Big "O"

Straight up Kiddies, use alchol 120% for all .bin files EXCEPT for ps2 games. (Use alchohol for EVERYTHING Dreamcast related) (For some reasons not all ps2 .bin files have come out for me, even on slower speeds.) CDRWIN is the defacto prog for burning PS2 .bin files When using CDrWin to burn the .bin file Click the "record Disc" tab Load the cuesheet for the bin file Choose the slowest speed your burner will handle. Wait for the disc to be ready (If you guys are finding the complete DVD online for D/L let me know. Would like to check that as well. DVD rip is missing movies and some sound)

I use both DVD formats and they work fine. Cheap Princo 1x DVD-r seem to have worked the best for me. The AR2 or GS may or may not work with some games. Most game back ups can be patched to be "No-Mod" so they can be booted with only a AR2 or GS and NO modchip present. You just have to know hexadecimal code and where the offsets are in the game so that you can change them manually (This method is not for nrewbies and does require some additional knowledge) There is no way to boot a cheat enhancer after the swap magic disks but in some cases you can boot with the flip top and a GS instead of the Swap Magic discs. The codebreaker should work if you boot the disc whe the PS2 is turned on.

AAARRRGGHHH!!LePosuer just doesn't get it. (I obviously don't get it either, as I keep arguing with him) Dude, whatever. I own 3 of my own business, I own a ten-acre reptile farm under construction, I have an aprtment in the state capital where I consort with all sorts of politicians, and I know alot of people on the inside who have showed me the loopholes thru the corperate system. I never want for a thing. Money to me, is simply a tool to get something done. I do not objectify it but I realize alot of peopel don't have very much of it. I don't care how anyone spends it. I'm just trying to let you guys know how to do this on the cheap. I was merely suggesting that if you are going to take the priate route anyways and mod your ps2 to play imports, D/L it first to to see if you like it before you plunked down doulbe the asking price for what could amount long term to another fanboy jerk-off. I'm not as impressed with the game as the other fanboys are. IT's still the same Valk sim to me. If you did work for a software development team (I did as well for awhile) you got paid no matter how well the sales of the product did and if your mad about the stuff being ripped off and handed out, it didn't affect you or your paycheck (I doubt you got any of the royalties for the sales of the product), just the retailers that carried your product. Your company may suffer from lack of sales when no one re-orders and that may affect your ability to get a raise and promotion. I realized long ago youcan't punish peolple for downloading and using your product, only selling it unlawfully. Is your company going to lose a sale if I wasn't ever going to buy the title in the first palce adn still downloaded it?? What about product placement (advertising) inside of a video game? Alot of companies use endorsements inside their games to generate the cask to pay the developers. You also know that increased circulation of certain software promotes product awareness which increases the next version's sales or sales of spin-off or related merchandising. Spare us your rhetoric until you get a better clue of how this REALLY works. Until then, enjoy retail inflation and your Macross game. -------- By the way, if you're such a saint and you live in Japan, why not just go to a retailer near you and pick up a few copies of the game and sell it to everyone on this board that is interested in it without making them pay the extra $ to get it from an importer. You seem to think this is alright to do, do it. Either way we do this, yor way or mine, laws are getting bent. (You break the law your way, I'll do it mine and we'll see who ends up in more trouble.) Fanboys!??! ( I still will never learn)

