Antstream also introduces Daily Challenges, a brand new feature where players compete for special rewards
Antstream Arcade, the world’s largest retro gaming cloud platform is celebrating “MSX Day” by adding two classic MSX games to the Antstream library for retro gaming fans to sink their teeth into. Game Over II and Kai Magazine’s Metal Dragon are now available to play in celebration of the official 40th anniversary of the MSX.
Game Over II (Part 1 and 2), was originally known as Phantis and published in 1987 by Dinamic Software. The game is a cross scrolling shooter and platformer played over four phases of six levels each, split across two parts due to the size of the game. Kai Magazine’s Metal Dragon is a run and gun arcade-style title, taking full advantage of some of the more advanced features of the MSX.
12 other MSX games are available on the platform, including Boulder Dash, Life on Mars and Xenon, with plenty more to come. Antstream has worked closely with D4Enterprise, one of the original MSX licence holders, to bring these titles to the Antstream Arcade platform.
More information on the D4Enterprise x Antstream partnership can be found below.
This week, Antstream is also excited to announce a brand new feature: Daily Challenges. Every day, in select Antstream titles, gamers can compete against four other players to complete a challenge which runs throughout the week. Points are scored each day based on winning gold, silver or bronze medals. These medals are tallied up at the end of the week to form a leaderboard of five players, who will receive special rewards and retro bragging rights. More information about Daily Challenges can be found in the video linked below.
Antstream & The MSX
40 years ago today, and 18 years before the Xbox, Microsoft partnered with ASCII corporation to create a standardised computing platform called the MSX, which would go on to spawn some of gaming’s most iconic franchises, such as Metal Gear and Bomberman.
The MSX concept was originally created by Kazuhiko “Kay” Nishi, aware of the rapidly growing industry standard of Microsoft BASIC in the US. At 22 years old, Nishi met with a 23 year old Bill Gates in Anaheim at the National Computer Conference. Five years later the MSX was born.
Antstream Arcade arguably wouldn’t be here and available on Xbox today if it hadn’t been for the profound influence the MSX had on Antstream’s CEO, Steve Cottam. As a teenager he was inspired by Konami MSX games, which initiated his passion for coding on the humble Z80 inside the Toshiba MSX.
The MSX flourished in the 1980s, with over 40 developers creating software for MSX computers up until 1996.In 2006 video game publisher D4Enterprise acquired the MSX licence to further its development under CEO Naoto Suzuki.
Like all Antstream titles, each MSX game has undergone Antstream’s rigorous ingestion and testing process to ensure the gameplay is exactly as the developer intended it to be. Antstream officially and legitimately licences all its games to ensure that each IP owner is compensated appropriately.
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