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.

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.

Not so sure about that. While the Logitech Wheel is the best I've tried (with almost no dead zone and a 900 degree turning radius), none of them have enough force feedback to truly recreate the feeling of driving car. And since I'm already used to the standard controller, switching to a wheel or stick causes a drastic reduction in skill for me. The turning radius chased me away shortly after looking at it(casually, since like I said, no PS2... ). Of course, all I really want a wheel for is Roadblasters, so realism isn't exactly an issue so much as matching the arcade wheel, which had a much smaller turning radius. I'm thinking 180, but even that may be a bit much. ... Oh yeah. And no play. Play is evil(and what's primarily wrong with my current wheel, which is cheap garbage).

I know a few other people that liked the original 'Box controller, but I just never saw it. It was too big... like holding a loaf of bread with two analog sticks poking out. The d-pad was one of the worst ever (at least the S has a cross on the circle), and while the white/black button placement might have been better (and that's debateable... I got used to having them near the bottom real fast), the X/Y/B/A buttons were clustered way too close together. I remember playing DoA3 and constantly had the problem of pushing the wrong buttons. The demo units I played, the size was never an issue to me. On the other hand, everything on the device felt in the "wrong" place. The button slant especially gave me hell. It was like they intended it to be held sideways with the way the button set slanted almost straight up.

Actually, regular US copyright law gives you backup rights. The DMCA is explciitly designed to take those rights away. ... But as no one enforces most of the DMCA, it doesn't matter.

Why dream? Microsoft made it. Sidewinder Strategic Commander.

Occasionally a special comes up that breaks him loose.

Just to add to the flames... But why use a pad to play a shooter when a mouse/keyboard combo offers the best precision movements? Let's see... I've already thrown all my gas on, but I think I've got a jar of kerosene around here... A. Trackballs are infinitely better than mice. B. Keyboards suck. C. I'd much rather play a 2D shooter than a first-person one. My optimum FPS setup would be something like ... this and this. What I'd change if I owned a factory... Replace the d-pad on the Nostromo SpeedPad with something more resembling a mouse touchpad, simulating an analog stick. With ridges running along the cardinal directions for tactile feedback. If you saw a TurboTouch pad, you have the appearance down(But not the functionality. The tech is WAY better than it was back then, thank goodness...). Also plausable is an NES Max-style d-pad, with pots on the slider. Either way... thumb on the center, no motion. Slide it forward a little, you scoot forward a little. Out some more, we're walking. Slide to the edge of the pad, full-out run. The genre is well overdue for a little analog motion.