mikeszekely

YK is Yuke, BL is Belkan, and SP... special? I know that the F/A-22's third color is supposed to be the same as the ISAF color in Ace Combat 4, and the Su-37 is supposed to be a Yellow, right?

At two points in the game, during the radio chatter, Chopper will ask you if you listened to "that song" or remark that "'that songs' would be perfect right now." If you say yes, the will call the song "Face of the Coin." If you say no, he will call the song "Back of the Coin." After those missions, you're next mission is decided by a coin toss... heads, you go A, tails, you go B. The coin toss isn't random... it's determined by how you answered Chopper, and what the song was. "Face of the Coin" is heads, and therefore A, and "Back of the Coin" is tails, or B. Sounds like, when you played through, you took the B route. So, after your 12th mission, you unlocked the Su-27. Had you taken the A route, you would have unlocked the F-15C instead. Anyway, the mission where Chopper asks about the song (and he does it really obviously at the beginning of the mission) are 10 and 15.

Myth or not, does anyone disagree that the Protoculture had the technology to make it happen? I don't doubt that the Protoculture had the technology to make it happen... but from the radio dramas, we know that Zolans and humans were incompatible, and that Zolans have pouches like other marsupials. If the Protoculture created humanoids from fish, I'd expect them to have some fish characteristics, like scales or cold blood. Also, simians and marsupials are both mammals... fish are, well, fish. Now, evolution does say that, over millenia, fish do become mammals... but only by going fish-amphibian-reptile-bird-mammal, not directly from fish to mammals. When the Protoculture used their virus to manipulate evolution, from the two examples that we have, it seems that they chose the most advanced mammailian life on a given planet, and evolved it into intelligent life with the basic form of Protoculture. Mind you, I'm not saying that the Nome family (and to a lesser degree, the rest of the Mayans) aren't special. Quite frankly, I think they are... but I think it's because they have Protoculture blood, not because they're literally decendend from fish. Oh, and about the Protoculture and the Zentradi... I don't recall, either in the compendium or in Macross 7, that it said that the Protoculture were the ONLY sentient life in the galaxy... just that they were the FIRST sentient life in the galaxy. By the time they begin colonization of other planets, other, less advanced sentient life may have evolved independantly. I would even say that the Protoculture considered themselves so superior that, when colonizing, if they found other sentient life, they didn't just try to take the planet without the native's consent or try to coinhabit the planet... they probably considered other sentient life inferior and used the Zentradi to wipe them out.

I'll take a Viggen, and a Draken too, while you're at it. I agree, most X-planes are designed to test one particular aspect... but I'd still prefer to fly some of them than a purely fictional (and ugly to boot) plane like the Falken or half of AC3's roster. Oh, and from what I undestand, it was DARPA who designated the JSF designs as X-planes instead of YF's once they got involved with the project back when everyone was still having trouble figuring out how to build a plane that was both supersonic and STOVL. And, to my knowledge, they did it to emphasize that DARPA was going to make their final decision without a fly-off.

Where did you hear that? PC 2500s The mass production of giant biological weapons for proxy warfare, "Zentradi," is begun. The "Zentradi" contribute greatly to the expansion of the Protoculture's sphere of influence.[PC 2600s] PC 2700s Protoculture's second space colonization begins (by super-light-velocity spaceships using fold navigation). PC 2800s Unification of Stellar Republic by Protoculture. PC 2860 Within the excessively overexpanding Stellar Republic, internal rifts begin forming. The internal rifts eventually develop into large-scale conflicts that split the Stellar Republic into two. You pretty much answered where I heard it from yourself. The Protoculture had already begun their first sublight colonization of the galaxy, and where using the Zentradi for "proxy warfare" that "contributes greatly to the expansion of the Protoculture's sphere of influence." That is, the Protoculture used the Zentraedi to whip any intelligent life that didn't take kindly to the PC colonizing their planets. It's a good 200 years after the Protoculture start making Zentraedi before the second, faster-than-light colonization begins, and another 100 years before the Stellar Republic is even formed. When civil war finally breaks out, the Protoculture consider themselves too civilized to duke it out themselves, so they have their Zentradi fighting each other instead, but it certainly doesn't seem like they were created with civil war in mind.

