Update the forty-second!

Like being attacked by the cold chill of winter, another Lawnie update was inevitable!

This week had two scripted videos, the first involved installing PsychOS 3 on my old 2008 netbook, which worked very well considering the operating system was largely programmed on that exact machine! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFKacUFNjyI

The second scripted video was a little tongue in cheek, a review of a 2021 Solitaire card game called Big Klondike by Subsoap, that I've legitimately played hours of. My fans weren't that entertained by it, but Subsoap retweeted it! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=osumvs-ts4c

The Random DOS game hunt was a fantastic success this week, as the randomizer hit upon the best business management sim of all time: Transport Tycoon Deluxe! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ib1f7Zuj5Eg

Gladiator by Forgotten Sages was a nostalgic blast to the past for me, with its gauntlet-style combat and squad upgrade/management system. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZhwCSi7stQ

The last of this week's excellent titles was an enjoyable little puzzle game called Elements. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPYrjRHtVv0

Will consistently spamming Vogons get old? Will Lawnie hit a thousand subscribers before the year's end? Only time will tell!

Update the forty-third!

One thousand subscribers! I can't believe it! Thank you to all the Vogons who inundated me with their poetic comments!

This week's scripted video was simply titled Do You Remember? Because I Remember. A musing piece I wrote about the gradual decline of things we most likely took for granted twenty years prior in gaming. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2aWn6aEWc98

Unfortunately the randomizer completely screwed with me this week, giving me three absolute stinkers to slog through and only one half-way decent title: Hell to Pay - a commercial id Tech 1 game with plenty of Doom 2 assets still in place. It plays exactly like that game but retextured, and thus is a fun romp. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hNRNPU7lGE

There was more this week, like The Stele Chronicles, but I doubt you're going to jump in at episode 28 now, are you? Likewise there's a 1K celebration video coming up today of me playing Untitled Goose Game with my biggest fan at her request.

More videos will be forthcoming next week, of course! In the meantime? I'm going to continue celebrating!

Lawnie wrote on 2021-11-28, 14:25:

Unfortunately the randomizer completely screwed with me this week, giving me three absolute stinkers to slog through and only one half-way decent title: Hell to Pay - a commercial id Tech 1 game with plenty of Doom 2 assets still in place. It plays exactly like that game but retextured, and thus is a fun romp.

It amuses me there was no DeHackED patch for this to change the hardcoded level titles in the automap. Also, it is amusing to see you playing keyboard only, with what I assume are the default controls? You never seemed to strafe.

The pitchfork motif textures in this remind me of Heretic, as well.

I guess the rockets blasting off into the sky are a trick with masked textures and a really long oneshot platform out there somewhere.

Lawnie wrote on 2021-11-28, 14:25:

One thousand subscribers! I can't believe it! Thank you to all the Vogons who inundated me with their poetic comments!

Good on ya Lawnie. Your work ethic makes me feel inadequate, haha. But I've been watching the numbers climb through the 900's, may have even shoved a few through the door myself I hope (by way of a recommendation I made on another forum a couple of months back). The 1000 was always coming, keep up the good work and if the fates are fair*, you'll be looking at 5x, 10x, ???? that number in a year's time. Couldn't have happened to a nicer bloke. Pleased.

*and the world is kind enough not to leap headlong into a yet more unpleasant hand-basket, vis-a-vis World Chaos and all that other fun non-gaming stuff!

DracoNihil wrote on 2021-11-30, 15:50:

Lawnie wrote on 2021-11-28, 14:25:

Unfortunately the randomizer completely screwed with me this week, giving me three absolute stinkers to slog through and only one half-way decent title: Hell to Pay - a commercial id Tech 1 game with plenty of Doom 2 assets still in place. It plays exactly like that game but retextured, and thus is a fun romp.

I guess the rockets blasting off into the sky are a trick with masked textures and a really long oneshot platform out there somewhere.

I was playing with the default controls, yes. No strafing for me! I also thought that the rockets were a really cool effect for the time! Sure they look a bit cheesy now but it must have been neat to see it back in the day alongside the new alien replacement for the imps. Definitely a game I'll be mentioning in the next Top 25 for sure.

Shreddoc wrote on 2021-11-30, 21:14:

Lawnie wrote on 2021-11-28, 14:25:

One thousand subscribers! I can't believe it! Thank you to all the Vogons who inundated me with their poetic comments!

