El Hazard bit torrent (or the like?)

[stanky105]

Hey, I was wondering if anybody knows any trustworthy bit torrents or other file sharing things where I can get El Hazard? I just found out about the series the other day and it looks sweet but unfortunatly nothing is showing up on kaaza.

And for you anti-pirate people, trust me, IF I had the money I would go and buy it.... but us poor college students can barely afford our meal plans much less 100 bucks for episodes.  

Thanks for any help.

[Captain Southbird (EHOL Creator)]

You know, even though as a representative here I'm supposed to just say "BUY IT OR DIE" or something, I really also can say in my blind curiosity I HAVE checked for torrents, WinMX, and KaZaA downloads, and really very few people seem to distrubute El-Hazard.  Or, if they are, it's like a couple Alternative World episodes or something.

The alternative if you have a -little bit- of money is to see if anyone left is selling the "Ultimate Collection" or whatever they call it; it's an HK ripoff, and basically paying for piracy as opposed to getting it for free, but it's cheap at least.  (Depending who sells it, it can be as low as $30 or so for ALL episodes of ALL series.)

But I'll leave it to someone else to tell me if there's any popular source...

[Wayne]

I've never searched for El Hazard online, and I've certainly never used Direct Connect to find any episodes. I've never checked the no-limit anime hubs to find cooperative users, and I've certainly never downloaded any of the DVD rips I of course didn't find.

:]

(BitTorrent is good for more popular material, but for obscure stuff-- like most of El Hazard, heh-- you need to find more specialized sources. Rob's site right here is good for the mp3s once you're a contributer (although I just downloaded the ones I wanted with DC++, since I have nothing worth contributing, heh), and there might be some private sites hosting AVI files... I wouldn't count on it, though. But the Direct Connect hubs have all sorts of anime fans, and I've downloaded all of El Hazard over the course of about two weeks from various users (I deleted most of Alternative World shortly thereafter, heh, but that's a different story). It's not quite as user-friendly as Kazaa Lite or BT, but it's perfectly safe, and great once you frequent some of the hubs.)

[Captain Southbird (EHOL Creator)]

Eventually contributing will be exchangable for testing out on some EH facts.  Eventually.  Really the only reason for it is to keep down on leechers.

[stanky105]

Well, I downloaded direct connection but holy cow, it may take a bit to know what I am doing with that. I *think* I tried joining some hubs correctly, but then I got booted with the message I needed to share a gig!! of stuff before I could do anything. Not sure how to share my stuff either... but maybe I can figure that out. Their FAQ isn't the most explanitory of things however. Heh, with my luck I will accidentally offer my whole hard drive onto a network or something.  

I'll mess with it though, I really want to watch this series.

[Spanner]

Well, I downloaded direct connection but holy cow, it may take a bit to know what I am doing with that. I *think* I tried joining some hubs correctly, but then I got booted with the message I needed to share a gig!! of stuff before I could do anything. Not sure how to share my stuff either... but maybe I can figure that out. Their FAQ isn't the most explanitory of things however. Heh, with my luck I will accidentally offer my whole hard drive onto a network or something.  

I'll mess with it though, I really want to watch this series.

If you do enjoy it, do seriously consider plunking down some of your thin supply of cash to get the real deal. The best way to tell a company "I want more!" is to make sure they're getting their cut!

Media pirates hurt the consumers almost as much as they hurt the original producers, in the long run.

[stanky105]

Spanner, thats the goal. Unfortunatly I won't have any spare money until into the summer. But I do understand what you are saying.

Look at it this way: No matter what I am unable to buy the vids as of now. So this leaves me with the choice of getting a pirated copy, or not getting anything. In this choice getting the pirated copy is actually more beneficial to the company than me not doing anything, as now I can at least advetise the thing and put in my 2 cents. So ya gotta pick the less of the two evils until you can actually buy it, or thats how I see the logic anyways.  

[Wayne]

Rob-- I see; that makes sense. MP3s aren't exactly as bandwidth-straining as video, but a few megabytes a download every time... nah, when I hear a track I like I'll just get it elsewhere; it'd just be neat to listen to something first to make sure it's the song I'm looking for (for example I liked the jazzy ending theme for the second OAV series, but had no idea what it was called... so I had to Google for awhile to get a tracklist, then figure out which one it was, then wait for a user with it to come online...).

Stanky-- DC++ is pretty intimidating for the new, yeah. *chuckles* What kind of connection do you have? You need to make sure you plug your IP number into the active setting (passive users can't join some hubs and can't download as much in the hubs they can join). Also, most hubs have a fileshare limit... for the smaller hubs it's pretty low (0-50MB or so and up to one gig), and you can usually meet that by sharing a few anime episodes and some MP3s. The more popular hubs require more (I share around 20GB, although that'll be closer to 30 if I decide to transfer all of the Wanderers back to my computer from my brother's laptop).

