JB0

I believe PS* cards are region-neutral. But I haven't had occasion to test except in emulators, which obviously aren't the same. Any region variances will only be in the data format, though. Fat lot of good it does you when Sony won't give you something as basic as a format command, though. ... Wait.... AC3 and a bum PS1 card? Are you trying to save a PS2 game on a PS1 memory card? That won't work. Nor will saving PS1 games on a PS2 card.

I DON'T have most of the Fire Bomber songs, but agree that more songs would have helped a LOT. By the time they added the second in, I was sick to death of Planet Dance. HEY EVERYBO-*mute* I think the entire fleet counts as backups. The impression I got was that EVERYONE can do it, if they're passionate enough. Even poor tone-deaf Gamlin(who should be legally banned from singing in the presence of others). Basara is just by far the best at it, with Mylene a distant second. He's in a perpetual state of worked-up and doesn't NEED the impending death of himself, his family, his friends, his species, his galaxy, and his universe to push him on. He just really really really REALLY wants people to LISTEN TO HIS SONG! and it'll touch their hearts if he puts everything he has into it. Even the heathens that don't like rock will be moved, if he can only convince them to LISTEN!. In short, he's a super-robot pilot with a guitar.

New cables will probably run about $30(God, but I hate how they're overpricing everything to death on the 360...). That's what the going rate seems to be. And of course, you'll want the ability to look at the connector design in the package or an easy way to return them if they don't fit. You could also harass Microsoft and see if they're willing to exchange it, since they screwed up.

To be fair, EVERYTHING fails eventually. The 5200 sticks just fail unusually fast. Near as I can tell, the flex circuit technology they used just wasn't mature enough for the environment it was subjected to. Hence why many 5200 sticks only have dead start and fire buttons. I DID mod one stick, but only because I got sick of opening it to clean the contacts(weekly to monthly, depending on usage patterns). Ghetto aluminum foil mod for the win!

I thought chrono's point was the relicensing. Say ADV snatches Black Lagoon up. And sits on it, to keep shelves clear for Yet Another Eva Reissue.

I MAY be giving him too much credit, but I think he's referring to how some companies snap licenses up, then sit on them without actually releasing anything. I know ADV used to be infamous for it, dunno how much it's changed since then.

Yes. .... Sort of. Saw this on another forum. The HDMI units are SUPPOSED to come with a redesigned AV cable that has the TOSLINK connector in a bulge on the cable. Those cables work just fine. But some of the decks have the original-style TOSLINK-on-plug cable packed in instead. The original connector is too wide, and interferes with the HDMI port when it's connected. It's an ugly solution either way though, what with the big wad of component/composite/analog audio cable hanging off. Sad that they won't spare the space on the deck for a dedicated TOSLINK connection.

But that's only half-there too. Remember, the Saturn/PS1 game has an animation sequence of Skull squadron launching and the Prometheus getting vaped, then a side-scrolling game level, then another FMV of the Macross folding out. There's no transition between the two since they're bookendings for a gameplay stage. You'd need to create ANOTHER new animation sequence to bridge the first and second existing sequence. In the same vein, I'd LOVE to see the ARMD attack animation and stage added. GPB 1Js kicking ass en masse!

Just from watching the first episode, I think this one might be further from the original than the OVA was. To the best of my admittedly limited knowledge, they managed to veer as far as humanly possible in the space of thirty minutes. It's my understanding that the 60s live-action show was a semi-faithful adaptation, and the only attempt that's been made at one.

Okay. That makes a lot more sense. I thought you meant like, the entire video cassette/LaserDisk/whatever else Flashback is on.

I have G1 Jazz. Hes a lot more interesting that way than in flat silver. I ALMOST bought G1 Starscream. But I still hate the look of the mold, so.... yeah. Waiting for US Masterpiece 'Screamer.

Because only part of Flashback was intended to be in DYRL in the first place. The rest is a mish-mash that, oni many cases, doesn't fit with the movie(since Flashback has DYRL AND TV series sequences in it). Again I say: Flashback is grossly over-rated.

But remastering the visuals is just restoring them. Repairing damage and going back to source to get away from artifacts introduced in prior video-ifications(mainly interlacing, unless we're dealing with a VHS rip instead of LaserDisk). Not fabricating non-existent information. That's more like colorizing black&white films. I'm very much in favor of leaving it in it's original format. Restore it, by all means. But don't go wasting the disk space on a 6-channel mix for a show that never had a surround soundtrack to start with. Also worth noting that, contrary to your statement, using the original stereo format actually allows for higher-quality audio, since all the audio data is dedicated to two channels instead of split up among 6(even granting that one is a limited-range subwoofer channel). Not that it matters in the US, since we almost invariably get a Dolby Digital soundtrack at a fairly low bitrate, regardless of how much disk space is left(though that bitrate would have better sound with less channels), while Japan tends towards high-bitrate PCM soundtracks. So the US gets lower-quality audio, and almost invariably has space for more soundtracks, though they don't bother to put the original stereo/mono track in.

