The Konix Multi-System

Started by TL, May 22, 2012, 19:20:08 PM

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TrekMD

That steering controller looks amazing! 

Going to the final frontier, gaming...


mqarkcambie

Don't forget, there are 60 + scans of articles and features in the Press section of the website

http://www.konixmultisystem.com/index.php?id=press

Quick update - I've been in touch with someone who claims he has a garage full of the liquidated assets of Konix. He says he has boxes of floppy disks (presumably a backup of all the games developers were working on), a Power chair, several prototypes of the console, devkits documents - basically everything you could ever want. And he reckons it's all in his lock-up.

However... He's being a bit difficult to deal with to the point of me wondering if he actually has anything - there have been no pictures so far to support his claim and everything he's said so far has been vague enough to have a hint of truth, but also so brief that he could have just read my interview in RetroGamer and worked out what I'm looking for.

Time will tell - It's thrillingly exciting if it's true and this stuff is made available - crushingly disappointing if it's some elaborate lie.

Mark.

TL

Sounds interesting so keep us updated, I have a few more scans left to post. You probably have them all already but I will get them up anyway.

mqarkcambie


zapiy

Brilliant stuff Mark. Sure would be a shame if it does not materialise.

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TL

Review of Hammerfist from The Games Machine:





This is (as far as I am aware) the only actual review of a Konix Multi-System game to appear in print!

mqarkcambie

Now THAT'S what I'm talking about - excellent stuff.

I can't remember seeing a "review" of a Konix game before, and there are a couple of screenshots I've not seen before.

Cool!

TL

Quote from: "mqarkcambie"Now THAT'S what I'm talking about - excellent stuff.

I can't remember seeing a "review" of a Konix game before, and there are a couple of screenshots I've not seen before.

Cool!

Feel free to re-use any of this on your site Mark, just add a nice link back to here somewhere  :16:

DreamcastRIP

Fantastic stuff. So apart from the "screens being a bit smaller" the KMS version of the game was seemingly the same as the Amiga version.

I find that quite interesting in that I'd have hoped the KMS would have been in 256 colours. Having a smaller visible play area suggests that,

* the console didn't have the same grunt as Amiga for producing a game of this type, or

* that the developer didn't have the time and/or expertise to adequately exploit the KMS's somewhat complex multi-processor architecture

* the KMS's dev tools were very rudimentary (not unusual)
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Rogue Trooper

Hammerfist was co-developed on Amiga and Multisystem if my memory serves.Konix version whilst had smaller sprites ran faster, with lot more colours on-screen and things going on, on screen, so guess there was a trade-off.

Know developers views on hardware was mixed, it seemed a flexible system, but concerns voiced over Ram (or lack of..), difficulty of coding to get best results from and having to code to the CPU+Blitter etc.

DreamcastRIP

Quote from: "Rogue Trooper"Hammerfist was co-developed on Amiga and Multisystem if my memory serves.Konix version whilst had smaller sprites ran faster, with lot more colours on-screen and things going on, on screen, so guess there was a trade-off.

Cheers for contributing those recollections, RT... and great to see you back posting on the forum.  :1:

It wouldn't be the first time a magazine got something wrong in a game review I suppose! For what would have been only the first generation of KMS games (I'm guessing Hammerfist would have been a launch game) I'd say it sounded like a pretty decent achievement all things considered.

QuoteKnow developers views on hardware was mixed, it seemed a flexible system, but concerns voiced over Ram (or lack of..), difficulty of coding to get best results from and having to code to the CPU+Blitter etc.

Yep, a relatively complex system architecture (à la the also unreleased Atari Panther, Atari Jaguar, Sega Saturn and Sony PS3) coupled with early development tools would have likely compounded things early doors. One wonder just what the KMS would have been capable of had it have had the time.

That said, I don't think any manufacturer would have been able to seriously compete with MD and SNES with their respective marketing juggernauts of Sonic and Mario at the time.
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Rogue Trooper

:-) Cheers DC, my 'return' to posting  a fruit born of many vines.....

Very hard to stay away from intelligent discussion on here by likes of your goodself and others, espically on topics i'm keen on, plus reading some utter cobblers being passed off as 'fact' on RG about the NES, made me think ohh not not this again, i'm 40 this year, i lived through the NES UK years and Nintendo used the 'cool gadget' rather than kids toy marketing angle for the GB, long before Sony used it to market the Playstation, but i digress....


