JB0

Ah, but if you do that you can't start another thread in a desperate attempt to annoy Nanashi.

VICTOLY! I should note that, as their first foray into 3D, there's a few flubs. Mainly due to the camera. Like if you blast someone with the Macross Cannon, the camera regularly decides you need a cinematic, awe-inspiring shot of the Macross'... feet. Or a head-on view of an Eva, where you can clearly see the fact that the power cord terminates in mid-air several yards away. Undoubtedly they figured it would make some of the fight sequences more interesting to have the camera offering shots from diffrent angles on diffrent attacks, but the AI they're using isn't really up to the task. Minor quibble, really, and doesn't detract much from the game.

No prob. I THINK so. Not sure, though. Nope. Single-player campaign only. ... Wait... SRW Link Battler on the GameBoy Color may have one. It's not a "normal" SRW game, though.

Most memorable that I've seen(IE: the only one a non-japanese speaker will understand ) was in Alpha, when Gundam Wing's Heero and Eva's Rei first meet. And exchange a couple rounds of "..."s.

Not me, man. You're one of my favorite people to chat with, partly for the depth of seemingly trivial/overly technical knowledge locked in your brain, and partly for your willingness to strongly argue on any side of a debate just for the sake of discussion. Thank you. Actually, I think that's part of the issue. The Cell is supposed to be smaller than a typical chip. The Cell, then, is more difficult to manufacture, because everything has to be so precise. That's also partly the reason no one's really bothered to make chips like the Cell until now. I was left with the opposite impression. That the absurd # of vector processors made the Cell larger than most chips. Guess I should pay more attention to the news sometimes. I know a small chip increases yield, because a bad spot on the silicon wafer only affects a single chip, and with smaller chips, that's less area of the wafer that's got to be thrown out. But if they're using a new process to increase the density, that could be what's screwing them too. You take a hit on those initially, while the kinks are being worked out(presumably this hit is in theory offset by the increased # of chips per wafer, or some other factor pushing the decreased scale). You get big payoffs down the line, when they let you pack more chips onto a given wafer at similar reliability to the old process.

Now that you mention it... it DOES sorta look like the Tyrian U-ship... *ignores Dork Togo*

Yup, that's right. All PS3's will be defective. You caught them, the secret is out. We already KNEW that. It was just a matter of degree. Sony's got a reputation to maintain, after all. Also note that this isn't really a defect per se. It's a scaling back of the specs.

Been there, done that. Got the books to prove it, though I sold most of them when I moved out of that phase. I've got my interests, and I enjoy talking about them. Some would say I enjoy talking about them too much. I'd say they just need to find something that interests them more than whatever they have now. I didn't intend offense (not that you seem offended, just making sure). My (worthless) comment was directed towards this thread as a whole. . . not you in particular. I just noticed a parallel between how I follow this thread even though I'm not terribly interested because some people whose posts I like to follow post in this thread. . . but I really don't care much either way about consoles. And this reminds me of the people who follow the Star Wars threads and other such threads where the debate gets very heated and seems irreconcilable even though they don't seem to care one way or the other. I'll shut up now. Nah. I wasn't offended in the least.

Been there, done that. Got the books to prove it, though I sold most of them when I moved out of that phase. I've got my interests, and I enjoy talking about them. Some would say I enjoy talking about them too much. I'd say they just need to find something that interests them more than whatever they have now.

You can figure the play out well enough. Many of the nuances will fly right over your head, though. Possibly even some of hte basic points. And the later levels WILL eat you alive. As for plot... forget it.

If you write all software assuming one or 2 less SPEs than the spec'ed max, it's workable. If it were PC software, it'd be no big deal. Just bin the Cells with bad SPEs as a lower-end model(if you remember 486 SX and DX, same deal. SX series was DX chips with a bad FPU). PC software's flexible enough that it doesn't matter. Console software typically assumes a set hardware definition, so the redundant SPEs are just idle in fully good chips. It makes more sense to me to just remove the redundant SPEs and make the chip smaller at that point. Making the chip smaller increases your yield, and more effectively than flagging some components as redundant, as far as I know. I may be missing something in the chip fabrication process, though. I'd argue for rectangular chips, except scrapping 2 SPEs keeps it rectangular, and Kutaragi is saying two redundants is possibly necessary. Also possible they're just doing it so they can brag about how many vector processors they have, and gloss over the fact that 2 of them are either idle or dead. Edit: Spoekn with someone that's been involved in chip fabrication. Even a simple change like removing 2 SPEs from the end requires a major redesign. According to him, it'd take 2 years to redesign the chip to get rid of those redundant SPEs. Short version: Sony expected fabrication processes to advance faster than they did, and the PS3 specs are taking a hit because of it.

