Prime

It's interesting that the competition between the YF-19 and YF-21 in M+ was scrapped in favor of something that is not only unmanned but non-variable.  There must've been some among the upper echelons who were thinking along similar lines that the need for variable-ness had passed.

Or they just wanted something cheap to offset the AI development costs.

Or something cheap in general so that they could mass produce them. Not only are the construction costs of the Valks a consideration, but so are the costs of training and paying a fleet of pilots. The Ghost probably killed a couple of birds with one stone.

I'll agree with the cool factor, but I don't know about a VF being as good as atank on the ground. Any infantry with a man portable antitank weapon could seriously hurt a VF in battroid modeif fighting was occuring in a city, and with a profile about ten times as big, how could they miss.

The only way I can see them being effecive on the ground is if it open terrian (if so why land, why not just fly around strafing everything), or if they flew around in a battlefield helicopter type role (hiding in valleys, popping up all over the place etc), or just land unload on anything you see and get out quick. And you might say that a VF can do all these things, but the old "Jack of all trades, master of none" applies, and at a wopping great cost.

But one thing overides all of thses arguments;

It cool to watch transforming planes beat the hell out of all alien scum!!

A VF would be lousy at replacing a tank. (That's what destroids are for.)

I'm sort of using the tank as an example of "generic military vehicle" I'm saying that the Valks are much more versatile and manouverable than a tank, while still sporting excellent armour (like going through bridges and buildings without a hinderence), and fairly substantial firepower.

But what it WOULD be good at is...

A. hauling ass on wide open flat spaces in GERWALK mode. 

Let's be honest, a GERWALK's gonna blow by an Abrams like it's standing still. And I DARE you to find a tank with limited flight capability.  Let the tank/destroid do it's job while the GERWALK darts around covering it. 

Fair enough...yet another example of its versatility.

B. Urban combat.

Tanks SUCK at urban combat. They aren't maneuverable enough.

But battroids don't suck. They can dart around corners like nothing, crouch behind rubble, et cetera.

Only SOME destroids(the Spartan and... the Spartan) are really built for urban combat.

This is what I am talking about!

I disagree that a man-portable antitank weapon would be more effective vs. a battroid Valkyrie than against a tank--basically due to the overtechnology armoring of a Valk.

Exactly. Not only that, but they outmanouver missiles and things of that sort. So I suspect a man-portable antitank weapon wouldn't be much of a threat.

Remember how much trouble Hikaru had the first time he tried to pilot a battrloid? And how unstable it was? Imagine that thing being hit by a tank shell. It'd knock it over.

I think it is probably a little difficult to ascertain the Valk abilities when it is under the "control" of a completely newbie pilot. Isn't that kind of like saying that a car won't drive straight after watching it driven by a 4 year old? I mean, somone who knows what they are doing might be able to stand up to a tank shell, especially with the Valk's impressive armour.

I'm rather enjoying Macross Zero, although I can see where some of the complaints are coming from. Personally, I love the animation overall, especially the mechanical stuff. The Valkyries, in particular look great. In can see the controversy in this style, but I like it. As SuperOstrich said, that open scene with the Macross really did it for me.

The story as a whole hasn't really drawn me in as much as some of the others. Certain aspects I enjoy, like the combat (of course) and the research about the protoculture. The stuff dealing with the island natives I don't find particularly interesting (althoug some of the legend stuff is kind of neat). If find myself skipping these parts most of the time. This also goes for some of the mystical aspects as well. I could never really buy into that stuff. I think this is one of the reasons I don't enjoy Macross 7 (not to start that debate again). That being said, I find that sort of thing much more "believable" in Zero than 7.

I also like the music quite a bit actually, although I don't think it is on par with Plus. I feel it serves its purpose in providing mood, but not much else.

In the end, I guess I enjoy what is there, but I wish the story focused more on the aspects of Macross that interest me personally. I'd be keen to know more about the war bewteen the UN and Anti-UN, the development of the mecha, the research into the protoculure, and less of the island natives (although I recognize how some of that ties in)

And it's cool.

By far the most important reason

IIRC, there is a completed English version of VFX2 out there. But the only person who has it is Egan Loo.

Damn it!

Even if there was little to no Zentradi threat after Space War I, the standard VF-1 was still valuable to U.N. Spacy for many years to follow because of it's transformation capabilities. A standard VF-1 should be able to handle numerous tasks. The fighter is an obvious transport for atmospheric tasks, gerwalk for rugged terrain, and battroid fo close quarters (ground or city) engagements. B)

This is what I think as well. In the beginning, the Valks were designed with a more or less specific purpose in mind, which was to deal with giant aliens. They performed this task well, and in the process their general usefulness was discovered, if not already known.

Not only are they effective fighter planes in the traditional sense, but they can also perform in ground combat, urban warfare, and so on. They are probably just as effective as traditional tanks, as well as being much more versatile and manouverable. Even without an emminent Zentran threat, it is not difficult to see the overall usefullness of Valkyries.

So even in Mac Plus and 7 eras, I think the transformable Valkyries is just as relavent and effective as their Space War 1 counterparts.

i dont think guld really boned down with myung. it just doesnt seem right for her to do that. i bet he got to third base and was thrown out trying to steal home. he was deceptively inferring he did the nasty slappy when talking to isamu to make him jealous...

