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My Boxed Nintendo NES Collection

September 1, 2010

Here is my boxed Nintendo NES collection. I recently found a ton of boxed Nintendo items at my local flea market so instead of mentioning them in my recent pickups I decided to just do my first collection video. Let me know if you like the collection videos or not.

Games N At Arcade

August 30, 2010

Went out for a night at the arcade! There are hardly any arcades still open that I know of other than Dave & Busters, but this place is always a good time. They don’t have a huge selection, but the games they have are pretty fun and a great way to start off the night.

You pay $5 for the first hour and then $3 for each hour after and you can play the games as much as you want for free.  They’ve got some classics like Donkey Kong, Pac-Man, Asteroids, Pinball machines, Air Hockey, Skee-ball, pool tables and plenty more.

The other nice thing about Games N At is that it is a BYOB place which means Bring Your Own Beer.  It’s a great way to prepare for a night of fun out in the city of Pittsburgh and one of the only decent arcades still around in the city.

Beat Hazard Review – Xbox Live Arcade

August 26, 2010

Beat Hazard was developed by Cold Beam Games for the Xbox Live Arcade and costs 400 Microsoft points.  It is listed under the Indie games section on Xbox Live. If you’ve ever enjoyed the arcade classic Asteroids, you’ll know exactly what this game is all about. As you destroy enemy ships, they will drop power-ups allowing you to rack up more points.

As you play, you’ll notice how bright and vibrant the entire game is. As you obtain more and more power ups, the game become brighter, more exciting, and more challenging. Your gun will become more powerful and the music louder, but the bright visuals also become a distraction causing a unique challenge to the game. The game was well balanced and felt very natural to play.

“Game play powered by YOUR music!” is the motto of this game. Beat Hazard truly does create game play to YOUR music. The game comes with 10 different techno music tracks which I really enjoyed, but the real fun in the game comes from the fact that you can play any song that you want. By adding your own collection of music to either your Xbox hard drive or streaming from your PC, you can play any song you choose.

You don’t need me to explain why this game is so addictive and enjoyable with the footage just above, so I’ll just tell you that it is THE best $5 you can spend on Xbox Live. Beat Hazard should easily be a $10-15 game, maybe more. The fact that you can play any song you can possibly think of is reason enough to get hours of enjoyment from it. Also, they have some challenges to complete which really add some difficulty to the game and if you’re daring, you can try out insane mode.

Overall, I cannot believe this game only cost $5, but I can almost guarantee that everyone will have fun with it and I strongly encourage you all to pick this one up.

Trip to the Flea Market

August 17, 2010

I took a road trip today to check out a huge flea market. Decided to take some footage so you could see what the place is like. A lot of the games were over priced, but I did manage to find a few deals. Enjoy the footage.

Mr. Backup Z64 Review

July 6, 2010

The Z64 was manufactured in Taiwan and was distributed in the US by Harrison Electronics. The system is based around an i386 compatible computer; the Z64 BIOS is actually an image of a FAT filesystem, and it boots an MS-DOS clone internally. This model cost $299.00.

The Z64 is extremely easy to use. It has an LCD display that you can use to load a game before the N64 is powered on, or to load a boot emulator or back up the cart in the slot. In addition, if you turn the N64 on before loading a game, the Z64 has a nice BIOS menu that runs as a N64 program, like the CD64 BIOS. In this case, you have a small advantage over the CD64, since you are not forced to operate with a 6102 boot cart only; you can choose whether to use the BIOS or operate the LCD menu depending on what you want to do.

In the Z64 menu, you can set up options for each individual game, such as what boot chip it uses, slowdown function, tell it to redirect controller pack saves to the zip disk (for transfer to PC or copy to friends), or to PAL-fix it.

