JB0

That's XBox. PS2 lacks a coherent online system. Assuming you can tell from the outside world, it's up to the individual game servr maintainers to block or not. I haven't connected my PS2 online before so I don't know first hand but my DMS3 instruction sheet says its stealth mode is for this purpose. ie. it is possible for servers to detect the chip in your system and block you. Okay. Some games detect and block it, then. The XBox is well-known for this, though. MS' XBox Live service looks for mod chips when you log on, and permanently bans your 'Box if it sees one. When you first want to go online with the PS2, you have to run the startup CD to create a network configuration (that later gets saved to a Memory Card). If the mod chip is not in stealth mode, you'll get errors if you try to auto detect your network settings. One your network configuration is complete, it's up to the individual game servers. M'kay. Haven't heard much about this aspect of things before. Honestly, it doesn't make sense for the modchip to NOT operate in stealth mode. It shouldn't be active except during initial boot. Once the region check is cleared, it SHOULD go to sleep. Why they don't START with this design feature is anyone's guess.

A launching arm is fine for space and looks the coolest visually, but a catapault assisted launch would still be prefered even in space as it gives the Valk some free starting velocity and saves valuable reaction mass (fuel), which is limited in space. Remember it's only in an atmosphere that a Valk can extract fuel (hydrogen?) from the air, thus allowing virtually unlimited range. In space the Valk's fuel supply is limited to what it can carry in internal tanks, FAST Packs or drop tanks. Hydrogen would go into the fusion reactor. It's not used directly in the propulsion of the plane. It's A fuel, but not the important one for this discussion, which is confused by the fact that in space, a Valk has two "fuels, " both of which have "react" in the name. What's used as "reaction mass" in an atmosphere is heated and compressed air sucked in from the intakes, just like a more conventional jet. The big diffrence between a Valk and a modern jet while operating in an atmosphere(aside from the laser cannons and transformation...) is that they use a heat exchanger from the reactor to heat the "combustion chamber" instead of burning jet fuel. It's only in space that a valk needs signifigant reaction mass onboard. But it needs reactor fuel onboard in all situations, as I would be very surprised if it can extract any signifigant amount of hydrogen from the atmosphere.

Yeah....it had a thunderbolt underneath, probably just a stylised version of it. It's also a pretty weak skull.

I'VE GOT IT! They snap off and can be assembled into a snorkel for underwater usage!

That's XBox. PS2 lacks a coherent online system. Assuming you can tell from the outside world, it's up to the individual game servr maintainers to block or not. I haven't connected my PS2 online before so I don't know first hand but my DMS3 instruction sheet says its stealth mode is for this purpose. ie. it is possible for servers to detect the chip in your system and block you. Okay. Some games detect and block it, then. The XBox is well-known for this, though. MS' XBox Live service looks for mod chips when you log on, and permanently bans your 'Box if it sees one.

In the TV series he did. ... Not that it would've made things any better for him. Did he? hmm... I dont remember that. The barrier explosion took long enough to rip through his valk that he had plenty of time to yank the lever. Which would've just gotten him fried marginally faster.

That's XBox. PS2 lacks a coherent online system. Assuming you can tell from the outside world, it's up to the individual game servr maintainers to block or not.

In the TV series he did. ... Not that it would've made things any better for him.

Ah, the Gundam girl... one of the great modern art forms. As far as his go... I like the Zeta Plus. Not excessively bulked up like some of the others. http://www.h3.dion.ne.jp/~amis/b-11.htm

And here I thought I'd heard of every media there was...

If I recall, CDs and DVDs are officially immune to moisture. Aside from scratching/cracking, the only natural thing I know of that can damage them is a particular strain of fungus in Belize that eats the disk. Actually, CD/DVD are susceptible to damage by moisture/humidity. If you get a CD/DVD that is scratched deep enough (It usually happens on the label side more so than the data side) But a scratch that reaches the data layer can allow moisture and oxygen to exasberate damage to the data layer and the adhesive that holds the disc togehter. Delamination and oxidation are two of the long term problems that occur with mistreated discs. Again, these are very extreme examples I am referring to and I know I'm suggesting overly precautious measures (removing inserts). But, part of what I do is archiving so it has become more of a habit than a nuisance for me personally. Ah, if the disk is scratched badly. That explains it. I was assuming disks in fairly good shape. And http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_328113.html?menu= The CD-eating fungus. I ASSUME it can eat DVDs also due to similar construction. Not mentioned in that article, but the part that bothered me most about it is that Philips(crators of the CD format) denied it happened. They insisted it wasn't possible, the disk was clearly mistreated, a properly-cared-for CD is invincible, and that anyone claiming fungus ate their disk was a liar. ... More interesting is the fact that sci-fi author Larry Niven predicted it would happen. A tangental bit of information in the Ringworld series mentions that Earth evolved a bacteria that ate some forms of plastic, forcing people to abandon plastic grocery bags.

