2 years of burry reviews - the history of the amateur show Old-Hard

“Some say, we never meant to grow up ...”
(Sum 41, “Some Say”)

Today, my little, regularly coming out YouTube program about old computer games and hardware turns two years. The time limit for the amateur show is considerable ... It's time to conduct a short retrospective, to make out "(not) the creative way." Interesting? Welcome under the cut!

What kind of show?

At first there were numerous conversations with a friend on the topic “but it would be nice to sip your video transmission ...” (immediately after the MMOPRG of its own and the desktop of course!). These conversations between the business and there for the beer lasted for months, and were not concrete plans - rather, the discussion on the topic “it would be nice”. But at some point the thought “what the hell ?!” clicked in my head, and literally a couple of hours “on the knee” and the first issue was made alone. Having received certain comments on him, among which were both restrainedly positive and “a good idea, the text is normal, just do not let the same person more than the microphone”. Later the second issue was made, the third one ... It was not easy to stop, and about a year and a half later the issues began to appear regularly, once every 2 weeks.

The theme of the program was chosen quite predictably: old computer games and hardware, since 2010, my friend and I had a joint blog on this topic. It also just happened with the name that was taken from the same blog: Old-Hard [ware] , by analogy with one of the favorite sites on this topic, Old-Games.RU .
')

Tsifir

On this portal, many people have gathered who love accurate facts - and we will begin with them. Again, they will tell you whether you should listen to the author’s experience or it’s better to close it immediately and move on to something more representative.




The number of major issues: 47 and a half (there are issues with the numbers "11" and "11 and a half" :-))
Issue Duration: The last two dozen issues are at least 10 minutes , usually 15-20 minutes . There are a few more than half an hour. The longest is 38 minutes .

The number of mini-vidyashek, appeals, videos for other people's shows, video transmission OLDroid Games, etc.: 40+ (from 3 to 20 minutes each)

Special features

After several episodes of the show more or less settled down and certain principles and features were derived.

• The main themes : old computer games and game series, source ports, old computer hardware ... in a broad sense. To look at any console or remake that came out a couple of years ago is a nice thing. And in general, such frames do not impose special restrictions: let's say there were 3 issues about installing and configuring MS-DOS (as well as watching movies and going online from under the same OS), issues about music from games, etc.
  
  
• Create a new content , and not chew a hundred times already considered by someone. No reviews on Quake, Doom, Warcraft 2, Resident Evil, etc. (with the exception of source ports or in exceptional cases of remakes). There is still darkness and darkness of games about which it is worth telling. Why try to repeat someone already told?
  
  
• Emphasis on practice . It is interesting to tell about the story of something, but it is much more curious to see this “something” in action. Three-dimensional accelerator Voodoo or S3 Virge? Super, we collect the old computer and compare the picture and performance on the computer of those times (moreover, the video was recorded using a capture card and not a “camera aimed at the monitor!”). Install MS-DOS? On a real machine, not virtual, and from floppy disks. Sound from a PC speaker? We write sound from two different tweeters for comparison with the emulated DosBox'om! And so on.
  
  Considering a toy? Emphasis on gameplay, seen chips and personal opinion. I try not to retell Wikipedia, but to talk about the moments that I noticed myself.
  
  I also try (when it makes sense!) To write videos from real hardware. Capture board with VGA input and TV tuner booster.
  
  
• No "good for its time . " Yes, it is very important to understand when the game was made and what traditions or restrictions were, but for me the main question remains “is it worth playing it now?”. Although the phrase itself in the reviews sometimes sounds, we are all human, everyone has weaknesses ...)
  
  
• Positive I try not to take something bad in my hands and tell “how bad it is”, but to look for something interesting. What it costs to download or buy today, in which it is possible and interesting to play so far. Unjustly forgotten pearls. There are exceptions, of course, but they are exceptions. And no, this does not mean that I am only talking about the good - I also consider the shortcomings, and no less detailed than the merits.
  
  
• No makeovers . I know how easy it is to start polishing something to shine and get a release, “we didn’t specify exactly by December what year ...” or as it was with a colleague, the release of the “special issue for Halloween” in January of the next year, as . Comrade barely had time ... This does not mean that I do not try to do everything qualitatively - there are always a few duplicates during the filming and voice acting, I re-render the video several times because of the small shoals seen 1-2 days before uploading and t .P. But I will not finish the 15-minute video for three months because of the details, which will be noticed by 2-3 people out of several thousand. In general, this can be considered a life credo - work must be done in quality, but timely. Do not try to infinitely correct all the errors here and now, but to draw conclusions and next time try not to step on the same rake.

