#the prototype GG1

[1863-project]

Sometimes I question my autism diagnosis because my experience isn't entirely in line with those of other autistic people's and then I go to my job at the train museum and take one quick glance at a photo in a box of archival images and immediately and correctly identify a specific GG1 locomotive from the shape of the nose around the headlight

[solradguy]

What happened, Daisuke. What happened to keeping May's devotion to Johnny "modest." Where did it all go wrong

[1863-project-art]

[Image ID: Emmet from Pokemon Black and White is standing in front of a Pennsylvania Railroad GG1 electric locomotive, numbered 4935. He is beaming with delight and posing the way Speed Racer does in the opening to the show. End image ID.]

This is one of the most self-indulgent things I’ve drawn in a while.

The Pennsylvania Railroad’s famed GG1 electric locomotives were in service from the mid-1930s well until the early 1980s. They survived the merger into Penn Central, and later on went to work for Amtrak and New Jersey Transit. They were some of the most solid electric locomotives ever made, and their Art Deco streamlining designed by Raymond Loewy made them beautiful, to boot. When I was a little girl of about four or so, I went to Strasburg, Pennsylvania, and there I met the prototype GG1, Old Rivets, the only one without the completely smooth welded body, hence her name. Rivets has been a special favorite of mine ever since.

The GG1 I drew Emmet with here also resides at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania alongside Old Rivets; this one is nicknamed Blackjack because her number, 4935, adds up to 21. I went with the GG1 for this art because of Emmet’s tendency to gravitate towards Electric-types to a degree; he’s best known for his Eelektross and his Cross Poison Galvantula (that could only learn that move in Gen 5 via breeding, hence the army of Joltiks he’s often depicted with). GG1s used to run out of Penn Station, as well, so they have quite the history in NYC - you’d be able to see them resting in Sunnyside Yard in Queens when they weren’t at work.

Drawn for day six of @submas-autistic-joy, an event all about allowing  Ingo and Emmet to be…well, themselves, without angst or ableism. For more on the event specifically, you can check the post out here!

[gear-project]

GG Mechanics History: Preface

I've been considering writing an article on the history of Guilty Gear's fighting game mechanics up through to Strive, but, you'd be surprised to know it's not as simple as people may think.

There's a great deal of core elements that have been retained for a good many years, but there's also a few obscure ideas that got scrapped.

And, I don't just mean "scrapped for Strive", but, there's elements to GG mechanics that can be traced all the way back to the first game that were either never used again, or ended up becoming a completely different function.

This leads me to think about what ASW has in mind for changing things up in the future... I make no solid bets at this point, but just to give you a good idea for point of reference:

Guilty Gear: The Missing Link Mechanics

Guilty Gear XX Reload Mechanics

(Note, XX mechanics took what was started in GGX and added on it, though the Wiki itself doesn't cover the original GGX for some reason...)

Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Mechanics

(Because of how complex the game's system is, they broke it up in to separate categories, which is a far cry different from the first game or even current mechanics...)

Guilty Gear 2 Overture Mechanics

(While you might not think this game is anything like previous games, or successive games, it's actually the case where a lot if ideas ended up getting recycled in later games, though the terms used were altered... for example Cyclone Blast was this game's version of a Psyche Burst.)

Guilty Gear Xrd Rev2 Mechanics

(It's worth noting that there's a great deal of differences between Xrd Sign, Xrd Revelator, and Xrd Rev2 in terms of how things work, though Rev2 covers what most previous games could do, there's still key elements that made Xrd Sign a far cry different from the Revelator games. And let's not forget about Rev0, the so-called modded game mechanics... I do not know how complete that system is, but it's intriguing.)

Guilty Gear Strive Mechanics

And now, we come back to where we currently are in the game series. It's still unclear what final form this game will take, but I'm sure things will gradually improve so long as fans continue to give feedback.

If you were to compare Strive with the original GG1 and GGX, you might notice some core similarities that are "closer" to what Strive is compared to what you might have seen in Accent Core or GG2...

A lot of ideas have (so far) been streamlined in to making Strive a much more dynamic game compared to other titles.

But, I also tend to think about this game in terms of what the original Prototype Guilty Gear was (prior to GG1 or GGX)... and based on what limited information we have on the Prototype, it very much resembles games like Battle Arena Toshinden, Fighting Vipers, Soul Edge, Bushido Blade, Samurai Spirits 64, and Bloody Roar from an age long past.

There's a lot of familiar concepts, but I think it's easy to forget what the original source mechanics were based on, and what they were really trying to accomplish.

You might even need to factor in ideas that have yet to be implemented (even based on clues we got from previous games)... so we have a long road ahead.

[railwayhistorical]

A Dreary Day in Harrisburg

Here we have some interesting electric action under the catenary in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania...

First we see a General Electric E44, built for the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1961, shifting about with a mate. These units boasted 4,400 horsepower and could make 70 miles-per-hour.

An intriguing unit is looking on nearby—EMD’s effort to break into the electric-freight-hauling business: a prototype designated GM6C. That number, 1975, represents the year it was built of course—in La Grange, Illinois, in collaboration with ASEA, of Sweden. This output of this unit was no less than 6,000 horsepower, far eclipsing production diesels being produced in those days.

Lastly a TOFC train trundles by in the wet snow—luckily for us the train is powered by two General Electric GG1s. The lead unit here, number 4802, was built for the Pennsylvania in 1935! I believe the styling was by Raymond Loewy, and the units were capable of continuous output of 4,620 horsepower.

I think history will eventually show that it was a sorely missed opportunity—not embracing electric locomotives to haul freight.

Three images by Richard Koenig; taken March 20th 1977.

[1863-project]

What's your favorite train and why? :)

Ooh, loaded question, anon!

I have different favorites in different categories.