Okay, just watched all five episodes back to back, and I'm going to make a few more points that mostly build on what was in my earlier post. Okay, first off, the fish story. A lot of what's in the Mayan myths are metaphors to explain what happened 10,000 years ago to generation after generation of people who had no way of understanding it in modern scientific terms. I'm firmly convinced that the whole "the first human was created from fish" was a metaphor for evolution. And the whole part about the birdmen creating the first human from fish is to explain that the Protoculture manipulated the evolution of humankind. It's not meant to say literally that the Mayans are literally a sub-race created from fish anymore than the Mayan islands are literally made from a giant turtle shell (which was another Mayan myth presented in episode one). Now, that's not to say that the Mayans aren't special though... at the very least, the Nome family is. It has to do with the legends, which I'll get back to. Now, about those birdmen... the birdmen are not actually the Protoculture. At least, not directly. If you pay attention to all the drawings, scultures, statues, etc on Mayan that depict the birdmen, you can see that it's actually AFOS... or maybe more than one AFOS. I've come to the conclusion that not only is AFOS not unique, but that it was probably a fairly common Protoculture mech/vehicle. There was probably a small group of Protoculture in the scientific expedition to earth, and each one probably had an AFOS, which they might have used to spread a virus (the Viral Evolution Theory is also explained in episode one or two). Ultimately, AFOS is a machine. Is it somewhat organic? Yes. There's advantages to that... damage can heal instead of repair, and even a primitive organic brain would be more adaptable than a digital computer. In fact, it also seems to allow for a blood bond between the AFOS and its pilot. Which brings me back to the legend, and how the Nome family fits in. Remember how Rooy Kanu wanted a wife? And according to legend, the birdman cut off it's head, and from the blood came a woman. I think this is more metaphor. In episode 5, we saw Sara piloting the AFOS... from its head, and floating in some kind of liquid. I think that whole bit about the birdman cutting off it's head was just the way that primitive humans understood what they saw when a real, humanoid Protoculture actually got out of her AFOS. She mated with Rooy Kanu, and her decendants... including the Nome family... would have Protoculture blood and Protoculture DNA in them (the two snakes entwined in the blood... the DNA double helix). The blood in the AFOS was the same as Protoculture, but I think specifically the same as the Rooy Waka and the Nome family bloodline. The particular AFOS in Macross Zero, then, wouldn't just be incapable of being operated by ordinary humans, but probably incapable of being operated by anyone not of that particular family line. Considering how much power AFOS seems to have, it's a logical way of keeping it out of the wrong hands. The legend says that Rooy Waka left with the other birdmen. Despite the fact that AFOS is apparently fold capable, it seems the Protoculture that came to earth had a mothership, and she left with her friends and their AFOS, leaving just that one behind, entrusted to her decendants. Her decendants had an important job: to wait until mankind developed the capability to travel the galaxy, and then evaluate if they succeded or failed as an experiment at that time. In the event of failure, those decendants... by that time, considered priests or priestesses, were to use AFOS to completely wipe out mankind. To this end, I want to say that my earlier speculation is dead on. AFOS may have an advanced computer and incredible capabilites, but it is ultimately a mecha or vehicle. It apparently has two modes, a white "safe" mode, and a purple "destructive" mode. AFOS was programmed to ask the pilot who finally reactivated it the two questions, and start up accordingly, but had no way of evaluating the answers and, once started, was operated by Sara, and not autonomous. The first quesion, "Did humans CREATE ships that can cross OCEANS of stars?" Not "can humans get off the planet?" And not "possess the means to cross." The honest answer was no, because humans hadn't created... the technology literally fell into their laps, and I think (but am not sure) that the Macross was the only fold-capable ship in the UN fleet until after Space War 1. I don't think the ARMD or Oberth ships initially had fold generators. And no, I don't think getting into orbit, getting to the moon, getting to Mars, or even setting up regular commercial travel throughout the solar system would have counted... it really seemed to imply interstellar travel. The second question, "Have humans stopped fighting?" Not, "Are they totally warlike like the Zentraedi? Or are they capabale of love?" Not, "Do they still fight wars" Simply, "Have humans stopped fighting?" The answer is obviously, "No." Love, culture, and generally not being solely focused on war like the Zentraedi doesn't qualify any other answer. Mankind was still fighting amongst itself, and would (and did) take that kind of violence out into space, and that was exactly what the Protoculture were trying to safeguard against. Now again, Sara was piloting AFOS, and AFOS was not acting on its own. Shin snapped Sara out of her insane little funk, and it was Sara that broke off the attack... humankind passed no test, least of all an objective, definative one. So at the end, Sara allowed the four reaction weapons into AFOS' barrier, to contain the blast and radiation and protect the Mayans, which definately damaged it. You could see the petals around its head were blacked and melted. Afterwards, it folded, and aparently took Sara, Shin, and his VF-0 with her. Whether that was Sara's choice and she had some inkling of what she was doing, or whether that was a programmed response to damage by AFOS, I can't say. And where it went, whether or not there's more than one out there, or more Protoculture out there who are going to be pissed that humans are bringing their weapons out into space, well, that's the mystery. I think it'd certainly make an interesting TV series if a UN Spacy fleet circa the 2060's stumbled across some of those answers...

