David Hingtgen

Dutch=Netherlands, not Denmark.

There's a TF 6 soundtrack? How/where? I love my copy of the TF 5 one.

I skipped NES 85-87 due to IMHO the good games being few and far between. Yes, there was Mario and Zelda and Metroid, but 90% struck me as being 2600 re-hashes. It wasn't until later that I saw anything decently innovative (or taking advantage of the system's power). Qix---know of it, never played it, always wanted to. Salamander---played the JP PSX Gradius history pack (or whatever it was officially called), but can't remember much (playing every Gradius and Life Force game together sequentially does tend to blur them a bit in your mind) Going OT just a bit---what's your preferred shooter? I've always liked Darius and Thunderforce best (mainly because I can actually BEAT games in that series, followed by Gradius (which is very fun but I never do well at the end). R-Type always starts out slow (literally) but is fairly fun by the end, but requires more pure memorization than the others. My fave vertical-scroller is still Space Megaforce, followed by Axelay. Ikaruga after that, then Radiant Silvergun.

I'll freely admit I'm slightly too young to be too familiar with most of those other than their names. What makes the NES different? I would argue the design/quality of the games themselves, say 1988+. Of course, you could say it was the programmers, not the console itself that allowed that. Maybe it was just the first to combine all the aspects you mentioned. (or at least, most of them). Closest comparison I can draw is with early passenger jets. The first was the Comet, but it frankly sucked. It was the 707 years later that truly "sparked" the jet-age for passengers. It was just so vastly superior as a whole to what came before--it wasn't all that revolutionary, but it was just the total package that made it superior and far more enduring than almost anything before. Not all that much faster, more comfortable, or longer-ranged than the previous #1 plane in each of those categories ---but it was the new #1 in every category.

I know most people would probably disagree with me, but I really consider the Atari 2600 more like a "pre-console". NES would be my minimum level. (Yes, I draw a sharp line between the NES and all consoles before it) But a full-on Genesis RPG--now THAT'S a game.

Blowing past the Dreamcast for "oldest system with games STILL being released" comes a new GENESIS RPG. Yes, that's right, an all-new US release for the Genesis. http://www.videogamedepot.com/shop/product...d=01D0019136011 I don't think I've played a RPG on the Genesis since Sword of Vermillion.

Dutch, not German. Also, in the US, nearly everyone pronounces "Fokker" as "Foke-er" AFAIK. It wasn't until I was in college and I had a Dutch guy who liked planes in my class that he corrected me that it was in fact pronounced "Fock-er". Just FYI.

I too find diecast highly over-rated. IMHO, it simply means "less precise casting and coarse details, for increased weight." Give me finely-molded, detailed plastic.

I say Super Tomcat, but usually specifically mean the D. Engines alone aren't enough.

I'll have to go see what I have on the Naval F-16. Neat artist's conception, F-16's flying over a carrier...

I never memorize patterns in a Megaman game (except X4 Sigma, only way I could win with Zero---easy with X, very tough with Zero). I just went through Megaman 5 two nights ago, and having played it very few times and not remembering weapons at all, I think I took out 6 of the 8 with the megabuster. It was fun---just jumping, dodging, and not simply obliterating the guy by having the right weapon at the right time. X3 is somewhat like that---weapons are never very effective--it's more like the "right" weapon is the only one that does any damage at all. It will still take many hits and skill to defeat the boss.

Basically--absolutely. YF-17 needed a lot of changes to work from a carrier, if the USAF had F-17's in service it wouldn't really matter, it couldn't be used by the Navy. Either way, you have to make a dedicated naval version, thus the F-18. I think the real question is---would the Navalized F-16 (with fuselage-mounted Sparrows) have happened, if they couldn't have gotten F-18's? (As in, if Congress forced the Navy to use the USAF's lightweight fighter)

I still find it odd that despite liking the X series far more than the "regular" series, and liking Zero 1,000x more than X, I never got into MM Zero at all. (and I play Zero exclusively whenenever possible in the X games) The GBA Zero Just didn't "click" with me, game-play-wise. (Also found it hard and frustrating, and I mean I played Battletoads, so I have a pretty high tolerance for playing 2D over and over and over again to get it right) Planned to get MM X collection today but it seems a lot of distributors had shipping problems (there's lots of GC-only or PS2-only shipments going out it seems)

The 'drill out and use a paper clip' method is the main one used, there's not quicker, easier way AFAIK.

I say we get rid of stealth. Makes planes survive through agility, speed, and the pilot's ego.

So explain FA.2 vs FRS.1, for the two Sea Harrier variants. Also---I would call the Tornado F.2 "interim" rather than "abortive". Semantics, but abortive gives me the impression it never came to be.

Thus the reason Sony TV's have the most over-driven red of all. It sells. Redder+brighter=better (to the masses), and even service mode adjustments can't get the red down to "normal" on most Sony TV's. I remember years ago it took forever to convince my dad to get a Toshiba TV, and not the reddest one in the store. (This was back when Toshiba and Sony alternated every few months as to who had the best tube TV's). And he was very much set on the absolute reddest one they had (a Hitachi I think), with about 1/2 inch visible bleed of red into all surrounding colors because it was SO bright.

Show me the LIONS. Every review spends 99.9% of photos and text on the combined mode. If that's all that mattered, they should have just made a large, articulated action figure--it'd be cheaper and better. But since the majority of Voltron toys are designed to separate, lets get some info on the lions. Are THEIR legs ball-jointed? Shoulders? Neck, jaw, etc? Are they skinny? Dispoportioned? How similar/dissimilar are green and red lion? (Always the key for me---those two always look weirdly proportioned).

I would think it'd be mostly hidden on the -19---it tends to go right behind the radome, not ON the radome.

I must admit I never considered how it'd look in battroid mode. You could do it for the -19 and -22 though.

I like that Sundowners VF-11 more than the last one, very F-4ish---but no shark mouth?

I haven't read anything about the Cell in a while, but last I recall it was designed with 8 coprocessors, with the PS3 originally designed to use/require 7, as they knew they'd have a very low yield of chips with 8 working ones. Those chips with only 5 or 6 functioning ones would go into other products. (And I'm guessing the few 8's they got would go to PS3 development kits or something) So it's been downgraded from that? Recently? Still, only getting 5/8 when they were expecting 7/8 seems like a big drop.

It's not acrylic, it's enamel white with lacquer clear coats. And it's been dry for about 3 years at this point (plus the 6 months various parts had in building). I am still considering just applying new decal to the areas that are currently bare, or that plus just a few bits of replacement where any paint damage wouldn't show.

Yup, experience orb is everything. ESPECIALLY combined with the Emerald Necklace. Put the emerald necklace on someone, give them JUST enough points from the orb to level up, swap who has the necklace, repeat.

The manual won't help at all in maximizing your attacks. I don't know of any other RPG with so great a difference between doing "ok" and doing "great". 1000 damage vs 100,000 sometimes it seems. Just play, and see how comboing/timing works. Above all else, experiment with a character's attack order---not who goes when, but what sequence the character actually does his/her moves. (it's a little-used but critical option in the menus) Aelia does like 3x better when you change it from the default. (She's my fave character after Lenneth)