Macross R / Macross The Ride

[Tochiro]

Have you guys considered putting up the raws at Baka-Tsuki or something so that the story segments can be translated?

I can only speak for myself here but the books are still in publication/circulation so scans are still off-limits imo.

Besides which, all the related books (2 visual books, 2 novels) can be gotten on amazon and are not expensive at all :-)

[Spitze]

snip

Edited September 7, 2014 by Spitze

[Tochiro]

Of course it's not. Which is why I said I was only speaking for myself.

But it is also somewhat of an unspoken rule on these forums. Plus, you could get all four books for $50 or less if you really wanted them and were prepared to shop around a bit.

But hey if you find someone else willing to pirate them for you then go for it I guess.

[sketchley]

Of course it's not. Which is why I said I was only speaking for myself.

But it is also somewhat of an unspoken rule on these forums.

Some of us either know people, are related to people, or dream of becoming content producers, so we don't tend to do that sort of thing (at the very least because of karma!).

But hey if you find someone else willing to pirate them for you then go for it I guess.

Another excellent point. My general response is: "why should I spend the time and money to buy it, go to the effort of scanning and releasing it, AND run the risk of gaining a criminal record*. All for someone to view it for free?"

And that's on top of the aforementioned stuff. It really sucks to be a pirate if looked at that way, eh.

* yay, Japanese law [said sarcastically]

Edited March 28, 2014 by sketchley

[Spitze]

snip

Edited September 7, 2014 by Spitze

[Renato]

You know, for an unspoken rule, we tend to keep having to bring it up a lot.

[Seto Kaiba]

Well of course scans would be trouble, but what about straight up further translations as usual, but for the story segments and other stuff not covered?

Well, there are some folks who do translate more than just the technical specs and that kind of thing... but they tend to focus on the old, out-of-print material either by personal inclination or in deference to that not-so-unwritten rule about books that're still in print. I haven't even considered tackling it, because I'm just not a fast enough translator to get through it in any reasonable span of time.

EDIT: As far as "other stuff not covered", the non-narrative, non-mecha-stat stuff in Macross the Ride is, for the most part, just repetition of material we've had in a dozen other sources. Y'know, basic explanations of a bunch of things like the VF-25 variants or Super Packs or Destroids.

Edited March 29, 2014 by Seto Kaiba

[Spitze]

snip

Edited September 7, 2014 by Spitze

[guyxxed]

My apologies for resurrecting this thread, but I was wondering if anyone has ever come across a plot summary of Macross the Ride?

I've read Sketchley's translations and seen the magazine pages, but have not been able to come up with any kind of description of what actually happens in the story. I'm not looking for a translation or a detailed retelling, I'm just curious about the main story beats and how the characters did or didn't relate to the Frontier storyline.

If anyone has a link or information, I would very much appreciate it.

Thanks.

[Mazinger]

...

I've read Sketchley's translations and seen the magazine pages, but have not been able to come up with any kind of description of what actually happens in the story. I'm not looking for a translation or a detailed retelling, I'm just curious about the main story beats and how the characters did or didn't relate to the Frontier storyline.

If anyone has a link or information, I would very much appreciate it.

...

Me too.

[Raptor One]

If no one answers this in the two or so years it will take me to get my Japanese to a level where i can actually read the Macross: The Ride collected editions I have sitting on my bookshelf I will definitely come back to this thread and let you guys know.

[jenius]

Long story short, protoculture is revealed to actually be a bio fuel source imbued with magic properties and the race ends with the characters everyone cares about missing.

[nexxstrait]

Long story short, protoculture is revealed to actually be a bio fuel source imbued with magic properties and the race ends with the characters everyone cares about missing.

Hey, that's the beginning of End of the circle! :-P

[guyxxed]

Guess I should have asked this back when more people were still here. Ah, well...

