Skull Leader

well what are you waiting for, Chrono? Get to it, we want to play this mythical sim when you finish it! (I,for one, would LOVE to play a sim like that)

lol, that makes a little more sense... I've NEVER put stock into anything Animeinsider has ever said... fanboyism runs rampant through their editor's office.

This list has singlehandedly underminded ANY respect I might've had for NT:USA. The fact that homotech is even on that list is just damn degrading... and the only Gundam to make the list is SEED??? Give me a break. Don't get me wrong, SEED has it's moments, but I can count on 2 hands the number of Gundam series that I would rather watch, and I thought were more significant.

*flag on the play* Troll feeding- on the offense penalty- immediate loss of respect The game will continue as if this play never happened. First down!

errr, M.A.T.S has a page devoted to it....... here it is

If you just wanna fly and you wanna be able to go anywhere in the world, it doesn't get much better than Microsoft FS2004. Virtually every aircraft in existence has been recreated by some group or another (all available for download, most of them free). IF you want combat, Falcon 4.0 seems to be the way to go. My last flight combat sim was F/A-18 Precision Strike Fighter (by Xicat) and it was pretty detailed, but limited in scope (your F-18 looks GREAT, the rest of the airplane models suck nuts)

I would expect to fetch around $350-$450 (tops) these days... MAYBE $500 if the valkyrie and box were in complete pristine C-9+ condition. it's getting harder and harder to sell the vintage valk toys since Bandai re-issues and the yamato 1/48 stepped up to the plate (all arguments aside about the 1/55s still having an appeal)

we say that because "VT" is a robotech term only, and Robotech is less-than-smiled upon here... just so ya know

to the other "aircraft inclined" among metal gear lovers, is that a pretty accurate YF-12 they launch the drone from? I don't recognize the dorsal fin along the rear, but I don't know much about the YF-12/SR-71

I've been a huge fan of GTO ever since I was able to get a hold of the first three issues of the manga from the kodansha bilingual series (LONG before it came out in the US)... these had both the Japanese and a direct-english translation... they kicked ass! I now have most of the manga and I've seen the entire animated series. I have heard good and bad things about the live-action show, but I know it was well-recieved in Japan.

the gun "The Boss" carried is called a "Patriot" (ironic, eh?), if that helps you any, JS.

man, that's just sick...... I'll gladly take one of those club-Ms off your hands

Sounds like I may get a pass to Oceana this march when the VF-103 "officially" changes over to VFA-103 Another friend of mine from Aircraftresourcecenter.com is going and I may get to go as his assistant (if Brian Marbrey comes through that is!) I'm excited... I've never been on the east coast, much less NAS Oceana!

OK, then it sounds like they took some artistic license to "spice up" the bullet action. Not even a smooth bore weapon would produce end over end travel unless condition #1 was in effect (see my first post for this) of the tumble rule... and even then it would have to be in just the right spot to produce that effect. It's funny really how producing an error like that in a bullet is very difficult, especially doing it over and over again. As for the shorter barrel issue a shorter rifled barrel (as in a handgun or SMG) just does not have the capacity to "spin up" the bullet as much as a longer barrel does. All it really means is the accuracy is much lower as well as the range of the bullet. Speaking from the realm of physics, the forces and concepts at work in a shorter barrel are exactly the same as they are in a longer barrel and in flight tumble would only occur in those strange circomstances stated earlier. Suffice this to say bullets tumbling in flight are not common and almost all of the time are not a desired effect and they actually pose less lethality on average than a nice straight rifled shot. I see... maybe a design feature of the gun to produce more collateral damage? Either way, to my eye it would appear that beyond anything other than really close range, the worst you could do with the gun is piss someone off, or "The Boss" needs to get her gun checked out

hmmm, appears to kind of be a sequel (in style) to the "Federation vs. Zeon" game. Fvs.Z was a pretty tight game, other than teh fact the missions got very repetitive over time.