Copyright law is sketchy at best. It's used to protect intelluctual property of the individual right's holder in the SPECIFIC region the the copyright is held. If two companies hold the right to the same properties, but one each to a specific region, copyright law restricts one parties from infringing on sales in the other parties region. If you are on Holiday out of your country and you buy a game in the country you are in and bring it home you are not violating copyright law. IF you pay for and international game that is not supposed to be sold outside of the originating country outside of the originating country, the seller is violating copyright law as he is not liscened to sell the title out side of the intended country. If there were no legalities involved you could play any format title on any PS2 console. As i said, copyright law is sketchy and there are loopholes aroud this. ---What makes me howl at this debate is how everyone thinks they are supporitng "Macross" by buying an import. No. No. If you pay the extra $ to get the game overseas, you make the importer rich. The importer buys wholesale like the retailers do and depending on the size frequency of his orders. he could get the product for a lower price. (Anyone still paying Lik Sang $40 for a dreamcast game?? They bought out the last of the DC stockpiles of games and are now gouging people on the price.) Sega gets their money for the product before it ever leaves their wharehouse. It's up to the retailers to sell for the majority of the profit. We'll put it this way: Robotech battlecry got released in the States for $40-$50. TDK was probably paid by retailers and department stores $7-$15 (depending on each retailer's business arrangement with TDK. Remeber when a major retailer makes an order, it;s for tens of thousands of copies) When the price officially dropped, TDK had to send out rebates to the smaller retailers who paid on the high end to make their profit margin more equitable on the product and so that they could compete with the major retail competition. All other retailers were left to manage the profit margin as they saw fit. When sales lagged again, all retailers slashed the prices to clear out the dead item to make shelf space for fresher, faster selling product. I got my copy of "Battlecry" 8 mos after relaese for $7.48 and target still made roughly $.48 on the transaction Importers run salvage operations with major retailers. When the retailers can;t move the product and theare are still pallets of the game sitting in the retailers warehouse, the importer comes along and buys the game at pennies on the dollar of the RETAILERS WHOLESALE COST (i.e. if target bought battlecry for $7 form TDK, a salvager liquidated Target's remaining pallets for $.70 a title, took the product to his website and is now selling it for $20 a pop)--- Anybody diggin' the free business lecture?? As for modding your PS2: A judge ruled in Australia that it was not violating copyright law to modify your PS2 to play backups and that pretty much set a global precedent everywhere except America. America is a comletely different. The new "Digital Millenium Act" that prohibits the violation of copyright law oon DVDs. Pretty soon it will be illeagal to modify anything that breaks any form of copyright protection. The Digital Millenium act is gaining steam in America and already huge legal entites like the RIAA and the Cable companies are launching huge lawsuits at companies who are allowing people to infringe on thier copyrights and making indicted parties turn over all customer records. It's only a matter of time before the Video Game industry follow suit. America is catching up with gamers as well. Many modchip makers in America have already been arrested and records subpeoned. They are going to do to Video Game Hackers what they are currently doing to cable stealers in America and sue them. (Just like the RIAA suing Kazzaa users) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ATTENTION!! THis is for the people reading this post who are thinking of installing a slide tool. DON'T!!!!!!!!!!! Get a flip top cover and Swap Magic disc for only $35 Go here: http://www.ps2case.net/index.htm to do so. Swap Magic discs are the same software that come with the slide tool. Slide tool and flip top cover are hardware solutions for the Swap Magic Disc. You can install a ip top without voiding your warranty. Get a slide tool and you'll be sorry! Very sorry. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ This is the last post I'm making in this thread. I hope I could educate at least one person.

Get a slide card or mod your PS2 to play the new macross game and your entering the piracy realm yourselves. (Plus you're breaking your PS2) This is one of MANY message I received from my first post. It would seem that at least some people would benefit for my knowledge. Self-righteous, Sanctimonious, Fanboy A$$holes. (I'll never learn.) Only a fanboy would dish out half-logic like this. (Can't tell an idiot that they're being an idiot.) I for one DON'T wan't the movie or TV series to be reprised in the video game. The other games out there alredy do that fine. How about something NEW instead of updated and polished?? How about making the title encompass more of the Macross world than just a flying around a few destroids. Why do we still not have a Zentradi-based campaign? Why can't we jump in a destroid and do battle? Variation of themes is what make a really great game. Super Dimession Fortress Macross is essentially the same Valk sim we've been playing since vfx-1. It's a solid effort for sure, but nowhere near in the realm of a great game. Go ahead and buy the import, make the importer rich. If all you ever do is look at importer's shops all you are ever going to get are import prices. Normal department stores and retilers buy titles outright from their distributor. There is only so much viable shelf space in the real world and when a title stops selling well stores start marking them down to make room for the newer games. Due to the absence of a strong TV market for any Macross product both inside and outside of Japan at the moment, the success of this title will be based soley on it's gameability and not for the great lengths it will go to to jerk-off fanboys. (this game has none of the modern amenities that the big-time gamers dig, like online play and such. It is not that big of a game at all.) From my years and years of doing this, I know Sega will try and mass-market this game in Asia so there will be a large # of copies prodiced. If it doesn't do well there, we'll see it on clearance in the spring when the next wave of titles hits the shelves. Trouble with getting it on clearance then would be knowing soemone in the Asian marketplace to buy it on clearance and ship it to you. (If you know who the major Asian retailer are and can speak the language from time to time you can check the store's website and get the clearance price there.) IF it does well there, it will come here. IF the game is released in the states, you can bet your sweet ass you'l be able to get it here for $10 or less eventually. ["battlecry" flopped in the U.S. because of a lack of a strong TV market and the majority of the fanbase for the original Macross series was a little too old for video games. (I'm not talking about obsessed fanboys, i'm talking about your average, conservative American that used to watch robotech cartoons and buy the stuff when he was a kid.) {Some people also blame "Battlecry's" poor success on TDK's poor marketing and lame packaging of the product.} Robotech Fans don't buy their kids robotech toys like star wars fans buy thier kids star wars toys and even with the genrational plug, Star wars toys aren't considered that cool by today's generation of kids. Macross will not do well anywhere unless word gets out that it is a really cool game and it COULD'VE been with a little more work.] Hardcore gamer vs. Fanboy geek?? I'm not fighting this one anymore. There are easier ways to get things done, bro. Those of us that live in America are all gettting pirated in someway. With most Americans having their $ stolen from them by their Gov't I was trying to provide a reasonalble soultion for people who wanted to play the game and see if it was good before they spent their dough on it SINCE YOU HAVE TO MOD YOUR PS2 AND VOID YOUR WARRANTY TO PLAY THIS GAME ANYWAYS! (unless you're one of the dumb-dumbs silly enough to install a slide card. I laugh everytime someone asks me how to fix the DVD drive in their PS2 when the slide card wears out the motor) Jack don't wan't no slack, jack don't get no slack. THis is the LAST time I try to help out fanboys.

