Zandvoort 1991 video footage

Today, MSX Posse have published video footage of the 1991 edition of the legendary Zandvoort MSX fair in the Netherlands. If you want to have an impression of how massive Dutch MSX fairs were at the time, the video is well worth having a look at. The video, shot by Kier Kracht, is the first in a series of MSX fair videos to be published on MSX Posse.

The Zandvoort fairs were continued by TNI and are still being held annually. The next edition is scheduled on October 6th, 2007 and - although the extremely crowded times of the 1990s are over - an impressive list of stand holders have already announced to be there. For more information on this fair, please visit the MSX Fair Bussum website.

For those who can't get enough of the 1990s MSX fair images, perhaps a browse through our photo shoots section is a good idea as well, as there are several photo shoots to be found of MSX fairs held in Tilburg and Zandvoort during that era.

We at MSX Resource Center are constantly looking for new photos of MSX events all over the world, past and present, to add to our Photo Shoots corner. If you have pictures of a MSX fair or event not yet present in our collection, please send them to photoshoots@msx.org so that we can add them as well. We are particularly interested in pictures taken during the legendary MSX fairs of the 1990s. Thanks in advance!

Relevant link: Zandvoort 1991 video footage on MSX Posse

Comments (41)

By Bart

Paragon (1422)

09-09-2007, 22:02

Really cool footage!

By snout

Ascended (15187)

09-09-2007, 22:02

Thank you, thank you, thank you Posse&Kier! Brought back quite some memories. Luckily the video comes without the distinctive smell of hundreds of MSX users packed into a large hall!

so, who was caught on camera? Mention timecodes! ^_^

p.s. is that 'FDD-demo 1 Marcel' or just a lookalike @ ~12:58-13:00?

By wolf_

Ambassador_ (10109)

09-09-2007, 22:16

I spotted:
Mr.Feet (Fony)
A less grey but equally 'present' Wammes W.
Andries Minnaard
I'm not sure, but perhaps a young Stefan Boer

By Bart

Paragon (1422)

09-09-2007, 22:23

If I'm not mistaken, TFH (with a lot of hair!) is sitting next to Mr. Feet. Am I correct?

By snout

Ascended (15187)

09-09-2007, 22:29

Timecodes, people, timecodes!

By wolf_

Ambassador_ (10109)

09-09-2007, 22:35

01:37 - Alex Peetoom bending over?
02:28 - Alex Peetoom?
04:11 - Ernst Schuller, I guess
04:47 - Lady Di or something??? Whether it's 1991 or 2007, the usual "points" of interest are still predictable..
05:14 - Mr.Feet
05:48 - Andries Minnaard
07:50 - Wammes, in the back!

By Sonic_aka_T

Enlighted (4130)

09-09-2007, 22:37

I had forgotten how gay we looked back then! And BCF with a boothbabe! OMG, those were the days...

By wolf_

Ambassador_ (10109)

09-09-2007, 22:38

yeah, all those creepy mustaches And those large glasses, thankfully those days are over now..

By Latok

msx guru (3938)

09-09-2007, 23:44

For fuck sake, I wandered that fair for the entire day, still I think I'm not in this footage....I do seem to recognize Henk Moesker @ around 8:30 and maaaaaybe myself at 1:29 for a split second.....Probably not, tho.....

By Unicorn

Master (138)

10-09-2007, 00:03

Wow! Nostalgia alert! At first I didn’t remember that I was there plugging the Foundation II release and Pro-Tracker! Lots and lots of familiar faces, can’t remember the names… Great footage, thanx!

By Huey

Prophet (2694)

10-09-2007, 10:48

Funny thing is that I cannot rember beeing there (and there is no visible proof on video too). But some parts like the "no fuss", Impact (busy making copies of their music disks), the 2nd hand area and the 'Strip poker' stand and the BCF stand do bring back memories even the locations they are at...

Was this the fair with the 'large' metal gear at the entrance?

P.S. What an ugly bunch of guys

By Grauw

Ascended (10767)

10-09-2007, 11:44

This is making me very nostalgic… those times will never return I guess. Good old days .

By meits

Scribe (6542)

10-09-2007, 14:44

Brilliant that Kier decided to release it...
I lost my copy of the VHS years ago

By Huey

Prophet (2694)

10-09-2007, 15:35

yeah, all those creepy mustaches And those large glasses, thankfully those days are over now..

I haven't seen almost anyone since those days. So I still remember them (including you) as the funny looking guys from way back.