The huge difference, though, is that the X-02 and the Falken are Namco's ideas, while the FB-22 is a serious concept. Personally, I'd rather see more real concepts like the FB-22, X-32 (yeah, it's ugly, but it'd still be cool to have around), X-36 (another JSF design that was beat out by the X-32 and the X-35 that was, I think, the basis for one of the planes in Ace Combat 3), and X-44 as opposed to purely fictional planes.

Yep. I took the F/A-22, and I was going though it at a fairly relaxed pace... until near the end. The shutters started coming down faster and faster... I BARELY made it out the last one. I'm thinking about selling my copy of AC5 and buying the one with the flight stick. Since I know it works on AC4 and the PC (does it work with AFDS?), it's looking like it might be worth the extra money.

Instead, the bystanders think the four (five) of you are some savior. Despite the fact that when you add all their kills together, you still have less than 100, while I've got over 700. And Blaze was quiet because he was a jerk. Mobius-01 really was the man. David - I never use the HUD views. The one with the cockpit obscures my view, and I get disoriented in the one without. Besides, what's the point of playing, if not to look the beautiful planes? And considering that I barely slipped my Raptor under the last shutter, I'm going to have to disagree with you that the shutters and barricades aren't in your way on 27.

I watched Viewtiflul Joe this morning. For a series based on an intense action game, I think 52 episodes is way too many. The pacing of the first episode was very slow. Five minutes into the episode, and Joe and Sylvia weren't even at the movie theater where the game began! I don't mind if they want to spend a little more time developing the characters, but the only real development we got was that Sylvia is horny, and Joe needs to gawk in amazement at damn near everything he sees.

Alright, if anyone gets any stick besides the one that comes with it to work, let me know. While you're at it, let me know if they work on AC4 and AFDS, too. Finally, after the huge setback of having to start the entire game over after finishing 26 missions, I beat the game! And I gotta say... *SPOILERS* ...the final mission was almost anti-climactic. Flying though the tunnel was easier than flying through Geofront in Ace Combat 3, and with just one target to shoot, it didn't seem as bad as taking down Megalith in AC4... although things did get a little hairy when the shutters started closing. And then, shooting down the SOLG was like taking on the Arkbird, except this time, it wasn't shooting back. Ofnir and Grabacr's reapperance helped a little, except that I was flying the F/A-22... two salvos from the XLAAM's, and I'd taken out all but two before they'd finished their first pass. It was fun to be Blaze and a member of Razgriz/Wardog, and I'd grown fond of my wingmen... but it still doesn't compare to being Mr. "More effective than an entire fighter squadron" Mobius-01.

