Manbow 2 - review | MSX Resource Center

During this year's edition of the MSX fair in Bussum, which was held on October 6th, Sunrise released the highly anticipated RenovatiO/TNI shooter Manbow 2. Regular visitors of our active MSX forum could have seen the early steps of the project and saw both the project and Norakomi's skills advance rapidly. After an impressive preview and releasing the entire soundtrack for free download the time had come for the real deal. MRC got their hands on one of the copies from the very first batch in Bussum, and André van Herk wrote this review about it. Thanks to the efforts of Ivan Latorre, the review is available PDF format as well. Last but not least, the review can be read and downloaded in Spanish as well. Happy reading!

Relevant link: Manbow 2 review

Comments (28)

By Ivan

Scribe (1354)

19-10-2007, 20:49

Also you can't bring MRC to the bathroom. I suppose you can but its not the same thing as bringing a magazine

Love to read in the bathroom? Print the PDF!

By wolf_

Ambassador (5677)

19-10-2007, 20:56

Or bring the bath to your computer/desk

By ARTRAG

Prophet (3033)

20-10-2007, 01:00

I think that screen 4 is underevaluated.
After all, one can move large areas of screen in frame and swap among 8 tile setes just setting a register...
In screen 5 all the VDP possibilities are absorbed by the scrolling...

By mth

Champion (276)

20-10-2007, 02:26

Somehow I get the impression [D-Tail] likes Metallica....

It would be nice to include the name of the reviewer also in the review itself, in case the reader finds the review directly via a search engine or deep link. Same for the date.

By nikodr

Hero (634)

20-10-2007, 03:14

I think this game must be excellent.Would someone sell it to people that weren't at the meeting?We want this game!I would like to preorder 2 copies

By Ivan

Scribe (1354)

20-10-2007, 08:45

It would be nice to include the name of the reviewer also in the review itself, in case the reader finds the review directly via a search engine or deep link. Same for the date.Right click on the PDF file->Properties->PDF tab. The credits are there!

By Ivan

Scribe (1354)

20-10-2007, 08:57

I think this game must be excellent.Would someone sell it to people that weren't at the meeting?We want this game!I would like to preorder 2 copiesI can't judge the game because I haven't got it yet. It seems an excellent game, though. I hope that Sunrise can process all orders in a reasonable time!

By norakomi

Paladin (917)

20-10-2007, 10:55

Hi All,
cool review,
I'd just like to add two comments for the people who bought the game so far:
1) Thank you !!!
2) for some computers (like turbo R) you might want to put the psg louder, so that you can actually hear the drums and sfx.
this is possible by booting your msx with the manbow2 cart in the slot and holding down F1, as explained in the manual (which is on its way)

By Huey

Paragon (1436)

20-10-2007, 11:56

@norakomi: No, Thank you!

These kind of projects can keep the scene interesting for both developers and gamers.

By Ivan

Scribe (1354)

20-10-2007, 12:36

@norakomi: Thanks for this great game and keep on the good work! I'm pretty sure that now you have other MSX projects in your mind: Metal Fear 3, SD Snitcher 2, Manbow3,...

By wolf_

Ambassador (5677)

20-10-2007, 12:42

why don't you do only_69 a favor and make Bastard 2.. this time on 3 disks

By Guillian

Paladin (997)

20-10-2007, 16:06

"Re-used cartridge case"

That's not true.

By Ivan

Scribe (1354)

20-10-2007, 16:18

"Re-used cartridge case"

That's not true.Explain to us more!

By Guillian

Paladin (997)

20-10-2007, 16:32

There is not too much to explain. The cartridge cases have been (newly) produced. So it has no sense to say that is possible to see "stains of labels that were previously there"
Those cartridge cases were produced with a protype mold, so they are not "polished". That's all.

By Ivan

Scribe (1354)

20-10-2007, 16:33

Ok!

