MSW

Course if 1.4 million sheep jumped off a cliff in 2 days...guess that means they had good reason, and we should follow thier example by doing the same. Then again, I hate FPS...and have a strong dislike of most RPGs (Square has gone way, WAY downhill IMHO), not to mention finding that GTA:VC makes a good beer coster, but not a particularly good game To true Some game marketing jargon, and my thoughtst: "Explore a huge game world!" - The developers couldn't think of anything for you to do so they padded the game with dull boring walking between long distances... "Do anything you want!" - I want to play Bangi-O and Robotron, but doubt this game will give me that option... "Over 50 hours of gameplay" - gameplay measured in units of time? what is this bizarro world or something? Even though Robotron is as repeditive as GTA:VC, it has no ending...so would it feature "infinate gameplay"? "FPS" - yet another clone of a clone of a clone "RPG" - if story is that important, then make a movie! "RTS" - Real Tedious Sh*t! "MMORPG" - as if the single player versions wern't bad enough. "solve puzzles" - like a rat in a maze! "realistic graphics, volence, weapons, etc." - if I wanted realisam, I wouldn't be looking at games

video cards with TV outputs are extreamly common and cheap now, as are 5.1 and 7.1 surround sound cards....course video cards operate at much higher resolutions then a typical TV (and gameing console) can handle...Moot point really as there are PC monitors and even projection systems that give HDTV a run for the money...not to mention that there are some fantastic sound cards out there, and of course nothing is stopping you from connecting your home theater reciever and speakers to your PC...

I'm a huge P.K.Dick fan... "Blade Runner" - a lot of stuff is changed, but as PKD was still alive when the film was made, and he has written warmly of the films script...I guess this film adaptation is pretty good, and certainly more action packed then the book "Total Recall" - a lot of stuff is changed, but then again it's basied on a short story...works pretty well "Screamers" - another short story that went through changes in being brought to the big screen...okay flick "Minority Report" - short story inspired piece, again lots of changes...especialy changes the moral chrisis the character goes through...Okay flick "Imposter" - yet another short story inspired flick with lots of changes...tis okay "Paycheck" - another short story piece, but I haven't seen the film yet...at least from the previews it looks to take place in modern times so it may remain somewhat truer to the source material...but then again it's got Ben in it I'm prolly overlooking a P.K.D. film or two...But from what I've heard a film version of "A Scanner Darkly" is being made I'd think, that would be pretty damn difficult if not impossable to pull off ... But I just wish someone would make a film version of "the Electric Ant" As for others: "Starship Troopers" - the CGI animated roughnecks show was tons better (and I HATE CGI!) "Dune" - I liked the look of the Lynch film far, FAR better then the "sci-fi generic" look of the mini-series (but I liked the miniseries better for remaining closer to the book)...maybe some day we will get an animated (NOT CGI!!) version which I think is the perfect film medium for the story...

Thank god, I'm not the only one! Damn strait!...the only new system I'm even potentialy considering is the PSX2 (already got Ikaruga for the DC, altho the 'cube version looks sweet...I just have some issues with the controller ) My old trusted DC works just fine thank you (the recent Border Down and new Psyvarier2 keep me interested in the old girl ) ... Right now the only reason I would scoop up a new system is if Treasure were to develop a sequel to Bangai-O useing the duel analog PSX2 controllers (hint, hint) The DC version of Bangai-O is one of my all time favorite games...it is pure raw gameplay crack and absolutely kick ass in every respect

The 20+ year old 300ZX, Lambo, and Ferrai body styles arn't in production anymore (and both the Lambo Countach and Ferrari 308/328 body designs date back to the early 1970's) Takara and Hasbro prolly figured such "old" cars wouldn't appeal to collectors anymore, especialy considering that these are all new toys of the subjects in question...so they went after much more current car designs for this product line and are partially at the automakers mercy as far as colors go... Personnaly I would love to see some of the classic muscle cars of the 1960's, classics of the fifties, and classic hot rods (34' coupe, T- Bucket Roadster, etc..) be given the transformers binaltech treatment... A 1957 Chevy Bel-Air would be BAD ASS!!!

I don't know for sure but found this: http://www.law.upenn.edu/bll/ulc/fnact99/1920_69/udja22.htm which seems to be a copy of the act in question... also from this I don't think the act applies...maybe if the dealers were acting with a license from BW, Yamato, etc. to distribute the products in question...then the act could *possably* be called upon to decide whom had the legal athority over the license...even then I'm not sure this act would apply. But, I'm no lawyer...

It kind of reminds me of these UFO cather toys... http://www22.pos.to/%7Ebutto/tth0-09.html

Macek did not record a commentary track for the Heavy Metal DVD...That whole audio track is of Macek reading from his book...a book full of quoted interviews from the animators and filmakers who worked on the film...the DVD menu and packageing even states as much.

You...actually....listened....to....Macek....talk....about....the ....film....Heavy Metal?

