Geoff Phillips Interview

April 15th, 2024:

Olivier Boisseau over at the Musee Replay games museum has uploaded a youtube interview with Geoff Philips who was enlisted by MSU to work on the MSU Multisystem (based on the ruins of the Konix Multisystem) and later the actually sold Web2U Internet on TV box that used the same technology.

It's a charming interview and nice to see Geoff being interviewed. Geoff has contributed so much to this website that I'm not able to be able to catalog and present all the info he's shared with me.

Many thanks to Olivier for preforming and sharing the interview. Please check out his website and support him where you can.

Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story on Steam

December 7th, 2023:

Digital Eclipse are releasing a spectacular title dedicated to telling the story of Jeff Minter and Llamasoft. As with their other works, it's a mix between a documentary, a games Museum that lets you play the exhibits and a biography.

This in it's own right would be pretty amazing, but Digital Eclipse with their other works went to AMAZING lengths to make things happen that went above and beyond expectations. I honestly don't think anybody expected a history of Atari to feature a brand new and exceptional Atari Jaguar emulator built in that was so well engineered that it's become the best Jaguar emulator out there.

Very excitingly for us, out of the 42 featured games, one of Jeff's works is the Konix Multisystem version of Attack of the Mutant Camels. This now brings a Konix Multisystem game to audiences who will have never heard of the Multisystem.

So - Want to own a Konix Multisystem game? Want to be able to play a Konix Multisystem game on your Nintendo Switch, PS5, Xbox series X or Steam?

Check it out on Steam.

To say I'm excited is an understatement...

I'm expecting this website to get hammered when the title is released.

Konix Store now open!

August 8th, 2023:

Well, I'd threatened to do it for years, so now you can go and buy some Konix themed items from Redbubble.

Of course, I get a small percentage of any sale, so please buy loads of things for that Konix fan in your life - or even for the person who really hates Konix!

Please let me know if there are any other designs you would like and I can work on producing them.

Buy me a Coffee?

July 18th, 2023:

I've spent about 13 years creating this website and pouring a lot of love and dedication into creating it. If you appreciate what I've done and would like to buy me a Coffee (or any other kind of drink!) to say thank you, then please use the KO-FI links on the website to show your appreciation.

I'm currently fixing up the website and reviewing it all so that it's functional, accurate and as free of typos and confusing writing as possible. All this takes time that I don't really have a lot of, and on top of this - I'm working behind the scenese to write a book solely about the Multisystem with a lot more info and pictures than are currently featured here - all this eats away at my personal finances so any help is greatly appreciated!

Konix StarFox connection mentioned in the latest "My Perfect Console" podcast

July 13th, 2023:

It's always a delight to read or hear Dylan Cuthbert talk about what he's been involved with and my ears pricked up when I heard Konix being mentioned, of course we know the association, but it's nice to hear it as an important part of Dylan and the Super Nintendo's history. (@29 minutes in - but please listen to all of the podcast to get the context.)

Excellent work as usual by Simon Parkin!

Website move

July 11th, 2023:

Thanks to the RAM OK ROM OK community, we have moved this website in its entirety to their server. This helps me greatly as the hosting bills for this site just kept growing, even with a host change some years ago.

Please visit the RAM OK ROM OK site and have a good look around.

Thanks so much RAM OK ROM OK! Not all retro heroes wear capes!

Konix focused Discord Server

July 4th, 2023:

I've set-up a Konix focused Discord Server, it aims to give much more up to date coverage of things I'm working on and new discoveries. It's also a place to have your say and to ask questions and have an influence over what I do!

The main thing is that it takes no effort to maintain or manage it like the forum I used to host did - so win win!

Follow this link to get an invite, I hope to see many more people there: My Discord server

1990's Personal Computer Show Konix game footage unearthed

9th May, 2023:

AMC'89 @16:25, StarRay @16:58

Dean Swain over on the Retro Asylum podcast was briefly featured in the BBC QED Episode "My best friend's a computer", originally aired January 17th, 1990

Why is this interesting to us? Well...

In the episode about the perils of gaming addiction, they happened to visit the Personal Computer show at Earls Court in London and for whatever reason (only known to the Editor or Director) they chose to use out of all the b-roll footage, 2 clips of Konix Multisystem games. Although very short, these give us glimpses of these games running that we haven’t been able to see for quite a few years.

I found this because Craig Vaughn's Retrogamer interview mentioned that Brian Pollock the developer of StarRay on the Multisystem had seen his footage on the show and was sure it was from his port because of the high resolution of the Multisystem version. It's obvious as well when you see it - but Attack of the Mutant Camels '89 is also featured (this game can't be confused with anything else - it's pretty unique!). Although this is very short (4 seconds).

Here's the IMDB link to the documentary

I found Dean through the RLLMUK forum where he talked about trying to track down and secure a copy of the documentary from the BBC for what turned out to be roughly the cost of a new game!

Konix Bikers Homage on ZX Spectrum Next played with a Multisystem controller

November 14th, 2022:

ZXNext Bikers

Andy over at Cavern Games has created a Super Hang-On / Konix Bikers homage and in full mad scientist mode he's connected up the MSC Multisystem controller via a Gameport to USB adaptor to his computer running Mike Daily's CSpect ZX Spectrum Next emulator.

Reality check time - He reports that it's not actually much fun to play it this way. The MSC Multisystem, being pretty flimsy and not giving the feeling of a quality steering wheel that we're used to these days, doesn't help.

Still, it's nice to see it having been done. Now it would be great if we had some kind of game/demo that we could try on Lee's Slipstream Konix Emulator.

Magician’s Apprentice details

September 7th, 2022:

Thanks to information from Darren Melbourne, I was able to track down more details about what would have been a Konix Game - but that was later ported to PC in what I'm assuming was a similar circumstance to RoboCod2.

With a lot of thanks to Joonas Holmen who was able to supply me with a copy of this elusive game, I will soon offer a write-up and some detailed screen shots of what was to be an exclusive game. It's due to Joonas's play-through video posted on Youtube that I got a chance to first see the game, and now I have a copy to screenshot and share videos of (time permitting).

Please show Joonas some love and follow him on his facebook page

The game is obtainable by buying the PC CDROM big box version of Alien Olympics - you need to make sure it's the CDROM version, and the box has a sticker saying "includes Magicians apprentice". Of course - it's a long time since 1994 so getting hold of this is entirely up to the Gods of eBay and the likes now. YMMV - But I've seen it cost as much as 150 Euros! 😲

Large Redesign Coming

August 8th, 2022:

As much as it pains me, after about 12 years of running this website totally advertising-free to avoid visual clutter and distraction, I'm going to have to finally concede and host some adverts to help cover the cost of hosting. Every now and then, the website gets a large wave of visits, and that affects my finances. Therefore, I'll be redesigning the website to accommodate this need to cover the costs of web hosting.

I may discover a nice way to present the information and trim unnecessary elements from the website simultaneously, so it might actually be a positive change. However, please note that these changes won't happen overnight; the current design will remain for some time.

To preserve this information in a definitive form without incurring ongoing costs, I've decided to write a book. A book will serve as a historic record and add value to the content. Stay tuned for updates.

Jon Steele (ATD, Argonaut) Interviewed

17th May, 2022:

To say it's taken a rather long time is a bit of an understatement, but I have finally buttoned-up an interview with industry veteran Jon Steele.

Jon worked not only on the Konix SDK, but was also involved in the port of Last Ninja II to the Konix. He has some cool insights into his time. Many thanks to Jon for talking to me!