A Console You've Never Heard of Kickstarted Gaming in the Middle East

Everyone remembers their first console. If you’re in your thirties or forties, you’re part of the first generation to have grown up with consoles, witnessing their evolution over time.

What was your first game console?

I do remember owning an Atari 2600; I have vague memories of playing it with my siblings and cousins. But the console that stands out the most in my memory was called Sakhr صخر. It represented the very best gaming memories from my childhood.

Sakhr was developed by the Kuwaiti Sakhr Software Company (CEO: Mohammed Al-Sharekh) in the 1980s. Sakhr was an Arabic version of the MSX computers developed by Microsoft for Eastern markets. Sakhr Software Company developed the Arabic Keyboard, which is still used today, as well as converted the Basic language to Arabic. There are many versions of Sakhr Computers. But the most popular version is AX170.

Even though Sakhr and MSX devices are classified as computers, one can argue that they were consoles; you connected them to a TV, they came with two cartridge-slots, one of which was for a game master, and one can connect two controllers to the system for two players. It was an incredible gaming console for the time.

Sakhr Software Company released multiple games for the Sakhr computer. Their focus was mainly on educational games, which ranged from English teaching games to trivia, math, and programming. They teamed up with Konami and other game developers from Japan to release some games in Arabic as well.

MSX and Sakhr Computers had a port to connect a data recorder device, which played cassettes. The cassettes contained video games or software. Games on tapes were cheaper than cartridges. I owned only one game as a cartridge, and the rest of my games were cassettes. To start a game from a cassette, you needed to rewind the cassette and play it from the start — kids today will never understand the effort it took to play video games in the ‘80s.

Sakhr computers were very popular in the Middle East. More popular, in fact, than even the mighty Nintendo Entertainment System. One reason for this — aside from the obvious effort to localise the hardware and software for the region — was that Sakhr computers were used widely beyond gaming at home. They were also utilised by schools to teach kids Basic, as well as typing. The Sakhr computer became ubiquitous across the Middle East.

Sakhr was discontinued in the 1990s. After the first Gulf War, Sakhr Software Company relocated to Egypt — but in doing so, its lost a significant amount of its talent. Sakhr Software’s CEO recently stated in an interview that although Sakhr computers were highly popular with families and schools, numerous companies and governmental offices refused to use the machines for largely bureaucratic reasons. There was, perhaps, an ironic disinterest in purchasing a “home grown” machine. Sakhr Computers’ CEO was often faced with the question “why should we purchase made in Kuwait computers if we can buy the originals?”

In the end, Microsoft discontinued the MSX series and switched over to Windows PCs. The Sakhr Software Company stopped developing its Sakhr computers and in doing so, gave up its hardware business entirely to focus exclusively on software. The company is still active today. Their main goal is to continue to build Arabic software and to enrich Arabic content online.

Now that you have some context around the machine and the company that manufactured it, let’s look at the games. Here are just a few of the games I really loved — it’s been a good 30 years since I’ve played some of them, but I still fondly remember them.

Knightmare (1986): was a vertical scrolling shooter. The player played as a knight on his way to defeat Hudnos. The game was released by Konami and was considered very sophisticated for its time with its top-down view. Konami later re-released the title as a mobile game.

Penguin Adventure (1986): Another game by Konami, this was considered the best Sakhr game at the time. This action-adventure platform video game was the first game that Hideo Kojima worked on. It has been re-released on many platforms later on, including PlayStation and Sega Saturn.

King’s Valley (1985): Is another game released by Konami for the MSX and, therefore, also for the Sakhr computers. King’s Valley is a platform game that takes place in Egyptian pyramids. The goal is to collect multiple gems while running away from mummies. The puzzles in this game were challenging. I used to play this with my cousins as well; we tried collectively to solve the levels.

You might be wondering where Middle Eastern gamers went after Sakhr computers disappeared from store shelves. Many people switched either to the Sega Mega Drive (Genesis in North America), the Super Nintendo, or a bootlegged NES. Video games were slowly gaining greater popularity, but without Sakhr, gaming in the Middle East lost a degree of its stability. One reason for this is because, across the board, most products like TVs and VHS players were based on the PAL format (like Europe, China/SE Asia, much of Africa, Australia, and New Zealand). However, game consoles available in the Middle East were not always PAL format — they could be either PAL or NTSC. It wasn’t until the arrival of the PlayStation 2 and Xbox that the sector saw greater standardisation across the region.

When we look back at gaming history, we tend to think of the big names from Japan, Europe, and North America. But let’s not forget Sakhr Software Company, and its incredibly influential Sakhr computer range. This was the company — and the device — that brought gaming to the Middle East well before the NES (or any other device) could. Sakhr allowed gaming culture to flourish across the region. And it will always remain my favourite console (albeit a machine that played video games from cassettes that I had to rewind first…)