MSX in Kuwait - a personal history by Danderma

This article tells 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.

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!

Accomplishment

When I was first asked to contribute to MSX.org by writing this article, I asked about the deadline. I was told to take as long as I wanted which worked to my advantage. You see, I was in the middle of playing King's Valley 2 on my MSX emulator – blueMSX if you are wondering. I wanted to write this article just as I have finished playing it, the long awaited ending of the game occurred an hour ago.

It took me 24 years to finish the game. 24 long years. Of course I wasn’t playing it on a daily basis but ever since I discovered the emulator a few years back I’ve been trying to finish up the games I’ve loved before. Believe me, there is nothing that screams accomplishment as much as finishing something you have started two and a half decades ago.

How it all began

It all started one stuffy summer evening as I was playing with my brother and sister in the bedroom they both shared. We were sprawled on the chocolate brown rug, Thundercats action figures scattered around, busy saving the Barbies who were visiting this foreign kingdom, when my father walked in with a box in his hands. Baba announced it was a “Computer”. The words “Sakhar – MSX” where written on its smooth grey surface. The year was 1987.

At first the games he produced were “Educational”. The Arabic Alphabets Game Alef Ba'a Ta'a (ABC), some game about learning Math? The third –and thankfully last- about shapes and colors. They were very fun, I doubt anyone other than the Arab world had them though as they were in Arabic with Islamic style pistachio green sticker designs on the cartridge. We played with them, various games all educational, the way a computer was supposed to be used in Utopia perhaps. Eventually my father produced a fourth cartridge: The Castle!

Oh you remember The Castle very well, don’t you? I won’t even assume otherwise. The Castle was, hands down, the most popular game in Kuwait. We called it “The Princess and the Key” and we played it endlessly. My father was hooked to it as well, which was a bit daunting watching a 36 year old man playing The Castle with a bunch of open mouthed children on either side of him. As it was summer break, I clearly remember waking up late in the afternoon to find my father happily telling me that he had arrived at a new stage in The Castle last night and he would play the thing from the start until the point he had reached playing all night long. He even had a big paper divided into a 100 squares and he drew, by hand, every single stage he arrived at. Those were the days pre the Print Screen button.

I loved my childhood in the 80s. Days of intense heat being cooped inside eating Alphonso mangoes and playing on the MSX. Everyone had different versions of the MSX –it was called Sakhar which roughly translates to Rock in Arabic-. We cherished those games, The Castle 1 & 2, Rambo, The Penguin, The Circus –which appeared in a local TV series where two spinster sisters were playing it-, Knightmare, King's Valley One & Two, King and Balloon! And many many more.

I remember the games being very expensive back then, around $36 perhaps? My parents didn’t believe in spoiling children with an endless supply of toys and games, so we only got to buy a game per Eid from the money that were given to us as a gift by the family adults –Eid is the official Islamic holiday, we have two Eids per year-. I still remember the last game I bought, something called Alcatraz perhaps? I remember that it was very weird and we couldn’t really understand it, someone roaming around different prisons with bad graphics. I never liked that game, but it was the last one I bought before the gaming world was taken over by the Sega and we were spending most of our times playing on it.

Labeeba, or the first steps towards a computer engineer

I loved my MSX so much, I spent hours and hours playing with it. I remember eating my meals on it –we were allowed and it was a bad idea, food particles were dropping between the keyboard buttons!- So what if the games where in English and we didn’t speak a word? We learned to make do, we actually understood that the word “Continue” meant, well, continue. Sometimes when it was quiet, I’d remove the cartridges and open up the MSX alone, navigate and get to the blue screen that I never knew what it was for. I’d hit the buttons randomly and then hit enter. I blame a Japanese cartoon I had seen right about that time regarding a kid hitting several buttons on a pc then a little creature would appear with pink hair and braids for hands and she would suck him into the screen and show him everything there was to know about the world. She was called Labeeba “The intelligent one in Arabic”. I wanted to know the combination that brought out Labeeba, surely she wasn’t just a figment of some artists imagination now, was she? She was on TV and everything. No matter how long I hit, Labeeba never appeared. But my insatiable appetite to know why there was a blue screen with commands, and how was I supposed to use it, never left me. It was there and then that I had decided I wanted to know everything there is to know about that little box of wonders I loved so much, and what’s better than a degree in computer engineering to help me understand the thing inside out? Yes, I’m a computer Engineer by the way. Yes, because of the MSX. Can I get anymore attached to it?

I still get the shivers when I see that Blue Screen with the MSX logo coming up on it. I still cannot contain my excitement whenever I load a new “cartridge” in the emulator and know that I will be having fun, pure old times fun that for some reason no other gaming console was able to recreate. I still get elated as I finish one MSX game after the other, it's like ticking things of the list of things you should have finished eons ago. The best feeling of them all? The one where I know, when I start that MSX game, that I can play for as long as I want to my heart’s content without anyone daring to ask me to stop because it’s too much damaging TV rays on my eyes, that other children want to share in the playing, or threatening to hide it away if I don’t get good grades. It's me, the MSX emulator, and the game time and it's all mine, and mine alone.

Addendum - A short Q&A

Q: Just out of curiosity: why MSX? why not another system?
A: Why my dad never bought anything else? I dont think many much else was available. I remember my Aunt having the Apple where we played a horrible pixilated game of Sindbad flying on a magic carpet. I guess the IBM was around too, but non offered clear graphics and ease of use as the MSX.

Q: Can you tell something about the popularity of MSX in Kuwait?
A: Well, every single cousin of mine, and believe me I have a lot of cousins, every single cousin had one MSX at home. Also my classmates. In fact I dont know anyone who didnt have the MSX! It was the IT gadget of its time.

Q: How about the Castle map, did it survive?
A: Sadly there is no way to find my fathers map. Many things were lost when our house was stolen in 1990 when the Iraqi troops invaded Kuwait. My fathers best friend had salvaged the MSX, TV's, video, and tried his best to hide the cartridges and video tapes, but the rest is history.

Q: Wait a minute, isn't it Sakhr - and not Sakhar?
A: You see Sakhr is the traditional Arabic -and the more correct- way of pronouncing the name. Sakhr means rock by the way. Sakhar is how we pronounce the Arabic word Sakhr in the Kuwaiti language. You won't say it sakhr unless you are talking in official traditional Arabic like say on Arabic speaking TV. So to us it's always Sakhar but either way you can say Sakhr -or Sakhar as pronounced in the Kuwaiti dialect- that way it would be more accurate.