bobman

Everyone is talking about "grain" as if it were a bad thing. I don't quite get it. Grain is a natural, and often intended part of an image captured on film. Noise is what we don't want. I did some digging and found this article to back me up: Film Grain is not your Enemy

Another amazing side scrolling shooter on the SNES: UN Squadron! The US name for the Area 88 game. It's probably my all-time SNES fave.

I'll be buying the "double dip," though I'm not sure if that's the right word for it. This isn't the same company releasing a second edition to get more money--this is a wholly different company. And frankly, I was never thrilled about Animego's price gouging. First of all the discs themselves were very expensive. And then I find out that they were single-layer DVD5's. The could have used double-layer DVD9's (like most commercial movie DVD's) and been able to fit twice as many episodes on one disc at the EXACT same quality. Twice as much storage = half the total number of discs. Half the discs = far cheaper to collect the whole series.

Well, it seems to me, 2001 Nights was always readily available, especially throughout the 90's. You might get lucky at Barnes & Noble or Borders. You also might strike gold at a decent, local comic store (I bought all 3 TPB's a few months back at my local store). Worst case, you can order via Amazon, and you can probably find people selling used copies for even cheaper. I can't recommend the entire series enough. Individually, the stories are great. But when you read the whole thing, a grand tapestry emerges. Great stuff.

Wow. Thanks, ly000001. Any idea where I can snag a copy on VHS, LD, or DVD??

Anyone paying attention to manga in the early 90's certainly remembers this hard-SF title by Yukinobu Hoshino. It was one of Viz's few publications back in the day, and they were collected into TPB's that are probably still available on the shelf in most big bookseller chains. I remember that in one of the issues, there was a commentary that included a throwaway line that the series was adapted into an OVA series. Is this true? I've spent several long nights with google, and I've found nothing. Does an anime of this amazing manga exist?

I was reading somewhere that the reason there are so many odd games on the first backwards-compatibility list is that once they had worked out the emulation for certain "big" games, they found that other, smaller games worked also (maybe they were made with the same game engine, or whatever). That's why games like Barbie Horse Adventure are on the list. Me? I'm pissed that the Star Wars Battlefronts, the Splinter Cells, and the Brothers in Arms series aren't ready yet, but the way Microsoft is talking, they are constantly adding new games to the list. Plus they said that they've been pressuring developers of current-gen XBOX games to now include the backwards compatibility from the start, so you'll be able to play Half Life 2 on launch day (upscaled in widescreen 720p)!

Was Harlock's Acadia jokingly inserted into Macross somewhere?

First of all, I completely agree that "Rise of the Empire" goes from very easy to impossibly hard way too quickly. Tantave IV and Yavin made we want to throw my controller at the screen quite often. There was a space battle with time limits that was pretty hard, too. Also, I have a gripe about the layout of the "Rise of the Empire." It begins on Geonosis, as it should since that was the Clones' first battle. I got excited as the levels progressed through the prequels and also into territory between the 2 trilogies. But then the game ends on Hoth???? WTF???? We know they already have levels made for Bespin and Endor. Why didn't they use those for the campaign and properly finish off the the last 2 movies? Why arbitrarily end on Hoth, in the beginning of the second to last movie? AT least Endor is available at least in the Galactic Conquest mode (is Bespin?) If it isn't, that's pretty dumb. Why not just put all the old boards on the new game? They had the room on the DVD. My only guess as to why the single player campaign ends on Hoth is that Pandemic just ran out of time. It's only been a year since the last BF was released. and even though they had a game to build on, one year is not a lot of time to finish a game.

I know. I was just agreeing with you. You were being overruled by everyone else.

The reason to get the original DVD version: it is exactly what was on TV 20 years ago--warts and all. The reason to get the Remastered sets: Superior picture & superior audio (objectively speaking).

Yeah, stereo wasn't even added to the NTSC signal in the US until (I think) 1984. And even then, as you said, it was reserved for prime time TV. I remember being a kid and wondering why all the news shows started displaying little bugs that said "In stereo, where available." No doubt, but he was asking about the differences between the two Robotech version. Ulpio's handiwork, sadly, is in both versions. He just sounds (technically) better in the Remastered set. Yeah, I used to work at an Audiophile dealership in Columbus, OH. I know the arguments. I don't doubt that in many cases, simple stereo sounds better than 5.1. However, any 5.1 mix collapses down to stereo on command (either for preference, or because the listener only has a stereo set-up). All I'm saying is that, once one gets passed the new sound FX, the new remastered sound track sounds remarkably better than the flat mono track on the original DVD's. Add to that the shiny remastered picture, and I think the Remastered disc are pretty danm good.

I'm new here. Sorry for disagreeing, but I have to be honest. I think you're making the wrong choice, Antagon. The only good thing about those original sets is the fact they contain exactly what was aired on TV in 1985-86. The picture quality is pretty bad--basically just the analog broadcast tapes transferred to DVD. And you said you're a bit of an audiophile. Well you'll be disappointed because the sound is atrocious--Dolby Digital 1.0. MONO. No left, no right, no highs, no lows. Just plain old crappy mono. Now the sets I highly recommend are the Robotech Remastered Extended Editions. You can buy them in 2 disc boxes, or you can wait a few weeks and buy it all in one big box with the previous versions bonus discs. Why do I recommend the remastered discs? For many reasons. The video quality is vastly superior. The macross episodes look only slightly worse than the recent Animego Macross restoration. Most people believe it is in fact the same transfer, but that the Robotech discs look a little worse because of slightly worse compression job. And then there is the audio. This causes some disagreement. The bad--the new audio mix replaces most of the original Macross/anime mecha sound effects. This is indeed sacrilegious. The good? It is in full 5.1. Once you get over the fact that there are some new sound FX, it is a much richer, more dynamic, more immersive experience. If you're an audiophile, the 5.1 is the only way to go. Also, you said were planning on buying the original SDF Macross eventually anyways, right? You'll be able to hear all those original sound FX then. You can buy the remastered discs in 2 disc sets right now. They are on sale at a discounted price until tomorrow straight from ADV's website: http://www.advfilms.com/sales.asp The only draw back of these sets is that you won't get the great bonus discs that came with the Legacy Sets. But if you wait a few weeks, as I said earlier, you can buy a huge boxset with all the restored episodes and all the bonus discs. That's probably the way to go for you. I don't mean to be a new guy, ruffling feathers. Just giving you my honest opinion.