Ancient DOS Games Episode 188 - Day of the Tentacle is online! :D

I actually have pretty much nothing to say about this one outside of what's said in the video itself, so... *shrugs*

I'm sure many of you have noticed I have a survey going now too. I made a video about it here: https://youtu.be/Ea1-2laSekc

Basically, I'm trying to get an idea for how I can make ADG better for those who currently watch it, along with what steps I could take to get more people interested in it, because I can't believe that out of a planet of several BILLION people, only 6,200ish have any interest in DOS games. The survey's about 6 ~ 8 minutes long, 16 questions tops depending on your answers, and no personally identifying information is collected; heck, you don't even have to be logged into anything to take it! :B

I've already had a pretty good response to it and have already made plans which I'm going to start to put into motion next week, though I'm unsure how long it's going to take to actually get everything set to go. Worst case scenario, the new changes and additions won't start up until halfway through next month. Most of the changes will not affect the actual structure and format of an ADG episode at all so don't worry about that! ;)

Also have plans to start using social media... Since I've made a big deal about NOT using it in the past, I'll be sure to make it very clear on my website and on my YouTube channel what my accounts are and everything once I actually do start using such things. :B

The written dialogs can be enabled by CTRL+T. Also I believe that the floppy version isn't considered the "good" one because it has no voice acting. Hey, don't get too rusty already 😉
bonus: have you seen that the Maniac Mansion data files are contained in a folder in the CD version? One can just grab them and have the standalone game playable using scummvm. OK, not that it's that difficult to get them any other way, just mentioning it.

konc wrote:

The written dialogs can be enabled by CTRL+T. Also I believe that the floppy version isn't considered the "good" one because it has no voice acting. Hey, don't get too rusty already ;)
bonus: have you seen that the Maniac Mansion data files are contained in a folder in the CD version? One can just grab them and have the standalone game playable using scummvm. OK, not that it's that difficult to get them any other way, just mentioning it.

You did watch the whole episode, right? I mentioned the original Maniac Mansion was stored as its own separate thing. ;)

But, I didn't know about the CTRL+T thing! I tested it and it does work so I'll be adding that to the additional info! :)

Gemini000 wrote:

I found out just a short while after uploading this video that you can actually teleport items between characters automatically by dropping them onto the character portraits. I... never actually knew about this feature, not even as a kid! Streamlines everything IMMENSELY! :B

Just a small comment, that feature is actually mentioned in the manual.

Gemini000 wrote:

You did watch the whole episode, right? I mentioned the original Maniac Mansion was stored as its own separate thing. 😉

I did and noticed the reference to Maniac Mansion being playable from inside DOTT etc, but somehow missed that part. I should've pressed CTRL+T I guess 🤣

Ancient DOS Games Episode 189 - Strife is online! (Please note that this is a mature rated episode.)

...I was half-tempted to put a "$ Value" ticker in the corner during the unboxing and have it drop like a stone once I started peeling the shrink wrap off. ;D

Actually, for weeks now, I (and hundreds of others in the apartments here) have been dealing with a nuisance dog which will bark extremely loudly for extremely long periods of time (the longest so far being 7 HOURS straight) at random points in time, sometimes during the day, but usually during the dead of night when most people are trying to sleep. It's too loud to sleep through, even with my windows closed and nothing I have is able to block the sheer level of volume this dog has. I've been extremely stressed out and occasionally missing sleep as a result, which, combined with some other things I'm going through, has made it extremely difficult to do much of anything.

As such, I'm running behind on the changes and additions I wanted to get going with my videos and website and such. I've already begun the process of moving the additional information sections on my website over to the YouTube videos themselves, and once they're all moved over, I'll be deleting the video pages on my website. I'm also going to get starting the whole social media thing soon and will also be introducing new Patreon reward tiers, as well as modifying the existing ones slightly. The only one changing dramatically is the $8 tier since, quite frankly, with all that's been going on I don't have time to work on my secret project and I doubt I'll have time to for the next few months, which sucks hard given I was only a month or two away from actually releasing it... It's NOT abandoned and I fully intend to return to it the moment I can!

Lastly, I have a new video series I intend to start doing on a weekly basis! I was going to get it started next week, but I'm not sure I'll have the time to do so. In fact, I may not even have time to launch it the week after either. Seriously, there's EIGHT days over the next two weeks where I will only have a fraction of the day to work on anything. Fortunately, after that, things should start to improve...

*looks out the window* ...provided they finally shut that dog up or take it away from its "owner" who clearly doesn't give two sh__s about it. (It's barking so much because it's being left alone on one of our tiny balconies for hours on end.) :/

Gemini000 wrote:

I've already begun the process of moving the additional information sections on my website over to the YouTube videos themselves, and once they're all moved over, I'll be deleting the video pages on my website.

Is that really necessary? 🙁 I guess that's an extra thing to maintain, so I get it, but having a neat alternate way to browse through the episodes is almost always better than going through youtube for that purpose (channel page layouts are a mess, older stuff is harder to get to, etc.). That proved to be an annoyance when Clint stopped linking LGR videos on his blog too.

VileRancour wrote:

Gemini000 wrote:

I've already begun the process of moving the additional information sections on my website over to the YouTube videos themselves, and once they're all moved over, I'll be deleting the video pages on my website.

Is that really necessary? 🙁 I guess that's an extra thing to maintain, so I get it, but having a neat alternate way to browse through the episodes is almost always better than going through youtube for that purpose (channel page layouts are a mess, older stuff is harder to get to, etc.). That proved to be an annoyance when Clint stopped linking LGR videos on his blog too.

