Here Comes the Motherload

Yes people, it's that time again - the time I buy my annual 8 games off Amazon. I've given up on Lego game reviews, so I doubt I'm getting another Lego game any time in the future. Besides, the only one I've heard I'm really missing out on is Drome Racers, and we all know how that turned out...

Yeah, I don't really want to buy it again anyway. I also got four Backyard Sports games last year, and gameplay'd all of those. Check 'em out if you wish. Let's get on with it.

GAME NUMBER ONE: Putt-Putt's One-Stop Fun Shop
Yes people, I am getting the One-Stop Fun Shop titles. These and Pajama Sam's Games to Play on Any Day are the only games for the "Big Four" HE characters I do not have. If you don't already know, these are basic activity games. They're nothing too special, but they allow you to do stuff such as paper cut-outs, growth charts, storybooks, etc. It's general children's arts and crafts. The thing is, these games have had no footage on YouTube whatsoever. Well, that's a lie, brends11 had footage, but of course he closed his old account so that vanished. I think I should also mention that Nancy Cartwright was voicing Putt-Putt at the time of this game's release, just as a fun fact. Next game...

GAME NUMBER TWO: Freddi Fish's One-Stop Fun Shop
What I said above pretty much applies here. Likewise, brends had footage to this game too, but it's also vanished. I'd REALLY like to know why he closed his account, I saw absolutely no reason to. Meh, it is his decision, so whatever. Next game...

GAME NUMBER THREE: Pajama Sam's One-Stop Fun Shop
Unlike the previous two, this game has had no footage. Zero. Nada. What I said about Putt-Putt's version applies here just as well, so there's really nothing else to talk about. Next...

GAME NUMBER FOUR: Backyard Baseball 2001
Alright, we made it to the meat of this list - the Backyard Sports. Funnily enough, this was the first Backyard game I ever played. I originally played it at a friend's house...well, not exactly, you see, during Kindergarten, I would always go somewhere before school, as I had afternoon Kindergarten. On one day of the week, I and a bunch of other friends would get together at one girl's house - her mother was eager to entertain us. After we did a craft or wrote letters or something, we had free time and could play on their computer as an option. This game was one of our first choices - it's what got me hooked onto the series, after all. The reason the original Backyard Baseball was my first Backyard game instead of this was because a neighbor had a leftover copy and gave it to us, but that's a whole 'nother back story altogether. Whatever, I'm going into a tangent now, on with my opinion of the actual game. The opinions on this game are a mixed bag - some liked the pros, some didn't. I was the latter. I felt they were way too overpowered and had little personality. They felt like a total gimmick and took away from the game IMO. The Backyard kids are full of personality and fun. The pros...not so much. I digress, it's almost identical to the original besides, save for graphical changes. Even the sounds and voice clips went unchanged. Kind of a bummer. Ah well, next.

GAME NUMBER FIVE: Backyard Baseball 2003
Yes people, I'm aware Hondo20132 has gameplay of this up, but I'll film a full game instead of cutting several innings ahead. Gameplay-wise, the game is largely unchanged from its predecessor. Sound-wise...oh boy. The voice track got a total makeover, and none of the characters sound anywhere near like they did before. They're still tolerable once you get past that though. Before you say I'm a HE fanboy and was a total jerk to Atari's Pajama Sam voice actor, well, they wanted to make sure you weren't listening to the same voice track for the third time in a row for one. Also, keep in mind in PJS4, they were actually trying to find a VA that sounded similar to Pamela Adlon. So, the one we ended up with was supposed to be similar to the older games. Here, the VAs weren't necessarily supposed to sound similar. Case closed. Off of that tangent, it's about the same gameplay-wise. They did add a few fields though.

GAME NUMBER SIX: Backyard Soccer
I played this at the said "friend's house" too. It's just like MLS Edition, except you don't get pros and you can play as Mr. Clanky after finishing the season. That, and you get a freaking reward for finishing the season. Really, why did they take out the reward in MLS Edition? This game has had no proper footage on YouTube, but seeing how it's a 256-color game, that's understandable. I have very little to say about it, honestly.

GAME NUMBER SEVEN: Backyard Soccer 2004
The Backyard Soccer equivalent of Backyard Baseball 2003 - the voice track got a makeover and sound was changed entirely. I don't know much about this game except the fact that it has no proper gameplay on YouTube, so this will be interesting.

GAME NUMBER EIGHT: Backyard Hockey
The final game on our list. I played this at a friend's house but never actually owned it. I think it was one of HE's final games. All the characters were redesigned in this game, but it's still a fairly enjoyable game. No footage of it exists on YouTube, so this will be interesting.

Well, that's all I have to say. The times I get these up depends on how long it will take for me to be ready for it. If someone requests me, it will make it more likely for me to do that game first, but it all depends. I'll probably regret saying that, but whatever. Just a quick update on this rarely-updated blog. Goodbye everybody.
UPDATE: The data file that has the music in Baseball 2003 is scratched beyond repair. It's still playable, I just can't have the music. I'll reorder it quickly.
Reply: Turns out it wasn't beyond repair, I bought a CD repair and it worked perfectly after that. So, false alarm.
UPDATE 2: A data file on Backyard Hockey is scratched beyond repair and the game refuses to run. I'll rebuy this one too. Geez, I have never been this unlucky when it comes to the mail.
UPDATE 3: Instead of Putt-Putt's One-Stop Fun Shop, the incredibly ignorant sellers gave me Putt-Putt Saves the Zoo. SERIOUSLY, THREE MAIL MISHAPS IN ONE ORDER. I'm really mad about this. Can these sellers learn basic mail etiquette?

