Space Manbow 2 where?

But what's the problem with using hardware? Is there an additional cost? The chips aren't widely available? Is there a better use for them?

And... it cannot be done by software. It can be done by software and tedious user interaction. The user wants to play, not to waste his time doing obscure tunings. Most users won't spend their time doing so and just play with the defaults. Now that we have the chance to have perfect balance without tuning, why not?

Your proposal may work, but it is even more tedious than adjusting the screen brightness. Moreover, the user would have to tune the system every time he plays the game unless the cartridge includes some storage which also is extra hardware. Or settings are saved in a disk, which is tedious and not all MSX have it. Or saved into tape which is even more tedious, and excludes Turbo R users.

And... to avoid hardware, why cartridges, disks or SD cards? Why not simply distribute the binary as a printed text file with 0 and 1 for the user to type them in the MSX?

Just joking. ;-)

If the printed text file is free, it's ok. Really this is a never-ending story: excuses and stupid arguments to have the game for free. Always same story.

I'm not.

Except you can’t control the volume of the envelope generator. So you can’t really tweak the PSG volume controls to provide a global volume.

It’s better to scale the SCC waveform levels like Trilo Tracker does I think.

Why are you reprimanding people for downloading a ROM of Manbow 2? The game was given away for free for some time already, and norakomi said he’s ok with it, so there’s no problem, is there? 9 years after the original release and with distribution ceased, I would be ok with it as well if it was my software.

Just want to “annotate” that statement…

If the cartridge already includes a CPLD for the SCC, there’s probably enough room to also include a PSG, so in that sense there is no cost. In this case, discussing SCC games, that is probably the case. However a CPLD is not a cheap component by itself, so if you did not already have one in your cartridge, a PSG will add some cost.

I really do like the concept though. I guess in a way, Manbow 2 was a predecessor of the MegaFlashROM SCC+?

Besides, a coder has still the possibility to sell digital copies after a period of only cartridge selling and before a period of free digital downloading. If the coder decides to skip step 2 to go directly from step 1 to step 3, it's his choice but he can't consider all people who wait for step 3 because step 2 is not available as only interested by having the game for free. Personnally, step 2 still interests me, and I'm not the only one in this case.