Hey, not to shabby! Kinda cool seeing how you have to program in the placement of thngs each frame just like they did on the original....One thing I would do though is to loosen up the camera a bit as it's pan-stop-pan-stop motion tracking the bike is a bit jarring, makes it hard to tell what is happening in the sequence... Maybe move the camera one grid space during the shot, and use the general animation guidelines of anticipation and follow through and inerta on the camera pan...it's harder stuff to calculate then 90 degree turning bikes, but they pulled it off on Tron pretty well...

That's interesting....but wrong. By the time streamline came about, AnimEigo had also popped up, as did fledgling interest in releasing anime. Pioneer & Bandai both having large Japanese parent companies would have also gone the natural progression, Voyager was already releasing star blazers on tape, and the fact is that there was so much more tv anime before & after robotech, none of it related to the release of robotech, that macek was just a drop in the bucket. Wrong? Naw, you are just looking for a argument... Look man...history happened...we could fruitlessly speculate all day long about how things would have turned out minus the Macek man...and I know it rubs you all kinds of wrong...but Macek was there doing his little tap dance upon/to/for/in support of anime...No, Macek wasn't the first anime cheer leader, and no he wasn't the first to pump out crap "improved" anime either...But Macek and dozens of other equaly important people were there, each doing what they thought was right for anime....they all deserve our graditude...history favors the bold, and for lack of better term Macek was bold (be it as an ass or whatever). Unless you have proof of Macek's evil...the killing puppies, burning kittens, piloting aircraft into buildings...then put your hatred of him to good use...do something constructive like writeing to the organizers of this awards event, promting them to also pay tribute to the likes of AnimEigo and the other anime scene pioneers!

Macek deserves it...Back before the internet there were a loose knit of snail mail basied anime fan clubs...Even fan subs were rare in those days as the technology wasn't nearly as cheap...and along comes Macek with Streamline...not the best solution (and certainly the company showed what NOT to do with dubbing) but a true pioneer in the field...maybe anime would be as/even more popular today without the contribution of Macek...but "history happens" and in some small way we are here on this message board, a part of this wonderfull site, because Macek had his hands on the wheel, guideing the early anime boat, laying the foundation for the anime scene we often take for granted today...

It's not hard at all to fake these sorts of images...this is the internet we are talking about here afterall. To get images such as these all one has to do is surf through the websites and message forums relateing to "concept art" ... places like this: http://www.conceptart.org/forums/ which are full of talented artists (and some not so talented) who are inspired by everything from anime to the Star Wars films and able to mimic the style to untrained eyes...artists fill these sites, who in thier spare time might try to model some craft or creature from thier imagination, or who take a description from a book of a person/place/thing and design an interpretation of it, or simply try and explore already established designs and post thier work to see responses ...a little copy and pasteing and you can "create" a hoax...not that I'm promoteing this sort of artisitic thieft or anything

Transformers as toys were always sorta okay for me, somewhat cheap, sometimes featured neat transformation scheme design elements...I only pick up the ones that I think look decent and/or have a potentialy interesting transformation.... I never cared about the show, and only got into the toys inorder to study how they worked, how the individual parts and pieces work together, the engineering involved in makeing something transform into a robot ... I also picked up Jetfire, Roadbuster, Whirl, and many of the delux insecticons just because I knew full well what they really were (obviously Macross, Dorvack, and Beetra) As for the more current designs...sci-fi vehicals and such are fine by me, I don't care if it's a futureistic car or a real world car as long as it looks cool...what I don't like about the designs (and this especialy includes bits of generation 1) is that they don't seem "complete"... By this I mean that something like the VF-1 was more fully developed in that it was better thought out and could be viewed from every angle...tail fin assembly becomes a backpack, etc...while many of the Transformers are designed to look like bots from the front, but from the back look like crap...also transformers tend to look far to "buisy" covered with panel lines and senseless mechanical bits (the whole "guts on the outside" greebies, kibble, etc) My favorite Transformer designs (besides those related to Macross, Dorvack, and Beetras line of toys) were Soundwave and the casettes, and for some strange reason Powermaster Prime (Ginrai) ... altho the Powermaster toy leaves a whole LOT to be desired Otherwise I find the Transformers spin off Brave series more interesting, with better toy designs, better stories, etc...

I got this DVD a couple weeks ago... honestly it's rather...well...um...bland and average as these things go...the cigar chomping weapons/information broker little old woman was my favorite character. The special effects are all CGI, and like everything CGI these days are technicaly well done, but completely lack all the charm, magic, and enthusiasm of physical models and/or men in suits (I'm prolly in a minority, but I'm so sick of CGI these days ) The story overall is okay, but very predictable and kinda drags in places...action scenes were done pretty well I guess, but nothing really stands out... Overall the film is middle of the road for me...not really good, and not really bad...If the film had taken itself far less seriously I would prolly like it better...

