JB0

See also: Sarcasm detector? Maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaac-rooooooooooosssssss!

Ya know what's bad? I was just thinking exactly the same thing. I suspect they were abandoned, but to be honest, I never saw why they were on the VF-1 in the first place.

Haw@video. Prime's reaction to Wheelie was great. And Blurr especially. "Out of all the autobots to survive..."

No iMUSE = lame. The original and CD versions of XWing and TIE Fighter had an adaptive soundtrack that varied in connection with in-game events, and seamlessly shifted from one piece to another. The Collector's Series version had redbook audio, which is... well, static. That's part of why many fans prefer the DOS versions, despite them being visually inferior. MIDI FOREVER! The "TIE Fighter is harder" comments are kinda funny, actually. XWing was well known as an obscenely hard game, at least in it's original form. TIE Fighter was toned down significantly. Sure you had shields in an XWing, but you were also fighting against overwhelming odds. They toned several of the levels down massively for the CD-ROM edition and the subsequent VS-engine versions due to complaints. You also get access to shielded ships in TIE Fighter, so it's not really like you're flying naked. Heck, the game is the origin of the TIE Defender that showed up in some of the novels and made XWing pilots excrete masonry. The Defender is deliciously powerful as a side note, even if the TIE Advanced looked better(and for sheer style, NOTHING beats the Interceptor). Indeed. DEATH TO THE REBEL SCUM!

Don't forget the original Atari arcade! Sure it's just Death Star runs to infinity and beyond, but it's damn slick Death Star runs.

Good! This means odds are that Thrust is just a red Ramjet too! Sucks if you're actually GETTING the 'con 'bots, but I'm not, so I'm happy. The extra paint apps ARE nice, though.

And being the BAD GUY is just icing on the cake. I really should hunt down the CD version of that game(I gather the final expansion pack was only available there, and Defender of the Empire ends on a bit of a cliffhanger, but hell, I never made it through the original retail campaign). ... And get a DOS box set up again to play it on. I really love the old LucasArts games, though. 'Specially musically. iMUSE was awesome.

I dunno about Chad, but Nolan Bushnell says go Wii60. He plays his 360 the most right now, but he thinks the Wii is pretty badass too. http://www.joystiq.com/2007/04/18/joystiq-...der-and-restau/ And no, I have NO idea why they used the pool photo.

It's worth noting that the original Street Fighter 2 bosses played Musical Names on the way to the States. In Japan, M. Bison was the boxer resembling a certain well-known ear-biter. And Street Fighter 1's boxer was named Bison, though Capcom never did decide if it was the same guy in both games(there's official material that goes both ways). Anyways, they decided there was a good chance M. Tyson might sue over M. Bison, so they swapped names around to lessen the likeness. Vega was originally the crazy guy with the cape, and Balrog was the jumpy dude with the claw. Sagat beat the crap out of anyone who tried to steal his name, because he's hardcore like that.

It's not necessarily true that they knew it was there. There's a LOT of monkeying you can do with a person's mind, even when you AREN'T writing it from scratch. Even more you can do in a setting where you ARE writing it from scratch and have magic mind control powers on top of that. It's well within the realm of possibility that until they heard the appropriate command, they would have no memory of the order.

Aren't the F-14s in Zero supposed to be upgraded with overtech hardware? So locking on to her with an F-14 doesn't really prove much, since it's not using the real-world hardware.

*laughs* Okay, that alone redeems the insanity generated by your RPG crossover.

I'd like to imagine that 1-65 were all different ways to execute JarJar. Most of them slow and painful.

Yeah. I meant the center ones they imbed in the trunk lid/spoiler.

That explains why car brake lights seem to have a bizarrely high failure rate. I'd always chalked it up to being stuck outdoors exposed to the weather and temperature fluctuations. Now I know. And knowing is half the battle!

That makes no sense, given LEDs last pretty much forever. The batteries are what prevent you from burning the LED out.

Also a lot of stuff about the online store. Premium boxes, etc. Whatever. just stock the toys and don't bust them in shipping.

