Mr March

I'm not running Windows 7. I'm running XP, but I read people with Vista/Windows 7 having no problem running the original Homeworld, yet had problems with Homeworld 2. I'm guessing it's something wrong with the way Homeworld 2 operates. I'm on mission 12 now. Forgot how much I hated this one mission. I mean this game was never easy, but this mission was a particularly bad example of level design, ridiculous difficulty and micromanagement frustration that managed to sap all the fun out of the game. It's a good thing this one mission is pretty much as bad as the game gets. I'm trying the mines with platforms strategy this time

It is sad to see the film failing at the box office, but it's not surprising. Given how many great movies with tough pitches have actually fulfilled my hopes and made money in these past few years (District 9, Zombieland, Inception), I suppose it was inevitable one or two wouldn't make it along the way. The Pilgrim movie is a niche appeal kind of film, but it does have far more potential than what it's getting. I know me and my friends love it, but outside of my social circles and age group, I suppose I can understand the lack of appeal. I can't even see my sibling enjoying this film and I'm only a few years younger. The film can be a little specific I guess. Fight Club did poorly domestically too, which I would consider a niche film with a particular pop culture zeitgeist similar to SPVTW, but that film managed to find success and an audience afterward. So there may be hope for Pilgrim. Plus there's the fact that a lot of people are soured by Cera

Great work. I definitely second the call for high res versions. Always on the look out for good high definition backgrounds

I just read the news at my film haunts. This is terrible news and is a loss for anime. Kon was one of the few in his industry truly breaking from the norm and producing some groundbreaking productions much like Mamoru Oshii did for his generation and Hayao Miyazaki for the generation before that. Anime has truly lost a vital voice with Kon's passing.

It could be a combination of factors, which is what makes the problem difficult to diagnose. I have an old ATI Radeon 9600 and I know from at least version 8.9 and up, they don't work with Homeworld 2 on Windows XP. I have seen plenty of posting on the internet saying the same thing, so I know others have the same problem. It might also just be Homeworld 2. Several people have commented that the original Homeworld works just fine on Vista/Windows 7, but it's Homeworld 2 they can't run properly.

Weird story...I was looking through old files on my computer and found some Homeworld saved games and old artwork. Gets me thinking about Homeworld 2 again. So I decide to search Google for some high resolution Homeworld 2 wallpapers to place on my desktop and find some fan has built this amazing map (which I'm sure for some of you is old news) but here it is anyway, The Homeworld Universe (by Norsehound). Now the story really heats up. This discovery of a new background for my comp prompts me to install and play Homeworld 2. But there's a problem: only way I can get the game to work properly (yes, it's patched to 1.1) is to uninstall my ATI Catalyst drivers and install a really old version from around 2005 (I'm using Catalysts version 4.4). Now the game works fine, but I kinda hate using such outdated drivers and would prefer a more modern solution. Anyone else encountered this issue with Homeworld 2? Any ideas?

Oh, I found that reverse analysis of the UNG population I wrote a long time ago. This new topic on the subject is as good a time as any to re-post it. Hope you find this interesting... Just to note, I wrote this analysis before the Chronicle supplied a number of new figures on crews and fleet counts. Regardless, the same technique should work fine with different figures but the original figures are still relevant anyway.

You're most welcome. Make sure to share pictures of any customs you build. I'm always interested to see fan created color schemes.

The VF-1 schematics have been posted many a time, but over the many, many years we've been here. So it would require a search and who's to say the links would still hold those files? So here they are. The 5-view picture is the official schematics taken from This Is Animation Special Macross Plus and the other picture features several Photoshop edits I created of those original schematics to set them level and build the sweep winged view. Hope this helps.

You're welcome. I can't wait to see what you make.

Alrighty, here are the blanks of the VF-25F. Enjoy.

I rebuilt schematic drawings of the VF-25F and S based upon the same set that was drawn for Model Graphix and Hobby Japan. Because the official schematics aren't very accurate, my drawings are also not exactly accurate either, just the cleanest fan-drawn version of what's officially available. If you're okay with that, I'll post the set of VF-25F blanks. Let me know what size you want. Also, I can post the schematics w/o the insignia and w/o the color lines or provide the PSD file if you're using PS or GIMP.