Features:

• Independently operating without connecting to computers or any peripherals
• Simple installation, plug and play with only a few buttons
• Capable of automatically detecting a defective game cartridge
• Capable of backing up game cartridge data into Zip Disk
• Capable of playing games from the cartridge
• Capable of playing game files stored on the Zip Disk
• Capable of storing the game record (Eeprom + Sram)
• Capable of clearing data files stored in the diskette
• With built-in 256Mbit memory ( 32MB DRAM)
• With built-in ZIP-100 disk drive
• Store average 6-12 files in one ZIP-100 diskette
• Average 16-64 seconds to backup each cartridge depending on game size
• Function could upgrade for future version
• Flash BIOS for convenient upgrade from Zip Disk

Cave Story Review – Nintendo Wii

July 1, 2010

Watch my video review here

Cave Story (Dokotsu Monogatari) is a game designed and created by Daisuke Amaya (Art-name Pixel). Pixel spent over five years creating this game by himself. He designed the game, produced the art work and character designs, and even wrote the games 8-bit style soundtrack on his own. I find it truly remarkable that a game of this quality can come from just a single man, but somehow, it has. Not only did Pixel create the game on his own, but he released it as a freeware game for the PC in 2004. That’s right, he spent over 5 years creating a spectacular game and he allowed the world to play it completely free of charge. Just the idea of that is reason enough for you to give this game a try and I would strongly encourage you to pay the 1200 Wii points to download the Wiiware version released for the Nintendo Wii’s Virtual Console in 2010. I have just completed the game and I would like to review it in hopes of getting you to play it yourself. So on with the review.

Cave Story takes on an 8-bit style reminiscent of the NES era. If you were alive when the Nintendo Entertainment System was released, you’ll know this style well. I personally love it. The character sprites are simple and cute. The background art is colorful and creative. The music is wonderful 8-bit goodness which fits the style perfectly. The controls are simple and work incredibly well. The story is compelling. What more could you want from a 12 dollar game? And that’s assuming you purchase the Wii version. Otherwise, you get all of this for FREE. Anyways, let’s take a further look into each of these elements.

The characters in Cave Story are fairly simple but have enough backstory to build a decent connection throughout the game. Your main character is named Quote. As you begin your journey, you’ll meet rabbit-like creatures called Mimiga who need your help. From there, you’ll run into plenty of colorful creatures both friend and foe. I was quite surprised that the story was interesting in Cave Story. I was expecting a typical 8-bit game with nearly no plot and was pleasantly surprised when I ran into plot twists, choices to make, and even alternate endings. While the story and character development is no role playing game, it was quite fulfilling and Pixel did a nice job writing it.

The artwork in Cave Story was very unique. Granted, it was similar to older 8-bit NES graphics, but they were upgraded just enough to really add a new feel to the game. As you travel through the side-scrolling world, the background art looks wonderful. In a lot of areas it is just simple still background art, but in others it is a colorful, vibrant background moving at different speeds giving you a great feeling as your blast your enemies out of the way. Speaking of blasting your enemies out of the way, the bosses of this game are amazing. The amount of action and intensity built into each boss was invigorating. Once you start fighting a boss, you’re on the edge of your seat struggling to stay alive while colorful explosions and bullets are flying all around you. It’s truly a rare experience and I suggest you experience these bosses for yourself. Another great element of the graphics are the weapons. The weapons look excellent. It’s hard to explain in words, but as you shoot your enemies, the bullets and explosions look remarkable. They explode in many different shapes and colors that create very exciting visuals.

As you collect weapons throughout the game, they will start at level 1. As you kill enemies, they will drop small golden triangles that you can collect to fill up your weapons. Once your weapon reaches a full bar, it will upgrade to level 2 and can also be upgraded to a maximum level of 3. This means your weapon is more powerful, has a different range, and sometimes even special abilities. Also, as you take damage from enemies, you not only lose life but your weapon will also lose its levels. So if you are fighting and you take a lot of damage, your weapon will drop from level 3 to level 1 losing its effectiveness. I cannot recall seeing a weapon leveling system similar to this in any game I’ve played in the past, but I really enjoyed it. As you fight more difficult enemies and bosses, you have to strategically choose which weapon to use as well as being aware of their levels. Certain weapons are effective on particular bosses, but once they drop from level 3 to level 2, they may lose that effectiveness. It may sound a little complicated, but once you try it for yourself I am certain you will enjoy it.

