JB0

supposedly all the "next gen" systems aren't encoded game wise (360 included) i dunno for sure as i haven't tried my 360 yet, but i do know the PSP plays games from anywhere (as i actually have a JP game or two working on my american PSP, no mods required), and only the movies are encoded by region. personly i skipped all problems with this by buying a used Japanese PS2 while i was stationed there figured why not... 417577[/snapback] 360 IS region-coded. I've heard jack-squat about the Wii's regions. PS3 is the only home system I've seen claimed as region-free.

Damn... I was planning on going Mirage hunting this weekend, too. ... Are we sure he isn't just using his cloaking device?

Check up on qi (chi), 　気,　or 氣. You can start with http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qi (haven't read it all, don't know how accurate it is, or isn't.) From it, you can kind of get an idea of the origins of the concept of 'the Force,' as well as some of the greater-than-human powers that some martial artists posses. Keep in mind that this is the cultural background or basis that spiritia exists in... but also strongly keep in mind that spiritia is not qi; and the two are different (I will admit that this is more an opinion than fact - based on what I know of both qi and spiritia. Similar but disimilar.) Thank you! I had a sort of vague notion of the term, but wasn't quite sure exactly what it entailed. I'm sure you know how that goes. And I will keep in mind that Wikipedia gets iffy sometimes(and that it's rather prone to vandalism, so even if the article is NORMALLY right it can be wrong NOW). I've seen both cases in action before. If I'm not mistaken(and I can't imagine there's very many pink firetrucks in all of anime), you're describing AnRyu and KouRyu. Those 2 are HyoRyu and EnRyu's "sisters" from Gaogaigar Final. http://www.goshouworld.com/GaoGaiGar/mecha_attack.htm Is that them?

Try Gigantor(or Tetsujin 28, if you want the original japanese title). The original was black and white, and it's generally considered the first mech anime ever. It's been remade a time or 3, so there ARE color versions out there.

The only Alternator I have is Shockwave. I tried to resist the lure, but seeing my favorite purple death machine on shelves again pushed me over the edge. He's 8 diffrent kinds of awesome, despite not being a ray gun. He's posable, articulated, well-proportioned... basically everything I thought the Transformers should have been as a kid. And as the picture shows, I had a lot of fun shortly after getting him. Note that my digital camera likes blue a LOT. He's very clearly purple in person, despite looking somewhat like a Tracks bootleg in the picture. As for Alternators VS combiners... Send Hasbro a letter telling them you want to see the Constructicons show up in the Alternators line. Alternator Combiners would kick so much ass that it's not even funny.

i like that explanation but following the way they describe Spiritia in the series, it almost makes partial sense in a more scientific manner, since most won't agree to the existance of a "life force" and have belief all can be answered with math. It's an odd concept to western audiences, but I gather it's a much more accepted one over there. You won't enjoy it as MUCH without the dialogue, but there's plenty of eye-candy to be had once you work out what random symbols in the meny do what. This comes from a english-speaking-only Super Robot Wars fan. You might try to "preview" the series with an emulator. The easiest way to get a fair comparison would be ZSNES or SNES9x and Super Robot Wars 4. 4 has the gameplay of the more modern ones down, but it's much more limited animation-wise(obviously CDs and DVDs can hold orders of magnitude more data than SNES ROM carts). Be warned, though... you may find yourself wanting mechs you've never heard of before, just because they look freaking cool in the game.

So you forced a biological explanation onto spiritia so you could do Macross' Phantom Menace?

Only if they release a masterpiece Grimlock at the same time so you can set the battle up on your shelf.

3D Realms is actually releasing stuff again, though. Prey just hit shelves, and it's only slightly less infamous than The Duke.

Actually, it was basically a last-year game. It was the same year the PS2 launched. The PS1 had analog control from day 1 for anybody willing to pay for it. The original Dual Analog flightsticks were pricey, but supported by many games(inmcluding VF-X). The Dual Analog gamepad was a joke that was only out for a few months before the now-famous DualShock replaced it. On the upside, the Dual Analog gamepad was backwards-compatible with the flightsticks, while the DualShock wasn't. Neither was compatible with Namco's NegCon("steering wheel" mode on various 3rd-party controllers). Most of Macross 7 GBC DOES go the Gamlin route. Even the Fire Bomber pilots blow crap up. Only bosses have a musical flair, and it's optional for all but the final. Unless they're disembodied heads in a jar, of course... (was never a fan of DYRL-style Bodolza) Seriously, the protodeviln WORK as scrolling shooter bosses, which is mildly amazing given the franchise. But it takes greater levels of focus than I can muster to do the proto-DDR button mashing of a Sound Force boss fight and dodge bullets at the same time, so I always go with a non-musician for boss fights. ... Which really hurts when they force Basara on me for the final boss, AND hit me with both the most elaborate music and the largest amount of firepower to dodge while trying to play it.

