How it all started...

In the year of 1985, when The File-Hunter (aka Arnaud de Klerk) was just a little File-Hunter, his stepfather decided it was time to bring a computer into the house. This ended up being a Toshiba HX-10. He bought this together with some games like North Sea Helicopter & Oh Shit!. Of course, not entirely happy with the fact that it was not a Commodore 64 I started out playing around on the machine anyway.
I did have one friend in school that also had an MSX and he was nice enough to copy a tape for me with some games. This tape contained Zanac A.I., Boulder Dash and some more. I also started playing around with MSX-Basic, which is very easy to learn and quite powerfull (but also quite slow) and created a game called Vallende Sterren (Shooting Stars). This got published in the MSX-Info magazine. You can also Play this game online here. Keep in mind I was only 12 when I wrote this! You can also see a screenshot of the game here on the photo of the Toshiba MSX.
It was also on this computer when I first heard the Konami SCC when I bought Nemesis 2. I must have listened to the music for hours and hours and even today the music from this game gives me goosebumps. When I was 12 years old I went to a new school where I met up with Michiel Spoor, Matthieu Veurman & Marnix van Adel and we became FONY.

Philips NMS-8250 MSX2 Computer showing a picture of Stephanie de Klerk

The MSX2/FONY years:

Around this time, I decided that the MSX1 machine wasn't enough aymore. More and more people got themselves an MSX2, so I took all the money I had in my savings account and bought myself a Philips NMS-8250. I was still using a Black & White TV with it, as I didn't have the money yet to buy a Color TV. But... I was so happy and proud of this machine. So, a little jump into the future, when I decided to get a real MSX back into the house a few years ago: I decided that it had to be such a machine. You can see my current NMS-8250 (with MSX2+, 512Kbyte, Gotek drive, various fixes) on the accompanying picture showing a photo of my Lovely Wife.
During this period I also owned a Sony HB-F700, but this was relativly short. As Fony we made various demos (like Fony DemoDisk 1, Fony DemoDisk 2 & Eggbert. During this period I also ran the Fony/Tyfoon Base BBS.
After this, thing turned bad and I moved to the dark side and got myself various Amiga Computers (A500, A1000, A1200) and eventually even PC's...

The MSXless years

Even though I didn't own an MSX for quite some years, the machine never left my mind or heart. As soon as I had an internet account, I created a website dedicated to MSX. At first a simple homepage at my provider, but in 1999 I registered file-hunter.com. Already in 1999, you could play MSX games on my website. You can still visit it here: https://1999.file-hunter.com. Not everything is functional though...
As you can see in the picture above, the site has had quite a few different layouts throughout the years. I really liked the fresh 2001 version. A bit later on I decided to close down the site and turned it into a static FONY wesbite which it remained untill 2016.
I had some health-issues and ended up with quite some time in my hands. Paulo Peccin had just released WebMSX and I decided to make a page with my favourite MSX games which you could play by just clicking on the game. And the rest is history...

Philips NMS-8280 MSX2 - Puzzle Mania MSX GOTO 40 Edition

Panasonic MSX Turbo-R - Puzzle Mania MSXdev24 Edition

More MSX Machines & Puzzle Mania:

When I was younger, there were 2 MSX machines that I always wanted to have, but were too expensive at the time. The Philips NMS-8280 and the MSX Turbo-R. The NMS-8280 was the most expensive MSX around (close to 3000 Dutch Guilders, or 1400 Euro back in 1987 which translates to around 3000 Euro in 2025) with video digitizing capabilities. And of course the Turbo-R. I finally own these machines now and you can see them running 2 different versions of Puzzle Mania:

* Puzzle Mania - MSX GOTO 40 Edition
* Puzzle Mania - MSXdev24 Edition.

During this period I also succesfully launched the MSX USB Stick.

Philips VG-8235 MSX2 - Puzzle Mania MSX GOTO 40 Edition

Miscellaneous:

* File-Hunter.com now has around 1000 visitors per day.
* download.file-hunter.com is the defacto standard MSX-Archive.
* Started a very nice MSX Whatsapp group.
* Over 75.000 installs of my MSX Games Android App.
* I started visiting the MSX Club West Friesland.
* I also host various other sites like Hans Otten MSX Info Archive, www.repairbas.com, The MSX Scans archive, Ray2day's MSX page, etc...
* Giuseppe Pintus has helped me a lot with Puzzle Mania and is one of the friendliest people I know. And he loves cats!

I've received a lot of help from the entire MSX community over the years. From helping to build my website, but also with supplying me with programs & games for the download section. One can actually say the my website is a community effort. So a big "thank you" to all of you as well! And a very big thank you to Jaap: This site would not be the same without you...

Mousepads - Tittygram & Stephanie de Klerk

Finally:

Some other final points, remarks & answers:

"Some" people might have noticed the various Easter eggs on File-hunter.com and my fascination for the female breasts. So...

* You can't buy the file-hunter.com mousepad from me, but...
* You can download the picture here and get your own mousepad printed with it.
* No, you can't get the picture of the mousemat with the cleavage of my wife. Ask your own wife/girlfiend!
* Most models used come from a service called Tittygram. Just Google it ;-)
* There will never be any tracking/ads/etc... on my sites. But you can always Donate.
* And if you want to ask/tell me something, or if you want me to add your game to the site? Or you have made a dump of a hard to find game? Or you want to donate me your entire MSX collection? Just Contact me!
* You can find a recent photo of my mancave below. Only the CRT's I just bought are missing.