My favorite steam locomotive is, of course, LNER 4468 Mallard, who I recently wrote a blog post about on the 85th anniversary of her speed record run. She holds the speed record for steam traction right now at 126 mph.

I'm really partial to streamliners when it comes to steam, but I generally love most steam locomotives I see, especially when they're intact and in operating condition.

I'm especially partial to a 2-10-0 Decapod in Strasburg, Pennsylvania that I grew up going to see every year as a kid and ended up driving as an adult (once).

(Strasburg #90 in 1998, when I was 9 years old...)

(...and me on the throttle in 2022.)

90 was a childhood friend of mine, so to speak, so I'm so honored my first time on a steam locomotive's throttle was with her.

In terms of electric locomotives, there can be only one...

This is a Pennsylvania Railroad GG1. I have been obsessed with these bad boys since I was a really little kid and they're over-represented in my railroad ita bag. They're arguably the most successful electric locomotives in American history, remaining in service from the 1930s until the early 1980s, and actually outlasted the railroad they were built for, with a few ending their careers with Amtrak, Conrail, and New Jersey Transit.

I grew up seeing the prototype GG1 at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania. They call her Old Rivets because she's the only one with a riveted shell instead of the smooth welded one. She lasted until the end.

(Me with Rivets as a 4-year-old in 1993...)

(...and again in 2022, right before I drove 90. It's not obvious in this photo, but Ingo and Emmet were in my bag that day.)

For more modern stuff, my favorite Shinkansen model is the E5; I think most railfans into modern things have a favorite Shinkansen trainset. But I tend to veer historical because that's my real job (I'm an archivist dedicated to historical preservation) so my tastes tend to go older.

[1863-project]

Thank you so much for the masterpost link! The ones I’ve read so far have been really informative. I was reading the one about the Mallard and enjoyed the fact about how the guy that designed her named all the ones he designed after birds, as birds are one of my main special interests, especially the more aquatic ones that he enjoyed. The fact thar he had so much naming freedom made me wonder if there was much in the way of naming conventions for trains, or if people were just able to name them after things they liked, like he did.

Ah, you're welcome! Sir Nigel Gresley was rather fond of birds, especially waterfowl.

He was the LNER's chief mechanical engineer, so he was more or less in charge and got to pick that sort of thing. In the UK it was much more common - and still is - for locomotives to get names along with numbers, but in the US they're usually just numbered. It's rare to find one with a name here unless it's a nickname. Old Rivets, the prototype for the GG1 electric locomotives, is officially known as PRR 4800 and only got her nickname because she was the only GG1 with a riveted body instead of a welded one. The other GG1 at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania, Blackjack, got her nickname because the numbers she has, PRR 4935, add up to 21.

From what I'm aware, there's sometimes a theme for a specific class of locomotives if they're being named, or they'll be named after people of significance either in general or to the railroad. If I find more specifics I'll let you know!

[solradguy]

Oh my god Scrivener is being a royal pain in my ass about exporting this stupid document. I'll get the DPS prototype GG1 thing up tomorrow, I don't have the patience to keep screwing around with this tonight

[1863-project]

Iron Horse Girl, or How Submas Got My Groove Back - an accidental essay

In 1989, two young parents had their first child. Her brother wouldn’t be born for another four and a half years. She was an odd little girl, not speaking until she could form the full sentence “What’s that?” (usually accompanied by pointing at something), but she showed signs of taking after her parents - she loved to read, she loved to learn, and she loved and was gentle with animals.

And like her father, she loved trains.

She had an engineer hat with her name on it. It was her pride and joy. When she was 3 or so and visiting Strasburg, Pennsylvania, her first real-life experience with steam locomotives, a boy around her age asked her at the playground at Groff’s Grove why she was wearing “a boy’s hat.” She told him that anyone could wear it and left.

The little girl grew a bit older, and she always looked forward to her family’s annual trips to the Strasburg Rail Road. She fell in love with the GG1, the Pennsylvania Railroad’s remarkable electric locomotive of the 1930s, perhaps in part because she related to it - like her, it was unusual, an oddball, but it persevered. The GG1 was still in use in the 1980s, the decade the little girl was born. She never saw one in action - she was a bit too young - but something about it stayed with her, and the engineer hat with her name on it soon had a GG1 pin on it and a GG1 was added to her dad’s collection of HO scale model trains. The model was hers.

In particular, she was fond of the prototype GG1, nicknamed ‘Old Rivets’ because it lacked the Raymond Loewy streamlining all other GG1s would have, because she would see it in Strasburg at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania every year.

(photo source)

Rivets was an oddball amongst oddballs, and she felt drawn to it.

One of those trips to Strasburg was a bit less happy than the other ones - she and her father were in the model train store and her father noticed the old men running the store weren’t particularly interested in helping his elementary school-aged daughter. He loudly told her in front of them that it was because she was a girl - once again, a reminder that she was moving into a space she wasn’t supposed to be in according to some people. But she refused to give up on trains, instead being delighted as a 4-8-4 Northern locomotive, C&O 614, passed through her town two summers in a row on excursion runs. She and her dad would go to see it pass through - not even scrap metal getting into her eye from the NJ Transit chaser locomotive passing by beforehand deterred her from pursuing the thing she loved.

Things got harder after that. A kid at school the little girl would play with because he also liked trains decided one day that trains were ��stupid” and he preferred spaceships, and she cried to her dad about it that night, who reassured her that they weren’t. But as the little girl got older, her differences became more obvious to her classmates, and the occasional rejection she was experiencing turned to flat-out bullying. The little girl’s friends waned, and she turned to a new hobby, video games, for comfort. By the end of 5th grade, she was a Nintendo expert, becoming well versed in Mario, Zelda, Banjo-Kazooie...and a newer franchise called Pokemon (in fact, she cried when in 4th grade her elementary school banned Pokemon cards). Having interactive worlds to explore helped her stave off the loneliness somewhat.