Magazine reviews, very mixed bag over the years, my 'quest' for the facts behind Zzap 64's Operation Thunderbolt C64 review continues, TGM was another Newsfield publication, so not overly surprised reading some of the claims there, then you've C+VG+ 1 DC mag reviewing DC Half Life, EDGE airbrushing up Xbox screens etc etc

The Konix then:Personally feel it would have needed a lot more than just Amiga-esq games in 256 colours to make it stand out, looking at things like Last Ninja 2 on Konix the extra colours used seemed to come at expense in other areas (resolution looked very poor for a 16 Bit game).If marketing were planning on using the chair-add on as the key selling point of the system, rather than the unquie aspect of the 'transforming' control options, then a massive error of judgement there i feel, kids loved things like Transformers, the fact the console was the controller as well and it just looked 'cool' plus offered options 'out of the box' no other platform did, should have been the focus.


Lot of talk was put down about the systems 3D prowers, but since we've yet to see how even things like Starglider 2 would have compared to the ST/Amiga versions, as work abandoned very early on, it's nigh on impossible to judge.

Also, P.R shots of Minter sat in the chair with Light Gun, whilst playing AMC, was very miss-leading, don't think the game would have used either!


You've nailed it on the area of any European console going up again'st the might of Nintendo+SEGA at that time, whilst the Konix would have been ideally suited for many of SEGA's arcade conversions if the chair was used, i'm left wondering just how decent a conversion the hardware would have been able to muster and just how much of an issue the storage medium of disk VS Cart would have been.

TL

The price of games would have been a big plus for the Konix what with the games being on disk, but then we have the nasty flipside - PIRACY!

With the disk medium being used no doubt piracy would have been rife and of course there are reliability issues that come with disks too.

Rogue Trooper

Reading a few scans from US mag VG+CE, detailing the Konix, Jeff Minter talks of the CPU (quite powerful, plenty of raw power), combined with the Blitter, making for potential of 'fast action' in games, whilst Holoway bigged up the sprite generation of the hardware, claiming it was vast and almost unlimited, 64 on screen at once, game speed would'nt slow as a result etc, but he also claims sprite size would'nt be an issue either, yet as 'we've' mentioned, Hammerfist, which was'nt a port as such, but joint development project, saw smaller sprites than the Amiga version.

R.R.P for games was to be around $14.99 i think, lot of talk of the Konix having proprietary anti-piracy measures built in to combat piracy, but all very vague, plus when i think of measures tried by likes of Ocean etc with say the dongle, it never seemed very effective and we've only too look at how the DS/PSP/Wii/360 and now Wii U have fallen to piracy, so not sure how long the Konix measures would have lasted (if they even existed to start with).

DreamcastRIP

Quote from: "Rogue Trooper"... The Konix then:Personally feel it would have needed a lot more than just Amiga-esq games in 256 colours to make it stand out, looking at things like Last Ninja 2 on Konix the extra colours used seemed to come at expense in other areas (resolution looked very poor for a 16 Bit game).If marketing were planning on using the chair-add on as the key selling point of the system, rather than the unquie aspect of the 'transforming' control options, then a massive error of judgement there i feel, kids loved things like Transformers, the fact the console was the controller as well and it just looked 'cool' plus offered options 'out of the box' no other platform did, should have been the focus.

Agreed re: what the marketing focus should have been on. It could be said that the Wii 'proved' a system doesn't need to be a technological marvel to succeed when it has a novel controller which manages to capture the public's attention. Those of us old enough to still remember the excitement surrounding the KMS at the time were more than a little buzzed at the prospect of its transformable controller (that, as you say, was also the console itself).

I wonder if Konix ever tried approaching a large electronics company such as Sony, Pioneer, Panasonic, GEC, Philips, etc, to buy out the project once things started looking bleak for them financially speaking. With the financial muscle of such a corporation behind it the KMS could have had a fighting chance against Sega and Nintendo, imho.

Heck, it worked for Hudson Soft in them having approached NEC to help make the PC Engine a commercial reality. I appreciate that's not a like for like example but you take my point I hope.
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