Apollo Leader

Does anyone think the "final" episode of Quantum Leap was shot all the way back during season 1 or 2? When the last episode of QL was aired, the footage seemed to look a little grainier (or at least shot differently) then the episodes of the last few seasons. Also, the only people that Sam leaped into that were mentioned in the last episode were only the people Sam leaped into during the first, maybe second, season. Does anyone know the reason behind this? Was the "final" episode shot early on because they thought the show was going to be cancelled after just one or two seasons?

You beat me to it! We've been watching Yamato fansubbed one episode each month since last summer or so (JELEINEN helps run Anime Sunday here in Omaha each month). This is definitely an anime classic and I would buy it if it ever came out here in the US. You can see where both Gundam and Macross get a lot of their early influences (especially the naval ships in space concept).

That is why the inferior Nintendo DS has been in a lot of cases outselling the PSP... it focuses on being a solid game system and nothing more. As for UMD movies, if these discs were compatible with DVD home systems, I could see these movies selling like hotcakes if yould play them on BOTH on your home system and your PSP. Unlike Blu-Ray or HD-DVD which is a move forward, UMD is a move sideways.

I'll post some of my experiences from RAW later on including some pictures. I had quite a bit of fun. Afterwards my friend Mike and I stood out on the street corner where a lot of the wrestlers and other WWE personalities were driving past in their rental cars or vehicles. Every single one of them was on a cell phone... how many were actually talking on their phones or just using them as security blankets to ignore the public, I don't know. The funny thing was that Mike and I were about the only people standing there realizing that there were wrestlers in these vehicles and most people were going across the street not paying any attention to who was in these cars! There was a black and white limo that left separately and we both believe that Vince was in one and Triple H and Stephanie were probably in the other... each time the limos came up to the corner, Mike started to pretend to walk around like Vince all stiff looking and everything!

Considering the size of the spear and the location of the wound, NO ONE could have survived that injury. It was very disappointing that they wussed out in killing Duke. GI Joe the cartoon was for the most part okay, but the Movie and the 1986-87 season sucked. They should have never have gone off on the whole Serpentor and Cobra-La tangent. The comic book written by Larry Hama rocked, though. Larry killed off Serpentor as soon as he could and he completely refused to inject Cobra-La into the comic. As for Transformers the movie, it was the defining moment as a 12 year old Transformer fan. I left that theater back in August 1986 completely blown away. Unfortunately, the 1986-87 season of the cartoon royally sucked in both the story and animation departments.

[lisp]Gwahm, you ah tho intolowent![/lisp] (Graham, I presume you know what else a "tranny" is. )

I'm about to start an all new post for this, but has anyone heard why disc #2 which was suppose to have been out like 2 weeks ago has hardly shown up anywhere? None of the local Best Buys have gotton it even though it's been available for ordering on Best Buy's online store for two weeks. No other Best Buy in the US has it listed as being available! I even stopped by the local Suncoast and they don't have it yet either. What is going on? I'd prefer to buy it locally, but there seems to be no signs of it hitting the retail level.

Tonight at the Omaha Qwest Center... RAW - IS - OMAHA! One of my coworkers got back from the Gold's Gym at 108th just north of Q Street just a little bit ago. It appears that virtually all the wrestlers went to another Gold's Gym in town to do their workouts, but the one and only Torrie Wilson was at this one. She was on the treadmill for like over an hour. Obviously there were a lot of gawkers.

32 now... 33 in September!

Actually I just looked through some of the earliest strips from 1998 and boy did they look different back then. But the way they're drawn today I swear they bear a resemblance Hikaru and Roy even if it's a coincidence. I first noticed this when EGM started running some of these strips.

The Penny Arcade How many of you guys have checked this site out or seen these strips republished in Electronic Gaming Monthly? Is it me, or does the two main characters in the strip bear a VERY strong resemblance to Hikaru and Roy?

I figure it will be mainly games that were released in the US. I don't think Dracula X was ever localized for the US. Here's a Genesis game I hope makes it on to the list... Zero Wing!!! All your base are belong to us!

Noel, if you are in touch with the guys making these figures, tell them that the stripe on Hikaru's flight suit denotes his rank and is not a name tag! I'm sure they'll come to this realization when they do Focker or any other higher ranking officer.