Actually given the tech background of the show what with those minorsky partical thingies messing around with radar signals...which would also mess up radio communications...which would more or less limit combat operations to within the visual range of opponets...it makes perfect logial and realistic sense to paint up the mobile suits in bright flashy colors...which in fact mirrors the real world WWI aircombat situation (WWI fighters had no radios, and the aircraft were brightly painted so as ground and support crews could eassily identify them...the famous Red Baron's Fokker tri-plane for example) Course the Gundam shows don't seem to be acurite in this reguards (especialy to radio communications between mobile suits which should be affected) Just look through the history of warfare...it has always, and will always change...the brutal barbarians gave way for the chivelry of the knights in heavy armor and jousting contests, which gave way for seemingly more barbarick swords, clubs, and spears, which gave way for guns and cannons carried by elaboritely unifomed troops, which gave way for tanks and planes now covered with cammo, which is giveing away to even sleeker and smaller craft in black stealth coloring....the old chivelry is still alive and well today in the form of rules of engaugement and other dogma covering how wars are to be fought...how we fight wars today isn't the best indicator of how we will fight wars a hundred years from now, never has been, never will be...and definetely something lbig and expenseive like a mobile suit that supposedly changes the face of warfare will undoubtedly change the way wars are fought, likely more in line with the even more chivelry oriented armored knights of old ... when looking at it in that light maybe G Gundam is the most realistic of all the gundam shows UC or otherwise

Maybe I'm the only one to get it...but the name "Camshaft" for a RX-7 or RX-8 basied Transformer is downright funny ... it's sort of an inside joke as real rotory engines such as those that power both the RX-7 and RX-8 don't use camshafts

Actualy these Bandai Machine Robo Rescue toys are really pretty cool I've got the police set (car and four bikes, all transform into little bots and combine into a larger bot)...These toys are definetely all about "infinate" combinations only limited by your imagination. consider them the Legos of robot toys They have a new sub line comeing out (MRR 2004?) that features vehicals that have animal modes and robot modes (basicly the robot folds up into a core block that the different animal/vehical parts attach to...course they can combine to form different robots, vehicals, and animal forms...these are more super sentai Brave saga - ish in design Here are the first three of those: http://members9.tsukaeru.net/ty1_toys/toys/MM01-03.htm There is now also a green crane/gorilla/bot in this line that just got released and looks pretty cool to me Course you can get these from HLJ, and can even get the larger base and carrier pieces too (big police truck, dump truck, even a huge train)...I think the MRR line kicks both Transformers Armada and Energion collective ass (course binaltech and masterpiece prime can easily stomp all over MRR)

Wonder how detailed and accurite it could be? will it have the model of the model with in the model of the model that exists in the model of the model inside the model in the model of the model in the model of the model of the model of the earth for the sake of accuricy and all that

Not to derail the thread...but check this out (part of that same model builders web site): http://www.dsnw.ne.jp/~comet/model/l-mk2.html Sorry I'm a big Nagano and L-Gaim fan... the L-Gaim mk 2 is one of my favorite mecha designs of all time...that link is to a fairly strait from the box build of the Bandai 1/100 kit of it ... a really cool kit with metal joint pieces for the inner workings of the chest and all of the inner mechanical parts under the armor as seen in the last few sets of pics (sort of a glue together master grade kit before Bandai introduced the line)...I've got 2 of these kits (and four of the same mech in 1/144 scale...more kits of the same mech then any other in my model collection)...Now, I just need to find the time to build them

Dear gawd HG, it isn't THAT difficult to come up with some new mecha designs that can do the three form transformation thingy and not have any direct resemblence to Macross (DRYL, Plus, II, 7, etc..) I did this one some two years ago for a thread on the old board about trying to come up with some new mecha designs for HG to fold into Robotech so they don't have to swipe anymore at the beloved Macross designs...Altho it's not in the exact same style as Kawamori (it's a bit too Gundam-ish) with a little reworking it could blend in pretty well (altho I must admit that the way the main body folds up is somewhat simular to the VF-19, but I didn't intend on that) ... not trying to toot my own horn here...but just showing that even I, a untrained "artist", can produce a aircraft basied three form mecha design that isn't ripped off the Macross collective...HG, just think of all the legal trouble and headaches you can avoid if you force your trained artists come up with a totaly new "clean sheet" design.

Thanks, guess I got a good set then as the video quality is fine

Cool drawing, very nice indeed ... Daimos is still one of my favorites

Thanks for the correction and name of that expansion.. I just don't see the big ugly walking tanks others may see when looking at battlemechs...to me they just look embarassing...not just for the pilot, but I gotta also take pity on the raw materials used in thier construction...but thats just my opinion

You will also find a mecha from the anime Crusher Joe...I think the Battletech name is the Locus (small two legged scout type thing)...also from crusher Joe were a couple of the star fighter designs featured on the cover of the air/space combat basied FASA expansion to Battletech back in the 1980's (I'm not into Battletech at all and thus can't recall what this expansion was ) A while ago someone posted a link to a web site with scans of the Japanese design battlemechs...which I think are hand down better looking then the mechwarrior designs seen today I'll dig around and try to find that link If you want to compare the designs....