When the game came out here in STL lots of places had special sales on it ($39.99 and $44.99 rather than $49.99) but the sale price only applied to the non DVD standard version for some reason. I myself was not interested in that game but I clearly remember seeing the small print in a few ads (Circuit City and Comp USA come to mind) stating only the non-DVD edition was on sale (plus the only one pictured in the ad) and I remember some of the people in my office griping about how only the standard release was on sale. That is what I was referring to for the most part. Come to think of it, I was in Comp USA on Saturday getting a HDMI cable for my TV and I browsed their games section and the Sims2 DVD editions were falling off the shelves but the standard release was almost sold out. Seems to me that Sims2 is the only double media release game I have seen in stores other than Unreal Tournament so this practice is not exactly "widespread" yet. Ah, see, I have no idea what kinds of promos other stores do, but where I work at Gamestop, both editions are $50. No sales. And while we've sold more CD-Rom copies than DVD-Rom, that's mostly due to the fact that customers figure they must have a CD-Rom, if that's what Sims 1 played on, but are uncertain as to whether they actually have a DVD-Rom. Neverwinter Nights Platinum was released in both CD and DVD forms. I was half tempted to pick up the DVD version, but I already have NWN Gold and HotU, and I couldn't justify buying the same game again. EverQuest II, World of WarCraft, City of Heroes, and Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault will all see DVD releases this year. Half-Life 2 and Doom 3 are also likely canidates for DVD releases, although the DVD release for Doom will probably be in March to coincide with the release of the expansion.

Begin by selecting for yourself either the Su-27 or the F-15C, depending on which path you took on the coin flip, and any fighters for Grimm and Chopper with strong air-to-air capablities. When the mission starts, align yourself so that the green bars meet (should be to the WNW), and then kick in the afterburners. Unless you have a good shot, ignore the enemy fighters. When the green bars start to move apart, adjust your position with your yaw controls. If Chopper says, "Did you just see someone down there?" tell him, "No." When Chopper asks if you should split up and search, again, tell him, "no." Eventually, you'll start to get jammed. Take out the enemy E-767, ignore all other fighters, then focus on pointing your plane back into a position where the green bars are touching again. Grimm will say something like, "the signal is getting stronger, she must be around here!" Sea Goblin will eventually ask, "Did you locate her?" Answer yes, and the mission will change. You should now have two friendlies on the radar... one is Edge on the ground, ethe other is Sea Goblin. Leave Edge, and fy out to Sea Goblin. Take out any SAMs or AA guns on the ground, then order your wingmen to Disperse and activate special weapons. Shoot down any enemy fighters that get close to Sea Goblin. Once Sea Goblin picks up Nagase, the mission is over.