If push comes to shove, on the weekends I could probably share stuff with you; my ADSL uploads around 20kps as long as you have broadband also (comes out to a few hours an episode, but it beats nothing, heh). If you can't find any hubs at your limit (and it'll say what the limit is in their description from the public hub directory)-- or you do but they don't have anyone with El Hazard -- PM me and I'll try to arrange something. As said I don't have The Alternative World (and it would probably take a hefty bribe to get me to download more of it to taint my hard drive with ), but I have TMW, OAV2, and the Wanderers.

And Rob, thanks for allowing the discussion. *chuckles* I'm not crazy on piracy myself, actually-- and I will be buying myself the OAV boxed set for my birthday in a few months-- but for anime (as well as many software packages) it's the only affordable alternative to outrageous price-gouging (for example I sympathize with the Adobe "your piracy keeps me from feeding my kids with my $60K a year salary" folks, but I'm still not paying a grand for their desktop publishing package!).

[Kathy Guinea]

 (for example I sympathize with the Adobe "your piracy keeps me from feeding my kids with my $60K a year salary" folks, but I'm still not paying a grand for their desktop publishing package!).

... $60K a year salary?! Oo;;;

Hey Bob, wouldn't dad love to hear that quote? :p

Not condoning piracy, but, a $60K salary is not starving either :p You could cut that back by about $20K and still make ends meet (just barely) for a family of 6... but you won't be able to afford that new car. 9_9

Though I ASSUME they mean I won't get my 60K if you don't buy the product, but as stated, Adobe products are hideoulsy over priced. I'd buy Adobe products too if they were a tenth of the price. 9_9

[theravenisdead]

I just bought all The Wanderers volumes on VHS for 50 bucks Canadian. I wanna get TMW box set but I dont have the cash handy. At the moment I own OAV2 and the Wanderers on VHS, and have a few AW episodes in DivX downloaded.

[Captain Southbird (EHOL Creator)]

Mm.  Really, El-Hazard is becoming less and less a major seller, I think.  I.E.  The guilt factor for distributing it is going down.  Hell, I might even concider keeping a torrent alive or something one day.    (But you only get English dubs for me because I still advertise them specifically for their quality.   )

[stanky105]

Mm.  Really, El-Hazard is becoming less and less a major seller, I think. )

It was a major seller at one point? I never really knew about it at all until I finally finished up all of the majors (neon genesis, bebop, etc) and I  specifically started searching for smaller ones. Cool if it was, just curious is all.

PS: Wayne I sent you a message.

[Captain Southbird (EHOL Creator)]

... well, no, it was never a top seller.  But it at least did peak an internet fame somewhere between 1997 and 2000.  Tons of fansites (mostly on Geocities and Tripod, of course), mailing lists, forums, and stuff. Then it all of the sudden died for some reason.

[Wayne]

... $60K a year salary?! Oo;;;  

Hey Bob, wouldn't dad love to hear that quote? :p

Heh heh, yeah, I was being sarcastic myself. I don't know exactly how much Adobe programmers get paid (not being one ) but the typical Silicon Valley wage is around $60K-- and yeah, that's a lot more than one needs to make ends meet (even in California!). You might've missed it, but there was actually some advertising years back (might still be, but I haven't seen any for awhile) about programmers talking about how software piracy from private users threatens their livelihood-- which is an out-and-out lie, especially for Adobe (some 75%+ of their sales are to businesses and schools and the like).

As for El Hazard... I didn't even know about it until on a lark a friend sent me the AMV of Fujisawa to "I Get Knocked Down," and it was funny enough I wanted to see more... and did. *chuckles* It's now one of my favorite series, and so far the only thing I've missed has been the stuff I can't find (or can't read, heh, like the Japanese books)-- the radio stuff and the manga (I found the first volume on DC, but that's been it). I don't think it was ever commercially popular-- it did well enough, of course, and that's enough for Pioneer to write a sequel with, heh-- and once people realized there was going to be no additional El Hazard (and the general decline in quality anyway) what fervor there was died down. It happens a lot as anime age... for example I remember the boom years of Dragonball Z when there were thousands of active sites dedicated to it (there's still a bunch, but the craze is nothing like it was).

Stanky-- Acknowledged and replied to.

[Saucer]

but the typical Silicon Valley wage is around $60K-- and yeah, that's a lot more than one needs to make ends meet (even in California!). [/font]

Oh Wayne, Wayne my friend....... $60K in Silicon Valley (or anywhere in the Greater Bay Area for that matter) will get you shit and shinola. I get by easily on less than half of that figure. I also live in an apartment and don't have 3 kids and a wife to support. But tack them on, plus a house payment and you're talkin' 'ey, mon! Ten job, mon! Twelve job, mon! I love the Bay Area, but gawd damn it's expenisve.

But yeah, getting back to stealing shit....... Direct Connect is a goldmine. I've spent weeks camping on hubs and downloading complete anime OSTs and such. Some of the hubs have astronomically high share limits though. If you're finding this to be an issue, just drag every MP3 and anime AVI you have into your shared folders.

I swear I've seen Wanderers on Bit Torrent before. You just have to keep your eyes out for it. A daily check on http://anime.mircx.com should net you some results eventually. Bit Torrent is like fishing, patience pays off!