[xx: xx] Remco Schrijvers showing something
[xx: xx] Richard Stoffe(r/l)s looking at quarth iirc

By tfh

Prophet (3346)

10-09-2007, 17:51

Indeed. That was me with Mr. Feet :-)
We both lost a lot of hair, but I gained quite some weight to compensate for that

For the rest, ehrm... can someone please remove those 5 seconds of me in that video?

By fondacio

Master (155)

11-09-2007, 01:45

Hm, it is embarrassing indeed to see yourself back at less than half your current age, especially considering the hairstyles that were fashionable back then. It's clear the 80s didn't stop immediately. I spotted myself walking with Nico Lubbers of Station and fellow Impact member Maurice or Michel (nicks Metalslave and Powerrun... the image isn't clear enough to distinguish one twin brother from the other after all this time; but I suspect it's Michel) from 5:42 to 5:45 - we're coming through that doorway. And since this is our first major event, it's very nice to see the Impact booth back at the time we released Impaccen & Wegwezen (including a Syntax Error in some versions ) and Musix Disk 1, of which you can see the screenshots in the video. At 12:04 you can see, from left to right, Patrick (nick Powerslave), Martin (nick Snakebyte) and again either Maurice or Michel, with Ben (BDD) standing behind him with his arms folded. At 12:05 at least both Maurice and Michel are in the picture, and I'm scratching myself behind them, doing nothing in particular at 12:06. It's a good thing the image cuts back to the introscroll of Musix Disk 1 right after.

Very cool to see this again! Now, please remove it.

By Latok

msx guru (3938)

11-09-2007, 16:48

fondacio, you of all shouldn't worry that much. Impact was kinda known for having a quite progressive image......Pretty fashionable Somewhat like an early Strokes....hehe.....

I still remember you guys turning your monitor 90 degrees during the Solid Snake demo......And then that Music Module-music....It was so fucking amazing.....One of the best moments in my MSX life ^_^

By Poltergeist

Champion (280)

11-09-2007, 17:55

I don't even remember being there, but I was. I even think I was on the video. At least my name was. Also seen some guys of MSX Club Gouda 'round 11:30: At least I recognised Gert de Boom, Henny van Norden, Patrick van Norden and Adri de Boom... And that playboy strippoker thingie was released back then, already?. Wow. Im getting really old...

By snout

Ascended (15187)

11-09-2007, 23:39

fondacio: I'm quite sure that most people watched the video with an "I hope I'm not in it and if I am that I don't look too rediculous"-kinda feel. At least I did, but iirc I started attending MSX fairs in 1992.

By wolf_

Ambassador_ (10109)

11-09-2007, 23:43

My first MSX fair that I can remember was Til92, to be precise: at Fony's booth with RMF Megademo #1, and some birdspider, yuk, ... I hate arachnids ._.

By poke-1,170

Paragon (1783)

12-09-2007, 02:02

so this particulair fair has been the biggest one in the netherlands ?
Quite a lot going on indeed, was this at the peak of msx'es popularity ?
Or was it already known that most msx manufacturers were abandoning the ship. I guess the turboR just came out as well ?

I'm also pretty sure that frietkot outside has made some nice money hehehe.

By wolf_

Ambassador_ (10109)

12-09-2007, 09:54

Afaik Tilburg has always been a bit bigger, but both were still large gyms. One year, I believe Til93, there was even an extra tent attached. Current fairs are -in their totality- about one small row of those old fairs.

By Latok

msx guru (3938)

12-09-2007, 14:12

poke, I'd say Tilburg 93 and 94 were the biggest MSX fairs during the 90s......

By snout

Ascended (15187)

12-09-2007, 14:19

I agree. Tilburg 92/93 were massive.

To poke: It was already clear that (most) companies would not support MSX anymore by the end of the 1980s. What happened in the Netherlands during the 1990s was quite unique and very impressive.

By poke-1,170

Paragon (1783)

12-09-2007, 14:31

could you say that the whole scene thing evolved around the trackers ?
Tracker progs created the scene ? (no music no demos)

By wolf_

Ambassador_ (10109)

12-09-2007, 15:31

Nah, not just tracking. Scenes of all computers generally emerged from cracking games.. The first ever scrolltext I've seen was that Starcracks intro of SD-Snatcher. I guess the demo 'Lightning' must also be one of the first real demodisks/megademos. There were also Xelasoft/Merlasoft SCC demos like AstroStar, which contained some sinusing scrolltext. And on those fairs were not just sceners you know, also hardware ppl who sold stuff, people with a large bag o' PD software, ppl who made magazines, ppl who made games, ppl who sold a utility, ppl from some club who had their activities displayed, ppl who made a diskmagazine, ppl/organizations who imported Japanese games. etc. etc.
If you browse through Clubguide/Genic Picturedisks1..11 and then the Sunrise Picturedisks, then you've got a good idea about the rise and decline of the MSX scene. Another obvious thing you can notice on those disks is when trackers became available, as at a certain early point there was none, and coders were forced to rip Japanese game music..