Cave Story also offers plenty to do once you’ve completed the game. You get new areas to explore, new modes to play, and a few other new options. Another excellent feature they added to the game is that you are given the option of whether you want to play with the original PC graphics and music or the new Wiiware versions. You can mix and match, using the old PC music with the new Wiiware graphics and vice versa. I thought this was a great idea and allows you to see the game in its original form or its upgraded form. There are a few musical glitches in the Wiiware version, but overall it is very well done and most will prefer the new graphics and audio. My one complaint about the game is that the triangle shards that the enemies drop make a piercing sound when they bounce on the ground. I was playing with my stereo turned up and I could not take this sound. I had to turn the volume on my stereo down or you could choose to lower the sound effects setting from the options menu.

Overall, Cave Story is one of my favorite downloadable games and by far the best freeware PC game I have ever seen. I highly recommend that everyone play this game and I suggest paying the 12 dollars to get it on the Wii’s virtual console. I feel like I easily got a $30-40 value from this purchase and if I had taken the option of downloading the free PC version I would have felt the need to donate some money to this man. It is remarkable to see that one man’s creativity, skill, and passion can create such an excellent game.

Club Nintendo Platinum Reward Revealed

July 1, 2010

I have been buying Nintendo products since I was 5 years old (well, my parents back then) and still am to this day. I absolutely loved Super Mario Galaxy 2 and have just recently started buying a lot more Nintendo DS games. What I wonder is why I have never registered my purchases for Club Nintendo. If you visit the Nintendo website, you can choose to visit “Club Nintendo”. This is a place where you are able to register your Nintendo purchases and provide Nintendo with feedback on these products by completing surveys. It hardly takes any time and they will reward you for this feedback with Club Nintendo Coins. After you obtain a certain number of coins, you are able to choose from many rewards such as calendars, book stands, Nintendo DS Stylus holders, posters, and much more.

I just decided to register all of my purchases this year (about a month ago) and was able to reach 600 Club Nintendo Coins exactly. This was the amount required to become a platinum Club Nintendo member and qualified me for a special FREE item from Nintendo. The item was just announced today and I am pretty happy with it. It’s no Super Mario Galaxy soundtrack, but I will really enjoy it. The reward is a Super Mario Characters Figurine. It has all the main characters from the Mario series. It measures 3.9 inches in height and 4.6 inches in diameter and comes enclosed in decorative packaging. I’m really glad that I decided to begin registering my Nintendo products because otherwise I would have missed out on this gift from Nintendo.

I’d also like to say thank you to Storm for providing me with 2 game codes to put me at the 600 coin mark. I was at 520 coins and she was generous enough to provide me with her game codes to put me right at the limit for Platinum. So thanks a ton Storm! I really appreciate it. Visit her youtube channel here.

Dinky Dana Gets World Record

May 3rd, 2010

Two weeks ago I was watching Youtube videos and I ran into Jugghead82’s video for a Contra Challenge. Contra is often regarded as one of the hardest games of all time to complete without using the famous Konami Code. IGN even placed it as #1 most difficult, which is horrible because we all know Battletoads is the hardest game of all time. The challenge was to record yourself playing Contra to show how far you could get in the game without using any continues. I decided to give it a try and I was able to complete the entire game without using any continues fairly easily. I actually made it to level 7 before I died for the first time so I got irritated and knew I could complete the entire game in just a single life. I decided to give this a try and within 2 hours I had done it! Both of those videos are now up to watch on my youtube channel if you are interested in watching them. http://www.youtube.com/Dlnkydana

For some reason, doing both of these challenges wasn’t difficult for me at all. I obviously played Contra too much as a child along with many other NES games that have become ingrained into my brain. I then remembered the website www.twingalaxies.com which is the main scorekeeping website for video game world records. I looked up Contra and found that the world’s fastest completion time is only 10 minutes and 51 seconds. It would take some serious time and dedication to rival this record, but there was another record for the points category which I figured would be a simple challenge. You are obviously unable to use codes or continues, and need to reach the score of 6,553,500 points (which is the highest score obtainable). Each time you complete the game you get to watch the credits and once the credits complete it starts you back on level 1 with your score and life total intact. So in order to reach this maximum score, you need to complete the game 9 times!

