Video MANIA

Good thing GameVideos worked (most of) the kinks out of their video player last week, because I’m suddenly finding myself promoting an unusual amount of GV material. In this case, it’s Retronauts Bonus Stage, a miniature video podcast. And unlike most nerd videocasts, there is exactly ZERO footage of the pasty people whose voices you’re hearing. That makes it automatically better than the bulk of YouTube’s original content, I’d say.

Yes, fine, this episode is kind of rough, and I sound like a slightly coked-up used car salesman at the start, but we’re still hammering out the format and tamping down our rattling nerves. Bonus Stage will get better, honest. Much, much better. I swear! Be gentle. Subscribe to the RSS feed and collect them all!

P.S. My Wii Address Book is totally full up. Sorry to anyone who desperately wanted in on that so-hot action. I bet you’ll survive, somehow.

34 thoughts on “Video MANIA”

  2. No footage of your “alternate,” Ristar? That one should definitely get some in-game footage at least, just because so few people played it.

    And you seemed to be implying Ristar was Sonic Team, but that’s not right. It seems a few of the Sonic CD/Chaotix team worked on it, though.

  3. Short and sweet yeah, next time you cam maybe play a bit into the game, not just take videos from each games intro/first stage only.

  4. I enjoyed it, but I really wish it had been longer. The R-Type business was particularly fun.

  5. Nope, I’m determined to keep the length at roughly five minutes per episode. Future episodes will generally focus on a single game at a time, though, so there’ll be more substance.

  9. There has to be at least one person out there in the world who can convince Jeremy that friends are good things. Then we get them to hang out and Parish will start playing games where you sit next to someone. It’s foolproof.

  10. Very nicely done, but that “gamevideos.com” player … well, I’m sorry, but it kinda… sucks. Hard. I think it paused the video 7 times while I was watching it to buffer, and the last video you posted had the same problem (different times of day, just in case you were wondering). Maybe it’s just me, but… well, whatever. I’m starting to sound way too whiny here. Looking forward to the next one. (And you guys all sound the same! I can’t tell you apart!)

  11. The advantage of the video footage of pasty nerds talking in a room is I can tell them apart. Otherwise, videos are fun to watch!

  13. Making fun of Youtube content twice in a short period of time… for the exact same (obvious) reason…. It’s like shooting fish in a barrel. C’mon, Parish, you can do better than this.

  14. The new video player is way better than the old one, in part because it tells you how much it’s buffered. So, Keithius, you can manually buffer by pausing it and doing other stuff until the progress bar is more filled in with gray.

    Also I found it quite easy to distinguish between the protagonist’s and antagonist’s voices, here.

  15. Yeah, the focusing on one game thing would probably be pretty cool. It just felt like it went pretty fast, and I was hoping to hear more talk of castlevania 4.

  17. It’s been my experience that flash player load times are entirely dependent on the end-user’s bandwidth. For instance, on the ridiculously fast internet here at school, I managed to load the entire Bonus Stage episode in, like, three seconds. You want it faster, pony up some money for better internet access (or break into a college dorm).

  18. Keep in mind that GameVideos is still in beta, in keeping with the finest Web 2.0 traditions.

    As for me making the same YouTube jokes over and over, I wouldn’t doubt it. My blogs are completely slapdash and I forget what I’ve written from one day to the next. It’s a miracle I don’t regurgitate the same material more often.

  20. The embedded player works great for me, which is more than I can say for the actual GameVideos *site*, which has brought more than one of my browser/PC configurations to its knees. So embed away, I say.

  22. I dig the Bonus Stage. And I really liked the last podcast, and not only because I was mentioned on it (Ian S.). I wouldn’t mind seeing (er, hearing) more on game music in future episodes.

  23. Hey, Parish. Remember that Yasumi Matsuda feature you did on 1up? I would love to see some video podcast about it, or something special like that. I doesn’t have to be always about Virtual Console, XBLive or PS3 download service releases, right?

  24. Speaking of not liking Treasure, whatever happened to that Embarrassing Companies article about them? Disappeared into the void I suppose?

  25. My only issue with Bonus Stage (which was great) is that it was about LAST week. What about the games that came out yesterday, before Bonus Stage?

    My advice would be to DL and play games in the morning. Film Bonus Stage before you leave, then GO BACK IN TIME and post Bonus Stage that morning so we can enjoy it in a timely fashion.

    Then it would be perfect.

  27. Oh, yeah, I forgot about that one Embarassing Companies thing. I wish I’d read it, but I didn’t know what Treasure was at the time. Now it seems like I own a fourth of the games they’ve worked on.

  30. Don’t blame me, blame Treasure for making such a boring game.

    But I kid. Footage quality is but one of many things that need to improve in future episodes.

  32. I’m not sure about the less memorization thing about R-Type III. Remember the mazey 5th stage?

    Awesome game still. Got it complete just a few years ago off of eBay, and I just might d/l it again. (Once I get my mitts on a Classic Controller at least.)

  33. I’ve found GamesVideos doesn’t like Safari for some reason, but FireFox on Mac is OK. I’m guessing there is some sloppy javascript involved in addition to the Flash interface.

  34. This video changes nothing. I still think Toasty and Sharkey are the same person. Clever audio editing techniques don’t fool me

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