Captain_Thunder

I used to be big in to flight sims back in the 90s, but lost interest in most of them over time. My favorite WWI sim was Red Baron. I tried one other WWI game online, but my old dialup connection couldn't keep up. One player had a real slick skin for his Albatross D.V. He had a eagle in flight with the bird's spread wings on the top of the upper wing and bottom of the lower wing surfaces and the eagle's body on the sides of the fuselage. It looked quite impressive. I don't recall the name of the sim though.

Too cliche. More appropriate.....

I had a similar experience once back in the mid-70s. I was driving the only vehicle in either direction on the expressway for about two or three miles in front and in back. I was just cruising along. Off in the distance to my right I noticed a pair of fighter jets flying low over some wooded hills parallel to the road about five miles away. The next thing I knew I heard this thunderous roar pass right over my head that startled me and saw those two jets tearing along at very low altitude off to my left going away from me. Apparently they must have thought I made a good simulated strafing target. They didn't overfly me quite as low as that Russian jet, but it was low enough and loud enough for me.

There's a outtake from a intro to documentary show on the Spitfire where the host was doing the same thing (talking to the camera) but the Spit came in even lower than the Harrier and shook him up pretty good. Found it... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEnOeITKZAA

Making me angry makes me angry.

Oh, boy! Sand! I've got a view like that anytime I want from the dunes just a mile away. Just kidding. The whole endeavor is amazing. The last Air&Space magazine was devoted to Mars and the space program. I'd like to see the day when they launch the Mars UAV and really cover some ground on the planet. They've got a entire fleet of proposed probes for Martian exploration. One is a pair of "tumbleweed" rovers that get blown about by the martian winds. Doing careful exploration is fine, but let's see what else is out there just waiting to be seen. Olympus Mons and Valles Marineris would be something to see at HD from a closer perspective than a orbiting space probe.

I check those all the time. I've watched many of them already and have more on the instant queue that I haven't watched as yet. I'll have to see if they have added anything new since I last checked through the documentaries a week ago. What ever you do avoid the movie "Tank Batallion". It's really terrible and a waste of time. It's a "B" movie that isn't good enough to be a "B" movie. Read the Netflix reviews.

I watched it a few months back and have kept it on my instant play queue because someone here said they were working on a "season 2" which was supposed to air this past spring or this summer. If that is true, I figure it won't be until this coming winter before it becomes available on Netflix.

Having them in cases is sensible, but that takes up even more room. Believe me my wife would find a way to do some damage even if they were in a case. I've even told her never ever to dust my stuff (any of my "stuff") and she still does it. I even checked the German manufacturer's website and the first version of the T-72 is sold out ( "ausverkauft" ). So if you find one it's probably going to cost you quite a bit to get it. I don't buy lowend gear myself. I get the best I can afford and make it last. I'm using a pair of 4.1 altec lansing speakers and subwoofer from a previous computer that are about 12 years old now. My current audio card doesn't support ProLogic II or 4.1 but they still sound great in 2.1 stereo. I'm due for a whole new computer sytem. My current one is 8 years old now.

I'd love to collect them but I don't have the room and my wife has a penchant for wanting to dust everything I own and usually manages to damage something in the process. A site called "The Motor Pool" had a Minichamp T-72A/M-1, but they are sold out right now. But, they are taking pre-orders on one in May Day Parade markings. This site is sold out on it as well.

Bumper sticker: My other car is a T-55. :biggrin:

That is apparantly true for the present version of the GUI steam client. As I recall, the Steam client that I originally used was more of a text-based application that didn't utilize a webpage for the actual downloading and install. I remember it as just simple B&W text on the screen while attempting to obtain and install the new patch at that time. The game in question was released in 2001 and that is where I might have gotten my wires crossed. The patch I was trying to install obviously came out afterwards. So instead of 7 years it might have been just 5 years between my first and second attempts to use Steam. The differences between my first and second usages of Steam were like night and day.

