1993 Dark Technologies
Platform: Multi-System 2 (successor to the Konix Multi-system)
A rather special entry here for what is thought to be one of the only completed titles for the hardware that evolved from the failed Konix Multi-System, a game called Magician’s Apprentice which was being produced by Dark Techologies in 1993.
The Multi-system 2 wasn’t an official product name, nor was it a standalone, branded console like the original Konix Multi-system was intended to be. Instead, the term is a bit of a myth or shorthand used informally (like in Edge magazine and Retro Gamer) to describe a new system based on an evolved version of the Slipstream chipset, created after Konix had folded.
One notable example was the TXC Multi-system, a hardware unit built by TXC that used the MSU chipset and was pitched as a multi-purpose entertainment device (CD player, photo viewer, karaoke machine, and games console). It was not sold as the “Multi-system 2”, but people referred to it that way because of the connection to the original Konix team and tech.
It did exist physically, and you could buy it in certain parts of Asia, so it wasn’t vapourware – but it didn’t make a commercial impact, especially with the PlayStation just entering the scene.
In 1993, Dark Technologies got involved and produced a game to work with the technology, and went with a lovely platform affair, with some lovely looking graphics. Joe Booth was the main developer, with Alan McFarlane creating the background graphics, sprites/animations were done by Chris Edwards and Paul McKee. The concept and design was by Darren Melbourne with production by Mark Greenshields. Finally – music was created by Jez Taylor with Q/A by Peter Willoughby.
The game was fully complete, but due to the failure of the technology and not managing to make any kind of foothold, it was cancelled and would never see the light of day. A year later, the game was then ported across to PC and released as a bonus game with Alien Olympics on the PC. The PC edition was pretty much identical, apart from some musical improvements and intro/end sequences added for embellishment.
Nothing was mentioned in the press about the game, and the MSU 2 development was only known about thanks to the Konix Multi-system archive ran by Mark Campbell. Then in 2025, Games That Weren’t were asked to help preserve some code archives, and it was mentioned that Magician’s Apprentice could be lurking somewhere.
After a bit of searching, we managed to find source code, but also a set of builds that were created by Joe Booth and thought to be final builds. There is a standard build, and also builds with a cheat mode included. However, the big issue was that there was no way to actually run the game.
Lee Hammerton had thankfully produced an amazing Konix Slipstream Emulator which supported a few of the unfinished projects (like AMC’89) that had leaked out. The whole idea of having an emulator for a machine that was never properly released is quite staggering too.
Games That Weren’t passed on the findings to both Lee and also Mark Campbell, and Lee would carry out a Live Twitch stream on the 5th April 2025 to try and get the game running in his emulator. He set himself about 4 hours, and within an hour or so – he had something running. By the end of the session – he was able to complete the game to the end.
Since then, Lee has updated the release of the emulator, so you can now finally play this long lost game for yourself. To load, you need to call:
slipstream.exe KONIX-BUILDS/MASTER.MSU (or one of the other MSU files). Note – we recommend that you unzip the download below into the same folder as the emulator and ensure that the KONIX-BUILDS path is intact (as this is hardcoded for now).
However, there is still more work to do – as the sound effects are missing from in the game, and there are some sound glitches in the outtro. Lee hopes to fix these in the future, either as a new Twitch stream or behind the scenes. It is an amazing piece of work that Lee has done so you can see the game in action.
So here is the first complete game for the MSU 2, which you can now finally play and we hope it may lead to other similar recoveries in the future. Enjoy!
With a huge thank you to Mark Greenshields and Darren Melbourne for arranging the recovery and to Lee Hammerton for his amazing work getting the game running in the Slipstream emulator and Mark Campbell for all his work and efforts with preserving history of the Konix Multi-system to have led to all of this being possible.
Download
Video with commentary
Gallery
So let me get this straight. This is an unreleased game for an unreleased sequel console which was the successor of another unreleased console? Brother, talk about a layers deep historical preservation effort. I think this one takes the cake. LOL
The work that the Konix Archive (Mark Campbell) and Lee Hammerton for the emulator side is phenomenal. My understanding is that getting an emulator going was a case of reverse engineering units that contained the MSU chipsets and also looking at how the development box worked – in combination with looking at the source code they had miraculously recovered some years ago. A lot of gaps I believe that had to be filled in as they went along.