In 7th grade, the not-so-little girl, still reeling from 9/11 as she grew up in the shadow of New York City and her father was one gate away from United Flight 93 (he survived), got a Gamecube. Right after, she had her first crush. He wasn’t real, but her feelings were. Super Smash Brothers Melee introduced her to a franchise she was unfamiliar with, Fire Emblem, and they did this by including characters from two different FE games, Marth and Roy, in the game as unlockable characters. She fell for Roy instantly, and that was that. She began writing fanfiction about Melee, her first proper forays into the fandom sphere online, and she started to make internet friends (some of whom she still has now). Things led to other things - Fire Emblem led to fantasy, which led to Lord of the Rings, which led to “wow, I relate to Boromir’s desire to protect his younger brother Faramir because I want to protect my younger brother too,” which led to “oh, Sean Bean was in this thing called Sharpe, hmm.”

By high school, the not-so-little girl had discovered the Napoleonic Wars, and finally she understood her family’s appreciation for history. As her inability to learn math the way it was being taught locked her out of her dream science careers of paleontologist or astronomer, she shifted gears and prepared to become a historian, realizing she had a proper knack for it - she could learn things once and never forget them, she had excellent reading comprehension, and she loved to tell people’s stories and give them a voice. It was the perfect fit for her.

But nearly every spring break, she still went to Strasburg. And a family trip to London in 2004, right when the girl was in the midst of her Napoleonic Wars teaboo phase, brought the Underground into her life - she bought a Mind the Gap shirt that she wore frequently once back. Unbeknownst to her, on that trip, when they took a train from King’s Cross in London to Edinburgh, she was on the former London and North Eastern Railway. Her father had picked this because it was the old route of the Flying Scotsman, a named train that became so famous that one of the locomotives that regularly ran the route was named for it, a Gresley 4-6-2 A1/A3 Pacific. (Flying Scotsman survives today; she’s been restored and runs fairly regularly.) Still on her military history high, she likely unwittingly passed right through a location that would have significance for her later, a small village called Little Bytham.

Although it seemed during this period that her love of trains, now kept secret from her peers because she knew it would incur their harsh judgment and bullying, was on the back burner, it was always there. She started a writing project and picked the year 1863 for the setting because the first part of the London Underground opened that year. Another writing project included references to Richard Trevithick’s Puffing Devil and Catch Me Who Can, the first machines that could arguably be called steam locomotives. And of course, she was still going to Strasburg.

Eventually, the girl became a woman even though she didn’t feel like she could use that word yet because she was still in her teens, and she went to do her undergraduate degree at Gettysburg College - history, with a minor in American Civil War Era Studies. Astoundingly during this time, she didn’t write a single paper on The General, though the best-known film adaptation of that story would play a role in her life a few years later. Her social life was at an all-time low at college due to an emotionally abusive friendship, but she was clinging to another love of hers, baseball, to cope with things. Baseball carried her through a mental breakdown, OCD, and numerous other struggles, and she met a kitten at the worst point of it, who she named Murphy. That kitten arguably saved her life.

But the trains were still there, too, and after a lot of prodding she finally managed to get her friends to the Strasburg Rail Road, not too far a drive from college. In that moment, she was safe. She was on the rails again. After all, in 2009, she’d gotten a diagnosis that made everything make sense: she was autistic. It explained being an oddball, a girl who always seemed to end up in “male” spaces yet didn’t feel like she was performing femininity correctly, the intense and extreme passions for things she cared about...and, of course, the trains. It was a stereotype, but she fell smack dab into it. She kept it on the down low at the time and started to move into online self-advocacy spaces to meet other autistic people.

The young woman escaped the abusive friendship in 2011, after she graduated. After a year and a half of recovery at home, she applied to and got into graduate school back in New York City. She commuted from home for two years, 2013 and 2014, and in doing so quickly and scarily well developed a near encyclopedic knowledge of the New York City subway system, to the point that her entire family started asking her for train directions. She took a sort of pride in her parents affectionately calling her a “mole person.” Somewhere around this time, her dad told her about the tragedy of Penn Station, which she did not take well and still does not take well. The young woman was indulging her love of comedy at the time she started graduate school, and she determined that she would love to do comedy history as her specialized area of research. As she delved deep into it, she discovered Buster Keaton, who, like her, loved baseball and trains. She felt a sort of understanding there, especially watching him operate a locomotive entirely by himself in his film about the American Civil War - about the General, the locomotive stolen by the North and pursued by fellow Confederate locomotive Texas. She felt the tug in her heart. The trains were still there.

2014 outed her as a railfan, though, because she accidentally discovered a children’s show called Chuggington when she was up late one night doing grad school readings. There was an attractive human on the show who was the culmination of traits she looked for in a boyfriend, and so at age 25 she was watching a preschool show about trains so she could see one human character. Initially she was embarrassed to admit it, but her enthusiasm ended up winning out, and before long she was the entire Chuggington tag on Tumblr. To cope with turning 25, a landmark age, she went back to shows she enjoyed as a very small child - rewatching Thomas and Friends from an adult perspective was fun, but it reignited her love for steam locomotives yet again, and a character on Chuggington, Olwin, was modeled after an A4 Pacific, another locomotive designed by Sir Nigel Gresley.

The young woman was thus led to Mallard.

(photo source - Tommy Bray is on the left, with Joe Duddington right next to him)

In 1938, on July 3rd, a 4-6-2 Pacific A4, 4468 Mallard, set a speed record for steam traction, hitting 126 miles per hour down Stoke Bank just south of the village of Little Bytham. Mallard’s record has never been broken. Driven that day by 61-year-old grandfather Joe Duddington and powered by fireman Tommy Bray, she sped into the history books, a blinding blue streak. And the young woman had always had a lead foot herself and loved speed, and she was enthralled. Mallard captivated her completely. Her love for trains was out in the open now, and it would stay that way.

