ASCII24 report about the MSX Festival

Source: ASCII

ASCII24, a very well visited news site in Japan reports about the MSX festival held this weekend. The reports contains some extra, interesting pictures and a summary of the entire event. Here's a summary:

The article starts with the acknowledgement that MSX, with over 4 million computers sold, this cooperation between ASCII and Microsoft had a large influence on the history of Japanese computers. However, MSX is no longer just history. The sale rates of MSX Magazine and the ever continuing top spot at Amazon prove there might be a future for MSX.

Over 200 people visited the MSX Festival. In the hall, all editions of MSX Magazine and over 30 different MSX models -even South Korean versions- could be watched from a distance. There were even sales of new hardware and software going on.

In the main hall, there was a talk show/press conference with Eiichi Sato, the chief editor of MSX Magazine and Junichi Taguchi, the founding chief editor of MSX Magazine. One new interesting device was the DiOSK, a MSX-based FDD copy machine which has the feel of the old Takeru machines. Also, an MSX USB interface was presented to the public. This USB port easily connects to an MSX joystick port and can be used afterwards. Unfortunately, most USB devices will not work as of yet. At the moment, it is actually just a power supply :)

Also, a prototype of the USB ROM Cartridge reader was demonstrated. The USB ROM Cartridge reader allows you to connect MSX Cartridges to a PC, enabling you to play them on a PC (or any other device) running MSXPLAYer. It was clearly pointed out that it is still unsure if commercial production will follow.

The second edition of MSX Magazine - collectors edition was also announced. Although it is not officially confirmed this edition will actually hit the streets, the planning of a new edition has begun. If it succeeds, it will probably be subtitled "I want to go out in the summer". Interestingly, it will probably be released at the 20th anniversary of MSX.

The straight to the ASCII24 article moves to a transcript of an interview with the editor of MSX Magazine. When the editor says that this Magazine is probably a lot more difficult, since they have to search more for good software, the questioner gets huge support and laughter of the public when he point out that there are over 4000 software titles for MSX already. The editor reacts that most companies are not really willing to supply their software yet. The following questions deal about the problems with licensing of software houses and the MSX-BASIC licensing problem with Microsoft, but no unknown information comes along.

Of course there was a lot of MSXPLAYer action as well. Not only the Windows and PocketPC versions were on display, people could also have a first look on Sharp Zaurus and Kyocera "PocketCosmo" PDA versions. It is confirmed that a Linux version is in development, and the possibility of creating a Mac OS-X version is under investigation. Even a small demo showing MSXPLAYer was capable of running on a mobile phone was given, although the mobile phone was far too slow to run everything at the right speed.

All in all, the MSX Festival might have been an important milestone and turning point in the history of MSX. A lot of new developments were shown and/or confirmed over here. I suggest you go straight to the ASCII24 article to have a look yourself.

Relevant link: ASCII24 MSX Festival report