I figured this challenge wouldn’t be all that difficult because after I completed the game once with no deaths I had accumulated 11 lives which I would be able to use for the second play through. My life total would just continue to grow each time I completed the game and that would be it. So I sat down and began playing. I played through the first completion with ease and died twice. Now I had 9 lives to complete the second completion. I also did this with ease. So this continued until I hit the fourth play through when I realized there were way more enemies on the screen than on the first play through. I began to pay more attention and came to the conclusion that each time you complete the game you run into more and more enemies on each level! (excluding base levels)

At this point, I had accumulated around 25 lives and was still going strong. I continued to play and on the sixth play through I saw my life total begin to drop. I was still only dying 2-5 times per play through but my total continued to decrease. I soon realized that after the fourth completion you no longer got extra lives every 25,000 points! This was a huge problem. I was playing pretty recklessly because I had assumed I’d continue to get extra lives as my point total grew. I soon ran out of lives and was actually relieved that this challenge wasn’t quite as simple as I had expected. It is for a world record and all!

I took a small break and took a look at the notes my friend was keeping for me as I wrote him online during my first attempt. I saw where I had begun dying more, when the extra lives stopped, how many points I got per play through, etc. I realized that since I stopped gaining extra lives after my fourth play through, I had to accumulate as many as I could before the fifth.

After a short break, I decided to give it another shot. Each time I completed the game it took me approximately 15 minutes. The first attempt took around an hour and a half of constant game play. I knew that if I was going to complete this challenge it would take me 9 completions and over 2 hours of straight game play! I ran through the game a few times and easily made it to the fifth play through with 32 lives accumulated. This meant I could die approximately 6 times per play through. This seemed feasible, but I had never seen the difficulty after the sixth play through.

I held up pretty well until the eighth play through. I was making my way through level 6 when I got shot jumping over a pit. The bullet hit me and the screen stopped moving forward as I fell into this pit. I then spawned in 3-4 times and had to inch the screen forward so that I could finally not insta-death fall into the pit. I got pretty nervous that I would be stuck here and lose all my lives but I finally passed it. (Thank goodness!)

So I continued my way through the eighth play through and began on the ninth. As I played through the first level this time, I had never seen the Nintendo Entertainment System struggle so much with a game. The screen was lagging for nearly 50% of the stage and there were 20+ enemies on the screen most of the time. Comparing this final play through difficulty to the first play through was immensely more challenging. If you thought Contra was hard before, just wait until you play through for the ninth time! I’ll show the comparison between the first levels in the video at the top of this page. While the game was incredibly difficult now, the basic patterns and enemy layout was the same. I was a bit nervous at this point because I didn’t want to get stuck in another insta-spawn trap like I had on the eighth play through. I finally made it to the last stage on the ninth play through and was inching my way forward to make sure I didn’t run into any stupid deaths. I managed to take out the level without dying at all and had completed the game for the ninth time in a row! I watched the credits and hoped that my calculations were correct and I’d have the world record score. After the long minute or so the credits ran, I saw that my score had totaled 6,553,500! I had done it…and with 18 lives remaining! I reached the world record points total and had recorded it all properly on a VHS tape using the only VCR we still had in our household.

All that was left was to fill out the form on www.TwinGalaxies.com, print it out, and send it in with my VHS recording. I sent that in about a week ago and was recorded as a world record holder within a few days. I emailed Walter Day to see if he could send me two certificates: one with my real name and also one with Dinky Dana. He was incredibly friendly and said he would be honored to send me both, the Dinky Dana one being a personal gift. I really appreciated this since I use the name Dinky Dana for most all of my game related identification.

So that is the story of how I obtained a world record for Contra. I honestly was quite surprised that I only had to sink about 6 hours of effort into this challenge (or lack of). My next goal is to obtain this same point total following tournament settings which only allows 5 deaths total! This one will be more of a challenge and will probably not be attempted for quite a while. Now that I know the world records are out there, I am positive I will be able to obtain more and hope to complete some more of these challenges in the future.

Professor Layton and the Curious Village Review

April 29, 2010

I have just recently started to really play my Nintendo DS and when I asked around for recommendations, the Professor Layton series was always at the top of the list.  Professor Layton and the Curious Village was released in the US February 10, 2008.  It was published and developed by Level-5 in Japan and Nintendo in the US.