Couldn't have happened to a nicer bloke. Pleased.

My work ethic is the only thing that could possibly separate me from all the other fine folk starting retro gaming at the end of the previous decade. It does come at a price, I really have to push myself hard. There's just too much noise to signal on YouTube now for most great channels to gain any ground without uploading like an absolute mad person or riding some trend/buying your way in. Since I was never going to do the latter with mostly-DOS gaming, it had to be the hard way.

Right now I'm in a place where signal amplification is the most important thing to me. The way I see it, I keep making decent videos and keep getting better and more people will stumble across me and subscribe and tell their friends. So thank you for being kind enough to direct a few like-minded folks towards my channel, it means the world to me. I know I'm not everyone's cup of tea, but I just have to be enough people's cup of tea, if that makes sense.

If I somehow manage to land between 5-10x the number of subscribers a year from now I'll be in complete disbelief. All the metrics suggest that's going to take years, so either some big uptick will have to happen over the next few months or if not then I'll just keep happily toiling away in obscurity. I care too much about what I'm doing to ever stop.

Lawnie wrote on 2021-12-02, 23:28:

Sure they look a bit cheesy now but it must have been neat to see it back in the day alongside the new alien replacement for the imps.

Oh not at all, there's still stuff like that even to this day. Unless you felt like making a map that strictly requires the likes of GZDoom and such, you pretty much have to resort to tricks like this to get more out your levels in the Doom engine. There's all sorts of weird trickery to get more out of the Doom map format without having to delve into GZDoom, k8vavoom or Eternity Engine features.

Update the forty-forth!

Greetings one and all to yet another spammy update from the spammiest retro PC gaming channel of them all!

After a channel update celebrating the thousand subscribers, I blasted back into action with... oh no... a Capstone game. Corridor 7: Alien Invasion! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g73EscHhp-M

Fortunately I also took the time to randomly talk about a much better shooter called Quake, which I had played and completed for the first time. Yes, really. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkGFjtJpri0

Sparing me from the onslaught of more terrible titles were a fortunate duo: Actual Soccer was a FIFA contender back in the day and though it's long in the tooth now it was still fun to get thumped by Russia. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiqlgZOM3KU

And there was an underrated and unfortunately unvoiced point and click adventure game called Alien Incident which looked quite humorous and promising indeed! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkKkaZSQWrc

Maarek continued his usual adventures but this time he flew through Interlude, which is a special mission because it wasn't part of the original TIE Fighter! Also it was partly designed by me in collaboration with Angel, a feat that I'm very proud of! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGkOpH4QTrA

Now to collapse into a corner somewhere. Until next time!

Lawnie wrote on 2021-12-05, 14:53:

After a channel update celebrating the thousand subscribers, I blasted back into action with... oh no... a Capstone game. Corridor 7: Alien Invasion!

Since you appear to be playing the CD-ROM version, I should inform you that the multiplayer provided with the CD-ROM version is a very dirty hack.

It's IPX network based, peer-to-peer. But, that's not what's dirty hack about it.

The OTHER players on your screen, are actually "monsters" but moving according to what the other player is doing.

DracoNihil wrote on 2021-12-09, 19:21:

Lawnie wrote on 2021-12-05, 14:53:

After a channel update celebrating the thousand subscribers, I blasted back into action with... oh no... a Capstone game. Corridor 7: Alien Invasion!

The OTHER players on your screen, are actually "monsters" but moving according to what the other player is doing.

You know, based solely on Capstone's reputation of...excellence... this doesn't surprise me! It's amazing the hacky way people managed to make things happen back in the DOS era, especially with the likes of id tech 1 and prior.

Update the forty-fifth!

Today's weekly scripted video was about games from the 90s that provide you a stupid amount of playtime for less than a British pound when discounted. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9VogRf0D7o It was fun to make.

Every single game in Random DOS game land was at least competently made, but the real standouts were the timeless Atari classic Boulder Dash https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JfV8NlV3fsQ ...

And Fuzzy's World of Miniature Space Golf! Aside from the hilarious jaunty soundtrack, I found myself having a LOT of fun with this one, far more than I expected! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I29XYUJnzgw

Lastly the Soundfont Showdown series continued, showcasing the same soundfonts under 32mb but this time with the legendary briefing room music from TIE Fighter. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQMMA6cG7GA

Will there be more next week? Of course there will be more next week! I'm too far in to stop now!

