An MSX platformer where time is your only weapon
📖 THE HISTORY OF THE PROJECT
Chrono Runner was born in the most authentic way possible: during the social dinner of the MSX Italia Association of September 27, 2025.
Over a beer and a sandwich, Leonardo Vettori proposes a simple but ambitious idea:
create a developed MSX game in an open and collective way, where every member of the association can contribute.
From that idea, a unique project in the Italian panorama was born:
- shared development
- distributed room design
- collaboration between programmers, designers and musicians
In record time, thanks to the work of Lorenzo Mancini and of the same Leonardo Vettori, the project takes shape and becomes reality.
To strengthen the team also comes Fabrizio Luglio, musician, who creates the game's music by experimenting with the MSX sound systems.
Maximilian Private treatment:
- sound effects
- storyboard
- manual
- Room review
The game's rooms were designed collectively by members of the association, making Chrono Runner a true “by the community” project.
🎮 THE GAME
Chrono Runner is a room-based platformer for MSX1 based on precision, timing and time control.
The protagonist is an agent equipped with an experimental device:
⏱️ Rewinding Clock
A tachyon watch capable of:
- rewind time a few seconds
- save you from death
- correct errors in real time
⚠️ But each use has a cost:
Temporal perturbations reduce the stability of singularities.
🧪 THE MISSION
Inside the Lefts-Vectors Research Center In Berlin, four were stabilized tachyon singularities.
You only have 60 minutes For:
- cross all the rooms
- recover the keys
- avoid deadly traps
- collect the 4 singularities
If you fail… history will be rewritten.
🏭 THE PLAY AREAS
The laboratory is divided into four sectors:
- Warehouse
- Chemical plants
- Maintenance Department
- Robotic workshops
Each area introduces new challenges and increasing difficulty.
🤖 ENEMIES AND DANGERS
- Guardian drones (guard the keys)
- Cleaner drones (lethal contact)
- Welding robots (high voltage discharges)
- Military drones (remote attack)
☠️ Traps:
- mine
- acid tanks
- poisonous spines
🔐 SECRET ROOMS
The game features 4 secret rooms.
✔ Extra time
✔ Full recharge of the Rewinding-Clock
✔ Hidden QR codes with extra content
👉 But how to access it… you'll have to figure it out for yourself.
👾 MINI ONLINE MANUAL
Commands:
- → / ← : movement
- ↑ : jump
- ↗ / ↖ : directional jump
- Space / Trigger: Rewind
- ESC: skip intro
Key mechanics:
- Jump on the drones to get the keys
- Plan every move
- Use Rewinding-Clock with caution
- Every mistake costs time
🖼️ GALLERY
👥 DEVELOPMENT TEAM
Concept, Design and Graphics
Leonardo Vettori
Programming
Lorenzo Mancini
Music & Splash Screen
Fabrizio Luglio
Sound Effects, Storyboard, Manual, Review Room
Maximilian Private
Room Design
Members of the MSX Italia Association:
- Orazio Cacciola
- Antonello Charlemagne
- Alfio Antonino Corsaro
- Stefano Forte
- Gianluca Gaggi
- Lorenzo Moretti
- Maximilian Private
- Gabriele Di Siena
- Leonardo Vettori
🌍 PROJECT PHILOSOPHY
Chrono Runner is a project open and collaborative.
At the end of the MSXdev25 contest:
👉 the code will be published as open source
👉 shared with the international community
👉 based on MSXgl libraries
📥 DOWNLOAD
🎮 Download the game
➡️ [Download CHRONO RUNNER from msxdev.org]
📘 See the full manual (Italian)
➡️ [Download the CHRONO RUNNER MANUAL]
You only have 60 minutes.
Time passes.
History can change.
👉 Play Chrono Runner now on FILE-HUNTER.COM
LOVE IT