link: Passion MSX - MSXart'08 calendar

A week after the review of Arkanoid 1, Passion MSX has published an article about Arkanoid 2, a game made by the legendary Taito. The article about this highly addictive game comes with screen shots and other information.

Relevant link: Passion MSX - Arkanoid 2

Today, Muffie has announced his latest conversion for MSX. This time he converted the Sega Master System version of The Three Dragon Story by the Korean company Zemina. This game was originally created for MSX, and has a lot of similarities with Konami's Knightmare. Actually this game appears to use the same Knightmare engine, making The Three Dragon Story a "hacked" version.

MSX cartridges of The Three Dragon Story are extremely rare, and there are no dumps available at the internet. Now, with this new free release from Muffie, the whole MSX community will be able to test and play this Zemina hack.

At the moment, Muffie is still in doubt whether the ROM will be released with or without any add-ons (music, intro screen, logo, etc...), add-ons will naturally make this release much more valuable! A beta version of Muffie's work will be made available to public before the end of the week. Until then: Muffie has created a video showing the converted game in action!

Relevant link: Youtube - The Three Dragon Story