JB0

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.

I saw part of the original one-shot OVA. From what I've heard, it was all downhill from there. Seriously, you've heard something GOOD about Strike Witches?

I was too young, too. I was going more by how the show presented it than the official specs. The hero's plane was more or less the same as everyone else's plane... except that brown paint explodes.

If you didn't like it... why did you rewatch it? Personally, I dropped that one about the point their crazy scientist dude started declaring they could use a paint chip scrapped off the star mech to construct a detailed performance analysis of a completely unknown machine. If I'd CARED about anything, I probably would've laughed my rear off and moved on. But I just felt insulted at the complete idiocy of the entire thing. "Hey, guys.. check this out! Our 50-foot robots can make centuries-old conflicts wash up overnight as guerilla terrorist organizations decide we're too big a threat to them and ally with legitimate governments to stop us!" So yeah, I gave it about 5 episodes. Ugly robots, horrible writing, cliche and naive themes...

That's the great thing about being me. I only buy a few Transformers. Specifically, those I find to be awesome. Sure there's the occasional dud that looks good in photos but not on the shelf. Animated Slag*backspace*Snarl got by on nostalgia(G1 Slag was my favorite Transformer for quite a while, due in no small part to triceratops beign my favorite dinosaur at the time), and shelved later because he was just too stumpy. As an example. But for the most part, I think the toys I have were worth it, even if about half of them have been shuffled into the closet with G1 for lack of space. But I'm pretty selective. I've only got FOUR live-action movie toys(ignoring repaints from other lines, like Crasher.) And the best two of those weren't even movie characters(Wreckage and Arcee ver. 1) NONE of my G1 toys are on display. I can't pose them, and they just look too out of place. ... And Slag's chrome is all worn off and he won't stand up unaided anyways.

The slap was what did me in, really. And not JUST because Klan should know better than to be slapping mecha with only a fragile skintight space suit between her and the hard vacuum of space!

Honestly, I suspect he's pissed with anime in general and was using Frontier to vent. It's hardly the worst of the recent crop of shows, but it's what they were asking him to talk about, and giving him written permission to tear apart. The VF sniper rifle WAS kind of silly, though I'd argue it was a sympton of the real problem. All our relevant characters had their own custom machines. Not just paintjobs, full unique equipment loadouts. On special advance-issue prototypes, even! That's a slap in the face to the original series, which took great pains to avoid having a hero mech. Everyone had the same gear and the same plane. Sure Hikaru's 1J had a funny-looking head, but it wasn't any better or worse than Focker's 1S or everyone else's 1A. It went the same speed, fired the same gun, carried the same missiles... it was just another bird in the sky. I suppose I should just be glad the Frontier gang weren't all flying one-off mechs like in Gundam. There's still SOME vestige of the original series in there.

So you want an american movie, about an american character, that takes place in America, to speak proper british english? We don't make James Bond say ass when he gets over here. He's allowed to keep his arses. Anyways.... movie sounds awesome. And gives me a bit of a Mystery Men vibe.