Lawnie wrote on 2021-12-02, 23:28:

If I somehow manage to land between 5-10x the number of subscribers a year from now I'll be in complete disbelief. All the metrics suggest that's going to take years, so either some big uptick will have to happen over the next few months or if not then I'll just keep happily toiling away in obscurity.

As do we all! 😀

Yes, I can see now that my layperson's entirely-plucked-from-the-air numbers might be a tad optimistic. But hey, you never know. I suppose all it takes is 1 x [what they call "viral" these days, but in the 80-90's were simply referred to as "something rad"] to catch the scene's fickle attention and off-you-go.

Alternatively, the long slow climb. Up a relatively fun slope!

Getting granular:

• I'd suggest that 'top ten' or 'compilation (in some way)' type videos are probably quite popular numbers-wise. You're the one with the data o' course, so you'd know this. Also a lot more editing work (than single-focus videos), I'm sure.
• Sound comparisons (e.g. soundfonts) : this sort of content is appreciated by a particular niche. A way to add value (and I've thought about this many times, as a retro sound lover no not that kind!) is to figure out a way to give really tight, uber-practical comparisons. For example: A/B(/C/D/?) differences, using a variety of brief illustrative sound clips, quickly and repeatedly highlighted for the listener's ear, with the author's own subjective conclusions about the comparative merits. I note this mostly describes what you already do with your soundfont comparisons, but the devil is in the detail.

Oh and I also wanted to mention: I wouldn't be entirely surprised to see a slight post-1000 slump, as the world's attention is quite divided at the moment between global news issues and holiday season. If that's the case, don't be disheartened. It won't be long into the new year before people will be back online clamouring for things to keep them entertained.

Shreddoc wrote on 2021-12-15, 23:06:

Lawnie wrote on 2021-12-02, 23:28:

If I somehow manage to land between 5-10x the number of subscribers a year from now I'll be in complete disbelief. All the metrics suggest that's going to take years, so either some big uptick will have to happen over the next few months or if not then I'll just keep happily toiling away in obscurity.

As do we all! 😀

Yes, I can see now that my layperson's entirely-plucked-from-the-air numbers might be a tad optimistic. But hey, you never know. I suppose all it takes is 1 x [what they call "viral" these days, but in the 80-90's were simply referred to as "something rad"] to catch the scene's fickle attention and off-you-go.

Honestly I'm not worried about going viral, a number of my Doom videos picked up a bit of steam and got a lot of views, but the comment quality compared to the other videos was... rough.

I'd much rather have a small group of individuals with a bit of intelligence about them than tens of thousands of standard YouTube types, if that makes sense. Whatever way it happens, I'll just keep doing what I'm doing!

Shreddoc wrote on 2021-12-15, 23:06:

Alternatively, the long slow climb. Up a relatively fun slope!

That's generally what I've been doing so far instead, and because it's genuine and organic and I'm not trying to impose myself upon people or con them into clicks I think that's appreciated. Or at least that's what people are leading me to believe!

Shreddoc wrote on 2021-12-15, 23:06:

I'd suggest that 'top ten' or 'compilation (in some way)' type videos are probably quite popular numbers-wise.

Yeah, 10 of the Best has done really well for itself and I'm a fan of listing videos too! So despite them taking a lot more effort in terms of editing than the simple live recordings, I plan on keeping that going indefinitely. The scripted material was always going to get more positive responses and I've been told this under no uncertain terms by a fellow Vogon member who is a much more successful YouTuber than I am, so that's where my focus has shifted for the most part.

Shreddoc wrote on 2021-12-15, 23:06:

Sound comparisons (e.g. soundfonts) : this sort of content is appreciated by a particular niche.

This is actually really handy advice, thank you! I've done a few big soundfont videos in the past as you know, but people tend to click through them and watch snippets, suggesting that your A/B testing idea has merit! Why listen to an entire song multiple times when you can just listen to snippets? I'll have a think about that for the future.

Shreddoc wrote on 2021-12-15, 23:06:

Oh and I also wanted to mention: I wouldn't be entirely surprised to see a slight post-1000 slump, as the world's attention is quite divided at the moment between global news issues and holiday season

And to end things on a positive note before I go and record... so far, so good! People are still subscribing and adding their voices to the channel! All is well in the land of Lawnie!