Evolution of technology and software

It all started with a digital camera-soapbox for shooting all sorts of artifacts (boxes of games, boards, etc.), as well as a lavalier microphone for a couple of bucks (like Genius MIC-01C ) tied to a desk lamp instead of a tripod. No, I'm serious, because the sound quality was better than if it was hooked onto the collar of a T-shirt or shirt pocket.





Sticking a microphone into a laptop, the sound quality (or lack thereof ...) can be estimated by the first releases. Normalization? Compressor? Pop filter? Do not tell my slippers, they sucks with a sense of humor. Sound was recorded and cleaned in Audicity , and the video itself was mounted in VideoPad Video Editor . By the way, I still use this set of software by now.

Some time later, the microphone was replaced with a Logitech USB Desktop USB stick , and the camera was replaced with a Canon Legria HF R406 camera . The camera is not the coolest, for example there is no input for an external microphone, but there is a very cool and convenient on-screen menu, as well as a cool mechanical lens cover. I burn a good mechanic.

Around the same time, a video capture card with a VGA cord was purchased, but I already wrote about it . And I already had a TV tuner for recording from old consoles, for example, something from Beholder .

Later, I finally used the Levelator softphone , and a homemade pop filter was added to the microphone. Yes, yes, from a piece of tights (he took from his girlfriend) and banks from under CD-blanks. In the photo it is fixed on a tripod from the camera, but later I began to mount it on a desk lamp (the photo of this indecency has not survived).





Nevertheless, a few more months passed before I myself appeared in the frame - before that the camera continued to be used solely for the filming of all kinds of hardware and the contents of the game boxes. For the first time, by the way, I decided to shoot myself on the very first anniversary of the program. Game posters pinned to the wall were the background. Lighting? Em. What other lighting ...?

The next step made me commit one of the viewers of the program. I do not remember his commentary literally, but it was something like “I like the content of the program, but it hurts to look at the quality of the filming - why not use normal lighting and chroma key?” But really, why not? After a brief discussion with him of the details, the following scheme was chosen:

- background from two sides highlights a pair of fluorescent lamps at 85W
- a fluorescent light bulb shines on me for 105W
- all lamps shine through white sun umbrellas
- the background was purchased folding and double-sided, green on one side, blue on the other (who knows ...)






Cutting the background is normal (in Sony Movie Studio 13 , a kind of clipped Sony Vegas, because its Home version was cheaper than the others ...) was far from the first attempt, but the current version looks more or less working, a chain of plug-ins is used
Brightness and Contrast -> Color Correction (secondary) -> Chroma Keyer

The truth is that recently there was a problem with the background from where I did not expect. I broke the glasses, and the new ones EXTREMELY glint under the lamps, with a green light. Previously, I did not think about it - the old glasses almost did not give a glare, and if there were any, it was not green, but white. Now here I think, whether to act without glasses, or to order new ones that are not glare ...)




The latest “upgrade” was the replacement of a microphone from a dynamic to a condenser Samson Meteor USB (with the ability to plug in monitoring headphones!) And a camera on a Panasonic HC-V730 . And somewhere at that time I noticed a problem: the sound from the microphone and the camera was not only sounded differently, it could be experienced - the sound from the camera’s built-in microphone sounded much worse. The option was to record the sound with the same Meteor , but then for shooting it was necessary to put the laptop somewhere nearby, then the sound from the camera and the external microphone could be reduced either by hands, which wastes precious time, or with the help of PluralEye , it was awesome very decent for amateur use, and I prefer licensed software. I tried this option (with mixing the sound) a couple of times, but the time costs did not suit me.

So after several experiments, I stopped at the option of connecting the Rode Videomic mounted cannon microphone to the camera. It is also not ideal, but it allows you not to bathe - I just take the sound from the camera without any combinations and with minimal processing I use in the video.