I agree. Since I started watching your videos late in the game, going to your site and browsing the videos alphabetically has been really useful to help find the ones to mark "Watch Later" so that I can find them easily on my phone (where I do most of my watching). But if you have to, then you gotta do what you gotta do.

clueless1 wrote:

VileRancour wrote:

Gemini000 wrote:

I've already begun the process of moving the additional information sections on my website over to the YouTube videos themselves, and once they're all moved over, I'll be deleting the video pages on my website.

Is that really necessary? :( I guess that's an extra thing to maintain, so I get it, but having a neat alternate way to browse through the episodes is almost always better than going through youtube for that purpose (channel page layouts are a mess, older stuff is harder to get to, etc.). That proved to be an annoyance when Clint stopped linking LGR videos on his blog too.

I agree. Since I started watching your videos late in the game, going to your site and browsing the videos alphabetically has been really useful to help find the ones to mark "Watch Later" so that I can find them easily on my phone (where I do most of my watching). But if you have to, then you gotta do what you gotta do.

I should clarify, only the VIDEO pages will be disappearing from my site. The index pages will remain and will simply link directly to the videos on YouTube. ;)

Out of curiosity, have you or your neighbors ever took any action against the dog's owner or anything else of that sort? It doesn't sound like to me that this issue is going to get any better on its own.

You need...“The Quiet Canine” Electronic Dog Whistle
Acoustic Management of Unruly Dogs from a Distance

🤣. I kid you not, this is real. Here is the Google Group with the discussion, plans, part list, etc. Sounds like if you're handy with electronics you could build one of these for not too much money. Near the top of this page is a link to a .zip file that has the plans and parts lists. Not much hand holding, so you have to know what you are doing.
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/porta … e-sound-blaster

I like the name "Portable Sound Blaster". It conjures up many retro-related thoughts.

switchblade wrote:

Out of curiosity, have you or your neighbors ever took any action against the dog's owner or anything else of that sort? It doesn't sound like to me that this issue is going to get any better on its own.

Of course. Due process takes time though. I do know that the owner's been served a notice of termination of his tenancy due to multiple complaints, so it's only a matter of time now. Oddly enough, dog's been pretty quiet for the past 12 hours.

Ancient DOS Games Episode 190 - Galactix (1988) is online!

...and because I'm really tired from doing nothing but work today, I'm heading to bed. Enjoy the video, everyone! :)

Gemini000 wrote:

Ancient DOS Games Episode 189 - Strife is online! (Please note that this is a mature rated episode.)

Thanks for sharing, though without a youtube account (login) any 'mature-rated' video cannot be shown. AFAIK...

gerwin wrote:

Gemini000 wrote:

Ancient DOS Games Episode 189 - Strife is online! (Please note that this is a mature rated episode.)

Thanks for sharing, though without a youtube account (login) any 'mature-rated' video cannot be shown. AFAIK...

You can bypass YouTube's age gating by copying a YouTube embed link from any website, copying the video tag from the URL for the video you want to watch into the embed link, then pasting the embed link into the address bar in any browser.

Gemini000 wrote:

gerwin wrote:

Gemini000 wrote:

Ancient DOS Games Episode 189 - Strife is online! (Please note that this is a mature rated episode.)

Thanks for sharing, though without a youtube account (login) any 'mature-rated' video cannot be shown. AFAIK...

You can bypass YouTube's age gating by copying a YouTube embed link from any website, copying the video tag from the URL for the video you want to watch into the embed link, then pasting the embed link into the address bar in any browser.

...which is probably a great reason why you shouldn't take the episode pages down from your own website. 🙁 No reason not to have those pages up even if the commentary is on youtube IMHO. Mirroring of info is always good.

xjas wrote:

Gemini000 wrote:

You can bypass YouTube's age gating by copying a YouTube embed link from any website, copying the video tag from the URL for the video you want to watch into the embed link, then pasting the embed link into the address bar in any browser.

...which is probably a great reason why you shouldn't take the episode pages down from your own website. :( No reason not to have those pages up even if the commentary is on youtube IMHO. Mirroring of info is always good.

Except it takes an hour each time I release a new video to update everything, whereas linking directly to YouTube is far easier and faster. On top of this, I don't want the additional info and corrections to become desynced (which they admittedly are during this period of transition) between my website and YouTube, so having them all in just one location seems best, and based on the survey results, it makes more sense to have them on YouTube than on my website.

Admittedly, not every upcoming change and addition is going to be agreeable with everyone, but I'm hoping the things that are happening which a particular person may not like will be offset by the things happening which they DO like and I will have a video going up either tonight or tomorrow morning talking about the survey results and EVERYTHING that's going to be happening! :)

Livestreamer can bypass Youtube's age gate as well. Plus you get the benefit of using VLC instead of the web browser playing the video back, at much more CPU efficiency too.

Ancient DOS Games Filler #54 - Slime Rancher is online!

This game might come as a surprise to some people as it's probably the most modern thing to show up on my show yet at the same time it's still very much early access... but I had to cover it not just because it appeals to the part of me which likes super-cute stuff, but also because it's actually incredibly well programmed and I wanted to discuss how I, as a programmer myself, was able to discern this.

And yeah, it may be overpriced for the current amount of content it has, but I'd rather support a game in early access that's well coded and has tons more stuff coming up, rather than something on Kickstarter which doesn't have something tangible I can play with right away and won't necessarily deliver a finished product.

Actually, I haven't been burned with early access stuff yet, as I know some people have been. I'm VERY careful about which early access titles I buy into. :B

Gemini000 wrote:

Ancient DOS Games Filler #54 - Slime Rancher is online!

Jim Sterling also sings positively about that Slime Rancher game and thats a good sign.