Eisiest way to tell if a ps2 impost title is DVD or CD is to check the color of the disk. AS we all know, PS2 cds are blue. DVD's still have the silver sheen. DVDs can be ripped (Movies, trailers, demos, and sounds can be taken out) to fit on a CDr, With a special program you can make 2 or more CDbased games fit on one DVDr but it is time consuming and a bit of a hassle to do right. (You have to be familiar with hexidecimal offsets as you will have to change the hex code to get the games to play right on the DVD.) For those of you who are making back-ups but do not own the actiual game: Better just to stick to making CDr rips or investing in a DVD burner. (DVDs are not really that cost effective to use right now with most games dropping to $20 at retail after a few months and total cost for a DVD back up (without renting the game) is still about $3-4 plus a couple of hours worth of your pc's time. If you have to rent a game (unless it is a brand new 0-day release) just buy the game. Those of you with the original game disc: Unless you have the money to burn on DVD Back-ups just make Cdr rips and watch the movies off of the original DVD. (I get 200 blank 1x Princo DVDs for $120 shipped. {I can post a link if need be} and DVD cases for $.50 a piece. DVD labels cost almost $1 after I print them out on my HP deskjet 612) Swap Magic disks use region x encoding and will load ALL DVD regions. Pal or NTSC. (Gameshark and action replay discs do this as well.) Swap Magic discs are universally used with the slide tool gimmick and the flip-top cover. This is the best method of PAl or ntsc conversion I know of. No disc patching, no inconsistentcy with the mod chip, no expensive converter unit. GameSharks simply suck at this and alot of times the PS2 will crash when you use their emmbedded DVD region software. I have 3 versions of the Game Sharck/ Action Replay and none of them are easy to use. I usually have to boot the GS 3 times to get it to work right.