Oh, and by the way. At times, neighbors torment me with sounds from above, as well as trams outside the window: the microphone catches these sounds very well (moreover, for ordinary life they do not interfere in the least). The decision came almost by accident: a lightcube with a dress stretched over it. As this tin looks, you can see in the photo. Saves only from neighbors, but not from trams. As a bonus, it solves a problem with excess reverberation. Comments are superfluous.

Promotion ... PR ... well, you understand

I posted my videos in very few places. I will list all that I remember:

• The site Old-Games.RU - there are videos with the permission of the administration regularly appear in the news. One of the main places where new viewers come from. By the way, any site visitor can offer news, and if the moderators approve, it will appear on the main page.
  
  
• The first issues were placed on other sites about old games or similar ones, but then it somehow disappeared - people practically did not come from there.
  
  
• Some issues were laid out on Habrahabr and Giktayms. At first, I was even once banned for too active PR in the “I am promoting” section :-(
  
  
• There were a couple of experiments on paid advertising on the channels of more popular video bloggers, it cost about 3,000 rubles each time. It came from these shares in the amount of about 3 and a half thousand subscribers, so the experiment is not the most disastrous
  
  
• Sometimes - in VKontakte thematic groups.

Monetization

"For the wallet rushes into battle
Maybe not a coward, but not a hero ... "
(Epidemic, “First Step”)

LOL, "monetization" ... July 1, 2015 I connected YouTube monetization on the channel. Why so late? Because sloupok. And today, I can buy about one and a half cans of Tuborg Green beer for myself on a “theoretically earned” one. Groovy. True, I turned on advertising on the channel in a very benign mode: on most videos there are no video ads, only banners on the right (on the page itself) and at the bottom of the player, which can be closed by the way. On a couple-three, video ads still turned on, but only “skipped”. Video advertizing that is not missed is still evil ...

Just about a month ago, an agreement was signed with GOG.com on referral links, but there are difficult earning conditions (a person should not just follow the link, but also create a new account, and then buy something else from it), so for now missing results speak early.

In general, as far as I know, most of the colleagues in the shop earn their shows by posting someone else’s non-YouTube video advertising at the end or the beginning.

Comments

Here, I first wanted to write about the features of the dialogue with the audience, and then I realized that everything is almost exactly the same as with comments on Habré. So perhaps I’ll tell a funny story instead.

When the show has just begun, I immediately set such a framework for myself: if in the first 2 months 100 (it seems) subscribers do not subscribe, then I drop the topic. In general, I set a deadline and criterion; I don’t remember the exact numbers. And so, on the crucial day, I look at the number of subscribers ... And there are 101 of them. Well, I think, okay, the show should go on! So it continues ...

Unsolved problems

1. Diction and work with a microphone. Learning to learn, but it turns out that it turns out, and all sorts of squish and clattering is not always possible to clean up or avoid at the time of recording. Real-time monitoring by the way does not help me personally much, often in the final recording one can’t hear what kind of jambs that are heard during the recording, it happens and vice versa.
   
   
2. Trams. From them in my house nowhere to hide, they go deep into the night. And at night sometimes you want to sleep ...
   
   
3. The combination of a hobby and active programming in your free time. Well, everything is clear here, a hobby is certainly fun, rented apartments are cool, but I want to earn money one day.
   
   
4. The difference in sound from the on-camera and conventional microphone. It is clear that the ideal option is to use one microphone at an equal distance for this and the other, but I really do not want to shine a desktop microphone (the sound is worse at a greater distance), as well as recording all the text on the camera. In general, the problem.
   
   
5. So far, I have not switched to more advanced software. Still using Audicity and the mentioned VideoPad Video Editor . True chroma I cut into Sony Movie Studio 13 , but I never liked its interface, too many extra gestures for banal actions.
   
   
6. The name of the program entered into some contradiction with the content: there are fewer stories about iron than stories about games or software.

What's next?

In the coming months, I will continue to make a video on a schedule, and I will make the last attempt to combine the frequent (2 times a month) complex (at least 12-15 minutes) videos and improved programming skills. If it doesn't work out - the videos will be released less often, or I will alternate the full release / mini release.

In a year, I will definitely tell you here what this story ended (continued?).
Well, since all the same article in the section "I am promoting", here it will not be shameful to place a video appeal in honor of the biennium of the program. The beginning in my opinion turned out to be cool.



PS Or you can in another hub? I am pleased, if only the moderator suggested where.