JB0

God-annar.

Probably one of the ads running on Megaupload. Didn't set my Avast off. But I've got adblock.

Awesome show. I skipped over it several times because it was a blatant T&A anime. Then someone whose tastes I generally trust started recommending it and I was like "seriously?" And it was awesome.

BLASTER MASTER! It's about damn time Sunsoft got us a GOOD Blaster Master sequel/remake. Admittedly, not as good as the original, but... it doesn't suck. That's better than everything else has done.

Ya know, I've always thought of the Gnerl fighter as a "girl's mech." And I'm not sure why. ... Maybe just because we never see a pilot for one, and there's a lot less ladies shown than guys(Millia, Lap'Lamiz... and that's it) Or maybe it's some silly Robotechism I picked up somewhere. It's non-canon, any way you slice it. Welcome to my head, population sqrt(-1) Ooooh, I hadn't seen that one! Now I know! ... Wonder how they fire their guns that way... There'd be highly limited opportunities for aerial Valkyrie practice aboard the Macross, was the angle I was approaching from. I admit the Macross had a... unique... training regimen, but it's the one that matters for most of the show, and for Millia's first Valk sorties. I don't think the handling would be THAT dis-similar in a vacuum, though. Especially once the super packs are added. In the absence of air, the shape of the vehicle makes no difference. What matters is is if the main thrust is balanced aligned along the center of mass(so it doesn't spin the spaceship like crazy when you try to thrust), how much power you have(determines maximum acceleration), and vernier placement(for changing orientation and "sidestepping"). With both vehicles meeting the balanced thrust issue, it becomes a matter of performance more than anything. Admittedly, they're on pretty much opposite ends of the performance spectrum(the way the Q-Rau bulls through atmosphere like it's not there, it's got some crazy vernier output), but still operating from the same rulebook. *shrug* Definitely. Just saying, in terms of operation, they're easier to aim with as well. A Valk in battroid mode can be firing any which way imaginable, but a Destroid will always be firing the direction it's facing. In terms of versatility, this goes to the Valk, but the Destroid wins ease of operation there.

Indeed. Though I'm curious HOW close they are. I mean, clearly the GERWALK has wings, but it also has arms and ground effect thrusters. I'm curious if Max and Kakizaki were in training longer, since they had to go to flight school. ... Or if Hikaru was there longer because he had to unlearn atmospheric expectations that don't apply in a vacuum... dammit, why did I think of that just now? But he seemed to grasp the issue easy enough with his stunt plane. I'd expect her to have training in more than one vehicle, really. She's an elite ace and special ops and yadda-yadda. Even a spy! Admittedly, the zentradi definition of spy is iffy at best and seems to consist more of "You're all alone and wearing a burlap sack" than any special training, but... let's run with it. But you identified the VF-1 as flying on lift. It most certainly didn't, not when Millia joined up. In the vacuum of space, you fly and maneuver on thrust, or you don't fly. So the only real issue is the controls, which are a question mark(as far as I know, there's no source image for Q-Rau controls, so all we know is pilot arms won't fit inside mech arms). Maybe the Valk isn't as fast and nimble as a Q-Rau, but it handles much the same. It's more like trading from a Ferrari to a Fiesta. Sure everything's laid out a bit different, and you don't have near as much kick, but it still works the same. They identified the controls and hit the target first try, though. There weren't any false starts as they flicked switches trying to identify the right controls. I believe they used the comm unit to call for help, too. But they can be implanted with detailed piloting knowledge in the cloning chambers. While they can't REPAIR their gear, operating complex aerospace vehicles could be as second-nature as breathing. The zentradi are lopsided, from our perspective. SOCIALLY, they're children that don't know how to interact with the real world. MILITARILY speaking, they're closer to hardened veterans with decades of experience. Moi? Surely you jest! Seriously, I wasn't thinking of Last Starfighter... I wonder if that was subconscious... The destroids also don't have as complex a design. Weapons are all pointed forward. You just turn to face your target and unload. Now, using a Spartan effectively, THAT I would expect to require a good bit of training. It's designed for melee combat, and has real arms(among other things).

Wish I could see one. The worst part is that NASA's getting an additional 6 billion dollars, so it's not even about saving money. Ghost Train: Can you imagine the look on this time traveller's face when he realizes everyone owns a wireless phone the size of A CANDY BAR... and no one talks on them because they're too busy sending telegrams?

I would agree. Most of the disparity is going to come from needing to know how to operate three different vehicles and switch between them on the fly. Hikaru is also a special case on multiple levels. He already has extensive aircraft experience(which apparently carries over to basic GERWALK operation), and the Macross is doing a rush-job on training. They get the pilots to the point where they CAN fight, and throw 'em out there because they need a pilot NOW more than they need the best pilots they can get. If they have someone that already knows how to fly a plane, so much the better. Show him how to change it to a robot, have him do a few laps around the block, and get that boy a fighter jet. He'll get over this ridiculous pacifist kick once someone's shooting at him. A veteran combat ace is scored the same as a complete rookie? She's BEEN through basic training, advanced training, and EXTENSIVE real-world combat experience. Hardly a raw recruit. And the operation principles for human and zentradi mechs aren't that different, so much of her training should carry over. In fact, they're so similar that Hikaru, Max, Misa, and Kakizaki can operate a Regult with NO zentradi mecha training, or even the ability to read the control labels, despite being MUCH smaller than the intended operator. And while it's rampant speculation, I like the idea that the first-date arcade machine is actually a simplified simulator sponsored by the ship's military officials. There's absolutely no evidence to support it, but it makes sense, given the severe shortage of pilots and rush-job training. If they come in knowing the basics of how to fly, drive, and shoot, they can suit up and hop into a brownie that much faster after enlisting. No argument that destroids are easier to operate. Even if they weren't originally(due to being older and less streamlined), there is no technology applied to the Valkyries that can't be used on the Destroids. Like I said last year, I think the big problem is we just haven't seen a setting since the original series where a large Destroid force makes SENSE.

