Alright, we're almost there!

I'm getting ramped up to start the show most likely on the first and I have to make my final crucial decision.

Emulate...or Actual NES. Now, my knee jerk reaction tells me to use an actual NES, but honestly look at the difference in quality.



The actual NES puts out terrible colors, note the faded black color? It's also a lot blurrier. However, it provides beautiful decals, notice the exposed rebarb in the cement at the bottom, or the particles in the sky, or the more realistic clouds at dusk, the shading in the mountains in the background?

However, the emulator looks sharper and has customizable colors. But sacrifices a lot of work the developers put in.

I'm actually going to make my own color pallet for this if I decide to go with emulation. The colors will emulate the actual video output as best as possible.

What do you guys think I should go with? NES RGB, and an AVS is not an option right now with my $0 budget.

Final Update before launching the stream!

I've decided against that twitch layout and decided on something more...toonish? Anyway, I tried to simulate what it would look like in the stream by making it a lower quality JPEG.

So, here's how everything is going to work out, at least at the start:

1. Stream will likely be on three times a week, Tues.-Thur. around 8pm to 12pm. Still unsure about the scheduling, but it will go on for at least about 3 hours where are least one game will be beaten.
2. Review scores will be updated periodically throughout gameplay, most likely during game over's. They will all start at a basepoint of 0, and go up to 10. Still unsure if I'm going to have decimal points.
3. After the game is completed, a review will be written in full off-stream, the following afternoon. It will be saved until I have enough content to launch the website that will accompany the stream.
4. The website will feature articles that will appear in the book, and track the progress of the entire project as a whole.
5. The book will be written while the entire project is going on, layout will not be finalized until the end, and for the most part the book will be the main focus.

The first game on the stream is going to be chosen by myself. With luck, every game afterwards will be chosen by the viewers. The goal isn't really about getting viewers, but more about documenting the entire project...that being said I still need to get a webcam to document me actually playing the games. I've also made the decision to play everything within my capability and means on actual hardware, and emulating that which I can't, which boils down to basically anything over a hundred bucks or so.

And I don't think I'll enable donations unless there's a solid following. In which case, again 10% of the proceeds will go straight to charity, likely St. Judes, March of Dimes, or Ronald McDonald House. Three charities I personally love.

Finally, here's the final layout. It's ready to go as soon as I get a webcam. The webcam will probably take the chat's spot once I get one. I wanna thank everyone who's actually reading this, and anyone who even cares about the project! Looking forward to seeing what the future holds!

OH! and my twitch username is RetroVG. I can't believe that name wasn't taken! (Sucks that my vglobby name was though)

Did my first stream test today, gotta say it wasn't easy setting up, but I got it! So here's what the *actual* layout turned out to be after tweaking it from the previous.

I'm going to try and do my first episode tomorrow! Super C is *not* going to be the first game, I plan on playing Totally Rad as the first game, something that I fell in love with and hope everyone else does too one day.

Here's the screenshot. Notice all the stats are there for preservation purposes. I'm showing the method used to play, the region of the game I'm playing, how many continues/gameovers/hints used, viewer count, and live opinions of the game, plus a time stamp and gameplay time to document the exact second everything was done at.

I also think this project has a lot of potential beyond just gaming, and I will never forget why I am doing this. It's in memory of my son, Vincent. The memory of him watching me playing video games will never be forgotten, and this is my dedication to him. Also, 25% of all money received from the stream will be going to charity, in his name. The other 75% will go to fund game purchases, specifically anything that I can't afford and don't have plans to keep in the collection. Once I am done with items I will sell them and use the funds to purchase more stuff, rinse and repeat, until the end where all remaining money will be donated to charity. Not sure what the effective rate will be, but it will at the absolute least be 25% guaranteed donated to charity.

Anyway, looking forward to starting this project up again! Thanks guys for keeping up...Oh, and I'm going to post a new topic tomorrow in the "Events" forum, this topic will receive no more updates from now on.

If anyone is interested, I'm going live right after I post this.

It's only a test stream to see how well my PC handles it. I have no webcam at the moment, or mic. So you're in luck, you don't have to hear or see my face!

Scratch that, I'm having problems with my second monitor now   I only got 18 minutes in before it decided to stop working. I might be able to fix it by tonight.

So I wound up having to order a new monitor.

If you're all wondering why I need two monitors then here's a diagram that explains the setup.



