Two weeks ago we replaced our under construction screen with a mostly usable beta version of the site. Since then we've been fixing bugs and adding extra functionality.

Now we're finally here. We're out of beta. We've launched. 

So, why another MSX computer site?

Good question.

The answer is that there's another big MSX site out there that has been running for over 20 years. They have (at the time of this writing) a team of 9 people and hundreds of users. They have the platform and, in theory, the resources to promote the usage of MSX computers, to support developers, and to help new users feel welcome and stay around.

However, they aren't doing any of that: the people running that site are taking a very passive approach, limiting themselves to participate in their forums and to post short news submitted by their users. Their lack of involvement has resulted in good developers leaving the MSX because of fights in their forums.

We understand that, as they say, it's just a hobby. However, that leaves us without an organization to act as a hub for MSX users, a place where they can connect to other users and developers from around the world.

Our purpose is to fill that void. 

We're going to report on things happening in the MSX scene around the world, write in detail about new games and hardware, develop courses so new members of the community can start writing their own software, and hopefully attract members from other retro platform scenes.

In short, we intend to keep our hobby alive.

What's next?

Development isn't complete yet. During the next few weeks we'll work in fixing a few pending things, but the most important areas will be these three:

1. Multi language support
2. Online shop
3. Domain hosting

Multi language support

We intend this portal to be accessible to MSX users from all around the world. Because of this, right from the beginning we knew we need to support the major languages for MSX users around the world: English, Japanese, Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese and Korean. We have partial support for this. Everything in the backend (database and administration interface) already has full multi language support. We'll find translators to help translate the static content.

The conversation lounges will be translated too. However, we can't ask someone to translate every single message or comment into six different languages. We think we have a solution for this and we'll put it to the test in the next few weeks.

Online shop

We will be opening an online shop in the near future. Since we're in Japan, the main focus will be to distribute Japanese products to MSX users abroad, but also to help developers from Europe and Latin America distribute their products in Japan.

Domain hosting

We have a big server on a fast Internet circuit. We're never going to fill it by ourselves. Because of this we'll be adding support to host your own websites with us for free (there will be some restrictions on what you can host).

And once that's done?

Glad you asked. See our about page for a more detailed explanation.

Final words

Several people have helped test the code and identify bugs, or supported the development in one way or another. To all of you: THANKS!

 (in alphabetical order)

• Carles Amigó
• Andrew Darovich
• George van Halderen
• Alex Koedooder
• Patriek Lesparre
• Madonna Mark III
• Masamitsu Niitani
• Sandy Pleyte
• Alan Tang
• Niels de Vries
• Hidekatsu Yokoi

Again, thanks for reading this, and welcome to MSX Center!

Javi Lavandeira (javi.lavandeira@msx-center.com)