Konami's signature MSX chip started as one new composer's complaint: his machine gave him only three voices.
Kazuhiko Uehara had just joined Konami when The Maze of Galious became his first game there. The MSX's standard chip could make three kinds of sound, and he felt envious of what he heard elsewhere. So he did the plain thing: by his own account, he asked Konami to build him a better chip, and within months the company had one — the SCC — though not in time for the very game that had provoked it. The Maze of Galious shipped that April still running on the old three-voice engine, while the chip born from one newcomer's frustration went on to define the sound of Konami's MSX library for years after. Reviews split along borders: dismissed in one country's press as a footnote to Konami's year, celebrated in another's as one of the platform's best. Its ten sprawling worlds kept resurfacing in other people's memories. Roughly twenty years on, a designer who had fallen for the MSX version's cramped, heavy palette built one of his own — La-Mulana — carrying that atmosphere down to the colours. In 2022, Konami handed him the official rights to remake the game that shaped it.
About this game
Konami's 1987 MSX sequel to Knightmare: ten sprawling worlds, no map, and no hand to hold. Dismissed in one country's press and celebrated in another's, its exploration structure kept resurfacing in other people's work for decades — and in 2022 Konami handed the official remake rights to a designer it had shaped.
Key Features
Ten worlds, each a maze of rooms you are expected to learn rather than be told. The game withholds direction almost entirely: doors that need a key you have not found yet, walls that are not walls, a world that only opens once you understand what the last one was teaching you. It asks for a notebook, and it does not apologise for that.
The Story Behind
The Maze of Galious went on sale in Japan on 18 April 1987, as the sequel to Konami's Knightmare. It runs on MSX1 hardware and uses the machine's standard PSG sound chip — three voices, no more. Konami's celebrated SCC chip, which would come to define the sound of the company's MSX library, did not arrive until Gradius 2 on 22 August 1987, four months later. Composer Kazuhiko Uehara has said The Maze of Galious was the first game he worked on after joining Konami, that the three-voice PSG left him envious of what he heard elsewhere, and that he asked the company about using an additional sound source — a request that led to the SCC's development. The chip he asked for did not reach the game that prompted it. Reception split along borders: Hardcore Gaming 101 placed it outside Konami's best of that year and France's Tilt scored it 8/20, while in Spain and the Benelux — where the MSX took root as a home computer in a way it did not elsewhere in Europe — it was treated as a landmark, later selected among the platform's finest by HobbyConsolas and IGN Spain. Its structure outlived the argument: roughly twenty years on it surfaced in La-Mulana, and in 2022 Konami awarded that game's creator, Takumi Naramura, the official rights to remake The Maze of Galious after he won the company's action-and-shooting game contest.
Tricks & Tales
There was meant to be an eleventh world. In a 1987 Q&A in Japan's Micom BASIC Magazine, the development team said a twentieth-screen eleventh world existed but was cut entirely because the cartridge ran out of memory — the shipped game has ten. // The sound chip story runs backwards from what most people assume. Konami's MSX games are remembered for the SCC, so it is natural to assume this one used it. It did not: it shipped four months before the chip's debut, on the same three-voice PSG that prompted the request in the first place. // The game's afterlife is longer than its shelf life. It was not a chart-topper, and at least one retrospective ranked it outside Konami's own 1987 highlights — yet it is the Konami MSX title that a modern designer chose to build on, and eventually was given permission to rebuild.
Collector's Guide
What to Watch Out For
Before buying, these are the points worth knowing — from someone who handles original Japanese The Maze of Galious copies regularly.
Does this cartridge use Konami's SCC sound chip?
No. The Maze of Galious shipped in April 1987 and uses the MSX's standard PSG — three voices. Konami's SCC debuted four months later in Gradius 2 (22 August 1987). If a listing advertises this title as an SCC cartridge, the seller is mistaken about which game they have, or about what is inside it.
Do I need an MSX2, or will an MSX1 run it?
It is an MSX1 title and runs on MSX1 hardware. An MSX2 will also run it, but you gain nothing by using one — the game does not use MSX2 video or sound features.
Is the Japanese cartridge in Japanese?
The game's on-screen text is minimal, and the MSX scene outside Japan played this title widely without a localisation. Menus and prompts are not the barrier here; the lack of direction is. Plan on taking notes either way.
Is this the same as the game Konami announced for a remake?
Yes. In 2022 Konami awarded Takumi Naramura, creator of La-Mulana, the official rights to remake this title after he won the company's action-and-shooting game contest. As of early 2026 no release date for that remake has been announced, so an original cartridge remains the only way to play it.
Unexpected Discoveries
Games you weren't looking for — but might be glad you found.
Rooms this game lives in
Wander deeper — explore the themed rooms where The Maze of Galious sits alongside its kin.
Memories from around the world
This is a young museum, and this page is still waiting for its first voices. The memories people send reach Taisei personally, and the ones that move him find a home here over time — always with the writer's blessing. Yours could be the very first for this game.
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