By msd

Paladin (744)

20-10-2007, 17:30

TNI had nothing to do with the game

By turbor

Master (206)

20-10-2007, 23:19

To complement this review:
This picture of the internal of the cartridge ( http://www.msx.org/photo49gal94.html ) shows the flash chip containing both the game and the save data.

By cax

Scribe (1721)

21-10-2007, 09:29

So, does it mean everybody can reflash the contents of manbow cartridge with e.g. MG2:SS ?

By Guillian

Paladin (997)

21-10-2007, 11:59

It is not possible to reflash the whole cartridge, since part of it is write protected.

By Ivan

Scribe (1354)

21-10-2007, 12:25

It is not possible to reflash the whole cartridge, since part of it is write protected.And I prefer it this way. We are buying a game, not a flash cartridge.

By [D-Tail]

Prophet (3142)

21-10-2007, 13:48

Reviewer speaking...

mth:Somehow I get the impression [D-Tail] likes Metallica....Well, yes, I'd like to put in something Easter-ish in my stuff every now and again

Guillian:There is not too much to explain. The cartridge cases have been (newly) produced. So it has no sense to say that is possible to see "stains of labels that were previously there"
Those cartridge cases were produced with a protype mold, so they are not "polished". That's all.Because the cartridge's surface isn't clean, I assumed these were re-used cases. Never thought it would be like that because of a prototype mold. My assumption made sense, but I'll see if I can get it changed.

msd:TNI had nothing to do with the gameThis is what I know: Bart/RenovatiO started the game, then he became a TNI member (and I believe Manbow2 a TNI/RenovatiO project for a short period of time) and now it's just RenovatiO again. So in the past TNI had something to do with the project, right?

By sunrise

Paladin (800)

21-10-2007, 14:52

Just Renovatio? And it is now just Norakomi and Sunrise

As regards the cart, I can now imagine the assumption since I had also with me say the leading (example) for cart and yeah that one was
dirt. So you phographed most likely the 'dirt' and saw the good one

By Grauw

Paladin (1010)

21-10-2007, 21:17

Bart is a TNI member and other TNI members have contributed to the project. However, the project is not a TNI project because of copyright concerns. That’s the gist of it.

Also see http://www.tni.nl/info.html for the list of our members.

By cax

Scribe (1721)

22-10-2007, 14:48

It is not possible to reflash the whole cartridge, since part of it is write protected.

Then Sunrise should consider selling reflashable SCC cartridges...

By sunrise

Paladin (800)

22-10-2007, 20:58

Is there interest in Brazil , Russia let me know

By Yukio

Paragon (1235)

23-10-2007, 05:59

About Brazil.
How did you get the SCC to use into the cartridge?
Maybe there would be some persons interested into those cartridges, I think that with a slot expander with switch it could be useful for playing demos and other "homebrew" games. Like the last year entry for the MSX-DEV. Some slot expanders had the option to merge or temporary disable slots. If you add this cartridge into a slot expander with a MegaRAM it would probably play most games.

In my personal case, I am avoiding e-mail and some buys for some time...

By SaebaMSX

Champion (416)

26-10-2007, 00:19

Where is the "Seek and Destroy" section?

Btw, I've checked the review today (not yet the Spanish version). As I've read, it still says some stuff about the cartridge cases which was not corrected. Maybe the reason is that the scoring (and advantages/disavantages) should be modified?

Good job with the review! I hope I can check soon if I agree with the comments when I get my own copy!

By Ivan

Scribe (1354)

26-10-2007, 00:27

As I've read, it still says some stuff about the cartridge cases which was not corrected.Both PDFs and web articles are going to be updated very soon with the info provided by Manuel Pazos regarding the cases.Maybe the reason is that the scoring (and advantages/disavantages) should be modified?The score is not based on the presentation: it is not going to be modified. The weak point for the case is going to suffer a small update.

Manbow 2 - review

Related content

Comments (28)