In 2015, she and her dad drove out to Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania, to see her dad’s favorite locomotive, Nickel Plate Road 765, on an excursion run. She touched her hand gently to the locomotive’s bumper and felt all those emotions she felt as a little girl rush back into her.

In 2017, she found the friendship jewelry her emotionally abusive friend had made her wear like pet tags denoting ownership and drove south an hour to throw them into the Raritan River. That year, her autistic self-advocacy work culminated in a new project combining two of her passions - the Autistic Gaming Initiative. AGI, as its members came to call it, is an all-autistic video game streaming team working to raise money and awareness for autistic-led advocacy organizations. At the helm - or perhaps more aptly, on the footplate - the young woman began to discover that she had a capacity and capability for leadership that she didn’t know she had. Slowly but surely, and with the help of dedicated friends and supportive family members, she began to stop hating herself, although she still felt the shadows of her past hanging heavily over her head.

Back in 2012, she had a physical to go to grad school in the spring. This physical picked up that she had developed an autoimmune thyroid disorder called Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, which had likely been caused by a combination of mold exposure at Gettysburg and the extreme stress of living with her emotionally abusive roommate for two years. As the illness developed, she began to gain weight in odd ways, resulting in her feeling misshapen - no amount of plain exercise seemed to be halting the progression of the weight gain, and she became more and more demoralized about it. The little girl was eventually a young woman nearing her 30s, and she had still never dated due to the childhood bullying and the emotional abuse. The body dysmorphia began to make her feel like she never would, and on top of everything, she had too much emotional baggage and trauma to think about trying. Even as her career aligned perfectly and she finally landed a job as an archivist at a public library at age 29, she still felt like in some ways that she was failing at being human.

A pandemic hit not long after she moved out into her own apartment with an internet friend turned not-abusive roommate. This was, of course, a massive blow to someone who had worked so hard to finally live independently, and she spent 2020 logging her days from home, working on a comedy-related animation project, and confronting her past - being cooped up in a small apartment brought back memories of the emotional abuse, and she was forced to address it. A small comfort was Pokemon, which she had just gotten back into in 2019 via the newest games, Sword and Shield. The game’s two DLCs dropped during the pandemic, and she played them both, giving her a few bright spots in 2020. It was around that time that her roommate, who had played Gen 5, told her about the Battle Subway.

This, of course, fit the young woman’s exact aesthetic, right down to wearing giant swing coats and intensely desiring to fight annoying tourists who kept their backpacks on when standing on the subway, and she dove right in...only to find two characters, Ingo and Emmet, who were weirdly similar to her herself.

Especially Emmet, the weirder, younger one. And I, the young woman, had never felt more seen in my life.

My brain clicked with Emmet instantaneously. I’m not sure I’ve ever looked at a character and realized “holy shit, that’s me” so quickly, but then again, I’d never seen a character who was an autistic-coded subway conductor who swung his arms when he walked and was way too blunt and was clearly having the time of his life doing what he loved and who never lost his enthusiasm for things. I probably fell in love instantly, or at least when the Gotcha! video (what the above gif is from) aired and Emmet couldn’t resist looking up at the camera and smiling. Either way, it was fast - so fast that I didn’t realize it had happened for nearly ten months.

I decided it was time to make up for lost time. I acquired a used 3DS, Omega Ruby, Y, and Sun, with the hopes of managing to snag White and White 2 at some point since my roommate had Black and Black 2. I immediately rushed through the story of Omega Ruby to obtain the Eon Flute so I could start searching the Mirage Islands for Tynamo. I needed to raise an Eelektross, and they weren’t in Gen 8. I tried to hide that I was getting attached, but my roommate saw right through me, and I reluctantly had to admit that yes, I ordered the Submas plushies, and yes, they were going to be in our apartment making those weird faces. But you see, I related to them - they were just like me - and I had to. I just had to. They began filling up my sketchbooks at an alarming rate. I named an Archen after Emmet, but was so shy as I did so that I couldn’t even look at the screen as I did it. And perhaps most notably, I started trying to use their team - and finally felt brave enough to take on battle facilities.

And that team was able to win, and I knew that I wanted to try to breed for a full 6 IV Submas team. I started with Tynamo, and after several days of struggle, the 6 IV baby eel hatched from the egg.

I named him Old Rivets, after my beloved GG1.

After a long time off, I began writing again with some new original characters. I started exploring the concept of a crew running an express steam train in the present day together, and based the engineer on myself - the little girl who was asked all those years ago why she was wearing a “boy’s hat.” I gave her my thyroid disorder and body type with the hopes of working through my body dysmorphia and coming to terms with myself...and then I allowed her to fall in love with the head conductor.

Much like me, Engineer hides her weird body shape under a giant coat most of the time, but eventually she comes to realize that regardless of what she looks like, Conductor loves her, and I started to think that maybe things weren’t impossible for me after all after writing for the two of them for a few months. I even went and bought a vintage conductor hat off of eBay for myself for my birthday, which I now wear a lot more than I should in public.

In late June of 2021, Ingo and Emmet were added to the mobile game Pokemon Masters EX, and in early July, I finally realized that I had been crushing horribly on Emmet for the entire time. (I’m dense, I know.) I finally started using this to explore myself a bit more and understand that I could have the things I didn’t think I deserved because of how I looked and how people treated me in the past, and I began to heal from everything slowly but surely. I allowed myself, in my silly little imagination, to feel things I’d never felt before. I obviously knew it wasn’t real - this was just pretend to work on accepting that I could have it and could be loved - and slowly, quietly, things began to improve. By the end of 2021, I realized that I had burned myself out, and I actually liked myself enough to put effort into myself again, not just into others. I started eating better, exercising more regularly...and my mood improved, and my strength started to come back.