I remember someone releasing a SNES game 2 years after it had died, but this, wow. Make more sense to port it, guess it'll only be sold online. Gotta love the chinese... But for raw impressiveness, nothing beats the 2600's newish RPG. http://qotile.net/rpg.html

Turn-based strategy. If you've played FFTactics, Front Mission, Fire Emblem, or Shining Force, you've got the idea. Your character is a character unique to Super Robot Wars, with a custom mech. You command a cross-series force(including some SRW-exclusive characters and mechs) against a similarly cross-series enemy force(again including SRW-exclusive mechs). If you ever wanted to watch Getter Robo and Mazinger Z tag-team a Zaku, this is your game. I've blundered through half to 2/3s of a few games with no knowledge of japanese. Note that you'll likely want to print off a translation of AT LEAST the intermission menus. Intelligent distribution of your funds for upgrades is somewhat important, and when it's all a pile of random squiggles, there's a tendancy to A. ignore weapon upgrades totally(as a lack of mech illustrations in that menu makes it VERY difficult to select a specific mech), and B. just blow cash on your favorite mechs instead of strategically allocating funds across your force. And the item equip menu is even more cryptic than the weapon upgrade menu(though it's worth it to see Evangelion's Asuka unleashing aerial strikes on some poor groundpounder after you slap a minovsky craft on her mech). Also useful will be the battle "magic" list. For unlocking specific mechs, you'll want to hit GameFAQs. Attacks are usually either scripted unlocks and happen regardless of what you do, or available as soon as you get the mech. One. Super Robot Wars Alpha 1 is the only DC game in the series. Unless you have a GameBoy Advance. There've been several GBA games in the series, and GBA is regionless. Also note you can emulate the NES and SNES on your Dreamcast, unlocking more games(in a less legal fashion). From a english-only viewpoint... A. Gameplay refinements. The game gets a bit more polished each iteration. The BIGGEST change came in SRW4 on the SNES, when you gained the ability to choose your counterattack action instead of being forced to let the AI choose it. B. Gideon Zhi has translated SRW3, so it's available in english. http://agtp.romhack.net/ No big deal. We were all newbies once.

NCSX.com has them too. I dunno how the pricing compares, though. As a general rule import games cost more. The japanese just plain pay more for everything than we do.

I can't say I know of any good Gundam or Eva games offhand. Not for MAME, anyways.

0.36 was back in 2000.

Oh yeah... That was freaking AWESOME! GaoGaiGar got shafted, though. Everyone else gets to do a high-powered killer move, and GGG gets an overglorified rocket punch? I WANTED GOLDION HAMMER!

The premium box was Alpha, Alpha Gaiden, and Alpha 2, along with a data CD, and history book. But NOT Alpha 3. Basically a way for people that missed the beginning of the arc to catch up. And it's the same ol' PS1 games.

Yah. Pre-CD-R, so they didn't see a need for copy protection.

Also note: Quark didn't look like a molten was statue in the SCD version. And sadly, I've not had a chance to play Popful Mail yet. It's on my list, I've just never snagged a copy(legal or otherwise).

That takes me back... I think .36 may've been my first. But it's been so long that I'm not sure.

Oooh, another game available on the PSX... They weren't at the time of my binges. And as someone that owns both versions of both games, the SegaCD versions are better. Silver Star Story got raped writing-wise and no longer fits the series continuity(as well as totally screwing some of the characters up). Damn shame, because I was really looking forward to seeing it updated, and the original IS one of the few games I've felt needed a remake despite how much I enjoyed it. Eternal Blue got raped gameplay-wise(not to mention what the hell do you have to be doing to have less FMV that looks WORSE than a 1-disk SegaCD game on a freaking 3-disk PS1 game?). I skiped the GBA version of Lunar 1 because it was a remake of Silver Star Story, with a game engine even more dumbed down than the Eternal blue remake had(borrowed it from a friend to confirm my fears). And yet the Lunar fanboy in me is clamoring for the upcoming DS game(which apparently IS a new game instead of another Silver Star/SSStory remake), even though I'm already 99% sure GameArts cocked it up royally. Looking forward to Grandia 3, too. Even after Grandia Extreme. I'm no hardware fanboy, but I AM a software fanboy.

I've owned the same CD player since I was in Jr. High, the same DVD player since maybe a year after the PS2 came out. I've had my Xbox since it came out, and I've had my Gamecube since it came out. The CD player in my car has been there for three years. Aside from my PS2 going bad, I'm yet to have to recalibrate any of them. You use each of those devices for 3-4 hrs daily? Like I said, my SegaCD is sitll going strong. And you never saw me during one of my Lunar binges. I may only have 2 games worth playing for the thing, but I've played the crap out of them. And my PS1 has more hours logged on it than most people's PS2s. I've got 200 hours of play time logged in Star Ocean alone. Sadly many of my games don't HAVE timers, and I deleted a bunch of save files a while back. The fact is the laser just shouldn't be drifting out of calibration. My hypothesis is that SCE's using laser diodes that degrade fairly rapidly, causing them to quickly fall away from the properties they had when the systems were calibrated. Also possible is repeated thermal expansion on the calibration pots is causing them to creep out of position. This could rapidly be dealt with by adding one piece of plastic to keep the hot air coming off the motherboard out of the drive mech.

Oh, dear god... UPGRADE NOW! WHY ARE YOU STILL READING THIS! UPGRADE IMMEDIATLY! STOP READING AND UPGRADE ALREADY! *sighs* http://www.classicgaming.com/mame32qa/ Current site.

Yes, MAME32 is for Windows. But what VERSION of MAME32 are you using? You know, .55, .79, etc. MacPlus was added in version .61. Not entirely recent(actually, fairly ancient), but it's possible you have an OLD version of MAME32. And you'd have to download the command-line version from mame.net. You can't get at it from MAME32. But I use it because I hate the MAME32 interface, not because it's a better emulator(anymore).