Got back from a late showing with some friends. Scott Pilgrim vs. The World is a movie that defines what "fun" should mean when you go to the theatre. So many films promise it, yet so few deliver: Scott Pilgrim vs. The World delivered fun and then some. There were so many hilarious gags hurled at the audience almost relentlessly that I often found myself laughing over the next joke in line. The performances were spot on and I liked every character from the leads all the way to the minor characters. Chris Evan's over-acting action hero was a favorite of mine. The editing of this film is particularly notable for it's high-bandwidth pace and brilliant sense of comedic timing. This is definitely one really tight flick with barely any moment wasted. The comic book and video game elements of this movie are used to incredible effect, such that they confidently transition the audience from dramedy into the effects-laden, over-the-top martial arts action sequences (each of which are very inventive and powerfully kinetic). The film is rife with anime references: every member here should at least see the movie to appreciate the homages. Edgar Wright definitely has his game on with this film! I also must say I was blown away by how Canadian this film was, however regional. I had heard about Toronto being a notable element of the film, but was completely unprepared for the unapologetic use of Canadiana throughout the movie. Not only did they shoot Toronto-for-Toronto, but I recognized almost every part of the city in which they shot, from street cars and buses to pubs and landmarks. While I'm sure many Americans have been used to watching their homes on screen for years, it was surreal watching my city on the big screen in such a big way. The film didn't stop there and included a soundtrack full of great Canadian bands like Metric and Broken Social Scene as well as hilarious T-Dot homages such as Scott's t-shirt emblazoned with the word "SARS" While I didn't have the same "religious" experience after watching the film as those of my fellow internet denizens and geeks, I will say Scott Pilgrim vs. The World is one of the best films this year and certainly one of the MOST FUN. It'd give it a 4.5 out of 5. A ridiculous and unexpected bonus...the trailer played for M. Night Shayamalan's next film Devil. Halfway through, a girl in the audience bust out laughing at the awfulness of the trailer and the crowd went wild. We laughed until our stomachs hurt and at the end, someone in the audience yelled, "first negative score on rotten tomatoes!"

Comes out tomorrow. Reviews are generally good but seem more age-skewed than is usual. From what I've read, if you grew up with video games in the 80s or 90s, you're much more inclined to like the film. Any older and the critics are crying ADHD. I think I'll like it

Well, there's plenty of black and white line art at my website, found within the "line art" section of each vehicle profile. You can also visit the Macross section at Mecha Image of the Day, which has a mix of color and black and white line art (make sure to view the entire archive) If all that fails to offer the particular pieces you're looking for, try posting requests here on the forums. I can help with a few requests, so long as the requests aren't extensive. Posting you're preferred size would be a good idea too. Hope that helps.

Do you want uncolored "schematic" line art? Or are you referring to regular drawn Macross line art? I've never seen any official Battroid schematics (aside from rough or variant drawings by Kawamori and co.), I've only ever seen fan-made Battroid schematics, typically taken from Model/Toy manuals (such as those built by Crazy Canuck). Since they were mostly fan made, that's likely a good reason why you don't find them online anymore. It's also important to note that many old school fans have left Macross fandom and many of the original mid-to-late 1990s Macross fansites have long since shutdown and/or been lost to the nether of the internet. Other than acquiring Photoshop and using the multiply feature to build color layers (which is what I do), I hear many people use GIMP (a free graphics program with Photoshop-like functionality) to build colored art. I'd suggest starting with that. Your Valkyrie color generator sounds great, but that's way beyond my programming skills

Its out at last. Long overdue for an upgrade to the old computer

I'm a fan of Faraci and am really glad he helped contextualize some of the same thoughts I had about "Inception". The film as a metaphor for the filmmaking process came to me following discussions with friends. I love that reading of the movie and it's also very strongly supported by the film itself. It was great to see a filmgeek site like CHUD not only get as excited as I was about Nolan's latest but really provide an intelligent, inspired analysis of the film. My usual hang outs at both IFC.com and slashfilm.com found the staff of each site guardedly enthusiastic and patronizingly extolling about the film. But take the good with the bad I suppose

I've loved both "Dawn of the Dead" and "300" and at worst found "Watchmen" an interesting failure worth seeing. So I'm definitely willing to go along for the ride with this latest Zack Snyder creation. Looks fun and I also like the psychological setup for all this. Sounds and looks promising.