I'm not saying everyone should pirate the title instead of buy it but alot of people who are reading this thread are going to have to mod thier PS2 in some way to play the import. Downloading the game in advance is going to save some peole alot of greif. Fanboys and Hardcore Macross collectors will wan't to buy the title, sure but do those of us who aren't living a Macross-obsessed lifestyle wan't to blow $70 on a game that's going to entertain us for less than a week?? (Less than 3 days??) Before I blew $70 on an import Macross title, I'd like to get the chance to know if it's going to be a keeper. Download the game and if you don't like it, break the copy and throw it away. If you do like it and can't wait for a release in your country, blow the $$ on an import. In six-month's time I can almost guarantee you guys can pick up that title new for under $20. There is no fixed-value system for console software and the price of titles start dropping weeks after release. It's better to wait if you're actually going to buy anything. I know all of you guys have ethics but it seems like you miss out on the fact that if you buy an import title that is not for your specific region and play it you are technically violating international copyright law anyways. Your point is moot. If you weren't breaking any copyright laws you wouldn't have to import the title. You could just go to the store and buy it. (Even the stores that do sell imports like Rhino and Gamestop are technically breaking the law but there are loopholes around it.) Are you guys saying it's better to break the law one way and not the other?? Me, I'm not blowing $70 on this when there are SOOOOOOO many other worty titles that will cost me $40 or less. (I bought Descent 3 new for $15 and I had to wipe the files from my HDD and hide the disc for it as it was so f-cking addictive to play online. Hell, I bought a copy of "Battlecry" from Target after it had been out for a few months for $7.48 on clearance and gave it to Kanata67 for Christmas. For me, those are the games that are going to get my $. If you knew how the capitalist system really works, you'd do it too.) Those of you Fanboys and have-to-have-its can waste your dough all you wan't. My info was aimed at the rest of the folks will bills to pay and girls to feed who may not wan't to blow $70 on another light-weight Macross gaming experience. Cinema scenes, visuals, and soundtracks don't make great games, they make great movies. Movies on DVD cost $20 or less to buy. (Is anybody getting my point yet??) In my opinion hardcore gamers that are Macross fans would get more mileage out of their $70 buying something else Macross related. (I hear the 1/48 valks have dropped in price again.) IF they wanted to check out the game, I was suggesting a place where they could download it for free before they bought the title. Sorry to ruin your day fanboys.

You can call it stealing all you want. I like to play games before I by them. That way I don't spen $50 on a game I only play for 5 minutes an chuck on the shelf. (I actually bought Murakumo: Renegade Mech pursuit for the XBOX for $50 and it was the worst {and last} new game I ever bought.) Now I download titles I want to play and then, if they are keepers, I buy them used for $5-$10 after they've been around for a few moths. Ever buy a new game for $50 and then find it marked down to $20 everywhere 2 days after you plunked down your hard earned cash? Ever try to get the price adjusted for the difference? F-ck it. For a flight/ combat sim, Macross was nothing new. Great for fanboys, but so was "Enter the Matrix" Anyone blow $50 on that title?

Just a note for all of you guys who blew $65-$75.00 on an import: I just got done downloading a dvdrip of this game off of IRC. Japanese games play perfectly in US chipped consoles. Both use NTSC format. Grab it while you can! Good game for a Macross title but not a great game overall. DEFINTIELY not worth $70.00 (Not worth $30 really. Without the Veritechs it might as well be Aerodancing 3. Not enough variation in missions but better than Battlecry. The visuals are stunning but gameplay is still muck like other macross games. It is easier to transform into all 3 modes this time around and the play is far more fluid. {it plays much like GunMetal for the Xbox.} It looks likes it it was made to simply jerk off the fanboys and not appeal to flight sim, combat gamers. Sega and am2 put forth a solid effort but it still needs work in my opionion. It's not hard to be the best Macross title when all others suck the ass. I never made it thru the firt mission on the dreamcast Macross game before I dubbed it crap. The 2 for PSX were none better. For my $70.00, a video game had better be spectacular and have years worth of replay value. Pay $70 for an import and you're simply making the import guy rich. Games developers don't get any of that extra loot and importers buy whoelsale so they pay far less for those import titles than you would think. Not being a huge Macross fanboy, I wasn't that impressed with the game. If I want to see cool macross animation, I 'll pop in DYRL. )

I posted a link to the site with the flip-top coever in the lengthy post I made the other day. Here it is again: http://www.ps2case.net/index.htm These are the guys that delveloped the thing. The will have all of the info you will need regarding the product on their site as well as pictures of the unit. The CD tray still slides out but you need to use the flip top to fool the DVD check when the tray ejects itself. The slide tool wears out the DVD eject motor. Imagine how long your PC's cd tray would eject if you kept pulling it open and pushing it closed and you should have a good isea what the slide tool will do to your ps2 console. Flip-top cover is the cheapest and next best thing to a mod-chip. The slide tool is a gimmick at best and should not be used unless you've already broken the CD tray on your PS2. For the extra $10, go ahead and invest in a case cover. The PS2 has a 90-day limited warranty and and 1 years parts warranty. You should not be worried about voiding the warranty with Sony unless yoour PS2 is less than 2 weeks old. Sony's warranty service is terrible. I'll have my ps2 back-up list ready and will be mailing to all parties who PMed me. (Many thanks for the inquiries guys!!)