*Bump*

Genesis and Turbo Grafx libraries available for Nintendo Revolution! Not only will the Revolution be backward compatible with the Gamecube and be able to download N64, SNES, and NES games, but now it's going to able to play many of the games of its past two competitors! Who would have ever saw this coming?! While Microsoft and Sony are pushing for the ultimate next generation machines, Nintendo is aiming for making this the ultimate nostalgia machine! After having sold off virtually every Nintendo thing I ever had last fall (kept only my newer model SNES and 21 games for it), the Revolution is looking ever more tempting and exciting to get. I just might have to rebuy my Mario Kart Double Dash and Ikaruga!

Great news for Call of Duty 2 fans! The long talked about update that greatly expands the online features of the game (now able to create your own lobby and invite whoever you want, ability to kick people out of your lobby, choices of what maps you do or do not want to use, etc.) finally became available yesterday. A few in game differences I've noticed include more objects to hide behind and the size of the font of the text that tells you on onscreen of who was killed by who and by what weapon has been greatly reduced... a lot of times when this info would pop up, it was greatly distracting and effected your field of vision. Supposedly the lag issues were addressed as well (on the several games I played last night, I didn't encounter any lag in any games). A big thumbs up to Activision for making a great game even better!

How about the SDFriggin'-1 Macross?!?!?!?!?!? 6 years of Yamato, Toynami, Bandai, and others doing Macross/Macross Saga toys and no one has released a fully transformable toy of the name sake of the whole series!!!! Either DYRL or TV series version, though DYRL version would greatly be perferred. Several years ago, Graham and Shawn ran an "unofficial" poll for Yamato to see what us Macross diehards wanted. An SDF-1 toy was like the second place overall choice. A fully transformable 1/3000th scale DYRL SDF-1 would sell quite well me thinks.

Story goes that Keifer seriously proposed that Jack would be killed during season 2. I think the script originally had him flying the nuke out to its detonation point, sacrificing his life. But in the end, the show is undoubtedly "The Jack Bauer Power Hour"... no Jack, no 24.

After 15 years or so after attending my last WWF match at the Omaha Civic Auditorium, a week from Monday I will be at the Qwest Center here in Omaha to see RAW which is being broadcasted from here. A few nights ago, a friend of mine, who's been a big wrestling fan for years, threw the idea of both of us going down there. I said what the heck and a few minutes later the tickets were ordered. Good thing it wasn't tomorrow since it's been snowing all day today and we're suppose to get maybe a foot of the white stuff by the time it all ends tomorrow night. Though I have only been casually following the WWE recently, since it's been 15 years since I've been to a live WWF/WWE event, still looking forward to it. At least I can finally say that I've been in the Qwest Center!

Simply incredible! I use to make ficticious aircraft and mecha out of legos all the time so I sure appreciate this guys creativity.

Where did you get the $425 price? I know the main numbers going around has been the alleged $700-$900 manufacturing cost for the system. My guess is that the version with the hard drive will be sold at $499 or higher. I just wonder how big of a hit Sony is willing to take during the PS3's first few years of life to get it out to as big of a market possible?

