X-Bomber the Game

I had some work that ran aground a long time ago, cleaning up and improving some of the old sketches that went into production of the game.
I got that stuff finished on Friday night/Saturday.
Sometimes it's good to come back to something and attack it with a fresh perspective.

The following have been added:
	Alliance Minelayer
	Legtrax
	New Chicago City 1
	Simetra - Infinity Class Prototype
	Simetra - S60 Stinger

I notice that that there are some sketches that I added the 'X Project' sketchbook (which is a black Daler A3 sketchbook, into which, all X-Bomber sketches are pasted), that don't seem to have ever scanned.
When I get proper access to my office again, I will scan them out of there and add them to the site.
The ones I have in mind are a bigger illustration of the S60 Stinger Simetran fighter and an earlier illustration of the Alliance command carrier.  

I'm tidying up the website's filesystem and moving some content from the news database into the main site content, to make the site more of a browsable collection and less like a blog.

It's Star Fleet and it's Friday!
Brad has finished work on Legtrax...
I chose this graphic for the front page because I really like the angle and the appearance of the engines.
You can find many more images on the SFXB forum and in the Star Fleet fan work area:
	Yet another X-Bomber 3d build
	Brad Smith - New Work


In other news, I downloaded and checked a full backup of the site, which is something that I should do more often.
The footprint of the site is about 24GB.

I've been working on chapters 8 and 9 of my Rain Song story that accompanies the game.
Also, I've been working on the sprites and damage effects for the battlecruiser in level 15 of the game.

I also contacted a number of translation companies for a quote to translate our scans of the Japanese manga, so that I could understand the story a bit better.
Machine translation of Japanese can be very hit-and-miss.
No-one's come back to me yet, so if you know of someone who might be able to help us, let me know.

I wanted to make sure that an image of Matsukami's remarkable new model of The Skull space sailing ship made it to the site's front page.
Check out the original forum thread here.

Over the Christmas break, I've found some time to get back to working on X-Bomber the Game.
The ground defences on the exterior of the planetoid fortress are completed and I've managed to make a few further tweaks.

I have also resumed work on my Rain Song Star Fleet fan story that ties in with the game.
Chapter 8 is starting to come together quite well.

At the same time, I have simplified the game content on the website and made it accessible under a single main menu option, rather than switching back-and-forth between "about" and "media".

Matsukami has finished an amazing model of the Skull.  Check it out on the SFXB Forum.

Stingray: The Complete Series [Blu-ray] | Super-Deluxe and Deluxe Editions Trailer

The 6th (April 1981) TV-Kun manga came up for auction.

This issue lacks the concluding part of the manga that I was hoping for, but click through to find out what info it does have on Star Fleet.

I have finished scanning the relevant pages from the January 1981 TV-Kun, which arrived last week.
This is another good instalment, as they all have been so far.

There is one instalment, that I haven't been able to find yet, which is the last of the six issues with Star Fleet features.
A few 1981 issues have surfaced just now, but not the April one.
I will keep looking and, when it shows up, I will make sure that it doesn't escape.

I did see one guy the other week on twitter in Japan, who had bought one of these TV-Kun issues.  Infact, it might've been this one.  He mentioned that it would be a great idea for someone to collect all six of them, which is a stunning idea.
It would be easier to do if they stopped buying them, just so they can photograph a single page on their phone and put it on twitter.

As I touched on in the update from yesterday, Matsukami has printed himself an astrofighter carrier (and astrofighter to go with it), based on Brad Smith's 3D models, from a few years ago.
Hop onto the forum for more info:
	Re: Yet another X-Bomber 3d build
I especially like the weathering on the astrofighter's engine parts.

The relevant 3D models can be downloaded, for free, here:
	Astrofighter | Carrier

I found this interesting image a while ago, from twitter user; Sayabu.
It looks to be some of the original Go Nagai drawings and storyboards for X Bomber.  I like the illustration of the laser pistol in the upper-right corner.
According to the uploader, these had been sitting in his attic for some years.

Matsukami has added some great images of his 3D printed astrofighter carrier (and astrofighter) to the forum:
	 Re: Yet another X-Bomber 3d build 
I will do a separate, fuller front page summary on it, soon.

I added some new, really nice fan artworks from Japanese twitter users; uei4989p and Nopple_1000 to the fan artwork gallery:
	Fan Artworks

In other news, the third instalment of the TV-Kun manga is about to get shipped from the buyee.com warehouse.
It'll be going over FedEx, so it should be here before very long.

I also had some spare funds this month, so I ordered the Blu-rays of a sci-fi anime called Yukikaze; which, from what I've seen, is a tiny bit like UFO; only Japanese.  It has really impressive and realistic air combat scenes with futuristic aircraft.
I'll give the whole series a watch and see about putting up some screenshots from the Blu-rays.

While we're waiting for this new issue of TV-Kun to arrive at buyee.com's depot, I wanna say thanks to the Star Fleet X-Bomber group on facebook...

I thought I would check on them the other day and, despite the fact that the website has had not many updates over the last few months, they must have been checking back on us often and had info from the site shared there that'd only been up a couple of days.

I'm really happy that people are sharing info from the site and carrying it further than the site can reach by itself.

I would've gone on and given them some encouragement but Facebook is awful and I'm not registering another account.
Anyone heading that way though, let them know I'm wishing them all the best.
	Star Fleet X-Bomber | Facebook


At the same time, I was looking on twitter and Japanese users were posting content from the site on there.
Ironic that the Japanese users are posting content from a UK site about the Japanese show. The circle is complete.

Anyway, all the best for now, everyone.  If you want anything adding to the site or you're having difficulty finding something, let me know on the email or the forum, and I'll see what I can do.

Please don't hesitate to get in touch. I'll be glad to hear from you and I'll reply as quickly as I can.

Email me at:
... or contact me via the SFXB Forum contact page.

Profiles: SFXB Forum