I can't stand YouTube as a website so I pretty much just look in here when you've got videos put out, heh.

I wonder what it looks like on analytics when all I'm doing is downloading videos to RAM to watch them locally in my media player.

Update the forty-sixth!

Like a drain pipe clogged with filth, Lawnie is slowly forcing YouTube's algorithm to accept him with exponential amounts of DOS gaming content!

This week's scripted video discussed effective use of procedural generation within games from the 90s in order to generate infinite content for the player. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6x2C6cGIRQ

Old isometric classic HeroQuest is an entertaining digital conversion of the board game, just don't go venturing out with a single barbarian like Lawnie did. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KR8plQ-3n6A

Likewise, Wheel of Fortune despite its dated graphics and sound is a nice way to be a contestant on the hit game show without leaving your room. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmpHUd6Dmzo

The most notable entry though? The 17+ minute debut of Battle 7 in The Stele Chronicles, which also features the new 1.2 TFTC patch with fancy new explosions! This was an absolute slog to record, and you can hear it in my voice. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkNWZ5_j1mY

Next week will indeed by Christmas, so I hope you get absolutely everything you want, including some time with your families if you have any, and thanks for following me via Vogons! Ciao for now!

DracoNihil wrote on 2021-12-18, 14:09:

I wonder what it looks like on analytics when all I'm doing is downloading videos to RAM to watch them locally in my media player.

So long as people watch, I'm not too worried about how they watch! I've done the same thing with YouTube series in the past.

Update the forty-seventh!

Like an Oscar-Winner when they hear the music to get off the stage but don't move, Lawnie is still making retro gaming videos despite it nearly being 2022!

This week's scripted video was a sequel to Best Bang for your Buck. This time it focused on the 2000s! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QuzM9oiCY0

The Random DOS Game show also had its annual Christmas special. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9bQgHFO8Qc

Amidst all the random DOS gaming there were two clear standouts: Dreamweb, a dark cyberpunk adventure game played top-down. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caBujDAHBtA

...and Terry Pratchett's Discworld! A fantastic point and click adventure game with great voice acting that apparently suffers from severe moon logic/adventure game logic. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DONSPxcsz-4

He can't keep getting away with this! Will Lawnie return for yet another week of Vogons spam to bring in the new year? Why yes, yes he will! Until then!

Update the forty-eighth!

Like an armadillo curled into a ball, Lawnie lost all track of time and posted an update late!

This week's scripted video looked at spiritual successors for twenty minutes! It's a long one, but features a lot of interesting games in a lot of cool genres. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_YY3kMdmTM

Veil of Darkness stood out in the Random DOS Game land, an adventure/RPG hybrid with a horror theme. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcFJ36Sy86Q

There was also the mildly entertaining FMV clue em' up Sherlock Holmes! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLuLwUPgphI

What? You were expecting more? You've been spoiled!

Ahah... you briefly mentioned Cruelty Squad.

That game really was the nicest FPS I ever played in this decade.

DracoNihil wrote on 2022-01-05, 22:50:

That game really was the nicest FPS I ever played in this decade.

It's absolutely bizarre, isn't it? But once you get past the design choices there's actually a really good game in there!

Update the forty-ninth!

Like an oil tanker careening toward the coastline at the hands of a drunk captain, more updates from Lawnie were both inevitable and unstoppable!

This week's scripted video pitted Croina against the disastrously bad Depth Dwellers, an awful FPS from the 90s. The results were unsurprising, to say the least. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqjLqT76b8A

In keeping with the FPS theme, the Soundfont Showdown returned for its third part looking into fonts under 32mb, and what better rock track to try them with than Lee Jackson's Grabbag? COME GET SOME! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HT6D1vMqItE

The first notable game in Random DOS land was the seminal turn-based strategy title Jagged Alliance, which was completely out of my wheelhouse but I really enjoyed myself despite that! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UiT-bdyvGA

Platforming fans also appreciated the appearance of Zool! Who recently recieved a remaster. I played the original with MUNT giving me a bevvy of effects. It was just okay, but again, I'm no platforming fan! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uv50I4N2h60

Was there more? Of course there was more! You'll have to actually visit the channel to see the likes of Reader Rabbit and The Stele Chronicles though!

Will Lawnie return next week? Surely that's becoming a silly question by now, right? We're almost up to a year of Vogons updates now! Madness!