Js, he means basically that the bullets are flipping end over end after the come out of the barrel. They do not spin in the typical way at all. The only other thing I could think of is that maybe the barrel has a smooth bore as opposed to a grooved one? It's a very short-barrel weapon and I certainly don't think it was designed to be accurate at longer ranges. Still, I have never seen another gun do something like this and they certainly went out of their way to make it appear normal.

and just for "gits and shiggles", here is the radio screen from the original MSX Metal Gear (see the bottom) It seems like every time we wind up discussing Metal Gear here, we usually wind up with someone asking what the differences were between the MSX Metal Gear and the Nintendo version... here we go... MSX Version - Darker, more military drab color pallete (admittedly not very exciting) - Snake enters "Outer Heaven" by water. He's already in the complex at the beginning of the game (I.E. the pathway to the complex is not present) - Building layout is different in some ways - In-game contacts are members of a resistance movement within "Outer Heaven" - The "Parachute" item is in the game (There is a segment that requires Snake to do a base-jump) - Transciever scene includes an image of Snake's face - You fight a Hind D - You fight the Metal Gear - There is only 1 piece of background music (it's the same as the music played on the VR missions of MGS), although the alert music and the boss music is the same as the NES version - Game had a built-in save function NES Version - Brighter color pallette, added a little more diversity so the game didn't look so drab (Snake wears a brigher shade of green, the enemy soldiers are now more than one color) - Snake HALOs into the forests near "Outer Heaven" and sneaks in (the pathway to "outerheaven" was designed specifically for the NES version) - Building layout is slightly different from the MSX version - In-game contacts are members of Foxhound (I.E. the others that HALO into Outer Heaven with you) - You fight a pair of "Grenade Brothers" (or some such name) on top of a building instead of a Hind (and honestly, they were HARDER to kill than the Hind!) - You fight a....... super computer? Where the hell is the Metal Gear!? The computer doesn't even fight back.... - Background music was more diverse (with "indoor" and "outdoor" music in addition to the "alert" music. - The Story was altered so say that an evil general named "Vernon Cataffy" was the one running "Outer Heaven" (until it's discovered that Big Boss is running it) - Game had a password function (and who else here besides me thought one of the worst forms of torture you could inflict on someone was to make them type in a badly-written down Metal Gear password???) I HATED the password function on this game! - The picture of Solid Snake on the cover of the game was influenced by a publicity photo of Michael Biehn in his "Colonial Space Marine" armor from the movie "Aliens" In terms of gameplay, they're pretty much identical. The NES version is a little easier to look at and listen to, but the MSX version DID feature the Hind (which until MGS2 was one of the trademarks of a MG game) as well as the actual Metal Gear (which you never actually see in the US version). I prefer the original MSX version, but that's purely for aesthetic reasons (I'm a Metal Gear Purist!) other than an item or two, the two different bosses I mentioned, you're not missing much one way or the other. The MSX version does seem, on the whole, to be slightly more difficult. And that's your crash course on the differences between the two!

Here is what Snake and the Colonel looked like in the radio conversations:

MG2:SS was innovative in a lot of ways for the metal gear series. It was the first to provide enemy soldiers with a true "field of vision", they responded to noise like walking on certain kinds of floors or hitting a wall. It also featured rations that could be used to cure poison or lure certain targets out. MG2SS also was the first game to feature the soliton radar system (with a range of nine screens, which I think in overall terms was far wider than the range in later games). This is also the game which introduced Snake's ability to duck and crawl (and hide under things) Also, evidently someone at Konami began to realize how much of a hassle it was to switch between 8 different keycards when you reached an unfamiliar door... because in this game you eventually get get multi-passes ("Leeloo Dallas, mulipass!" sorry, couldn't resist) that work with cards 1-3, 4-6, etc, but only after you have aquired the original three cards that multi-pass works for. Memory-shape alloy was employed in this game for a key also. The faces of Solid Snake and Roy Campbell in the radio transmissions (not a first, actually... in the original MSX Metal gear, there was an image of Solid Snake's face next to the transciever) bear a strong resemblance to "Rambo" and "Colonel Troutman" of the "Rambo" series fame.