[valkyriechild]

I too would really like to know this. The only thing that, i think, i might understand a bit is there is some kind of corporate competition got involved in the race? sorry if its wrong. At least that's what it seems to be from the appearances of YF-25 and YF-27. Also from translation and this thread discussions.

Still really want to see those lovely customized VF racing against each other in animation. With frontier cluster island as one of the location, it could be a great background. Though probably racing theme wont work for macross? I don't know.

[RedWolf]

More like each race team has a corporate sponsor. The military industrial complex uses the race to test new technology and advertise their products.

[Seto Kaiba]

I too would really like to know this. The only thing that, i think, i might understand a bit is there is some kind of corporate competition got involved in the race? sorry if its wrong. At least that's what it seems to be from the appearances of YF-25 and YF-27. Also from translation and this thread discussions.

So... incredibly short version:

Macross Frontier fleet, 2058. SMS Apollo Platoon pilot 1st Lt. Chelsea Scarlett is suffering some classic emotional trauma after a bad experience in battle, so she becomes a VF air racer instead. Gets stuck flying the VF-19ACTIVE in the Vanquish League's Ultimate Class races, because Shinsei and LAI want to collect development data on the VF-25 hardware installed on it. Shenanigans ensue, she ends up developing a friendly rivalry with veteran racer Hakuna Aoba (who may or may not be former NUNS Special Forces).

Macross Galaxy is caught red-handed illegally carrying out field tests of the YF-27 prototypes when they attack the race for shiggles. A great deal of fuss and noise is made about that, and the completion level of Galaxy's next main variable fighter (and allegations of espionage on Galaxy's part). Then some remnants of the Earth-supremacst group Latence attack and try to take a resort ship hosting the races hostage.

Still really want to see those lovely customized VF racing against each other in animation. With frontier cluster island as one of the location, it could be a great background. Though probably racing theme wont work for macross? I don't know.

Worked pretty well, IMO. Well enough that Vanquish League races are referenced in Macross 30 as well, as a playable extra game mode to unlock certain bonus items and blueprints. (You also have a few unavoidable races, like the race against Isamu.)

More like each race team has a corporate sponsor. The military industrial complex uses the race to test new technology and advertise their products.

Not so much... yeah, most (but not all) of the Vanquish League entries to be featured in the story have corporate sponsorship, but it's only recently the military-industrial complex started using the Ultimate Class races as a very public venue for testing new technologies, and it's only one or two teams in the league doing it. Shinsei's in-house team, and SMS's (which was using the races to test Shinsei and LAI advances). They're accused of trying to win by sheer fiscal supremacy (by throwing 4th Gen VFs into the race when everyone else is flying 3rd Gen and older...).

[guyxxed]

Thanks, Seto, that's very helpful, and does sound like a fun story. The characters are intriguing and I like the racer VF designs, I wouldn't mind at all seeing this in animated or manga form. In a perfect world...

Thanks for the info, I appreciate it.

[wwwmwww]

Sorry I'm late to the game here.  Anyone know if the story of Macross the Ride is available in English in any format?

Thanks,

Carl

[Seto Kaiba]

17 minutes ago, wwwmwww said:

Sorry I'm late to the game here.  Anyone know if the story of Macross the Ride is available in English in any format?

Nope.

It's on my group's to-do list but it'll likely be a while yet before we get to it.

 

[wwwmwww]

48 minutes ago, Seto Kaiba said:

Nope.

It's on my group's to-do list but it'll likely be a while yet before we get to it.

May I ask what "your group" is?  Is there a website I should monitor or can I request to be put on a notification list?

Thanks,

Carl

[Seto Kaiba]

19 minutes ago, wwwmwww said:

May I ask what "your group" is? 

A loose partnership of fan translators, collaborating on the creation of a comprehensive Macross official setting reference.  Our goal is to do full translations of a lot of the books that've only been tackled in a piecemeal fashion and host the translations directly alongside the articles referencing them.

We're keeping the group name under wraps until we've got the domain registrations sorted out.  