The game begins with Professor Layton and his assistant Luke getting summoned to the city of St. Mystere in order to help solve the town’s mystery involving a golden apple.  It is rumored that the one who solves this mystery will obtain the fortune left behind by the late Baron Augustus Reinhold.  Many people have tried and failed.

As you explore the village of St. Mystere, you soon find that everyone in the village is quite fond of puzzles and brain teasers.  You travel around the village searching for clues in order to solve the mystery of the golden apple but also other cases including finding a lost kitten, investigating missing villagers, and even a murder mystery.   So as you travel through the village, you question villagers who typically will not answer your questions until you solve a puzzle or brain teaser they have come up with.  Once you complete their test, they will provide you with clues and information about the village and its mysteries.

Gameplay follows a point and click style to explore the village and question villagers.  As you travel through the different sections of the village you are able to click on doors you’d like to enter, people you’d like to interact with, and also to find clues scattered about the village.  This style fit the game well and I really enjoyed it.  It is a simple and fun way to get around and it eliminates the chore of searching every nook and cranny that you often find in puzzle games.

As for the puzzles themselves, I found them to be quite enjoyable.  Since the puzzles are the main portion of this game, you will be spending about 70% of the time solving puzzles and the other 30% of the time exploring to progress the story.  This was both a good and bad thing.  I am the type of person who will not progress through the game until I solve every puzzle I come across and I don’t like using hints.  So if a puzzle stumped me I would stick with it until I solved it and then move on.  You are able to find “hint coins” all throughout the village which you can use to get up to three hints per puzzle which will help if you get stuck.  You are also able to skip puzzles that you are stuck on without any penalty so long as you don’t skip too many, but I just couldn’t get myself to leave a puzzle unsolved.  This caused me to run into sections where I would find a lot of hidden puzzles and by the time I completed them all I just wanted to get on with the story only to run into more puzzles.  While I found the puzzles to be rather simple, there were a few that I had to put quite a bit of thought into.  Overall, they were quite enjoyable.

I will go on to a few other areas of this game that I enjoyed.  The first is the story.  It could be a little slow at times but overall I really enjoyed it.  It was a fun mystery that became more and more interesting as it unfolded.  I also thought that the ending tied the game together incredibly well and really made the game a lot more enjoyable for me.

The next thing that I enjoyed was the artwork.  I thought it was a very simple yet nice looking game and the artwork fit its style perfectly.   Also, the voice acting was very well done.  All around I think the game is a very enjoyable experience and it is definitely worth buying.  The game took me approximately 9 hours to complete and I only finished about 90 of the 135 puzzles available in the game.  Also, you can get more puzzles weekly by download.  If you enjoy puzzles and brain teasers, this game is a must own.

Contra No Death Run – No Emulator

April 18, 2010

Contra on the Nintendo Entertainment System is one of my favorite games of all time. I used to play this game for hours on end by myself or co-op with my brother. I hadn’t played the game for years and decided to do a review on it so I pulled it back out and played through it co-op with my dad to get some footage. We completed the game in about 40 minutes and had a lot of fun. Then, just a week or so ago I watched a video on youtube posted by Jugghead82 challenging people to see how far they could make it in the game without using a continue. I watched JodeciMudvayne beat the game without continuing and it really made me want to play the game again.

I began playing and beat the entire game without continuing fairly easily so I decided to try and complete it while only using one life…No deaths at all. I also wanted to do this because I always hate watching runs on youtube where people are using emulators. I wanted it to be a full play through on the original hardware. So I played for a few hours more and finally did it! So here is the recording of my gameplay. It took me a total of 14 minutes and 1 second to complete the game from the moment I pressed start in the beginning to destroying the final boss. The world record is 10 minutes and 50 seconds but there is no way I’ll ever even attempt to challenge that time. Anyways, enjoy the game play.

Final Fantasy XIII Review

April 14, 2010

I completed the game Final Fantasy XIII two weeks ago and have been going over what I liked and disliked about the game.  Prior to this games release, I was very hesitant about whether or not I wanted to purchase it.  I have been a huge fan of the Final Fantasy series all my life and have regarded it as one of my favorite video game series of all time.  However, after Final Fantasy X I have not enjoyed the series very much and have felt that the series was going downhill fast.  So what I decided to do was rent Final Fantasy XIII, test it out, and decide whether or not it was worth the purchase.

