Renato

The PS1 version is not stereo?? What?? That's the first I've heard of that. I have heard that the Saturn has slightly clearer graphics, I think in particular with the FMV sequences. It doesn't bother me in the slightest since I already have them all on DVD anyway, on the 20th Anniversary DVD and on disc 3 of the Remastered DYRL one. The PS1 version comes with a third disc which contains demos of VF-X2 and Patlabor the Game, so I guess that's why it's more expensive. Lastly, from a personal point of view, I only really play games on the go, so I convert my PS1 games onto my PSP and play them there, which makes the Saturn version not an option at all. Sketchley: There are tons and tons of PS1 games everywhere in Osaka! In particular in the Shinsaibashi and Namba areas (if you look hard enough, you can find loads and loads of PC Engine gems, too). The popularity of the machine is incredible. Even here in backwater Kyoto, by coincidence, yesterday I just popped into a used manga shop across the road from me while waiting for a traffic light to change, and I found a copy of Policenauts for 100 yen! It's on my PSP now, along with that "rarity" Philosoma (189yen, from the shopping centre 5 minutes from my house) and Omega Boost (210yen, Book Off -- I think I got this one in Tokyo a while back, though).

I just love the way everyone is always screaming their heads off. "SKULL SQUADRONNNN!!!!" "LOOOTENANT ITCHY-JOE!!!" "LAUNCH THE muh....CROSSSSSSS!!"

Found a pic of Skywarp from another angle:

There's loads of turn-base strategy Macross games out there (not for PSP though). I have Eternal Love Story. There's a thread on it in this forum. To be honest, I prefer action games, though.

YES!! At long last! Thank you!

Yeah, I still haven't watched 11 yet, either. Maybe sometime in the next week.

For the wean. http://www.macross.co.uk/77077/Macross7/vf19history.txt Graham should get an honorable PhD from Macross Uni.

I got my avatar off the GB game! I warn you though, after MAF/MUF, VFX2 is going to seem dead slow, on any machine. And heaven forbid I ever play VFX1 again, what a load of balls. Once you get PS1 games running on the PSP, I recommend Omega Boost, for more Kawamori robot action. It plays a lot like the battroid levels of Macross Plus Game Edition where you hold a button to track your target and the pointer shifts towards its direction. Also, there's a great (but tough) transforming motorbike game, I can't remember the name. I'm sure some guys here know it. I don't actually own that one, though, it's super rare.

I've never played any (except for "For Answer", I think, on a PS3 stand for five minutes while waiting for a plane at Charles de Gaulle airport). Is there a lot of strategy involved, or more action stuff (like MUF)?

Thanks. I'm not sure what I will do. I may just have to leave it and pick it up at a later date.

For a while I had most of the console Macross games running on my PSP: Scramble Valkyrie, NES Macross, PS1 DYRL, MacPlus, VFX2, GB Mac7, etc. That's what I used as alternatives to Ultimate/Ace: more Macross! I also bought Metal Gear Solid Portable OPS and downloaded the new Peace Walker demo (I know they're not robot games, though). I've hardly played those at all, though, as the missions run too long. Mission length in MAF/MUF was just right for gaming on the move. Are the Armored Core games any good?

OK, here we go. In no particular order: 1) Open and closed faced gimmick. This one is a no-brainer since Bandai did it, and it could be the equivalent of the "internal head workings" gimmick of the YF-19. 2) Opening rear hatch for battroid? Basara used it much more than the actual cockpit canopy for getting in and out. 3) Revoltech-style pin-point barrier blobs. 4) Opening integral speaker shoulders. No, not the sound boosters, the ones INSIDE the shoulders. If the mechanism turns out to be too complex or brittle, then part-swapping (separate open and closed shoulders) would be OK, as long as the parts pop on and off with no issues or breakage). 5) The wings in battroid mode should angle out slightly away from the body, not simply straight back like the 1/65 and 1/100 toys, or the Yamato Yf-19. It should be more like the 1/100 kit or the GNU YF-19. Of course, those were on ball-joints, meaning they may get loose over time... Still, if they are easily disassembled (UNLIKE the YF-19 ones), then they can be touched up every so often. My Koenig Monster is still extremely poseable thanks to this. 6) It should come with a tiny, standing Mylene figure in flight-suit with the Song Energy equipment on, which it can hold right in front of its face as it blows away Glavil with the power of BOMBAA.

Please let us know, Graham. I have had this on order at Amazon for the longest time, but if it is delayed again then I will have to either cancel or get the order sent to some other address if possible, as I will be moving in a few weeks.

Thanks for the pic, Sketchley. Yeah, I do have that set. I guess I forgot 'cos they're so bland. Oh, well. Anyway, I got the issue (#41) just now. I already spotted a MAJOR typo. The Roman-Zentradi character guide is missing the letter "Q", and has two "U"'s instead. What's worse, the equivalent of what I imagine ought to be the Q is only given in its handwritten form, as the printed form is identical to that of the U (figures, since they printed it twice). I hope they notice this and print a corrected sheet, or provide a sticker or something. Ah, where's AnimeFX when you need it? They provided the full alphabet transcription that they got from that oldschool Zentradi Stamp Set made by Nichimo, I believe. Perhaps it appears also in Miyatake's "Macross & Orguss Design Works" book?