The American manned space program is over. http://www.space.com/news/white-house-conf...-sn-100201.html Space shuttle retires at the end of 2010. President Obama's proposed budget cancels the Constellation project intended to replace the shuttle as well as return to the moon(the mass media noticed the moon return, but not the space shuttle replacement part). And he has vowed to fight Congress if they restore it.

Hikaru didn't. Not in battroid mode, anyhow. He transformed it from a plane, which he had extensive professional experience with, to a robot, which he had no experience with, crashed through a city block(I'll give this one to the Zentradi that shot him down), and proceeded to smash buildings on either side of the street, requiring assistance from the citizens around him to extract his vehicle from the building. Roy Focker subsequently tells him to transform to GERWALK mode because it controls much more like a regular fighter plane. In fighter mode, it's a plane. Hikaru had extensive training and real-world experience at flying those. In GERWALK it controls more or less like a plane. We'll have to take Focker's word for that. In battroid mode... an untrained Variable Fighter pilot with extensive airplane experience is a danger to himself and those around him.

A bit late for the G1 discussion... I view the term much like how the original Star Trek series is referred to as TOS, an abbreviation of "The Original Series"(which I have NEVER seen typed out, except when explaining what TOS means), instead of just "Star Trek." Much like Transformers, just saying Star Trek isn't clear enough in the nest of sequels and spinoffs. The "Generation 2" marketing implied a convenient name for the original products, giving Transformers fans a more catchy name for their base material than Star Trek.

If I recall, January. Also, it's gonna be the DSi XL in the US. Nintendo's being fairly laid-back with the DSi over here, probably because there's still no really compelling reason to get it instead of a Lite. Edit: First quarter 2010.

Pinouts! I remember now! I was supposed to say something in there about it being a trivial effort to make a converter, then got distracted by the wholly tangential ROM size thing. Since everything except the pinout (and maybe actual physical connector?) is identical, it's a simple passive adapter to convert home carts to arcade carts and vice-versa. Just 2 connectors, cross-wired to create the right physical connection on the other side, in much the same vein as the FamiCom->NES adapters found inside several first-run US NES games. Stability would pose a hell of a challenge with carts that big, though... maybe that's why adapter boards to stick home carts in arcade boards wasn't a booming business.

I was going off the "almost exact" comment and reading it in a different way for some reason. And my brain filled in some things about the region lockout mentioned in the first post. ... I'm not entirely sure why I quoted you, to be honest.

In most cases, the ROM chips used are identical, both across region and across platform(home VS arcade) There's a very few exceptions. Which is why NeoGeo carts were so stupidly expensive. The amount of ROM in them was(and still is) absurdly large, especially for a home game(but they were pushing it even for arcade games). Pulstar is a larger game than Zelda 64, despite being 3 years older and far simpler. It's roughly the same size as Marvel VS Capcom, again 3 years later. (Note that the above examples are not active advocacy of any of the titles in question. Just convenient frames of reference.) It didn't help that SNK actively discouraged space-saving measures. They wanted to brag about their megabits, and the bigger the better. Which led to MASSIVELY bloated games. Simple data compression could've made them significantly smaller, and thus cheaper to manufacture, with no effect on the games. And in fact, was employed in a few VERY late releases.

As I understand things, their video game ratings board is one of the few major exceptions(though that part's really just an extension of what boils down to an office of media censorship that deeply disturbs me in general). They also refuse to allow the Australian equivalent of an R/M/mature responsible adult rating for video games. So if the game won't fly under a PG13/T/punk whippersnapper rating, they literally have no choice but to ban it. The game must be rated to be sold, and if they legally can't give it an appropriate rating...

COVERUP! DON'T BELIEVE THE LIES! EXPOSE THE TRUTH!

Because the script called for it. And to sell cross-licensed anime soundtracks.

Wasn't it the Metal Siren from Macross 2? *ducks*

Yeah, probably. Even before Zillion, I'm pretty sure. Of course, Zillion was only SORT OF a toy VS electronic game, given it was a Lazer Tag bootleg. It was suspiciously close to a standard electronic game, so it may've been their first real attempt at branching out. Honestly, the first time I realized they made something besides games was when I flipped over some old Pocket Power toys(anyone remember those?) and saw a Sega logo.

To heck with that. Yet Another FPS is the LAST thing the game market needs. Gimme another space combat simulator. X-Wing/TIE Fighter. Rock it old school. Since the XWing Trilogy back in 2000, the sum total of space combat simulators is Project Sylpheed and ... Project Sylpheed? And adaptive music this time, LucasArts! You did it in DOS, you can do it now! That's why I mock the Win9x X-Wing and TIE Fighter ports. Suuuure, the graphics are "high-res" and texture-mapped. But adaptive music is QBerting awesome, and ditching it is QBerting lame.

Weight has nothing to do with it!

What kind of loser plays a class where you can't circle-strafe? Cheating haxxors the lot of them!

Longbow is broken. It drops knights before they can even get in sword range. This piece of crap is a disaster, when are they gonna balance it?!?!?!

Don't forget ROY FOCKER: Keeping the breweries aboard the Macross profitable. Keeping the hair gel manufacturers aboard the Macross profitable. Keeping them crazies over in Vermillion from doing anything TOO stupid.