Okay, a couple of things got me thinking. First off, while the APHOS is mostly a blend of mechanical and organic technology, ultimately, it's a tool. A kind of mecha, almost, with Sara as the pilot. When it was questioning Sara, it seemed to be a way of determining what mode to start in... creation mode (the mode it was used to genetically engineer humankind) or destruction mode (the mode that was used in M0). APHOS does not evaluate the trutfullness of the answers... technically, Sara's answer to the first question was wrong. Mankind had NOT developed the technology behind interstellar travel (a huge difference between interstellar travel and simple space flight). During the timeline when Macross Zero takes place, the ONLY fold-capable ship that humankind had was the Macross, which wasn't built by man, and those fold boosters probably hadn't been used since the moments leading up to the crash. After startup, Sara was the pilot. The fact that Sara broke off the attack DOES NOT mean that humankind passed or failed some kind of ultimate test definatively. Yes, the Protoculture probably wanted to keep humankind from taking wars into space. And yes, the Nome family are probably direct decendants of the Protoculture who brought APHOS to earth in the first place, and the Nome family was probably entrusted with the responsibilyt to judge humanity and use APHOS accordingly. But ultimately, it was Sara who decided to use the Song of Destruction (apparently, the Protoculture where very musical and very in touch with the power of music, and not just for whacking Protodeviln), and ultimately, it was Sara who decided to change her mind. The fact that the APHOS initiated a fold after getting hit with four reaction weapons could be an automated failsafe, though, and I'm very curious to know where it went. Now, another thing... humans are supposedly a sub-protoculture race evolved from earth's native life, apparently simian. (The fish-man thing seems more of a myth analogous to something else than a direct comment on mankind's origins). Now, I don't think that it was a random event... otherwise, earth would be more special and not forgotten in the conflict between the Stellar Rebublic and the Supervision Army. In all likeliness, earth was one of a number of seeded planets, and Zola is apparently another example, with the native life having been marsupials instead of simians. So, are there more APHOS out there? Is there another perhaps one on Zola? If I recall correctly, the timeline in the Compendium doesn't say that Protoculture are extinct... just nearly extinct. The Zentraedi are still looking for remnants of the Supervision Army. They must have found some remnants within recent history, or else they probably would have quit looking (although, with that being their only real driving purpose, they might have continued for millenia just for lack of anything else to do). I think the original Macross even hints that there are still some in the episode where they go to take the factory satellite and find a ship, but the ship is gone when they look for it later. Plus, the Zentraedi were only "programmed" to go after the Supervision Army. The remnants of the Stellar Republic might have retreated to one core planet, and might be there today, still technologicaly advanced, but afraid to leave their local area. Suppose that Sara's APHOS retreated to there? Or that the Megaroad-01 found it, and hence the lack of communication since (the Protoculture don't really want to be found)? Now, look at all of that in light of the fact that humankind did not develop interstellar travel on its own, but rather by reverse engineering technology gleended from the wreck of a Protoculture ship that crashed on earth by chance, and further developed after mixing technology with the Zentraedi. Also consider that, now armed with fold technology and setting off to colonize other worlds, that humankind hasn't really left war behind. The Megaroads and the the Macross City ships were part of larger fleets that contained numerous warships. Macross Zero and the canon story in Macross VF-X2 show that humans are still very inclined to fight amongst themselves, and although the aliens in SDF Macross and Macross 7 were the aggressors, how long before the UN starts hostilely invading planets it wants to colonize? How will Protoculture remnants or other APHOS react to humankind sending warships throughout the galaxy? As the UN colonizes space, will they make the same mistakes the Protoculture did when they were creating their Stellar Republic? (Remember, the Zentraedi weren't created to be frontline grunts in the war between the Stellar Republic and the Supervision Army... they were created to be shock troops when a planet resisted colonization by the Stellar Republic). All-in-all, there's a lot of ground left to be covered in the Macross franchise.

Too true. And when they do happen to develop a real fighter, they can't afford to even use it in their own country.

It works with AC04. Tried it and it works...haven't tried it with AFDS but I recall the NCS stated that the import Flightstick worked with the import AFDS... Works with PCs, too. Check out the forums at AceCombat.net for links to the drivers.

The Sims 2 Special DVD edition is the same price as the CD-Rom edition. They only put the "Special DVD edition" in big letters so that the customers (in theory) know that they need a DVD-Rom drive, not just a CD-Rom drive. In practice, though it makes for a lot of people who think they're supposed to put it in their DVD player... I definately agree with you on the DVD movies, though. I mean, it's rare that you see a movie come out on the release day that doesn't say "Special Collector's Edition." I mean, at least with the special edition games, you know what sets it apart from the regular edition. With DVDs, the "Special Collector's Edition" is the regular edition. And then later, almost ever movie, including Spider-Man, Hellboy, the Bourne Identity, and Resident Evil, get re-released on still more super extra special editions. To which I mostly say, who cares? Do I really need bonus content where they explain to me how they did the special effects... in every DVD that I buy? I almost never watch the extra content on DVDs.

