MSX Illusion City (English)

[RageBurner]

English translation of the MSX Turbo R RPG Illusion City.

Author(s): MSX Translations
Type: Translation
Version: 1.0
Date: 13th of September, 2025
Status: Complete
Source: https://www.msxtranslations.com/ic.php

RB's Notes 1: Originally the game came in 8 floppies, which meant slow area transitions, constant disk swapping and all the terrible woes that came with the limitations inherent to that format. Thanks to the amazing work of the translation team and using the suite of tools they created, the 8 floppies were consolidated into a much easier to use single .rom file, just load that and go. That said, the floppy format is availiable for those that need it.

RB's Notes 2: MSX games require a formatted floppy disk (virtual floppy disk image in the case of emulators) to enable the player to save the game, working akin to a memory card. Make sure to insert the supplied disk image along with the game cartridge in their appropriate slots. When saving and loading, select "User Disk" in game.

RB's Notes 3: The large filesize is due to the archive including the manual and extras documentation, translated by MSX Translations as well.

RB's Notes 4: The game requires the MSX Turbo R specifically, it will not work otherwise. Also, some MSX emulators do not detect the game's memory mapper correctly. It needs to be set to ASCII 16 for the game to boot correctly.

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Download from Repo​

• Illusion City (English)
• -

 

[RageBurner]

According to Wikipedia:

 

[MilkUser]

The cover art is phenomenal

 

[Toppis Toppis]

You should. It's msx turbo r best game

Okay but first i didnt know that this game was also in msx, i did know that sega cd

 

[DanCalibur]

Tested and working fine on retrobat with full bios pack using the BlueMSX core, just have to select ascii16.

 

[glokglakglak]

Not sure what happened to the layout of the entire website, it's like everything is zoomed out and unaligned.

okay nice to know it wasn't just me

 

[Darren]

Not sure what happened to the layout of the entire website, it's like everything is zoomed out and unaligned.

Anyway: For anyone else who hates or doesn't use RetroArch, it's very easy to play this on blueMSX - a standalone emulator.
1. Download and install blueMSX
2. Open emulator, click options
3. Click Emulation tab - change "MSX machine" to "MSXturboR"
4. Click Files tab - change "Default ROM Type" to "ASCII 16"
5. Press Ok to save changes
6. Click File, Cartridge Slot, Insert. Open the extracted Cartridge.zip

This 100% works, amazing job to everyone who translated this.

 

[RageBurner]

Thanks, @RageBurner , to accept my request

No problem, I was also very interested in playing this. I'd wager the best version of this game might be the Sharp 68000 one; wouldn't hurt to see it translated, too.

 

[migosama]

In the distant future.. in the year 200X...

it used to feel like so distant, and the 80's were wild.

 

[Kakatsu]

Thanks, @RageBurner , to accept my request

 

[megabladej]

Never heard of this game before. Looks interesting.

 

[RageBurner]

Okay, I tested OpenMSX and it's a lot more comfortable to use than BlueMSX. That's what I'm going with. It comes with a separate program called Catapult that makes it easier to launch things and save setups.

Note that after adding the necessary system ROMs you have to re-audit the configurations so it actually shows up. I suggest the Panasonic FS-A1GT, as shown.

 

[minimug]

Wow!!!!! Wow!
thank you
thank you
thank you
thank you

<3
<3
<3

 

[RageBurner]

Thanks! I tought it was possible to play int on fmsx because it has the option to use the MSX Turbo R. But I guess that option does not apply for this game.

I'm not sure, I tested on BlueMSX, but if you can suggest a better emulator I'm all ears.

 

[MechanoMK]

Hey, maybe the Sega Mega CD version can be translated next? :P
That's where i first discovered this game... amazing just how many games started out on the MSX or the PC-98 etc.

 

[blodia20]

It is a MSX Turbo R exclusive. Running in any other mode won't work. Please read the description.

Thanks! I tought it was possible to play int on fmsx because it has the option to use the MSX Turbo R. But I guess that option does not apply for this game.

 

[loneWolf991]

SOVL

 

[RageBurner]

It is a MSX Turbo R exclusive. Running in any other mode won't work. Please read the description.

 

[MagusRogue]

Yeah I can't get it to run either. I get to the Illusion City screen then i just get a blank screen with nothing going on.

Playing on Retroarch, Using blueMSX with the core set to turboR and ascii 16/ fully updated AFAIK

Post automatically merged: Yesterday at 10:27 PM

nm i changed to ASCII 16 SRAM and that did it!

 

[lostinethereal]

It's a Msx turbo r exclusive

Right, but 'auto' didn't load meaning i had to select that specific option, hope that helps

 

[David Blue]

Runs fine in OpenMSX. You don't need _both_ the ROM and the disks. Either will run separately. (In fact, the ROM just contains all the disk images.)

It does, you'd just have to find the TOSEC .dsk image archive for this game and apply the ips patches included in the actual translation release to the 8 game disk images (1b through 8). This one is in ROM format because the optional included conversion files were used to make it so (and no dsk switching is nice).

Too bad I can't play it on msx.emu android

 

[The_Real_Thing]

It's a Msx turbo r exclusive

Post automatically merged: Yesterday at 7:16 PM

Same it doesn't load. I just tried it now. The separate disks version was works. If only this translation have a separate disks version. It could be played easily

It does, you'd just have to find the TOSEC .dsk image archive for this game and apply the ips patches included in the actual translation release to the 8 game disk images (1b through 8). This one is in ROM format because the optional included conversion files were used to make it so (and no dsk switching is nice).

 

[CHEESE ENJOYER]

"The large file size....."

69.5MB.


We've sure came a long way.......

Most of the file size is the pdf databook (70mb uncompressed). The actual game files are <5mb

 

[David Blue]

I got this running on my rg35xxh under muos with bluemsx core using the msxturbor and ascii16, save core options, exit and relaunch, and just tested using the 'fm' sound option and can confirm this as working over here. EDIT: Using the .rom

seems to work in TurboR, MSX2+ gets the black screen after the intro splash

It's a Msx turbo r exclusive

Post automatically merged: Yesterday at 7:16 PM

How do you set it up, given that the msx emu did not load it up despite having the rom and the data disks, teach me how to emulate the turbo R games

Same it doesn't load. I just tried it now. The separate disks version was works. If only this translation have a separate disks version. It could be played easily

 

[lostinethereal]

I got this running on my rg35xxh under muos with bluemsx core using the msxturbor and ascii16, save core options, exit and relaunch, and just tested using the 'fm' sound option and can confirm this as working over here. EDIT: Using the .rom

 

[dakidski]

Runs fine in OpenMSX. You don't need _both_ the ROM and the disks. Either will run separately. (In fact, the ROM just contains all the disk images.)