I have a shelf in my bedroom. I call it my Serotonin Shelf. On it is all of my Submas merch; it’s right at the head of my bed. It’s simple: I look at the shelf, and my brain produces the neurotransmitter serotonin.

These two actually gave me what I needed to be myself again. I cannot overstate that. That’s actually what happened here.

In late 2021, my dad and I went on a pandemic-delayed trip to Johnstown, Pennsylvania, to see the site of the flood.

On the way there we made a stop at Strasburg.

I reunited with Old Rivets for the first time in ten years, and this time, I was in uniform when I did it.

And this time, I had some friends with me.

(This photo is blurry because the focus is actually 4-8-4 Northern Norfolk and Western 611, the Queen of Steam herself, in the background; she was visiting Strasburg for the season and my dad and I had to go see her.)

Given how these two have helped me heal and remember who I actually am, you can probably understand that the Legends: Arceus spoilers hit me extremely hard. I went and read the datamined text from the entire game to see if Ingo would be okay. The game leaves it up in the air - you, the player character, and he are both brought back from the present day to do things in the past, but from what I could find it’s unclear if either of you gets to return home. And to make matters worse, Ingo can’t remember who he is, including that he has a twin brother. It ripped my heart out as someone who adores the two of them, as someone who has a younger brother, as someone who lost her own identity once...as someone who found herself again because of these two fictional characters. If they’re considered permanently separated, I don’t know what I’ll do. I need closure on this. I need to thank them both for everything they’ve done for me...for giving me myself back.

And thank you especially, Emmet, for giving me my smile back.

[1863-project]

Hello! I’ve been trying to write a cute pre-hisui thing for the twins (I needed something that wasn’t angst, you are a lifesaver) but I was having trouble nicknaming their Pokémon. I decided on Fusee for Lampent (not yet Chandelure), but I don’t have anything for basically anyone else. Do have any suggestions? Thanks in advance and have a great day!

Hi, anon!

Canonically they don't seem to nickname their Pokemon, referring to them by their names, but I have been nicknaming my 6 IV Submas team after famous trains, so that's something to consider.

The three I've successfully bred so far:

Old Rivets (Eelektross): The prototype for the Pennsylvania Railroad's GG1 electric locomotive, an "old friend" of mine residing at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania in Strasburg

Zephyr (Galvantula): An early diesel, the Pioneer Zephyr was renowned for speed and can be seen in the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago

Super Chief (Haxorus): Also renowned for speed and luxury, the Super Chief was the Santa Fe's premier train from Chicago to Los Angeles, and celebrities and regular people alike loved it, especially for its observation cars and phenomenal French toast

The ones I'm still working on breeding:

20th Century Limited (Chandelure): The New York Central's famed passenger train from Grand Central in New York to Chicago. Was famously pulled by beautiful 4-6-4 Hudson locomotives that were streamlined. All were scrapped and I Am Bitter.

Mallard (Archeops): The official speed record holder for steam traction, Mallard hit a whopping 126 mph on July 3rd, 1938 despite being named after a duck. I am pathetically obsessed with this locomotive despite never having seen it in person at the National Railway Museum in York, England.

Brightliner (Excadrill): The R32 subway cars for the NYC Subway were called 'Brightliners' as a nickname. 'Brightliner' is also my player character's name in my Submas team playthrough of Pokemon Sword. (Excadrill had to be named after something subway-related, it's all about being underground!)

Mercury (Durant): The Mercury streamliners served the New York Central, as well. Sleek Hudsons that pulled a lot of named trains, including the above 20th Century Limited, none remain, as stated above.

The General (Klingklang 1) and The Texas (Klingklang 2): There are two separate Klingklangs with different Natures and movesets (Ingo has one, Emmet has the other), so it felt right to me to name them after two trains famously associated with each other. The General and the Texas were both involved in a famous American Civil War incident that later became the loose basis for Buster Keaton's cinematic masterpiece.

Blue Comet (Garbodor): This name may seem like a bit of a stretch, and it is - but the Blue Comet, a train between Jersey City and Atlantic City, featured in an episode of The Sopranos, and Tony Soprano allegedly worked as a consultant for "waste management."

Big Boy (Crustle): The Union Pacific Big Boys were gigantic locomotives designed to haul freight out in the western United States. Eight survive today, one of which is operational and runs excursions for UP's Heritage Fleet now because Ed Dickens is kickass.

[1863-project]

What was your reaction to the great bald ingo reveal of 2022, from the official PLA guidebook. Ten years of Submas and finally a clear look at their walter white headasses

In general I don't take concept art to be fully reflective of a final product. Here's a good example.

These models were Donald Dohner's original concepts for what became the GG1. They look similar, but they're not exact, because they were just ideas for a final product.

Donald Dohner's designs eventually evolved into Old Rivets, the prototype GG1. She looks like this:

But all other GG1s built after Rivets have a streamlined body designed by Raymond Loewy.

So you can see there were a few stages to get to the final locomotive design. Concept art for a game is the same way - it's not final, it's just ideas. I have a lot of art of my own characters that's different from their final designs, because that's how the evolution of an idea works.

Basically...I don't have a reaction, is what I'm saying. Whether it's even real or not (the guidebook doesn't drop until the 21st, to my knowledge, so it would have to be a leak if real), to me it would just be one stage of a project and not definitive unless explicitly stated to be so by the developers. Since we don't have a statement yet, I reserve my judgment.

[gear-project]

Hey, is the Steam version of Guilty Gear XX #Reload any good?

Hmm, unfortunately, I wouldn’t actually recommended it, as it’s an early PC port, and the polish is not so great compared to later PC versions of GG games.

I state this because it was early on when the game was made and much like the PC version of GGX, it lacked a lot of the things the console versions were known for in terms of quality.

The same is actually true of the PC version of BlazBlue Calamity Trigger, sadly.

