JB0

Who are you again?

For the most part. I've heard there's some back-compatibility issues with versions prior to 6 or 7, because the interface kept shifting around. And while it's not really DX's fault so much as Vista's(Vista features a complete driver rework, and the sound interface was radically altered), there's no longer a way to get hardware acceleration in DirectSound 10. Or 3D sound. Apparently the changes kill a lot of games.

My local WalMart had TONS of Transformers out today! ... But not from the movie. Seems their warehouse was a mess and they failed to get a few cases of Classic and Cybertron toys out for clearance. So they had tons of Classic Prime, Jetfire, Cliffjumper, Mirage, miscellaneous Cybertron Deluxes, AND an endcap half-full of Masterpiece Primes. Of course, with all the movie hype, this'll probably work out well for them. Any Transformers are better than none(unless they're Cyber Slammers).

I LOVE this movie! ... Hey, I never claimed to have taste.

You fancypants people with your HDMI and your compnent video. ... Seriously, I wish the 360 "believed in" 800*600. It'd be a bit of a boost over 640*480, and my display(an old 32" Mitsubishi presentation monitor I was "gifted") can actually SUPPORT that(If it were in good shape, I've heard they can be "pushed" to 1024*768, but mine isn't and can't). I need to upgrade sets. I'm torn between taking my XBoxeses to the next level(XBox 1 won't even do progressive-scan over RGB. WTF?), or maintaining perfect compatibility with my legacy stuff(a lot of digital sets take offense at various older systems' non-standard abuses of NTSC).

I don't think people DID buy the Atari games. Mystique went under after 3 games, and PlayAround didn't do much better. The fact that no one carried the games certainly didn't help, but...

Oh, for f... It's bad enough this guy's STILL getting attention, but dragging Custer's Revenge out too? It wasn't funny when Seanbaby did it, and it hasn't improved with the 8.753154 million rehashes. Yes, it's a porn game. On the Atari. WE GET THE POINT. You know what? It was one of a SERIES of porn games on the Atari! And there was more than one company making them, too! And ALL OF THEM TOGETHER aren't worth more than 2 sentences.

I admit it's unlikely, if for no other reason than black isn't the standard treatment. But it's generally assumed there IS overscan. Don't forget many of those same scenes were used in the movie. So they were probably all shot on movie stock(assuming it wasn't all done in computer). Actually, it does. It's just in the form of film grain instead of pixel counts. In a movie setting, it's generally far finer than DVD. In a TV setting, not so much. It's why if you saw Fantasia 2000 in IMAX Sorcerer's Apprentice looked like ass. It was a far larger screen than it was ever meant to be displayed on, and the grain was blown up HUGE. More relevantly, it's why the modern DVD releases of Macross have film grain in them. They DID edit the grain out during the restoration, but they had to put it back because it left everything looking really flat.

That could be why the border is there. To reduce the amount of image lost to overscan.

Solid Snake flying the Vic Viper! Snake on a Plane!

Cannon Fodder's Eulogy.

I'm watching it. Hopw many times did the Vic Viper show up in that ep before the fansubbers put in the (totally un-needed) translator note about it's origins, anyways?

Yeah. I can reocmmend a browser that doesn't crash regularly. Like Seamonkey. http://www.mozilla.org/projects/seamonkey/

Screw the collection. I wanna see pics of the war.

You recall correctly. There's no XBox ports on the 360. And even if you buy/make a XBox->USB adapter(the XBox actually uses USB, so it's just a matter of wiring the plugs), they STILL won't work because 360 game controllers have to use a proprietary encryption scheme, and XBox 1 controllers don't. Odds are that the 360's emulator will never contain a Steel Battalion profile for this reason. You'll be able to play Steel Batalion on a PC before the 360. I gather the controller issue would also cause a problem with any game that required pressure-sensitive buttons, too. Which I think consists of Metal Gear Solid 2 and... MGS2. Other games CAN use the pressure-sensitive buttons, so it limits your control config choices on those titles. But I think only MGS2 REQUIRES them. It would ALSO cause a problem with House of the Dead 3, if you wanted to use a lightgun. But then again, I don't think anyone made a decent lightgun for the 360.

Yah. My big objection to the Core was always the complete lack of save media. Given the cost of a memory card, it just didn't make sense. But add a memcard and 5 free games, and it looks a LOT more appealing.

Happy b-day!

Well, at least it's a manufacturer issue. Not just retailers consistently under-ordering. That's... not exactly good, but it's better than it could be.

Look at it this way... I'm gonna have to skip it entirely. FAR too many needles for my poor phobic brain to handle.

Sky Lynx alone would do it for me. I lusted for him as a kid. Omega Supreme and Trypticon not so much. SHOCKWAVE REISSUE!

Reasonably sure. Dad bought the 3-disk changer, which was ... I believe it was 200$ at the time(it also sucked from day 1, but that's another story). They had a 1-disk model available at the same time for significantly less. Apex had been on the market for a while by the time they made it to MalWart. I don't deny that their first players cost more than a hundred. I know it had SOME impact. I know a guy who's first DVD player was the PS2. Launch PS2 even, with all the incompatibilities. But it wasn't the major deciding force, or even a significant force. DVD had already gained traction. We were even through qith the "format war" people had claimed DIVX was starting(though it took a while after it imploded for the laughter to die down).

Apex. Neither WalMart nor major brand. At the time, WalMart didn't have their own electronics brand. But the Apex players were carried many places, and brand-name player prices in the US were well below the PS2 launch price. By the time the PS2 hit, most retailers were devoting similar amounts of space to VHS and DVD. The situation was different in Japan, where DVD player prices had stayed high and the 300$ PS2 was the cheapest DVD player available(and I don't doubt that the region unlock cheat code boosted appeal once it was known). In that specific case, the PS2 was sold primarily as a DVD player. Many early PS2 purchases weren't accompanied by any software sales, just movies. But again, that was ONLY Japan, and the PS2 was largely irrelevant to the success of DVD in most regions.

All I can find is REal Gear, Cyber Slammers. and empty pegs reserved for the mainline TFs.

IN JAPAN! That was NOT a worldwide phenomenon! There were $100 DVD players in WalMart a year before the PS2 reached the US.

I'd buy it all over again for Prime. IMNSHO, that's one of maybe a dozen "perfect" games in existence.