Ah, man, I've been so busy I forgot it came out today! I could go downstairs to my 24-hour bookshop and grab it right now, but I guess I will just get it tomorrow from the Co-op as usual where it's 630yen as I need to head down there anyway. Unless I forget again! Another thing is the third set of postcards, I've got to send off for them before the 12th, but apparently we should expect to receive them in April... well, I will most likely be living in Tokyo by that point so I have to put down some other address for the time being. Argh.

You called? Yeah, there are various versions of this story, but one that comes up often is that the usage of the word "otaku" as it appears in SDFM to refer to "you" was nothing particularly new in meaning, although it was traditionally a polite honorific, as Sketchley mentioned. Thus, Hikaru calling Minmay "otaku", as fifteen- and sixteen-year-olds respectively may have appeared quite odd, and that may have been the new usage. Hardcore Macross fans then mimicked this usage, or so the legend goes, by calling each other "otaku" as it was used in the show. This led to them being labelled the "Otaku-zoku" by those on the outside (the "mainstream", if you like). Note that there were plenty of "zoku" ("groups/tribes") of young people at around this period between the late 70s- early 80s, including the infamous "an-an zoku" and "non-no zoku" (named after the popular magazines which still run today). After a while, the "zoku" suffix was dropped and they were simply referred to "otaku". These days there are plenty of otaku, not necessarily having anything to do with anime/manga: "pasokon otaku", "densha otaku", etc. So I would say that SDFM may certainly have played a large part in the development of the term into what it is today.

Or rather, just leave it to PsyKorps and/or Central Anime. Basically, that is a mistranslation. "ケーキ" would be "cake", but what Bobby actually says is "稽古" (けいこ), which is "rehearsal". So all this time he is asking to take Mylene somewhere to "rehearse", and when Mylene in the car asks what he's doing he says "I'm 'rehearsing'!" But what the hey, it's an even more convoluted and uncanny coincidence this way. Although I do like that Basara's pun about there being "allsorts of bloodsuckers around" remained intact in the subtitles (referring to both Bobby and the vampire guy). EDIT -- I would like to add that I am eternally grateful for the hard work that Central Anime/PsyKorps put into that fansub, and if I didn't have those tapes in the 90's I would probably not be speaking Japanese now... So I mean no harm at all, in fact, they did an excellent and outstanding job. I look forward to more improvements and corrections once Gubaba gets around to doing the show.

I haven't rewatched the episode yet (maybe later this week), but if I recall correctly, Bobby needed to get attacked by the vampire and be put out of action so that Basara could end up in the role of Hikaru once more, even though he had quit by that point. And yeah, I love the Arihiro Hase in-joke. It sounds so nostalgic when he says "Let's go, 'Minmay'".

Excellent! Eri Takeda is great. Nice to see her again after so long. You know she wrote, composed and arranged the "Millia's Lullaby" song in that SDF Macross episode where they take Komiria along for a ride to kick some Zentran ass.

I believe it's a character name. I remember reading a synopsis of the show a long long time ago, and there was a character called Redline who wanted to become a Hollywood actress but got caught up in some Zentradi shenanigans or something. Anyway, the pic you posted is in the middle of a sequence where a bunch of character names just appear randomly onscreen, alongside "Zentraedi" (sic), etc.

Don't forget that Bandai stole Mr March's coloured lineart right off his website for use in promotional posters for their VF100's toyline last year at the Launch Ceremony.

Awesome. Those seem to be in excellent condition, all things considered. I remember a similar set of Orguss erasers which were in pretty bad shape yet were still going for a pretty penny around ten years ago in a shop in London. Also, I wonder if the same kind of mini erasers were the ones included as mini-gashapons in that "Macross Vending Machine" toy from yesteryear..?

Sherlock to the rescue. Check out the scan in this post (hope the link works). http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php?...st&p=816217

I had a feeling my post was unclear. Supposedly in the add-on pack, you will get the open shoulders, with the built-in speakers showing, in addition to the Sound Boosters (and the fist/fists). There were photos of all of this earlier in the thread (or perhaps in the dedicated HI-METAL thread... come to think of it, why is this thread still around, anyway? We should be talking about this over there). The Sound Boosters themselves are independent of the Valkyrie, yes, but the built-in speakers are, by definition, not. Thus, parts removal and replacement will be required, and that would mean separating the shoulder assembly by the pronged piece.

Re: The two prongs. Yeah, my shoulder pad popped off once or twice on the first day I had it. It went back in easily enough, but now that I think about it, I do think they are under quite a bit of stress during transformation. Namely, when transforming back to fighter you have to lock down the shoulder pads so that the yellow part goes down and clicks past the black parts on top of the shoulders. That action I imagine puts a lot of stress on those two prongs, so I'm kind of nervous about that now. I hope Alex's is an isolated case, but we will see when people begin to get theirs. Also, this may become more of an issue when the Sound Boosters come out, because I imagine this will be a piece you need to remove to replace with the "open"speaker shoulders.