A few hours after starting the game I was very bored with most everything about the game.  The combat system seemed simple, it was incredibly linear, and I just wanted to get into something exciting.  So I drudged on through the game and around 8 hours in, everything started to really pick up.  I was introduced to the Paradigm system which allowed me a lot more control over what happened during battle.  Each character was given three “jobs” they could perform.  These jobs allowed you to customize how you wanted your party to interact with each other and choose what approach you wanted to take towards defeating your enemies.

The battle system quickly became more strategic and I was very happy with it.  It retained a similar structure to prior Final Fantasy games and was a lot more fun than I was expecting.  Also, this battle system created a very fast paced battle atmosphere and kept the game exciting.  One complaint that I did have with the combat system was that you were only able to control one character during battle.  If this main character died, it was game over.  While this was not a huge issue, I prefer to control my whole party directly.

The next thing that I’d like to discuss is the character development. I thought the relationships built between the characters really added to the game.  It took a while for me to become interested in them, but as I progressed through the game, the relationships between the characters strengthened and the party became more unified.  Looking back on the characters as a group I was very satisfied.  However, the characters individually were not incredibly memorable.  I can’t think back and say “I really enjoyed that character”.  So while the characters were well developed they just weren’t my favorites.

The graphics in Final Fantasy XIII were absolutely stunning.  From the crystal clear cutscenes to the very realistic (for video games) in game graphics, everything about the game visually was very impressive.  I have absolutely no complaints about the games visuals.

Next up are the voice acting and music.  Very often the voice acting in RPG’s is poorly done.  As you play a 40+ hour game, annoying voice actors can really put a strain on your level of enjoyment.  This is not the case with Final Fantasy XIII.  It had some of the best voice acting I have heard in any JRPG to date and it helped make the characters very enjoyable.

The music was about on par with what I was expecting.  I was very disappointed that the music was not done by composer Nobuo Uematsu, who had composed the music for many earlier Final Fantasy games.  The music was enjoyable and fit the game fairly well but it just wasn’t the same as Nobuo’s classic Final Fantasy sound.  I also was not particularly fond of the song chosen for the games conclusion.  It just didn’t seem to fit well with the game.  I did very much enjoy the Chocobo remixes they added to the game and found myself listening to these songs over and over.

Now for my complaints…

The first major complaint that I had with Final Fantasy XIII is its story.  Like I mentioned earlier, the game took a bit too long to start picking up.  This was the case with the story as well.  About 8 hours into the game, the story really picked up for me and I felt swept up by the games excitement and became very eager to continue playing.  The characters were being developed well and the story was following a nice path.  This continued for the next 15-20 hours and I thought the game was really quite good.  Then, about 25 hours into the game the story seemed to fizzle out for me and I became far less attached and interested in it.  I believe the main reason for this was the lack of a true villain.  Typically, towards the end of an RPG there is a single villain I very much dislike and am very eager to defeat.  In Final Fantasy XIII this villain just didn’t exist.  I felt no connection to any of the villains in the game and that really stole away from the games plot.  I was very disappointed with the events leading up to the ending and felt the story really fell apart, creating a dismal story overall.

I also did not like Final Fantasy XIII’s linearity.  The game was incredibly linear and gave the player only one area to explore and branch off of the main plot.  While this was not a horrible issue with the game since your party is constantly on the run, it was still a disappointment to me.  One thing I truly enjoy about RPG’s is have the chance to explore, interact and feel like a part of the games world.  Another problem with linearity came with the leveling system for your characters.  As you defeated monsters throughout the game, you were rewarded with Crystarium Points (CP).  These points were then used to choose how you would like to level your characters.  Early on in the game, this was very exciting because I was able to determine what skills I wanted and which jobs I wanted to train my characters in.  However, after playing the game for a while I began to realize that no matter how I chose to level my character, they were going to end up the same in the end.  At the end of my game, my characters would be the same as characters at the end of your game and it was basically just the order you chose to build them.  This linearity really took away from the feeling that I was creating and customizing my own characters and was another element I wasn’t particularly fond of.  This was not a deal breaking issue, but it was something that I did not enjoy.