Shortly before the other MGS3 thread was locked, VF-19pilot asked about MG2:SS, for those who haven't played it. It is 1999, a small nation in the middle east called "Zanzibar Land" aquired nuclear capablity. It raids "Nuclear Arms for Disposal Storage" sites around the world and robs weapons that were still not disposed of, making it a nuclear-armed nation, and begins non-discriminate invasions of nearby countries. Then, a Czech biologist named Kio Marv invents a micro specimen - "OILIX", which recreates high-quality oil. Basically solving the world's natural resource crisis. Dr. Marv is kidnapped by Zanzibarian radicals on his trip from Czechoslovakia to America. Zanzibar Land is trying to gain its military superiority through nuclear arms and "OILIX". A top-secret order goes down to Solid Snake, former Foxhounder :"Single-handedly sneak into Zanzibar Land, and rescue Dr. Kio Marv!" Snake must now rescue the doctor and take out a new, more poweful Metal Gear. Snake single-hendedly sneaks into Zanzibar and runs across and old "friend." Big Boss, having survived the "Outer Heaven" incident, is in command in Zanzibar and he has brought a new Metal Gear with him. Throughout the mission, snake works hand in hand with a war correspondant/journalist named Holly White (I.E., MG2:SS version of "Jennifer", "Meryl", "Eva") and learns that Big Boss has taken custody of several orphans (whose parents were victims of violent conflicts across the globe) in an attempt to raise them as children of the revolution. Towards the end of the mission, Solid Snake encounters Grey Fox, who has since defected from Foxhound and decided to follow "the battle" and work for Big Boss. Snake and Fox have a serious discussion about how they do not hate one another, but must fight anyway. With all worries about friendship or ill will thrown aside, the two battle it out in the middle of a minefield... Solid Snake immerges victorious, Frank Hunter/Grey Fox presumably dies. Snake finally encounters Big Boss and the newtype Metal Gear. Big Boss, this time showing fear from Solid Snake leaves him to deal with Metal Gear and the remaining Zanzibarian troops. Solid Snake destroys the Metal Gear and narrowly escapes the exploding Zanzibarian fortress via helecopter with Holly White. After this, Snake goes into hiding in the Alaskan wilderness, which is where Campbell finds him in the prologue of Metal Gear: Solid.

Yeah, the stopped production at just under 100 planes. the 6th Squadron at Tsuiki AFB were the latest ones to recieve them. Make no mistake, the JASDF will squeeze every ounce of service out of their very expensive toys (you could buy something like 2-3 F-15Js for the cost of a single F-2A/B), they just won't be making more (at least no time soon, they can still make spare parts for them though). CFTs and Tail-spines on F-16s really ruin the design I think.

I doubt they would go through the trouble of re-building the original two metal gear games with the new engine, that would take a hella lot of work. Just a single PS2 game with both of the originals and maybe a bunch of extras would be neat. I am one of the "few" americans who have played MG2:SS (I have a MSX emulator and the ROM image of the game, along with the first one), even after playing Snake Eater, MG2SS is STILL my favorite (it's also the most difficult of them all I think) As much as "Lalilulelo" is said with an almost magical reverence, I feel it's probably going to have far more story behind it than just the patriots. I am also anxious to see what "Acid" brings to the mix.

gah! The incorrect engine fairings of the revell rear their ugly head once more! Nice model! I like the decal scheme, although I would point out that no Tomcat would ever launch from a carrier with 6 AIM-54s unless he was certain he was going to shoot something down with them. The plane would be too heavy to land with 6 phoenix missiles. (land based is a different story though) Beautiful work! I need to build one in a Macross scheme now...

no... there was one F-14D (the prototype) that had fairings like David described.

There's a possiblity we may see a Re-release of the original 2 metal gear games ("Metal Gear" and "Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake" originally released on MSX) the first metal gear was released on Nintendo, albeit in a very thrashed manner (the layout of some of the buildings is different in the original MSX version... and who the HELL is "Vernon Cataffy"?????), While MG2-SS was never released at all in the US (if you know where to look or who to ask, you can find a ROM of it though ) While that American POS "Snake's Revenge" has nothing whatsoever to do with Metal Gear... Hideo Kojima had no part in it's creation. Given all of the backstory seen in MGS3, it would be an ideal time to "catch up" the younger generation who never got to play the original Metal Gear games. The only problem I see is that HK has kind of written the story into a corner. At the end of MGS2, Otakon tells snake that the Patriots (the ones who started this whole mess) are all dead and have been for almost 100 years. I suppose if you decided to write about the descendants of the patriots, you might get somewhere with that. Also, the LaLiLuLeLo have yet to truely be extrapolated upon (who would use such a retarded name???) Also, at the end of MGS3, the way Snake and Ocelot behave (after "the duel"), you would think they had known each other for a while. He called him "John" (not "Jack", like everyone else has been??) and Snake didn't seem at all surprised.