Oldskooler Ramblings

the unlikely child born of the home computer wars

Archive for February, 2011

Dopplegangers!

Posted by Trixter on February 13, 2011

I have free time to work on a single project at a time, and that project this weekend has been MindCandy.  (We’re very close to a test disc (yay!) — minus subtitles.  Subtitling 4 hours of multi-speaker dialog is a massive chore, multiplied by the number of languages you want to have, so we’re strongly considering not doing subtitles.)  But if I had time to work on multiple projects simultaneously?  I’ve always wanted to produce videos about classic hardware and games, 99% centered on the PC/DOS platforms of the 1980s.  Imagine how happy I am to have discovered the following people:

Lazy Game Reviews – Produces 10-minute reviews on both hardware and games, with a touch of humor and lots of footage captured from the real hardware whenever possible.  The Carmageddon review in particular is perfection, having been captured from a real 3Dfx card and with meaningful illustrations of gameplay, including some accurate history of the development of the game.  His Youtube channel is easier to navigate past shows, but the blip.tv channel earns him a modicum of cash and has better quality video, so… choose.

Ancient DOS Games – While LGR covers the gamut of classic personal computers and gaming, Ancient DOS Games covers only DOS games, and the thoroughness and attention to detail is astounding.  Features like tips and tricks on how to play the game, recommending the best graphics mode or DOSBOX settings per game, noticing what the framerate of the game is and how it affects gameplay, and even a comparison of dithering methods in Thexder and whether or not they were effective — these are all OCD traits that I would have put into my own coverage of the material.  His fly-outs are pixel-art amusing.

Those guys are doing such an amazing job that I really don’t see the need for me to do so.  The both of them combined equals a quality of work that I can’t see myself improving upon, which not only makes me very happy, but frees me up to work on other projects.  Check them out, dammit!

PS: I found I have a true doppleganger over on tumblr.  We have very much in common — moreso were I lesbian.

Posted in Digital Video, Entertainment, Gaming, MindCandy, Vintage Computing | 3 Comments »

An attempt at podcasting

Posted by Trixter on February 11, 2011

If you’d like to hear what I sound like imitating a podcaster, head on over to Hacker Public Radio to listen to an argument against emulators.  This was lightly scripted and lightly edited, and while I don’t think it turned out very well, I’ve received some nice comments on it, so maybe you’ll like it too.

I have an idea for a regular podcast I would indeed like to do, but not until MindCandy is finished and maybe one or two other projects as well.  The idea would center around vintage IBM PC and DOS-era computing as a hobby, of course.

Posted in Vintage Computing | 2 Comments »