My Recording Setup for Walkthroughs

A lot of people have asked me how I make my walkthroughs. This is not for LPs - this is for the commentary-free ones, so if you want to do commentary, look elsewhere. Anyway, let's get on with this.
For the most part, I use HyperCam 2. HyperCam 2 has been free for a long time now, so don't worry about the stupid "Unregistered HyperCam 2" watermark. It's free to use in this day and age. You can download it here.
When you open it, you should start at this screen:

 So, the first thing you want to do is uncheck "Show rectangle around the recorded area" but check "Make this rectangle blink". If you don't, the video will play faster than the audio and it goes way off-sync. I'd also recommend you check "Iconize HyperCam Window to the Task Bar". This way it will stay out of your way but you can still check its status at any time. I leave my computer at 1024 x 768 res, so a windowed 640 x 480 game will typically be at 192 start x 157 start y. Now for the next screen:

This is how my hotkeys are set up. These I have nothing to comment on, just tweak it to your liking.

 I scribbled over part of this picture to obscure my real name. Anyway, this is the one most people would like to know about. I use Ligos Indeo 5.11, which most people wouldn't have. You should easily find it or 4.5 free to download somewhere on the net, it's free stuff. YouTube has a 30 FPS cap, so there is no need to go over that. As for what I have configured in the compressor...

I was able to achieve minimal file size with it configured this way. Before I did it this way, I was getting files of ludicrous sizes like 10 GB in a 15-minute video. Now I achieve about 1 GB in that time. This is the best way I have found, and it works quite well. Moving onward...

Oh boy, sound. This is easily the most fun part of the whole thing. I'm being sarcastic, of course. Sound is the biggest pain in the butt when it comes to finding out how to record video. It's pretty sad when this becomes a bigger pain than all else. For the few who still use Windows XP like me, it gets a little bit cryptic, but I'll do my best to walk you through this. Firstly, go right click the volume icon on your task bar and click "Open Volume Control. Now go here:

This screen should pop up:

 

 Guess what? You're at the wrong place. Click the "Recording" prompt.

What the actual sound is varies. I have Stereo Mix, which is relatively common in most computers, even today. Check whatever you think is the correct option, and if you are unsure, once this is done keep repeating through trial-and-error and you'll eventually get it. Click OK and...

Pick "Select" to what you think is the correct one. The ones you had checked in the previous screen are the ones you'll find here. You may also want to adjust the volume; remember, your speaker volumes are not the capture volumes. In fact, even if you mess with the speaker volume in the middle of a recording, the volume inside the recording will not change at all. HyperCam is quite sensitive, and starts overpeaking even if you barely go high at all. Once that's checked, you are good to go. Just pick your audio device in the drop-down menu in HyperCam and you are set.

Now for Vista/7 users. You guys thankfully have a much less cryptic one. These pictures were taken off YouTube user DJCandyz, so credit to him. First, right click the volume icon on the taskbar just like in XP and click "Recording Devices":

Now you'll get this:

Hold it there, this isn't what we want. In fact, it's far from what we want. Right click and pick "Show Disabled Devices":

Alright, NOW we can move on. You should see some more devices. More than likely the one you want is going to look like a circuit board. That's the option you want. Right-click it and pick "Enable":

Go select your sound card in HyperCam's settings, and presto! You are set for sound! Geez, why is it so cryptic to do this?

Whew! Alright, back to where we were what seems like years ago. This is my setup. I chose 16-bit because in 8-bit, either you get a lot of white noise or the audio overpeaks. Bad thing. I also have it recording at 22 khz, but I've never messed with that. Alright, FINALLY onto the next thing.

Tweak these to your liking. The record cursor option is something you should uncheck sparingly - unless a game uses a virtual cursor and HyperCam puts the regular cursor on the screen with it, you should leave this checked. It allows people to follow along with the video much more easily. For the starburst, use it when you only feel it's necessary. I have used it in my debug videos, when I often show I'm clicking on something and it's doing nothing. For the mouse click volume, PLEASE DON'T USE IT. It's annoying as heck and adds little to the video. Just go with the starburst option if you really want people to know. The screen notes are something I almost never use; the one time I used it was in my Freddi Fish 4 walkthrough where I took messing with debug mode a little too far and had to note why my purple sea urchin count suddenly went up. These options are left untouched for the most part though.

Well, that'll do it. Some pointers:

- When you're recording the game, make sure it records well. If HyperCam is not fond of a particular game you want to record, I suggest finding something else.

- DO NOT RECORD DIRECT3D GAMES WITH HYPERCAM. You will get a very flashy, seizure-inducing effect. It is not pleasant to look at. Go get Fraps for that kind of stuff.

- To record full screen games, first check what the resolution is. Most older games are at 640 x 480, and I assume that's what you want to use HyperCam for. Set it to Start x and y at 0, and when the game has loaded start recording.

- To record 256 color games, wait until the game starts. Then begin recording. If you start before the game transitions to 256 color mode, it will appear messed up. 

- For heaven's sake, do not record full screen games while recording your whole desktop and then opening the game. I sure as heck don't want to see a huge black border around the game, let alone having it a really small unsee-able box.

Well, that's all. I hope this tutorial helped. For those who ask, I will not make a Fraps tutorial because that program is easy to use and picks your sound card stuff for you. It's $37, so no it is not free. Anyway, I hope this tutorial helped, and if it did, I'll be glad to see you begin to make walkthroughs yourself.