I'm a non-practicing Thor fan (I still own some of my old Thor comics) and I can say the movie is building upon basically all the important foundations of the comic character. The hammer, the gods, humility, banishment, Earth, the mantra, etc. Redesigns are rather familiar for Thor. When I was into the comics (late 1980s to early 1990s), the Thor property was already in a state of visual redesign with each new artist that worked on the book starting with, and then following, Walt Simonson. Asgard and the gods in particular have gone through so many conceptual redesigns in the comic series that the different look of this live action version is no surprise. I'm just not convinced the look is working for me.

Mixed emotions. It's definitely pulling at my nostalgia for the character, but I'm still feeling worried about the film. The film does look good in context, but it still feels more than a little silly in the production design and the costumes. On the plus side, the dialog is surprisingly poignant and the theme appears to be Thor learning humility, which could make for a solid story and worthy emotional payoff. I will say that it is rather interesting the trailer reveals character scenes and drama, rather than focusing 90% on special effects and action like so many of these super hero flicks. That could be good news or maybe just clever marketing. Still up in the air on this one, but maybe a bit more hopeful.

I'm very happy to say "Inception" appears to be doing well at the box office. Receipts are already nearly $150 million domestic and well over $200 million including foreign, all in just 10 days. At a budget of $160 million, "Inception" is solidly on it's way towards great success. Inception report at Box Office Mojo

It's rather hard to say one way or the other. I've not read much about capacitors in Macross until publication of the Chronicle, which indicates a much wider role for capacitors than previously revealed, from M0 all the way to Frontier. I'm also not sure if there is any indication one way or the other whether capacitors are high-energy storage or low-energy storage (relatively speaking). But I would say a good indication of where the limits for Macross beam weapons don't lie is to consider the conventional comparison: in our current "real world" technology, power sources are by far the most significant limitation we suffer; in Macross it appears that power generation is the technology of least concern. Factors such as thrust, weight, fuel, cost and such always seem to be highlighted while in contrast power generation seems so plentiful it has lead to such indulgences as fighter-scale pin point barriers. Granted this all just impression, but honestly beam weapons being limited by power generation would be my last guess. I agree that beam weapons limited by heat, cycling and other factors are good considerations, but I might argue the factor of weight does appear to enjoy at least circumstantial trivia to support it, however lacking for correlation that may be. I suppose I just like weight is a "best fit" guess.

Interesting numbers. I like them. On the subject of beam weapons.... If there is some limitation to beam weapons in the Macross universe that demands continued use of ballistics (however advanced), I never got the impression it was a want for power. At least based on the official trivia, power generation in the Macross universe appears to produce a ridiculous output per unit of weight. The VF-1 Valkyrie has 2 x thermonuclear reaction engines producing 650 Megawatts of power each, for a total output of 1,300 Megawatts or 1.3 Gigawatts. To place that power rating in some context, a Nimitz Aircraft Carrier reactor generates 104 MW, less than one-tenth the power of a single VF-1 Valkyrie. I would find it strange if power would be the limitation to beam weapons in Macross when power generation technology appears to be one of the furthest reaching performance benchmarks for the franchise. In my own pondering about Macross beam weapons I've often thought the main limitation was their weight. The Zentradi mecha appear to embrace beam weaponry the most and each mecha weighs something in the range of 30-40 tons compared from the early era of SDF Macross all the way up to the Frontier era. By comparison, the weight range for most Valkyries is 7-14 tons. When looking at the Valkyries alone, it appears to generally follow a pattern that the more beams weapons a variable fighter has the heavier that variable fighter. Lastly, it's generally the biggest, heaviest configurations of any given Valkyrie that is equipped with the largest, most damaging beam weapons (like the Strike and various Armored Valkyrie configurations). In a military vehicle like the VF, the engineers would rely upon moderating weight to insure maximum performance for a given combat role. As such, it seems beam weapons simply weigh a great deal more that missile or ballistic weapons. Perhaps that's why even when beam guns are installed on the later VFs, they seem to be smaller bore weapons.

Not sure if anyone else has been following Edgar Wright's new film adaptation of "Scott Pilgrim vs. The World", but apparently he surprised everyone at Comic Con in San Diego with an unannounced screening of the film. The fellas at /Film attended the screening and have a spoiler-free video blog review of the film on their website. Needless to say, the reaction has been tremendous. As a fan of Edgar Wright's previous films I was already closely watching and eagerly awaiting this new movie. I'm even more excited after watching this review. If you're interested, check out the link: Video Blog Review of Scott Pilgrim vs. The World Scott Pilgrim vs The World is scheduled for release on August 13th.