Oh Boy, are you Slide tool users going to be sorry when the motor in your DVD drive wears out in a month and makes your PS2 unuseable. If you are going to use the Swap Magic disc trick spend the extra $10 and get yourself a flip-top cover instead. Check http://www.ps2case.net/index.htm for more info. Flip top covers can be installed in seconds by blind monkeys with no arms. They also put less stress on your console by not forcing you to keep ejecting the disc and swap like a Game Shark or Action Replay would. It way beats dragging out the cd tray and pushing it back in to cheat the reset check. Plus, if you DO wear out your motor on your DVD drive, the flip top cover will be the way you'll be fixing the problem The swap magic discs have mixed results with back-up games and imports alike. It matters not wheter you use the slide tool or the flip top cover. Current Swap Magic Disks WILL NOT boot psx backup discs and I hope those sports freaks amongst you won't be dissapointed to find out most of the good EA sports DVD rips won't boot with the swap magic discs either. (I have not tried EA sports DVDs with them yet so I do not know if it works with DVDs either but I have had success with most DVDs that were not DVD9 format. Bigger games like Tomb Raider AOD have not been able to boot, even when ripped.) Best of luck to you folks with the slide tool. You'll hate it the second your ps2 breaks and turns to junk. (Just ask anyone who tried the similar "Knife Swap" trick.) The best mod method is the current version of the Magic modchip which let you simply insert any back-up or import and play, irrelevant of which video format (NTSC / PAL) your title is on. It is nearly impossible to install by anybody but an expertly trained professional. !!!Kids, do NOT try this at home.!!! There are some contact points on certain microchips on the ps2 motherboard necessary for the installation that are smaller than wires being used for the modchip. The space inbetween the contact points is so tight, there is no margin for error and one stray drip of solder or shaky hands can fuse two pins of the microchip together making your ps2 short out rendering it useless forever. For the best information regarding mod methods for the PS2 check www.ps2ownz.com and use their forums to gain the knowledge you need. I would say in my opinion, that it is almost worth it to pay the money to have an expert install a Magic modchip for you. Most quality installers charge alot of money for this service but it's worth every penney if you cannot do it yourself. Even in order to get started, you have to completely dissasemble a bobby-trapped ps2 console to check it's motherboard to find out what version console you have so you can order the rigth chip anymore. The serial # on the back of the console is no good anymore for refference to what version PS2 you have. You can even nuke your PS2 if you have ver. 4 and beyond by simply dissasembling it wrong and accidentally tearing a paper-thin wire or cable input. Sony want's you to damage your PS2 if you attempt to take it apart. If and when shopping for a modchip, notice how many different PS2 replacement components are available. If you are thinking of doing the install for yourself for the first time, plan on ordering a full set of them if you never took apart a ps2 before and are not an expertly competent solderer. There is a good reason there a market exists for these products. All other known methods that both include and do not include soldering of any other modchip do not work 100% with all formats. Kanata67 can vouch for the fact that install modchips in all systems ( we met when I did his PSX) and know my stuff. Even with my abilities, I do not relish the thought of modding another PS2 beyond ver. 3 EVER. I have a neo key 2.5 in a ver. 3 PS2 that was easy as pie to install. I use the Game Shark to boot my stuff off of cd-rips. I cannot make the DVD boot trick work to save my life, it's too much of a pain in the ass to even try with a game Shark and you still have to have an original PS2 DVD to make it work correctly. The Neo Key does not work with every psx game either. I sometimes borrow a friends swap magic disc when I have games that won't boot with the Game Shark. Swap magic Discs in combination with my Neo Key modchip using my friend's flip top cover method have given me the best results with all games but a few. I'm still on the fence as to what I want to do in regards to upgrading the mod on my PS2. I'm leaning towards getting a magic chip and having my buddy install it. It all depends on if he wants to do it. ( I know I don't) I hope this information can benefit all concerned parties. Those of you interested in TRADING PSX, PS2, XBOX, DreamCast, N64, MAME, or any other backups or roms feel free to shoot me a PM over to me with any requests or possible trades. I'm always looking to complete my colection. I have over 250 PSX titles, 250 PS2 titles (mostly dvdrips but some full dvds), almost all of the Dreamcast titles, 90 XBOX titles, 7 totally useless Game Cube backups (they are the full ISO image but nothing at the moment can play them.) countless PC Titles and almost every emulator & rom known to exist. I can send complete lists to interested folks but it may take some time to chronicle everything I have.