I suppose that he must have gotten somewhere, since he seems to assume to some extent that they will get together. IIRC, when she is leaving for Earth he says he will meet her there, not to mention that he comes right out and says he wants to be with her. To me that seams to suggest that they "hooked up" to some degree.

So even though he might not have "got laid", there must have been enough to give him the impression that she was interested.

Myung! You tease!

If it is semi-transformable, which I doubt, perhaps this was an early experiment with destroids. In the end, they probably decided that there wasn't much of an advantage in this ability, and went with the non-transformables that we know and love. Getting rid of the transformation systems would leave more room for weapons, armour, etc.

But again, they probably aren't transformable at all

I remember reading the history of the YF-21 (with the BDI system) and it said that the pilots of the -21 with the system in it often had brain problems which caused death or severe brain trouble, so the pills could've been for that...

Do you know how these brain problems were caused, or what "trouble" they had?

Even though the Zentradi hadn't been in many battles for many years, they still have had millenia to refine how to train and prepare for war. Since it is all they have been bred for, the downtime wouldn't really have gone to other non-warfare activities. Surely they have had enough time to develop a system to keep a certain level of preparedness. Simple rustiness shouldn't account for losing pilot vs. pilot battles to a species that had at most a few decades to develop space/mecha tactics and training.

Even if their system of reproducing, training, and performing in combat may not have been perfect, it obviously was good enough to become the dominate warring species in the universe.

Up to the time they came across humans, was a lot of their success due to superior technology, or was it the soldiers that made the difference?

I'd like to see a story about 2040 and onwards. Perhaps about the current conflict between UN Spacy and the Anti-UN.

I think it's more like the brain control system is working too perfectly, that it even respond to every actionable thought of the pilot. It has got nothing to do with Guld's anti-zentran rage suppressing pills. However, it's Guld's rage and the brain-control system's malfunction, and sudden system response after Guld's rage subsided (resulting in Isamu's 'downforce' incident) that piqued Millard's interest to start an investigation.

I was under the impression that it was necessary for Guld to take the suppresion drugs in order to (but not exclusively for) interface with the YF-21. The brain control system could only interpret commands from a "calm and stable" brain, and not one that had such wild thoughts that guld would/did have.

I pictured the brain interface to require certain specific thought "commands" to function properly, as opposed to it trying to interpret every thought. This would require the pilot to be calm and to provide the machine with specific thoughts that it could interpret and implement (like the thoughts of moving hands and feet to manipulate the control surfaces). When Guld flew off the handle, his brain was no longer providing the proper commands to the YF-21.

It has been a while since I watched it, so I could be way off. Would something like the above make sense?

For a final veredict on how well Macross Zero is doing.... wait till all the DVDs are out and Bandai tried to bundle them in a more appealing package.

Where are the numbers on how Zero has been doing? I haven't heard anything either way, but I did wonder how it is being received...

And when I last used it there was one really really garish flaw(that I believe has been fixed, especially now that the MAME team makes a frontend-welded build themselves).

A fuill third of all MAME-supported games were not usable because the GUI didn't believe in them. This included several that I REALLY liked.

I hadn't heard of that problem. I don't have too many ROMs (about 20 I guess), and I haven't had problems. IIRC my version is pretty new though.

I LOATHE the MAME32 GUIs(as there's now TWO versions of MAME32).

If you need a GUI, grab the Windows command-line MAME and the EmuLoader frontend.

It's a FAR nicer frontend.

Thanks, I'll have to check that out. What do you dislike so much about MAME32? I don't use MAME that much these days, so I haven't put in any effort to find something better.

Damn, those are beautiful!!

Macross Plus all the way for me. I do like what I have heard so far for Macross Zero though...

It would be nice if it would give you all the bandwidth that was available, and then as other people connect it would transfer some to them.

Does anyone know where to download Macross Plus mame emulator with sound?

thanks

sneakers

The latter MAME emulator will give the game sound. There is only one Macross Plus ROM. The sound just hadn't been emulated until recently.

And I suggest getting MAME32, with has a much nicer windows GUI. The original MAME is just uses the DOS command line. Although it works the same, for those who are less computer inclined, MAME32 can be easier to configure.

Sorry buddy, ate it for the sake of "Macross Completeness/Loyalty," and it gave me the runs.

M7 has some merits, don't get me wrong. But my list of things I detest from it far outweigh the good.

P.S.- I refuse to listen to his song.

If you suffer the runs due to M7, the fix is easy. Watch some episodes of Macross from Animeigo.

I gave it a go recently and watch about the first 5 or 6 episodes. Some of th stuff I liked (hey, it's Macross!), but Basara and his song was too much for me. But for those who like it, enjoy! But for me, I'll stick to the original, Mac+, and Zero

I'm pretty sure that this is not the case...To bad though.

WARNING:  Don't expect to see any of the endings if you use this emulator in playing VFX2.  You'll only see a black screen.

IIRC it is a problem with the actual game, not just the emulator. However, I have an ePSXe memcard file that has a saved game after you finish it. This allows you to go through and play all the missions using any of the fighters, and on certain missions you can use the armoured battroids (VF-1 and VF-11). If anyone wants it I can probably send it to them.

Yeah Prime, finish the damn game will ya? (j/k)

Sorry about that Real life is making things go a little ssslloooowwweerrr than I want. But it will be done eventually. I've put in too much effort to let it die!

Sorry, I've only tried it on easy and regular. I guess I just want to pretend that I'm a good pilot

Glad I could help