379833[/snapback] You beat me to it. Here's my 3 paragraph version. Apollo Leader's complaint against Harmony Gold I have been meaning to write this letter for some time now and, in light of recent developments, I believe it is appropriate. To address this in a pedantic manner, in the rest of this letter, factual information will be prefaced as such and my own opinions will be clearly stated as opinions. For instance, it is a fact that whatever your age, you now have only one choice. That choice is between a democratic, peace-loving regime that, you hope, may discuss the relationship between three converging and ever-growing factions -- unconscionable, unpleasant lamebrains, unpatriotic, meretricious talebearers, and the most unrealistic dossers you'll ever see -- and, as the alternative, the disreputable and tactless dirigisme currently being forced upon us by Harmony Gold. Choose carefully, because it will not be easy to rage, rage against the dying of the light. Nevertheless, we must attempt to do exactly that, for the overriding reason that if it were to use more accessible language, then a larger number of people would be able to understand what it's saying. The downside for Harmony Gold, of course, is that a larger number of people would also understand that if it could have one wish, it'd wish for the ability to scorn and abjure reason. Then, people the world over would be too terrified to acknowledge that in my speaking engagements, I have found in audience questions an alarming increase in concern about smarmy franions. I could write pages on the subject, but the following should suffice. Harmony Gold ignores a breathtaking number of facts, most notably: Fact: I find Harmony Gold the most juvenile organization in the world. Fact: I've received appreciative notes from academic psychologists and students of culture who deplore the misapplication of their subjects by ideologues like Harmony Gold. Fact: Things are apt to get worse before they get better. In addition, Harmony Gold is extremely execrable. In fact, let's see what my Execrable-O-Meter has to say about it. Whoa! The needle is off the scale! It's a good thing I checked, because I am not up on the latest gossip. Still, I have heard people say that I suppose it's predictable, though terribly sad, that tyrannical clowns with stronger voices than minds would revert to manipulative behavior. But Harmony Gold's latest manifesto, like all the ones that preceded it, is a consummate anthology of disastrously bad writing teeming with misquotations and inaccuracies, an odyssey of anecdotes that are occasionally entertaining, but certainly not informative. One of the enduring effects of Harmony Gold's allegations is surely the way they will institutionalize antagonism through systematic violence, distorted religion, and dubious science. I'll give you an example of this, based on my own experience. As you know, Harmony Gold's legates believe that there is something intellectually provocative in the tired rehashing of pathological stereotypes. Although it is perhaps impossible to change the perspective of those who have such beliefs, I wish nevertheless to provide an antidote to contemporary manifestations of pudibund, lackadaisical fetishism. If I didn't sincerely believe that Harmony Gold is an expert at shameless name-dropping, then I wouldn't be writing this letter. I see two problems with Harmony Gold's imprecations on a very fundamental level. First, it justifies its thievery by saying things like, "It's for the good of society". And second, it can't fool me. I've met sexist yokels before, so I know that if you think about it you'll see that Harmony Gold's conceited homilies are merely a distraction. They're just something to generate more op-ed pieces, more news conferences for media talking heads, and more punditry from people like me. Meanwhile, Harmony Gold's supporters are continuing their quiet work of advancing Harmony Gold's real goal, which is to deflect attention from its unwillingness to support policies that benefit the average citizen. Harmony Gold just reported that a totalitarian dictatorship is the best form of government we could possibly have. Do you think that that's merely sloppy reporting on Harmony Gold's part? I don't. I think that it's a deliberate attempt to sacrifice children on the twin altars of charlatanism and greed. I guess I can't blame Harmony Gold for wanting to drag men out of their beds in the dead of night and castrate them. After all, my position is that its secret agents mistakenly associate "lengthy" with "accurate" when it comes to its accusations. Harmony Gold, in contrast, argues that diseases can be defeated not through standard medical research but through the creation of a new language, one that does not stigmatize certain groups and behaviors. This disagreement merely scratches the surface of the ideological chasm festering between me and Harmony Gold. The only rational way to bridge this chasm is for it to admit that if you're the type who dares to think for yourself, then you've probably already determined that it's unregenerate for it to produce a large number of absolutely soporific extravagancies, most merciless indecencies, and, above all, the most petty blasphemies against everything that I hold most sacred and most dear. Or perhaps I should say, it's snippy. It is high time for someone to get us out of the hammerlock that Harmony Gold is holding us in. Will that someone be you?

It's official: PS3 worldwide launch in November. Unless Sony is ahead at this point in development and manufacturing capacity then Microsoft was a year ago with the 360, who doesn't see the same thing happening with the PS3 at launch? Sony hasn't tried doing a worldwide release before on their systems (the Japanese market getting the Playstation 1 and 2 over half a year before anyone else). The price still hasn't been confirmed. And it could vary depending on if they include their hard drive or not. I applaud that they seem to be putting more of an emphesis on the PS3 fully utilizing its hard drive then Microsoft did with the 360, but if this is the case, the hard drive should be a mandatory pack-in and not an option. I know I'm going off topic, but a message to Microsoft, "stop selling the core system!" The only 360's I have seen in stores since launch has been the core system. I swear I have not seen a Premium set since I got mine back on November 22nd. Gamers know that the hard drive version is the way to go. Cool that we finally got some more news and info on the PS3, but still a lot of unknowns that will make or break people buying it (especially the cost). I will probably pass for a year or two unless a UC Gundam game gets released stateside.

The only odd thing with Halo 2 I've had is where I'll get this like ghost image of what looks like the outline of some jungle or forrest appears (I think this happens just online). It's a very light ghost image that is very light and transparent (a very, very light white transparency). It's happened a few times and I can't figure out what is causing it. The 360, Halo 2 itself, or Xbox Live? I don't know. So far my 360 is working awesomely after almost 4 months so I don't think that's the case. As for your headset, if I have a bad Internet connection or something is screwy with Xbox Live, I'll get this annoying popping sound on my headset.

It's the 14th. Isn't it (Vol.2) suppose to be out today? I was checking Best Buy's website and it seems like it's up for ordering my it looks like no stores have gotton it yet.