Knightmare (MSX)

The first adventure of Popolon, an unlikely mascot character, leading a series that changed genre with every entry. Some of these entries have had a surprising influence on videogames after release. Today we dip our toes into a platform I've wanted to explore for several years. We're looking at the first entry of a trilogy named after it, Knightmare for the MSX!
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• Knightmare (MSX)
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[@KFP_ES2]

Based Aboveup just _once again_ uploading an entire missing soundtrack for everyone's enjoyment.

[@Wyrdwad]

Yay the Knightmare trilogy! Looking forward to you talking about Maze of Galious next, as there's a LOT to say about that game. It's unreal how many other games were influenced by it, including to this day -- I swear "Galiouslike" should be considered a subgenre of the Metroidvania, with how many modern indie games were developed with heavy inspiration from it (everything from La-Mulana to UnEpic to Ghost 1.0 and Mini Ghost to Hydra Castle Labyrinth). There are also a couple unofficial fan-made sequels to the Knightmare trilogy on MSX, one released as a homebrew .rom file that was also available as a homebrew cartridge for a while, and one that's due to be released on homebrew cartridge any time now. The former, Tales of Popolon, is a raytraced 3D action game, which is quite technically impressive for MSX1 and really feels like something Konami themselves might've attempted if they'd decided to continue the series past Shalom. And the latter, Pampas and Selene, is a Maze of Galious-style game with heavy inspiration from La-Mulana (bringing things full circle, it seems!) that'll be released soon on MSX2, codeveloped by Francisco Tellez de Meneses, a.k.a. the guy behind UnEpic, Ghost 1.0. and Mini Ghost. There are also other homebrew MSX games that have nothing specifically to do with the Knightmare trilogy, but were nonetheless obviously inspired by Maze of Galious -- games like Caos Begins, and Multiverse, both from a Spanish team calling themselves Hikaru Games. And unsurprisingly, a number of professional MSX games from back in the day were clearly inspired by Galious as well, including a game I myself fan-translated several years back -- the hilariously named A Life M36 Planet: Motherbrain Has Been Aliving (yes, that's really the name of the game, and yes, it's actually a pretty darn good game!). There were other professional MSX games inspired by Knightmare 1, too, including a Korean shmup called Three Dragon Story that's basically just a straight-up Knightmare ripoff, but somehow manages to be EVEN MORE DIFFICULT. I also can't help but think other "dude shmups" on MSX2 like Undeadline, Aleste Gaiden, Garyuoh, and Konami's own Hinotori were probably inspired by Knightmare, too, as... like, there were just so many shmups released for the platform in which you control a dude rather than a ship or a plane! And all after Knightmare! That can't be a coincidence, right? ;)

[@Aboveup]

Hard agree on Galiouslike being a much more well suited descriptor for the subgrenre as it exists. Also never realized UnEpic drew inspiration from it, that makes so much sense now that I'm moe familiar with it though.

[@ZaidMohammedAlShaheed]

Grew up on with this game, our game's character GoodKnight was inspired by him!!!

[@goatbone]

You really do cover such a wide range of games. Love it.

[@JOHNVANALPHEN]

One of my first favorite games, this is just combat. Good video with good commentary.

[@GreyCartridge]

Seeing an MSX vid today makes me wanna bust out my Sony HB-F1XD. I’ve kinda been itching to write some basic programs to get familiar with the dev workflow. Excellent vid as always.

[@fefraga2008]

Dude, I didn't know about the third episode! I will get more into it. Thanks a lot.

[@johnanth]

The first appearance of Shovel Knight.

[@MixMasterLar]

It's super neat to see this because I know nothing of the system and didn't know this existed

[@mii9010]

Technically, the MSX could do scrolling, though it wasn't coded in hardware and usually software driven The MSX2 could do vertical scrolling no problem and did horizontal scrolling using a shift command whereas the MSX2+ and Turbo now had hardware horizontal scrolling and even games that had the inferior scroll could utilise the new hardware There's a great video on the capabilities of the MSX hardware and it's revisions

[@xvct2661]

It’s interesting to think how many japanese developers got there start developing for pc considering how hostile they are to the platform now a days

[@Aboveup]

I think part of that is also just the cultural aspect. The quality of PC ports to formats we are used to have often been very bad. Like the western 386 MSDOS conversions of PC-98 games tend to be a massive step back compared to where they came from thanks to the companies who'd handle those. Sierra's Sorcerian release is a travesty.

[@theMoporter]

It's probably because for a long time in Japan, "PC gaming" was kind synonymous with "porn games"

[@LeoBerardino]

I'm rewriting this game for a computer called Color Maximite 2, entirely in basic. The source code link is in the video description. kzbin.info/aero/PLpx1nOk-DRHy_u9RyLZ5AYdjwFX-UcOje&si=pRquyfHg-e8jVkr3

[@anon6181]

Thought you stopped making videos, you haven't been in my subscription feed for 8 months

[@Aboveup]

Thank you KZbin, very well done.

[@PlanetDeLaTourette]

One of the best games for the MSX1 platform. The MSX2 is underdeveloped. It was released in 1985, as were the Atari ST and Amiga 16bit systems. To some extend it could compete. It can do decent graphics. But developers never got into it, professionally or home brew. The MSX2+ (1988) dealt with some major issues. Hardware based horizontal scrolling, mainly, for broad integration. Too late. Only released in Japan, as was the later MSX turboR Risc processor based system (1990). Kicking a dead horse, impressively. An 8 bit Amiga. in 1987 things were still looking good. Metal Gear was excellent. There were some other MSX2 games doing fine. The best are lost media, it seems. The system ended with decent specs and no engagement.

[@PlanetDeLaTourette]

Firebird/hinotori (1987) is MSX2's Knightmare. A three lane Mobius strip. A decent display of MSX2 capacities, like Metal Gear. Not many of those were made. Konami tried.

[@jmarra07]

Would you be interested in a Breath of Fire series? If not all the first 5 games, then just 3 & 4? They're definitely the best and absolute classics. Apparently there's a mobile BOF 6 that's total shite though.

[@thegobbojones]

AboveUp Shmup arc?

[@Aboveup]

No, that was here. kzbin.info/www/bejne/iHKVf4ZteJdreLM

[@thegobbojones]

@@Aboveup Oh shit DOJ, and Progear I'll have to give it a watch later, thanks!

[@luizkorynga]

But Gradius/R-type are Horizontal and Cave Games/Touhou are Vertical, did you say it wrong and make a mistake?

[@Aboveup]

Yeah, and apparently just never caught that. Was very sleep deprived working on this due to noise in the area.

[@braillynn4903]

I think you'd enjoy the fan remake for Amiga.