You haven't seen the carnage mentioning Macross 7 has caused in the past.

It did, actually. As far as stuff worth playing, there's a moderately fun GBColor sidescroller. Boss battles with Sound Force pilots are a batty, though(I'm no good at rhythm games, which is what they are if you're playing a Sound Force pilot when you reach the boss), and the final boss forces the deployment of Basara. Rather good music for the GBColor, as a side note. Not too surprising, given the license, but still worth mentioning. And the only DYRL games anyone cares about(arcade and PS/Saturn) were made about a decade after DYRL's release.

Which begs the question -- what posessed them to decide they needed a slum added on? 416290[/snapback] Cover, presumably. Who'd think a rockstar with a state-of-the-art VF-19 in the ghetto? Much less a ghetto they didn't even know was there(they DO state that it was an undocumented addition to City 7, so it's not on the maps). Obviously, anyone with half a brain would question why there was bombed-out rubble on a colony ship, but they still wouldn't think "Hey, I bet there's a cutting-edge fighter parked in here!"

No, they clearly show the hole close immediatly behind Britai. Besides which, the room would have decompressed completely if the hole wasn't sealed. The zentradi's ability to speak in the room proves it had air, and thus was sealed. Max re-enters the ship through a diffrent hole, or more likely an airlock.

What do you think happens when you separate the males and the females for too long? 416032[/snapback] 416318[/snapback] *laughs*

Aside from Global not being a very "by the book" commander...Pre-armageddon it didn't matter. They barely even tolerated each other. By the time they were ready to admit they did anything more than that, she was headed to the Grand Cannon and knew her father wasn't going to send her back to the Macross. Post-armageddon all the rules are diffrent. The population is decimated, the human race is on the brink of extinction, the entire existing political infrastructure is vaporized, and for all they know the zentradi are coming back for round 2. Breeding becomes of paramount importance. Not just to repopulate the Earth, but to create enough "surplus" humans that colony missions are possible. Any regulation that limits breeding possibilities would likely not make it into the books of the new UN forces for that reason alone.

Parts-swapping always sucks. I prefer the vehicle parts actually look like they might belong in robot mode, though. That was my big problem with the first Starscream prototype. The stuff hanging off his legs very visibly didn't belong. It looked like he'd just stepped in a jetplane. The hip-danglers are ugly, but lack the plane-crash effect of the first prototype.

Highly unlikely, just due to the effort involved in creating the button patterns. If they could rig a routine that was capable of actually detecting the patterns int he music and constructing button patterns based on that, THEN it becomes plausible. But they can't, so it isn't.

Not really. Presumably it's got something to do with Ray supplying Basara with a rockstar VF-19. Basara's apparently involved in a top-secret military experiment, and somehow fails to realize it until the formation of Sound Force.

Fair enough. On the whole, I far prefer the extra junk dangling off the waist better than dangling off the legs, even if it does add new "limbs." I admit it's not perfect, though. Cartoon Starscream seems impossible to pull off without part swapping, sadly.

*laughing* Seriously, that was funny. Meph, you deserve a high five. But if cat girls deserve to die, then so does everyone in firebomber. 415665[/snapback] Firebomber didn't have a single product of inter-genus crossbreeding in it. 415739[/snapback] Mylene doesn't count? hmm then agian, considering the said origins of the meltran/zentran and humans.. guess that doesn't 415784[/snapback] I said inter-genus. The zentradi are pretty clearly filable in the genus homo. Potentially, they're actually a subspecies of homo sapiens. I don't believe there's any quarter-zentradi in the continuity yet. That would establish both humans and zentradi as the same species(if 2 animals can interbreed and the resultant offspring isn't sterile, they're considered to be the same species). The obvious size variance is of little consequence, amazingly. For a real-world example, a chihuahua and a great dane are both members of canis lupus(specifically, the subspecies canis lupus familiaris). The zentradi could probably be classified as homo sapiens based on other characteristics, but people would likely be unwilling to do so. The interbreeding capacity MAKES them accept it, as I understand things.

But the OLD Starscream prototype didn't look like the cartoon either. Remember, cartoon Starscream is totally finless.

*laughing* Seriously, that was funny. Meph, you deserve a high five. But if cat girls deserve to die, then so does everyone in firebomber. 415665[/snapback] Firebomber didn't have a single product of inter-genus crossbreeding in it.

How is Voltron not a mecha franchise? Yamato needs to do Robot Alchemic Drive. I'd pay good money for a toy meganite.

After looking it up, I can confirm that. Despite being the LAST of the PS1 Macross games(released in 2000), MacPlus is digital only, for reasons known only to the developer. Seriously, even VF-X1 supported analog(albeit only the joystick, since Sony's analog gamepads had yet to materialize).