*expletive* the used decks. Don't even go NEAR them. Seriously. The system's known for having reliability issues, you don't get a proper warranty, there's almost no price break, and GameStop can't even test a PS2 right(took my sister 3 tries to get one that actually worked). You don't say what the Costco bundle is, but I doubt it's really much different than buying a 360 Premium and the game/accessories separately. Get the Target one. 10% off is good. The Intercooler is considered a VERY BAD THING. Aside from being connected to system-killing electrical shorts, it also stresses the system since it leeches from between the system and the power supply. As I understand things, the 360's voltage regulation is in the supply, not the console. Which makes leeching off it a bad thing. Intercooler is so messed up MS actually made a press release saying "Don't buy this. It's crap." They said if you DO buy one, get a USB-powered one. Though they officially deem it unnecessary and note that any unlicensed peripherals void your warranty(though barring Intercooler-related scorch marks, they'll never be able to tell). I don't see much need for the battery pack. I'm still on my first set of AAs. And there's not a good way to handle the charger unless you leave a big nasty cable hanging off your 360, which kinda defeats the purpose of wireless controllers. That's one excuse. Most people think MS just screwed up big-time. The system's so crowded there's just no airflow over the main heatsink. It doesn't really matter how long you play. The new heatsink should be out now. The new chipset is certainly worth waiting for at this point. But I was under the impression it was already hitting shelves. Not likely to be a good sale. Consoles rarely get marked down any appreciable degree below MSRP.

Like this? http://www.engadget.com/2006/04/11/datel-x...-to-pc-via-usb/ I've seen it at Best Buy before. Dunno if they still carry it.

Ikaruga had that option? I must've missed it somewhere in my distaste for the game as a whole... Was it in the DC release, or added for the 'Cube version?

Know what'd be REALLY nice? A "horizontal" mode. Where it rotates the game area AND controls, and uses a redesigned HUD. Essentially make it a horizontal scroll game, for those of us that want the better view area but can't, or won't, rotate our displays(I use a 32" CRT for gaming. Like hell I'm manhandling it around just to play a shooter arcade-proper).

You forget the average shooter fan is a bit nuts. Vertical mode winds up giving you arcade-identical graphics, since the resolution winds up being the same as the arcade one. Hence the draw. And I believe the option originated on the Dreamcast, which had VGA output(CRT PC monitors can usually be rotated fairly easily, though LCDs are certianly extremely friendly in that regard).

The TV, probably.

Ewwww.... I mock the "turn the screen sideways" options, but I at least see a POINT to them. I can't for the life of me fathom why someone would want to dork up the game by stretching everything to hell.

Now, I'm all for silly standards elitism(BTW, I see your enhanced resolution and raise you a no flicker and better color depth ), but.... I'm ALSO all for viewing media in as close to the native format as possible. The show was made for NTSC in the first place. The film is made for at NTSC frame rates, and assumes NTSC color and resolution. I also propose all TVs be sold with a 24, 25, 30, AND 60 FPS mode, for optimum reproduction of all standard framerates. ... And that they all be CRT, since you can only truly get variable resolution on CRTs. Frame-doubling can fix flicker.

It's not that the PC port takes better advantage of the hardware, it's that the arcade version runs on PC hardware. The Type-X hardware the arcade version runs on is actually a 2.5GHz P4-Celeron PC running XP Embedded. Seriously, it has PCI and AGP slots, the ATX backplate and EVERYTHING. I'd link pictures if System16 wasn't down right now. It's a standard PC in a metal crate. Not to start any platform fanboy wars or anything(I can think of reasons to own the 32x, for Bushnell's sake! I think I'm fairly platform-agnostic. ), but a gaming PC IS a LOT more powerful than a PS2. Stands to reason that a PC "port" of a Type-X game would be far closer to arcade-perfect than a PS2 port.

I thought the logic was obvious. It's the same reason Basara and Mylene are playing Hikaru and Minmay, even though they look NOTHING like the characters in question. While officially presented as a Minmay tribute, it was clearly meant as an advertising vehicle for Fire Bomber.

It seems to be IP-related, at least here. I stay logged in fine for an indefinite time period.... until my ISP changes my IP. THEN it boots me off.

Shatner made V'Ger a different "species" of Borg. It was part of the collective, but not the same part we know and love. It assimilated by "digitizing" instead of the more personal approach favored by other "races." Given the differences(assimilation technique being the biggie, since Next Gen did it surgically and the later ones used the less plausable, but faster and scarier, nanobots) between Next Gen Borg and Voyager/First Contact/Enterprise* Borg, the idea of muliple kinds of Borg gains a bit more weight. Overall, I wasn't very fond of Shatner's Trek books, though. 'Specially when he started claiming Starfleet made hacking the program the INTENDED solution to the Kobiyashi Maru. *WHY? We had a chance to take a break after being COMPLETELY Borged out by Voyager. I think I actually said at the premiere that one of the good points of a prequel was they COULDN'T do another Borg episode. And they HAVE to work in a Borg episode anyways! That does NOTHING for the story, since Q introduced humanity to the Borg at the same time Enterprise scheduled the Borg to find out about us.