If you don’t mind keyboard-like inputs, framerate drops, display issues, etc...

I would say Guilty Gear Isuka is actually a much better game if we’re talking/comparing early PC GG games.

Otherwise (beyond PS2/Atomiswave/Dreamcast emulation) I’d say Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus R is the best you’re going to get on a PC.

Beyond those (if you’re a console purist) your best bet would be to get a PlayStation 2 for that era of Guilty Gear titles (especially given that basic GGXX had all the same content more or less of #Reload, but because of Prototype Robo-Ky became a slightly different game).

It’s your call to make.

Here’s a quick rundown of what to expect of GG titles:

--GG1 (the holy grail, good luck finding a disc of it, emulation might give you better luck, otherwise get the PC/PS3/PSP/PS4 versions) --GGX (easier to find, but doesn’t have GGXPlus content, has a mediocre PC port) --GGXPlus (Japan only, uncommon, but worth getting at some point) --GGX1.5 (does not exist on PS2, Atomiswave exclusive, emulation’s your best bet) --GGPetit1+2 (Wonderswan exclusive, again, emulation’s your best bet) --GGXAdvance (GBA exclusive, emulation, seriously.. it’s a hodgepodge port though) --GGXX (uncommon since most versions became Reload, if you want Proto Robo-Ky though, get it) --GGXX Red Reload (early patched Reload, rare to find, not sure if you can obtain it) --GGXX Blue Reload (most common, has the most ports and versions, but imho the PS2 version is the best compared to anything else) --GGXX Korean Reload (uncommon, but also worth it to a collector if you want a fresh take on GG voice acting, or just like the Korea Colony stage) --GGIsuka (easy enough to find anywhere, but each port has its own quirks, PC version has stage glitches, PS2 version has color issues with A.B.A., take your pick, otherwise it’s a good game) --GGDustStrikers (not recommended, but I suppose you can find an emulated NDS port of it somewhere) --GGRoA (mobile phone port, extremely hard to find, not that great though) --GGJudgementReload (PSP exclusive, not too hard to get, but emulation is probably a safer bet, PSPs are harder to find these days) --GGJudgementSlash (Uncommon Japan PSP exclusive, emulation’s your best bet) --GGXXSlash (Japan PS2 exclusive, if you want Prototype Order-Sol, this is the game to get, but I still think a PS2 emulation would save you the effort in looking for the game) --GGXXAccentCore (any version of this is full of game-crashing glitches and funny stuff, if you play it, play it for laughs) --GGXXAccentCorePlus (most common on PS2 for its time, you’ll have a more stable version if you get the U.S. or PAL versions) --GGXXACPlusR (does NOT exist on PS2, actually started out on PlayStation 3, PS3 version is the most unstable version in fact due to stage glitches and other problems... PSVita might be more stable, not sure, but PC version is probably the best version of this game, especially since the audio upgrade and GGPO netcode improvements) --GG2Overture (the original XB360 might be fun to get for purists/collectors, but in fact the PC version is much more stable and has all the DLC content baked-in, so PC is your best bet) --GGVastEdge (if you’re a collector, I would recommend investing in the Pachislot machine itself, but otherwise you’ll need a Japanese iOS account to get the mobile phone port of this game) --GGXrdSign (original version was on PS3, but the graphics were nerfed badly in that version, so in fact you might want the PS4/PC versions.  The PC version is basically a copy-pasta of the PS4 version, right down to the goofy DLC text that no longer applies to the game!  XrdSign has an uncommon English dub, so that makes it a gem worth adding to your collection). --GGXrdRevelator/Rev2 (PS4 version is considered optimal because all the DLC was eventually baked-in, but the PC version is still very good, albeit the display options aren’t as “large” compared to XrdSign’s.  They basically went for stability over huge display options, which is good.  Netcode isn’t perfect, but stable enough for some rounds.) --Guilty Gear Strive (the PS4 Beta was.... mildly amusing so far... the background stage graphics could’ve used a few tweaks though, I didn’t see any slowdown/frame drops in battle, but it took a very long time to load between fights as I recall, so they’re still optimizing it quite a bit yet.  Purists who want physical copies will probably go for the PS4/PS5 versions, but I’ll stick with the PC version, mostly because of the support I expect it will get in that version.)

And that’s it.

I have a halfway decent gaming PC, so right now I’ve actually made a few comparisons between the games via emulation and Steam ports if you want to see it.  I would say, for older ports of GG titles, a PS2 emulator will serve you well, unless you’re a physical collector.

I have my “holy grail” (GG1 disc and GGXPlus DX edition) so I’m pretty content with just owning those for the most part, but you might consider checking out the Dreamcast version of GGX for collector’s sake... there might be a few easter eggs in that version.

[gear-project]

Hey man! I’m interested in playing Guilty gear X/XX for the story, arcade endings and playing casually. Is there a specific version of both I can play that has all of the content/characters and arcade endings instead of playing all of them? (Also has there ever been a reason as to why the X games have complicated names (X,XX, Reload Accent Core, Plus, R) It’s one of those things that is a tad stupid but at the same time kinda awesome and cool as well! Thanks as always man! Keep on rocking bro!

If you just want a recap, you would do well to read Sumeragi's Manga.

But if you have plans on revisiting all the games strictly for the story, here's about what you might expect:

GGTML(GG1): Best bet is a Steam/PS4 version of the port.

GGXPlus: Has a story but it's Japanese and PS2 exclusive, you might want a PS2 emulator for this one.  Otherwise just read the GGX Script that Ed Chang wrote ages ago.

GGXX: I get the PS2 version simply because it has a prototype of Robo-Ky, otherwise, again PS2 emulation is your best bet.  This is the vanilla unpatched version of Reload, but it has the original Story Mode, but if you want to compare it with Reload, at least get the best version of Korean Reload (again PS2 emulation).