I suggested better quality control. Given that in a half-year I had to exchange one 'bot because they glued a joint shut*, another has damage from where they tried to ram the steel pins in and missed the holes, a third required surgery to get a plastic spur out of a joint, a 4th just has a paint streamer running across the chest that isn't supposed to be there, and a fifth has damage AND a paint streamer... I'm a tad unimpressed. (Yes, I kept the damaged ones. Was purely cosmetic damage, and to be honest I just didn't care enough to go back to the store. I guess they can get away with this partially due to lazy people like me.) I rode G1 from beginning to end. I even have ActionMasters, for Pete's sake. I NEVER saw a toy that was defective out of the box(though in the interests of fairness, they WERE simpler designs). *(Actually had to return it and resume searching, because there weren't any more in stock. Anywhere. Argragagh!)

Ooooohhh... that's a fun one... *debates going on a shooter binge*

And I hadn't made it to your line of thought either. I was worried about the booster ripping loose, and didn't even THINK about the VF itself being damaged. Given they VF-X-11 supported a fold booster, but it was removed for the final product, it's also possible that the VF-11 booster either wasn't stable enough for deployment, and the Plus/7-era booster is the first reliable small-scale fold generator. The VF-17 was late enough that they could, hypothetically, be confident that a reliable fighter-sized booster WOULD be available in the near future, so the capability was included in the final design. Really hard to do more than just guess with the information available right now. ... But it's such a FUN line of thought!

I'd forgotten the 17. That torpedoes concern 3, which is the biggest one. Unless I'm mistaken about the portable fold generator's development, but I'm pretty sure that was alongside the 19 and 21.

I believe that justifies the entire production run right there.

Well... It's only independent in that it contains it's own power source and operational gear. It's still controlled by whatever it's mounted to. One would assume you need ever so slightly more data transfer capability for a fold generator than you do for "gas tanks" and missile launchers. The VF-1 could be limited by the external availability of computer IO. Could also be limited by the Valkyrie's onboard computer, if it's not powerful enough for fold navigation. ... But that assumes the fold generator doesn't carry it's own computer, which isn't beyond the realm of plausibility, even for "disposable" hardware. We already stick a good deal of compute power into our own cruise missiles, which are decidedly single-use devices. Given the fold booster DOESN'T explode, it's likely that it can be retrieved later and refurbished for another use in many situations. Third possibility is physical mounting points. The fold booster was designed to attach to the YF-19 and -21. It's highly doubtful that the attach points used exist on the VF-1, even with the 1X modifications. An adapter could PROBABLY be made, but it's hard to say without knowing anything about the physics of the fold generator or nature of the available attach points. If there's too much stress generated in-transit, it could tear right off, leaving the Valk pilot lost and stranded at an unknown point between his start and destination. Or bounced right out of the galaxy. Or stuck in "fold space" forever(if I recall, dialog in Viva Maria implies this is a "real" consequence of fold generator failure). Variations in the mount could also potentially affect the accuracy of your fold. Again leaving your pilot stranded in Middle of Nowhere, Population 1. Any way you slice it, it's not something you'd want to trust to a hack if there's even a remote possibility of it affecting anything. There's simply no way it can end well.

Ummmm.... no. For the millionth time... you have to have a reaction mass. The fusion engine CANNOT directly produce thrust. While air can be used at low altitudes, as you get higher, you will HAVE to use your Valk's internal reaction mass, which is finite(and may not even be loaded if they were planning for an atmosphere-exclusive mission). To put it simply, you cannot just say "Well, I can get away from the Earth in 50 years if I keep going 5 miles an hour" because you'll run out of gas first. As they weren't on a tight timetable for the factory satellite capture mission, there was no reason to waste the very limited post-war resources on escape boosters just to shave a few hours off the schedule. That scene is a VERY strong indicator that the VF-1 CANNOT leave Earth unassisted. The YF-19 and -21 aren't even capable of actually leaving Earth unaided, according to specs. They're only capable of attaining orbital velocity(though they can use the fold booster to "cheat").

http://www.mozilla.org/projects/seamonkey/ Seamonkey: It's properly beta-tested.