Depends on what the game is, what you get with the special editions, and how much extra the special edition is. For example... Halo 2... I loved the original Halo, and I expect to love Halo 2. Special edition is a mere $5 more, and for that, you get a DVD full of bonus content I'd probably never get around to watching, but a kick-ass metal case. I'd totally get the special edition... except that I waited too long to pre-order it, and I already got a promo metal case for display. Mortal Kombat: Deception. I liked Deadly Alliance, and I enjoyed Deception. But I'd had to have taken the Baraka cover, since that's the one that Gamestop got for Xbox, and that's where I get my discount. So, why pay $10 more for a "limited edition" cover (of which we still have more of than the regular edition) with a character I don't even really like? For the original MK? Since that's my least favorite in the series, screw it. Half-Life 2... well, I'm not really into PC games much. Last one I bought was Neverwinter Nights. Well, supposing I was, HL2 is going to be like $50 for the regular edition, and $80 for the special edition. I'm sorry, I don't care how big a fan you were of Half Life... getting Counterstrike Source and Half-Life Source doesn't justify the price, when for $10 less you could probably buy the regular edition and the Half-Life Platinum collection that has all the stuff like Counterstrike and Blue Shift. One the whole, anyway, I'm not a huge fan of the special editions, since the quality of content to price ratio seems a little off. But, I wouldn't mind if they came out with a special edition of a new Megaman game based in the classic series...

I thought that was the so called MiG-33 Flanker+.

Heres a whole buncha emblems from AC4. Enjoy: *edit* Yeah, thats the biggest I have them. Thanks for the pix, Schmitty! David, I'll grant you that 12A is better than 12B... but not by much. Either path you take, 12's gotta be my least favorite mission. But anyway, once I committed to playing again, I was breezing through... the flip side, though, is that I've hardly played DoA since I got it! Just two extra costumes for Ein, Hayabusa, Ayane, and Leifang, three for Kasumi, and one for Leon. As for the if 1.44 is the plane in the 1.42 project, then I'd guess it's the same plane either way, and I guess now it's officially the MiG-35, and it seems people are calling it Flanker again. It's cool to see a new design from MiG... as powerful as the MiG-31 was, it was butt ugly. The only other MiG that I've liked as far as apperance goes is is the 29. Plus, with the Flankers and the Berkut, it seems like Suhkoi has been getting all the attention as far as Russian planes goes.

Well, I'm back up to 19. This time, I went the A route. David, I hated 12A. I don't know what you were thinking when you played that mission, but I was pretty annoyed whenever I'd race to a target, dodging missiles from guys in the jungle all the while, only to realize that I was approaching the target from the wrong angle. But I told you that 11B was fun! First time in an air combat game where you get to participate in a car chase... Anyway, two quick questions, for anyone still reading this thread: 1 - Anyone know where I can find some pics of the squadron emblems in AC4 and 5? Specifically, the Mobius emblem, and the Razgriz emblem? 2 - Ace Combat 5 allows you to fly the MiG-1.44... what's the differnce between the 1.44 and the 1.42 (aka MiG-35)?

Yeah, well at least you don't have to start from scratch. On the plus side, I found one of those Madcatz Retrocon controllers used for $9.99. Should make replaying the Megaman Anniversary Collection a blast.

Let me just say DAMMIT! I go start up my PS2, and it starts giving me error messages about my loading the data. Basically, my memory card got corrupted, and I had to reformat it. Basically, it means I have to unlock everything in Marvel vs. Capcom 2 again, unlock everything in Macross and Z Gundam again, start over on Megaman X Command Mission when I only had maybe two chapters left, and start over on Ace Combat 5 when I was on the LAST DAMN MISSION. Everthing else that I was on there, no biggie. Hell, I don't even mind MvC, Macross, or Z Gundam that much, since I beat them... but it sucks to lose 20+ hours on an RPG and then have to start from scratch on a game that I was on the verge of beating. Well, I'll get back into Ace Combat, and alternate between in and DoA. If I buckle down, I can finish AC5 before Halo 2... but Megaman X Command Mission is going to have to wait until probably sometime in 2005 before I have time to seriously get back into that.

Did you get all the special parts yet? Getting all the planes besides the Falken (don't know if that's just unlock, or actually own at least one of each) unlocks the X-02 from AC4.

While Ace Combat 5 does indeed look great and really push to demonstrate what the PS2 is really capable of graphically, one need only pop the new Dead or Alive Ultimate (DoA2U, since DoA1U is a straight-up Saturn port) and try the stage with the elephants to see how much more the Xbox is capable of. Still, I like both systems a lot, as each one has specific games I like (although, if a game comes out on both systems, I tend to go Xbox, especially if the Xbox version supports Live). The only system I kind of question why I own is the Gamecube...