Overall, I think Final Fantasy XIII was a decent game.  I had a lot of fun playing it but it also had some serious disappointments.  I would definitely recommend this game to anyone who isn’t a big fan of traditional RPG’s because it does a lot to make the game fast paced, action packed, and less focused on managing items and level grinding.  As a traditional RPG fan comparing this game to other Final Fantasy games (FFX and earlier), FFXIII is pretty disappointing.  As a new approach to merge the RPG and action genre, it does a good job.  So if you are thinking about purchasing this game, it will more than likely be worth your $60.

Games I Bought Recently – March 2010

April 6, 2010

Here are the Games I Bought Recently for the month of March 2010. I got a lot and kind of had a small rant so the video ran long and I had to edit a little bit out. I got things ranging from really old to completely new.

Want to Make Your Own Youtube Videos?

April 2, 2010

Do you want to learn to make your own videos? Here I am going to show you all of the tools that I use to create my videos. I will go over what camera I use, my capture cards used to capture video game footage, as well as the software programs that I use for editing. I will also try to give you some tips that I have learned over the past year.

One year ago, I had never owned a video camera. I had never captured video game footage onto my computer. I had also never touched video editing software and had absolutely no knowledge of how to properly use any of these things. I decided that I was going to teach myself to edit and put together videos as a hobby more or less, and decided to do this by reviewing video games and uploading the videos to Youtube. If you take a look at my older videos, the quality is far worse than my more recent ones. I have learned a lot over this past year and am hoping to share some of what I have learned with you in this article.

The first thing to start with is deciding what type of videos you would like to do. Do you want to sit in front of a video camera and talk to your viewers? Or would you rather capture game footage and dub your voice over so you don’t have to show your face? I will begin with explaining how I put together videos where I sit in front of a camera and speak to my audience.

The first thing you’ll want to do is purchase a video camera. Some people choose to use webcams but I prefer using a digital camera for a few reasons. With a digital camera, you are able to freely record videos at any location. Webcams are either attached to a computer or need a computer nearby limiting how and where you can record your footage. Also the quality (both video and audio) is usually better with a digital camera. The camera that I began with one year ago was an aiptek digital camera and the quality on it wasn’t very good. I decided to purchase a new digital camera and have been very happy with my choice so far. The camera that I chose to use is a Kodak Zi8 digital camera. This camera cost me $150 on sale and is well worth it. Click here for more details on it. It can record up to 1080p HD quality and the audio quality is quite good. Overall, I’m really enjoying the camera but it does have a few things that I don’t particularly like.

The first and major negative the camera has is that is does not have a flash function. This means that I can’t take photos in the dark and if I try to, they will be barely visible. This however isn’t a huge downfall for me since I mostly use this camera to record video and not photos. It also does not have a light for recording in the dark, but once again that is not what I use this camera for. The second thing that I do not like about this camera is that it auto adjusts the brightness levels. When I hold something bright in front of the screen (like a game or something shiny) the screen will auto-darken when I do not want it to. This is the main problem that I have not liked with this camera. These are all small problems to me so I am still very satisfied with my purchase. One very good thing about this camera is it’s high quality video recording and I also really like the option to use another microphone. It has a microphone input so you are able to use any microphone you choose to get exactly the audio quality you like.

The only other accessory that you will want to purchase with a camera is a tripod. I got a cheap tripod at Best Buy for only $15 which allows me to mount my camera up to a height of 12 inches. Click here for one similar to mine. This is all I need since I place my camera on a table to record. If you would like a 3 foot or so tripod, they may cost you upwards of $75. So onto how I record my videos.

It is very easy to just record a video and post it to Youtube. All you need to do is set up the camera at the right angle, hit record, and when you’re done… stop the camera, transfer the file to your computer via USB and upload it to Youtube or any other website you may use. What I do with my videos is I add additional editing to make it a little more enjoyable to watch. I use a software program called Pinnacle Studio 14 to edit my footage. Click here for this software. I usually add an intro effect, outro effect and music to the background. I will go into more detail on this software program later in this article.