Top screen is the TV I use to actually play the games, middle screen is the broadcast monitor and where I tab between the broadcasting suite, live review scores, and Twitch dashboard, the lower screen is a 4:3 monitor that allows me to broadcast the gameplay.

I can actually use a third monitor so that I can tweak things like live review scores, or misc. web browsing when needed for things like manuals, or tips when needed. (P.s. tips will only ever come from Nintendo Power, or chat if there's any viewers with knowledge of the game....or any viewers at all really)

This is a really fun project and a really interesting learning experience too.

Anyway, first stream probably begins when my monitor comes in.

Oh I missed Totally Rad.  

That's a pretty typical setup you've got there, same thing I do with consoles. A second monitor for the PC is hugely beneficial. Streaming from consoles is the big thing stopping me from getting an ultra wide monitor, as it's that or dual screens, and not both for me. Best of luck with the new monitor coming in!

No you didn't actually. Still never did episode 1 yet since my monitor crapped out after 18 minutes.

Oooooohh! I'll make sure to keep an eye out then!
 

Second monitor came in today! I'm gonna try to get on tonight for the first episode.

The goal is to beat the game in totality.

Webcam & Headset came in too! This means Episode 001 is a go! Probably gonna happen around 11pm so keep your eyes peeled.

Edit: Headset is the wrong kind, it's the one that works with cell phones, wonder if I can just plug it into the microphone jack and use just the mic, I can just use the webcam mic if it has one too....

*eyes peeled*

Was gonna PM you around 10:30  

I'll probably be on a Skype call at the time, but I'll do what I can to be there, if not for the start, hopefully for the latter half.

I started way too late tonight. My boys just didn't want to go to sleep at a normal time tonight. I can only last up to 2am and well, I couldn't finish the third act  

Still, feels great to finally start this project. Episode 1 will continue tomorrow.

Gonna try and get on tonight and complete Totally Rad this time, maybe even begin game #002.

I finally figured out how to legitimately review "unreviewable" games too! By introducing an "X-Factor" I can give a game like Totally Rad, with it's terrible dialog a legitimate review, while still ranking it moderately high because of the fact that the terrible dialog plays *into* the overall game itself, or I can review Sesame Street ABC as a generally terrible game, while still preserving the fact that it's a young child's edutainment game in tact.

Anyway, looking forward to finishing up some loose ends at work and getting on tonight.

Play stealth atf. Feel my pain.

I'll see if I can pick up a copy soon, I won't be able to play it tonight since I don't own it!
 

it's pretty common, and cheep too.

Totally Rad is awesome

Yeah, it's pretty gnarly.

Sucks that once again, I'm starting late. Saturday it is then! 2 games MUST be played and beat tomorrow since I'd really like to start this thing already.
 

Despite some minor setbacks near the end of the game (son and wife walking in) I beat Totally Rad just now. Currently writing the final review and going to store if for the book, but here's the scores for anyone interested.

Gameplay: 6
Graphics: 9
Audio: 4
Difficulty: 5
Narrative: 5
Length: 4
X-Factor: 9

Final Score: 6.0

Totally Rad is a good game with great graphics, and the dialog while terrible is a great gimmick today. It's not exactly a must have, but it's slightly better than your average NES game. I recommend it to anyone and everyone who wishes there were more than just 3 good Mega Man's on the NES. It's definitely one of the better Mega Man clones.

Keep in mind that my "5" means the game is neither great, nor terrible. It's just average, so that makes this game slightly above average.

And since no one was in chat to select the next game, I have chosen one by using a random number generator.

The next game is......

Caveman Games!



I've never played this game before, so I have no idea what to expect!

This is definitely one of those games that requires the manual. I tried playing it just now and I have no idea what I'm doing, gonna see if I can't track down a manual locally tomorrow, if not then I'm going to (unfortunately) have to either pick another game (not likely) or use a manual scan  

The game is absolute garbage by the way, I would be incredibly upset if I got this game as a kid. There is little to redeem this game...no wonder my copy is trashed to hell.

So Joe, why haven't you been streaming? You should be up to game #004 or #005 by now?
---Well extremely tired brain, I've been working 12-14 hour shifts the past few days trying to get our taxes caught up.

But Joe, tax season literally just passed.
---Yes, well we filed for an extension but still need to get it done ASAP.

Joe, are you alright?
--- No, I'm not. Luckily not too many people see this thread anyway so you're probably not going to have too much egg on my face I hope.

Ok Joe, you really need some rest.
---I lost track of which of these lines is me me, and inner me....