I was meeting with this guy last week and we got into talking about the MSX computers (Sakhr). He asked me if I knew Microsoft was involved in the project. I told him no I didn’t know, I still have my MSX2 but I never knew that Microsoft had any involvement. He then told me if I knew how they came up with the name Sakhr. I told him no, he was like you would think it was an Arab but in fact it was the Japanese. He told me the Japanese had created a software that puts letters together and you can control how many letters you want and stuff and the software would combine letters that would be easy to pronounce. The software came up with 3 options, one of them was Sakhr.. although I have no clue how Sakhr is easy to pronounce.. So what does MSX stand for? Well there are many beliefs, some people believe it stands for Microsoft Extended, referring to the built-in MSX-BASIC programming language, specifically written by Microsoft for the MSX system. Other people say it stands for Machines with Software eXchangeability’. No matter what MSX actually means it played an important role in many peoples lives back in the 80’s here in Kuwait. Everyone I knew had one, either the white colored MSX1 (AX170) or the black colored MSX2 (AX370).
A group of people in San Fransisco experimented in the idea of multiplayer gaming with strangers on the streets. They would for example take out their Sony PSP’s while waiting in line at the movies and start playing against each other hoping that someone else in line would see them and want to join in. Their experiment didn’t work out as planned since no one joined their games but the idea is cool though. I personally carry my PSP wherever I go and I usually have 2 games with me. It would be cool if while waiting in line at the bank I notice someone else with a PSP and we end up playing a multiplayer game together while we wait. Maybe once the PSP really starts becoming more popular here in Kuwait that would be possible, so far since the PSP came out I have only met like 2 other people who own PSP’s. [