My first encounter with Steam occurred back in 2001. A game I had put out a patch and it wasn't made available as a simple download from their website or from a FTP server. It could only be had from Steam. Steam was new and the experience back then was a mess. I created my free account and started to download the patch, but there were some problems and I had to abort the process. I tried again a few more times and finally gave up in frustration and removed Steam. Back in 2008, another game I had decided to offer an upgrade and a patch from Steam only. I was on good terms with the developer having done many beta tests with them and protested strongly, but they went ahead anyway. Not looking forward to the experience again, I installed Steam. I logged into my old and inactive Steam account which I had created 7 years before. To my surprise it went flawlessly. My game upgrade and game patch were already on my Steam install list, because the developer had grandfathered all of us registered owners in. I clicked on them and the install proceeded for both files. The whole game itself was reinstalled to a new Steam folder under my Windows account name common apps folder. My previous disc install still remained and could be played by use of the disc for security check purposes. One folder for the Steam install was created in the My Games folder where some minor files were now stored. The only differences in the game play came in the form of running the Steam app first, then starting the game from there and not being required to have the disc in the drive at start up. The only drawback I see is that if your internet is down so is your access to Steam and your game. If you uninstall a Steam game it goes back on to your Install list for later reinstallation no discs required. I wasn't a big fan of Steam at first but I have managed to accept it. Since they worked out all the bugs that caused my problems back in 2001, I have experienced no problems with Steam. I've not played any mutliplayer games on Steam so I have not encountered that "cheat detector" algorithm mentioned above anywhere as yet.

New Fire Shadow Missile

Have the guys at eSim ever considered offering Steel Beast via a service like Steam or Stormpowered? or... for that matter... Direct2Drive? etc. I realize you protect your game with the dongle. Games on Steam don't require the usual disc protections and don't even require a disc in the DVD drive. They only run if you run them via Steam application. A player would have to buy the game via the store at Steam, etc. It would be a matter of a quick download via the Steam app and a install. A new player could be up and running in 10-20 mins from the time of purchase.

One has to wonder why the Paladins don't have at least some sort of sight fitted for direct fire defense. It would seem to me that it would be more efficient than looking down the barrel at the target and would probably increase the number of first round hits. ...or does that just make too much sense?

I like that giant scale StuG III in the related video column.

The best damn camo job ever! Tank? What tank? [ATTACH]10237[/ATTACH]

Of course it had to follow, first a Leopard in "leopard spots" and now a Cheetah (Gepard) in "cheetah spots." Nice tie-ins to the vehicles official names too. Good find!

Here's another of the same Royal Netherlands Leopard 2A6. Painted orange in support of the Dutch football team in the 2008 European champonship. The Duch team lost in the first rounds. A typical Dutch Leopard 2A6 before the Netherlands decided to go "tankless" according to recent posts in another thread here.

Evidently this Leo 2A4 has been around for a while. I found another pic of what appears to be the same vehicle posted elsewhere in March of 2010. Someone made a scale model Leo using the same paint scheme.

An interesting paint job on a Leopard 2 of PzB14 at open house day at Hesse barracks in Germany, June 18, 2011. Picture copyright by PzB15 @ doppeladler.com

BMW 300 Isetta was a ugly little car from the 1950s. The front door was the entire frontend and windshield. It was a 4-wheeled model, but I see that a UK licensed firm eventually built a 3-wheeled version for that market while making 4-wheelers for Australia and New Zealand. UK built 3-wheeled version (left) and standard 4-wheeled version (right): The 3-wheeled version was prone to tip over too. Like I said there were some crazy cars back then.

Too true. Luckily, the one my parents bought never did that.

Ah, yes, I forgot about the Can-Am "Spyder" by Bombardier. But that is more of a motorcycle than a car. I usually check out the Sea-Doo boat and Evinrude sections on the BRP website.