Now let’s talk about the more difficult video making choice…editing reviews. When I edit a full video game review, the process often takes me between 5-12 hours. It can sometimes take even more if I run into technical problems or I am really picky about how I want it done. The first thing you’ll want to do is learn how to capture your video game footage.

The capture device that I use is a KWorld DVDMaker. This device cost me $40 and if you’d like to purchase it, click here for the best deal. It is a small device that uses the red/white/yellow cables as input and it connects to my computer using one USB cable for the video and a headphone cable for the audio. This device has worked very well for me and I have never run into any problems using it. The video quality is pretty good for Standard Definition but you will NOT be getting HD capture quality out of this device. It also came with the Cyberlink Power Director software that I use to record my voice overs.

If you would like a cheaper alternative with comparable capture quality, you can purchase an EasyCap device for less than $10. Click here if you would like to buy one of these. The quality is very similar to the KWorld DVDMaker but I prefer the KWorld because it comes with the Power Director software. You could always use the program Audacity which is a free audio capture software if you do not want to pay the extra money. Also, EasyCap has problems working on Windows Vista from what I hear but I have never tested it to see exactly what the problems are. So if you are using Windows Vista you may want to go with the KWorld DVDMaker to be safe.

So that covers the devices that I use to capture my game play. All you need in addition to one of those capture devices is a computer. Everything is very easy to set up and it should only take you about 10 minutes to complete. Generally, I do not capture game footage on my first play through of a game. I do not do this because every one hour of game play takes up approximately 4 GB of storage space. So to capture a full 20 hour game, it would require around 80 GB of memory! So what I usually do is I’ll play through a game and make multiple saves before parts I would like to include in my review. This can be a pain, but it has worked for me in the past.

Once I have all the footage captured, I import it into the program Pinnacle Studio 14 to begin editing. I am not going to go into full detail on this program because I would need a full tutorial article to explain how to use it, but it is not difficult to use for the basics and is easy to learn as you go. The basic overview of what I do in this software is I import the video clips I have captured, I then cut and splice out the exact parts of the footage I want to show. I then input transitions like fading, slideshows, etc to make the transitions between footage clips look nice.

The last thing that I do is I use either my logitech desktop microphone (click here) to capture my voice overs or my logitech headset microphone (click here). Both of these microphones create a much different sound to my voice so I use whichever one I think will sound better for the particular review. I am in the process of trying to get some better voice recording hardware, so hopefully I will have that in the future. But for now, I use these two devices. Once the voice over audio is recorded using Power Director, it is very simple to import it into Pinnacle Studio to edit.

If you have any questions about the devices and software I use or questions about putting together videos, feel free to email me at the email listed on my “Contact Me” page. I really hope this helps some of you learn to put videos together and hopefully have fun reviewing videos games.

Game Collecting Tips

March 29, 2010

Here are some collecting tips that have helped me out over the past year. Hopefully, this will help some collectors find some deals or at least make their collecting endeavors a little easier.

Digital Press:

http://www.digitpress.com

Video Game Price Charts:

http://www.videogamepricecharts.com

1,000 Subscriber Giveaway!

March 15, 2010

1000+ Subscribers….Wow! I can’t believe it. This is the first video I’ll be putting up over the next few weeks and I decided to do a giveaway. Leave a comment saying “I want in”.

I’m making 3 recommendations of games everyone should play. If you would like to be entered into the drawing 5 times, recommend 3 games for me to play in a video response! Thanks for all the support and hope you enjoy my channel in the future.

Be sure to check out my friends video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nd8m1K…

http://www.doinggoodworks.org/

Is Final Fantasy Dead?

March 12, 2010

I just take a look at an interview with Motomu Toriyama, director of Final Fantasy XIII. In my opinion, it’s just him explaining why he has removed core elements from the Final Fantasy series.

Click HERE to read the article

TurboGrafx – Heavy Rain – Mega Man 10

March 9, 2010

Just a quick update about my weekend. TurboGrafx, Heavy Rain, Mega Man 10, and Batman Arkhum Asylum. Let me know what you think about a 1000 subscriber special!

Video Archive:

July 2009

June 2009