MSX Game Reader review

It is there! The first new official MSX hardware, straight from Japan: the MSX Game Reader, a USB device that allows you to play cartridge games on MSXPLAYer, the official MSX emulator. MSX Resource Center puts this interesting new device to the test.

In December 2002 the first rumors about an USB Cartridge Reader spread on the MSX Resource Center. Five months later the first prototype of the USB Cartridge Reader was spotted, but it took until October before the name of the device was changed into MSX Game Reader and people could start pre-ordering the device in ASCII's MSX Store. Several months later, more than 3.000 MSX Game Readers were pre-ordered and production started. Today, April 20th 2004, MSX Resource Center received their MSX Game Reader. Time for a review!

If you would like to test the Game Reader as well, visit our stand on the MSX fair in Tilburg this weekend, we will bring the Game Reader with us! (Tip: Bring some cartridges you'd like to test!)

Relevant link: MSX Game Reader review

Comments (17)

By Grauw

Ascended (10706)

21-04-2004, 00:47

Looks awesome...

By yopparai

Supporter (4)

21-04-2004, 01:19

if you plug two of these with a Nemesis 2 cartridge in one device and a Penguin Adventure cartridge in the other, does the ship turn into a penguin ? (as per http://www.msxnet.org/konami/combinations)

By snout

Ascended (15187)

21-04-2004, 01:37

From the article: "By connecting more than one Game Reader to your PC you can even enjoy the extra options several Konami games give when inserting a certain game in Slot 1, and another one in Slot 2."

So , yes.. that DOES work.

By anonymous

incognito ergo sum (116)

21-04-2004, 01:37

read the article

By lemonhe4d

Supporter (4)

21-04-2004, 10:14

What about minimum hardware requirements?

By snout

Ascended (15187)

21-04-2004, 11:10

The manual states at least a Pentium III 800 for proper MSX2+ emulation and a Pentium III 1GHz (or even a Celeron 2GHz) for turboR emulation. Of course, these are the limitations of the emulator, not the USB device, which probably will work on any system that has an USB1.0 (or higher) interface. That's one of the reason's I'm looking forward to other emulators supporting the game reader!

By NYYRIKKI

Enlighted (6028)

21-04-2004, 19:50

I'm not that much gamer, but I'm more interested about other possible use.

- Is there I/O emulation?
- Is it done correctly?
- If you insert Phillips MSX-Audio, can you hear the music from external sound output?
- Can you use ATA-IDE interface?
- How about HBI-V1 video digitizer etc. ?

By snout

Ascended (15187)

21-04-2004, 20:03

Maybe I should have stated it in the review as well, but it is not possible to do any of the things you asked. The MSX Game Reader lives up to its name and is only suitable for playing games. Memory Mappers, IDE/SCSI/CF interfaces, soundcards etc. just don't work.

By Manuel

Ascended (19298)

21-04-2004, 20:40

Want support in other emulators? The only think the developers need is good documentation on how to program for this device...

By NYYRIKKI

Enlighted (6028)

21-04-2004, 20:56

This revival thing doesn't convince me too much.

Untill now the revival has bring us few magazines (that I can't read), nice looking PC (with quite a bad update possibility), nice emulator (...but you can download better for free) and now this expencive dongle for games, that has been cracked and spread all over the world already10 years ago.

Sorry, if I sound cynic, but I would hope, that they would start to make something usefull instead of nice looking items for besotted retro collectors.

By anonymous

incognito ergo sum (116)

21-04-2004, 22:32

Heh... you have to start somewhere!
You have to be stupid to throw yourself into a full all-out new MSX campaign as a relatively small company.

By BiFi

Enlighted (4348)

22-04-2004, 16:19

What if the Panasonic MSX-AUDIO is inserted? Would it be recognized and used then?

By Latok

msx guru (3926)

22-04-2004, 16:23

It would be cool to test such things in Tilburg. So, indeed, PLEASE bring your exotic cartridges and let's find out this saturday

By snout

Ascended (15187)

22-04-2004, 16:29

I think the MSX-Audio would not work, but at the moment I think: what about the Philips Muziekmodule. It does have internal software, which should boot... hmmm Does anyone have a Philips Muziekmodule with internal software (I ripped the ROM out of it years ago)? Please bring it along to Tilburg!

By ricbit

Champion (438)

22-04-2004, 17:15

Want support in other emulators? The only think the developers need is good documentation on how to program for this device...

There is documentation on the MSX Magazine 2 ....

By BiFi

Enlighted (4348)

22-04-2004, 18:35

What we need to think about is: what hardware support does MSX-PLAYer have? If it has MSX-AUDIO support it would favor the Panasonic one over the Philips Music Module (or even the Toshiba one). From the review we can say both Konami mappers with and without SCC are supported, ASCII 8KB and ASCII 16KB. Since it's Japanese I guess MSX-MUSIC and Kanji driver/ROM support is implemented as well. Would MSX-PLAYer have support for Konami Synthesizer, Konami Hai no Majutsushi and Konami Game Master 2 which have extra features?

By Latok

msx guru (3926)

23-04-2004, 14:30

Bring as much strange cartridges as you can! So we can have some fun!

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