And then curiosity. We were behaving strangely by Zentradi standards. They wanted to know why. But the Macross' main gun was also a bigger proportion of the ship than the Zentradi equivalents we've seen. Likely due to the vessel's intended job. It was designed as a big gun, with an escort to provide defense against lesser threats while it punched holes in the big stuff. The Zentradi were bigger on an all-in-one design, if the ASS-1 is indicative of Supervision Army ship design as a whole. Zentradi take a big gun, then make sure they have enough smaller weapons and mecha deployment facilities that they're more than capable of fending for themselves if they're cut off from support. And personally, I find the Macross cannon's power level pretty inconsistent. Episode 1 it rips through a mountain, an ocean, a large chunk of planetary atmosphere, and still has enough power in it to obliterate a ship with it's backwash, as well as running totally through the primary target, which indicates a massive amount of wasted power. At least double what was needed to gut the thing. Once you get through the armor it's like throwing matches into a paper doll house, as the Daedalus attack demonstrates so effectively. In episode 36 it lacks enough kick to do much more than deflect a single larger ship. It's possible, even likely, that it was fired on a sort of overload setting in episode 1, especially given the serious disruption to ship's systems that occured later. Or that it wasn't in very good shape in episode 36, most likely from repairs that humanity hadn't had the time or resources to make after the final showdown with Bodol. Or even a combination of the 2. Also plausible is Kamjin was inside the weapon's designed minimum firing range, so he didn't take the full brunt of the blast. It was by far the closest ship they'd ever tried to shoot down that way. Or they just didn't have time to focus, which would have a similar effect. These possibilties don't count if it comes out of the cannon fully focused, and the beam edges remain parallel or (more likely) diverge for it's entire travel. I know it's an odd concept for a weapon, but it bears examining. Unlike projectiles, energy weaponry has to be focused, and if the focal point was farther out than the ship they were firing at, effectiveness would be greatly diminished. Real world example is the diffrence between shotgun pellets and shotgun slugs. The pellets are essentially unfocused(focal point is the tip of the barrel, and they spread out rapidly from there), they hit a wide area but do minimal damage. The slug is a focused weapon, it hits a small area but has a lot more power behind it. I'm not the person running around saying that they shoulda just unloaded the main gun into Bodol's ship and called it a day, but I think it's a bit more powerful than it's being given credit for here. It probably could've screwed Britai's ship up pretty good if they'd ever had a chance to fire on it. I'd even bet that's likely what the design goal was, a weapon capable of rapidly disabling(not vaporizing) the larger vessels. Escort fleet runs it in to reliable hit range, where it unloads on the biggest ship, rendering the command vessel useless and throwing the fleet into chaos.

If I recall, CDs and DVDs are officially immune to moisture. Aside from scratching/cracking, the only natural thing I know of that can damage them is a particular strain of fungus in Belize that eats the disk.

Actually, I'm pretty sure those where there when I got the disc's. Then I'd chalk it up to the specific batch of plastic used, I guess. *shrugs*

Thats why I started this thread.. As far as athletes go, Tyson is the greatest to walk the earth in my time. his personal life aside, I have to agree... during my childhood, if you asked ANY of my friends who the "best boxer" was (the few that knew or cared at that age), they all would've said Tyson, hands down. Anyone that played Punch-Out knew he was the toughest boxer in the world. ... Yes, that's what I knew him from...

RPGs especially reviews tend to be totally shot. They review it based on an hour or 2 of game time, which in some games is still the damned intro(If I recall, in Star Ocean 2 it's an hour before you get to do anything but run around talking to people in town 1).

... Those poor DVDs, sealed up unloved forever in their celophane tomb. My opinion of HD-DVD VS BluRay: Whoever wins, we lose. They're both driven by media companies dead set against fair use. Among the stipulations being demanded by movie makers is that they NEVER release a computer drive for the media.

Famitus is generally regarded as being fairly tough on games, so a good Famitsu score USUALLY means the game doesn't have any major flaws, and more than it's share of good points. Of course, this is a generality, not a rule. And I basically ignore any media review automatically. Except perhaps if a game I like is getting good reviews, as it might mean that it'll get mass-market appeal and not go down as yet another failed non-sequel, non-thug, non-fighter game.

I would worry about the swirls being stress marks. And I like the yin/yang hubs. They have a nice "eject" mechanism built-in. tetsujin: Thanks for the warning. I'll be sure to find a few "crap" disks to test before I use it on something I actually want to save. And apply the glue to the label side to further reduce chances.

I've seen the thing. Not constructed quite as robustly, or with the right movement resistances as I'd like for an FPS though. And I don't think it supports tilt, either. It was actually the controller that got me thinking about something like that for a shooter though. -Al Ahhh, a perfectionist. I feel your pain. If I recall, it supported twist, but not tilt. ... You need a POWER GLOVE! *chuckles* ... I actually want one of those. Someday... someday...

Heh. Ambidextrious too. I'd be spared my usual gripe-fest about left-handed d-pads. I actually want one of those. Though the lack of an analog stick limits it a little bit, and it's pretty obviously worthless for action games, I'd live.

My Stargate ultimate edition did this... practically shattered the center. I did it ghetto style and used scotch tape to piece the whole thing back together. Still plays, but I think I'll get another copy soon I'd use a thin superglue, personally.

He did. HG has all their stock now.

Mine were first run and are just fine. I'm also good about pushing the little "eject button" hub. I really like the style case they used, and I'm glad it's (mostly) the standard, as it lets you get the disk out without much stress at all.

I've seen it happen to ... 2 CDs. 1 music, 1 game. One was physically abused. The other one I don't recall being abused. I just pulled it out one day and it was split in 2. I'm concerned about it happening to... everything where the case DOESN'T LET GO OF THE DISK! If it starts bending when I go to pull it out, I worry.