GGXXAccentCorePlusR: PC GGPO version is currently the best incarnation, it has Accent Core Plus' original story included, so you're not missing anything from earlier versions and you can even switch back to vanilla Accent Core Plus in the game's options.

GG2Overture: again, best version is on PC/Steam.  Story is tricky to clear, but if you're diligent you'll get a good experience.  The actual story is a bit different from the Manga adaptation, so keep that in mind.

GGVastEdge: Japanese iOS Pachislot game, only collectors would bother with this one, it barely has a story to speak of, and is strictly Japanese.  Not worth it if you ask me, even compared to GG2.  I wrote a summary of it a while ago, and Xrd Sign talks about it briefly anyhow.

GGXrdSign: Get it for the English Dub and the unique stages.  Get it for over-powered Bedman as well.  It has its own story and is different from Rev2 by a lot.  PC version is best, don't bother with the PS3 version, but PS4 if you can't find another way to get the game.

GGXrdRevelator/Rev2: Latest game in the series, do I need to tell you to get this?  PC version is probably the best incarnation.

GGStrive: Not out yet, but get the PC version anyway.

There's also three novels, 2 manga, and several drama CDs, they're mostly side content, so you don't really NEED to know them, but I have tags for each, read my GGTags tag.  There’s also Isuka, Judgement, and Dust Strikers, but those are side stories too.

As for why the games have their respective subtitle names... it's a reference to several bands and terminology in music.  Read the GG+Titles tag for more on that subject.

[gear-project]

My “Absolute” World.

It is just so very difficult sometimes to explain where my emotions are when it comes to specific Guilty Gear titles or even just describing the “era” in which I played fighting games for the first time.

With the recent Street Fighter V final season announcements I was once again reminded of the era in which my heart lies.

In some aspects I am thoroughly disappointed, but in others I can only do my best to stay optimistic about what the future holds.

The “era” in which I exist is somewhere between the first Guilty Gear (1998) and Guilty Gear X (2000)...

Back then, it didn’t matter if you were playing Street Fighter Alpha 3 or Street Fighter III Third Strike.  You could make up your own rules, your own Grooves (Capcom VS SNK 2), and just do whatever you wanted with the game.

I feel as though a lot of fighting games in these modern times are “restricted”, “burdened” by game balance... and while that isn’t necessarily a bad thing... it closes the doors to what players from the time I played really wanted... “absolute freedom”.

Absolute Freedom is the very antithesis of game balance... I know that explicitly... it’s one-sided, highly destructive, and effectively dismantles the entirety of the competitive side of the game.

I know this, but at the same time... it was one of the most fun aspects of experimental gameplay I ever experienced.  Like M.u.g.e.n. in some capacity, but much more easily accessible.

Dip Switches, Extra Menu Edits, EX Mode, GG Mode, World Tour Style Editing... Gold Boss Character Modes... hidden characters, Battle System edits... all of that embodies the freedom that I felt and desired more of in fighting games. 

GGX was in a space where it “wasn’t GGXX”, it had a special place in my heart, it wasn’t built with as much structure in mind... it was still very “arcade-like” (in a fun sense, back when Dizzy was still boss-like and overpowered and Robo-Ky was still a prototype Iori clone).

But, when I think about Street Fighter, I just can’t help but go back to the feelings I felt from Third Strike and Alpha 3... between those games I found a certain amount of fun... even Darkstalkers 3 (the PSX version) granted me a lot of freedom and fun in those days.

And while it’s true that Street Fighter has begun to return to some aspects of that era with characters like Akira, Rose, Dan, and Oro... it still feels like what they’ve done in SF still has miles to go.

Even SNK, with Samurai Shodown, has already achieved plenty of what I wanted in the new reboot game... they did everything I expected... short of Slash/Bust perhaps... but because of the way characters are divvied up, and the fact we still get updates (AND guest characters)... my flame for that game series has not waned at all.

Soul Calibur VI... even the WRITING in the Museum is such top quality that it’s like reading a gilded book in some ancient library.  The gameplay and options in the game have far surpassed previous incarnations... I can only think they still have solid plans to keep the Legend from never dying.

Even Tekken 7, as competitively angled as the game is, has enough content to remain fun and humorous.  Lots of aspects of the game are getting further expansions... it’s awesome really...

Which brings me to Guilty Gear Strive.........

If I had to say I was disappointed in anything Capcom has done recently, I would be telling the absolute truth... but at the same time... when it comes to ARC System Works... my emotions are complex.

I have “Hope”.... but at the same time I am no longer expecting “much”.  GG as a game still has a great roster, great characters, wonderful story, wonderful music...

But the one thing I would trade all of those for: the “absolute freedom” I once enjoyed in Accent Core, in GG1, in Alpha 3, in CvS2, in Third Strike...

That “absolute freedom”... feels like a relic lost to time.

Unless I had a GameShark or Game Genie to hack the very game itself... I doubt I could change the rules in as fun a manner as I did in those days... play as overpowered bosses, hyper fast gameplay, infinite tension...

All those features meant so much to my heart.  Just like Unlimited Mode in BlazBlue.

Will such things ever come back... ?  I have my doubts...

Perhaps I am like Bedman, desiring an “Absolute World” that should not exist.

[gear-project]

Anonymous asks: While Sol’s Gear form is of draconian appearance, is Justice reptilian/saurian under the armor?

---

I decided to take a different approach in answering this question, because it’s really about the visual evolution of how Gears have been designed over the years (or at least, based on Ishiwatari’s concepts of them.)

Above is a comparison of how Justice looked in her original "giant form" as well as the earliest concepts of her profile in her armored form.  (Note that she was designed to be wearing OutRage armor at the outset, and went through several design revisions as the years went by.)