By snout

Ascended (15187)

12-09-2007, 15:40

I think it is safe to say that trackers (and especially FAC Soundtracker) gave the scene a HUGE boost. Sure, all the other ingredients for an active scene were already there, but trackers gave the headstart for a new sound (at least for MSX) and for demos and games that consisted out of 100% scene-made-material instead of, indeed, the load of music and gfx we had had mostly so far

By fondacio

Master (155)

12-09-2007, 16:28

@Latok, Snout: thanks, I'm not that worried; if I was, I would never have pointed out where to find me. And nice to know that we were not just called impact but actually made one...

And speaking on the importance of trackers: I think that, generally speaking, the demo scene took off after some decent tools became available, enabling people who were not (yet) master coders to produce something worthwhile - at least that's how it worked for us. And coders didn't have to start from scratch or use ripped music (Station for example also started using Soundtracker as soon as it was available, rather than coding their own replayer - before that time, they used ripped T&E music). There were plenty of good drawing and graphics programmes around, but FAC Soundtracker 1 was the first music programme that came with a replayer. I also think it only really became "not done" to used ripped graphics and music once proper tools were available to produce your own.

By wolf_

Ambassador_ (10109)

12-09-2007, 16:31

fondacio: out of interest: which Impact nick did you have back then?

By fondacio

Master (155)

12-09-2007, 20:57

@wolf_: Sorry, forgot to mention that; my nick was Mirage.

By wolf_

Ambassador_ (10109)

12-09-2007, 21:33

Those musixdisks are nowhere to be found on the net (and if they are, at least not easy then).. can we add 'em to our download section? Who's in charge of that?

By fondacio

Master (155)

13-09-2007, 00:36

Um... I thought they were already in there. Let me check... Yep! 5 Musix disks, 2 House disks, Impaccen & Wegwezen, Impaccable and The Ant Demo. As far as I can tell, only the SCC Musix disk that was made somewhere in between is missing...

By wolf_

Ambassador_ (10109)

13-09-2007, 01:04

arf :S nothing for quite some pages .. perhaps confusion over musix vs music ..

ohwell, :RNFF::RNFF::RNFF:

By Ivan

Ascended (9353)

13-09-2007, 21:29

I agree. Tilburg 92/93 were massive.

To poke: It was already clear that (most) companies would not support MSX anymore by the end of the 1980s. What happened in the Netherlands during the 1990s was quite unique and very impressive.

That's true. In the penultimate issue (November 1991) of the Spanish MSX magazine MSX Club it was suggested that Spanish people could organize a trip to The Netherlands to visit one of the multiple MSX fairs that were held there. Unfortunately the last issue of MSX Club -the only MSX magazine available in kiosks all over Spain back then- was the one of December 1991 and nothing could be arranged (most Spanish MSX users dropped the MSX scene after the disappearance of MSX Club). MSX Club passed the baton to Hnostar, a fanzine that was only distributed by mail. First meetings here were the well-known user meetings in Barcelona (RUs) but I don't know when they started.

Watching the Zandvoort 1991 video I realise that those meetings were like the ones that are held nowadays; I mean that all groups present there were amateur (no big companies like Philips nor any sw houses).

By wolf_

Ambassador_ (10109)

13-09-2007, 22:08

..but then 20x bigger and dito more content.., and prolly a couple o' thousands of visitors. At times I had to squeeze myself through the crowd to get anywhere.

By Huey

Prophet (2694)

14-09-2007, 10:59

AFAIK. The MSX-fairs have always been an 'amateur' thing.

By Whizzy

Master (213)

17-09-2007, 09:46

Really nice video footage !
You can even spot us Paragon guys somewhere around 0:58 and 2:30 - 2:32 ... wow 3 seconds of 'my-live-flashback'...

The year after this fair we had our first stand ourselves..

By martinb

Supporter (2)

12-06-2008, 19:21

Hahah... years ago that (okay, and over half a year late reacting). I remember bug fixing at the fair alright, never thought someone would manage to capture it on tape. It was fun though.

By wolf_

Ambassador_ (10109)

12-06-2008, 21:55

Snakebyte I presume?