 

19 minutes ago, wwwmwww said:

Is there a website I should monitor or can I request to be put on a notification list?

Not yet.  Our site's still under development.  When it launches, we'll create a thread in the Homepages section of the forums here.

[sketchley]

10 hours ago, wwwmwww said:

Sorry I'm late to the game here.  Anyone know if the story of Macross the Ride is available in English in any format?

Thanks,

Carl

The parts of it that I've translated are available here: http://sdfyodogawa.mywebcommunity.org/OTdengekihobby.php#2011

Just like Seto, the remaining parts are on the "to do list".  :lol:

[Sir Galahad®]

Given that the power and speed of the modern valks, how can older valks like the VF-1 win in a Vanquish Race? Or are limitations set during the race?

[sketchley]

5 hours ago, Sir Galahad® said:

Given that the power and speed of the modern valks, how can older valks like the VF-1 win in a Vanquish Race? Or are limitations set during the race?

Hint: those aren't older VFs as they were when they were newly produced.  Think of them as something akin to the '60's hot rod version of the Model T.

With the VF-1, we know one of them was upgraded with thermonuclear burst turbine engines.  Definitely not stock.

[Seto Kaiba]

6 hours ago, Sir Galahad® said:

Given that the power and speed of the modern valks, how can older valks like the VF-1 win in a Vanquish Race? Or are limitations set during the race?

The Vanquish League holds several different categories of race that cater to different styles of racing and different levels of aircraft performance.

Macross the Ride's story mainly revolves around the Ultimate Class races, an anything-goes competition where racers can bring any model of VF they or their sponsors can afford and extensively modify it to improve or refine its performance.  It's kind of like late model stock car racing in that respect.  There is a modest amount of grumbling from fans of the league that the Ultimate Class allows racers sponsored by megacorporations to spend their way to victory using high-spec 4th Generation VFs that independent racers can't even legally buy, like team Shinsei's custom VF-19A or team SMS's VF-19ACTIVE.  The best that most independent pilots can afford are decommissioned VF-11B and VF-11C Thunderbolt that the New UN Forces are selling off, though some have managed to get their hands on other 3rd Generation models like VF-14 Vampires or a VA-3 Invader.  There are a few brave or foolhardy racers who race Ultimate Class with late-service upgrade variants of older 1st or 2nd Generation machines like Hakuna Aoba's VF-1X++ Valkyrie Double Plus and ten time champion Nicolas F. Berthier's VF-9E Cutlass.  (The latter is essentially the league's rebuttal to the grumbling about pay-to-win.)  Some independently wealthy pilots go in on custom jobs, like Magdalena Zielonaska's SV-52y, which started its life as a SV-51 that was retrofitted with VF-17 parts.

Other classes of race include Thunderbolt Class, which is more like street stock racing where only VF-11 Thunderbolts are permitted, and Ostrich Class, which is a GERWALK mode (or battlepod) foot race.  

 

 

12 minutes ago, sketchley said:

Hint: those aren't older VFs as they were when they were newly produced.  Think of them as something akin to the '60's hot rod version of the Model T.

In the case of Hakuna Aoba's VF-1X++, it's more like the old myth of the man who strapped a JATO bottle to an old Chevrolet Impala.  Not only did he upgrade the engines to ones intended for current-gen unmanned fighters (with output similar to a VF-22's), he also strapped rocket boosters to the sides.

Nicolas Berthier's VF-9E was a planned production model meant to extend the service life of the VF-9 by updating its engines to the model used on the VF-22, a plan abandoned by General Galaxy after it demonstrated a disquieting tendency to spontaneously explode in midair.

 

12 minutes ago, sketchley said:

With the VF-1, we know one of them was upgraded with thermonuclear burst turbine engines.  Definitely not stock.

To put that in context, thermonuclear reaction burst turbines were a next-gen engine technology developed for the VF-19 and VF-22.

[Ominae]

I remember stumbling onto some of Sketchley's translations. Hopefully I can read the LN before I croak.