In the upper right corner is a profile comparison of Valentine in her Gear form, if you can't see where her "mouth" is, picture her lower lip as the white section, while her upper lip is black.

And, of course, Guilty Gear 2 Overture's profile designs of Sol Badguy in Dragon Install form (his design in Xrd Sign and Xrd Revelator is slightly more homogenous and obscured so that he animates easier during cutscenes and in-battle).

And while he's not pictured, Dr. Paradigm has a slightly different jawline design as well.

The most SIGNIFICANT thing to note here is that both Justice and Sol Badguy (and Valentine) are based on Human subjects.

While Justice has long rows of teeth, her teeth are much more humanoid than Sol's crooked mutated teeth in his design... and yet despite this, Sol's "tooth count" is more natural by comparison (i.e. humans only have so many teeth in their heads).  It might reflect the fact Justice was manufactured artificially versus Sol's experimental treatment.

Sol is the Prototype Gear, so it should be worth pointing out that all Gears (including Justice, Dizzy, the Valentines, etc) are all based on his specs and appearance.

You could say that higher spec Gears have the ability to transform and adjust their appearance (like Dizzy, Sol, etc).  So really, this appearance is relative to their psychological state or mentality at the time they take this form.

Justice was "unconscious" when the Conclave were controlling her in this giant form, so in that respect this is probably her most natural form to take.  A "relaxed" form.

Compared with Dizzy, her relaxed form is more human despite having a tail and wings.

Compared with Sol, when he takes off his Headguard, he doesn't actually take on the full Dragon appearance unless he's using his powers to full effect (or the Flame of Corruption is active), so his appearance is closer to how he looked in GG1 (long hair, claws on his hands, fangs for teeth).  It also relates to Sol's "internal phobia" of becoming a Monster Gear.  (Sol transforms relative to his idea of what his Gear form looks like, so it reflects his fears.)

Of course, Valentine was "very human" when we first encountered her, so becoming a Gear was probably very unnatural for her when she combatted Sol and the others later on.  I can't speak for others like Ramlethal, Elphelt, or Happy Chaos... but we do know that Sol stated that Jack-O' was more than likely stronger than the original Valentine despite being "human" for the most part.

So that begs the question, just how powerful is Aria in her current state right now?  She might even be stronger than Dizzy for all we know!  And Happy Chaos Valentine is still a huge mystery as well!

Hopefully Guilty Gear StrIVe will give us some answers soon!

[gear-project]

One more question comes to mind: Where do you believe Gig falls on the threat/power scale? Dizzy considers Gig from the same cloth, and is either confirmed or assumed to be an ancient gear, but like Leopaldon, information is scarce. In Leopaldon's case, there are weaker gears in Overture that look vaguely similar. Gig is unique, more or less an ancient gear, but a failed experiment. So to rephrase: what do those two things amount to? (He's obviously enough of a threat to be an end boss.)

For the record, while it's bad enough we know very little about Gig... it's assumed Gig is a "she" based on her female form that had been in development (with the upper portion being some kind of insectoid epidermis).

While Dust Strikers makes a huge attempt at connecting Gig with Gears like Dizzy and Testament, not to mention "That Man", it falls short in giving any concrete information that's supported by the rest of Guilty Gear's storyline (which was a problem Guilty Gear Judgement also suffered from, to say nothing of mistranslations).

Based on what Vampire D's Diary tells us... the very first Gears were failures at the outset and were produced around the year 2060... keep in mind that the Gear Project itself had been reactivated in 2040, so America as a country had been trying to create Gears for 20 years by that point but all attempts to reproduce Asuka's work had ended in failure until he himself got involved.

That is, more or less, what we know about "Ancient Gears"... but they do not account for the Prototype Gear (Sol Badguy) or even Justice who was built "after" them, despite being called the "First Sentient Gear".  (In other words, the very term "Ancient Gear" is something of a misnomer, since only a handful of Large Class Gears still existed in a sealed state after the Crusades ended, the rest of the Gears were dismantled or simply went missing like Dr. Paradigm.  Baptisma 13 implies that 13 of those Gears were accounted for and disappeared as of 2186 due to Valentine's Sublimation.)

Since neither Gig nor Leopaldon (nor Dizzy) were discovered until around the year 2181... that's nearly 121 years unaccounted for.

Testament seems to be the closest connection to Gig in particular, mainly because of his deep connection and history with the Postwar Administration Bureau (the Conclave/Senato) who had been trying to manufacture Gears for their own personal use for many many years but had failed at doing so.

Roughly around the year 2120 is when we first begin hearing about Testament's history with the Conclave... so the "Ancient Military Complex" that Eddie refers to in GG1 could very well be the selfsame place Gig and Leopaldon were born from.

As for the GG2 connection... Vizuel servants are NOT Gears... even if they are derived from a Valentine's "evil intent" as Servants, so they have no connection with Leopaldon and only share a design similarity at best.

In summary, even if Gig is considered an "Ancient Gear", she can't be that old given Testament's involved history with the Conclave (as that would imply 40 years is considered 'ancient')... since I do not think Asuka R. Kreutz was the one responsible for Gig's Gear Conversion (a Gear losing its sanity is a sign of a failed conversion, as with Sheevus in Lightning the Argent).

Nearly all Gears Asuka has been involved with have been successful Gear conversions... the only notable failure in his case was Justice herself... and only because the Universal Will intervened during an experiment in the Backyard.

Even in the case of Leopaldon there's really no precident, nor do I think Asuka would do such an experiment with Gear Syncronous Consciousness... as it would be inhumane from his perspective as it is.

In other words, much of what is attributed as "That Man's Handiwork", is actually the work of the Conclave themselves or Ariels.

As for "how powerful" Gig actually could have been/was... she was a failure and was destroyed, so that discussion makes it a moot question... but had she successfully transformed, it's possible she could have been on par with Dizzy... but that's pure speculation after the fact.