Haha, I almost spewed my sweet tea when I saw that line about Ruins of Myth Drannor. Thanks for not calling it Pool of Radiance. That games does NOT deserve that title. It's really fun that I've managed to talk to about three different people who were involved in the original PoR, including the guy who wrote the music (Warhol) and the main programmer (Brors). That must have been one heckuva team! I only wish they had been a bit more persistent about updating the engine; no matter how great the content, I like to see noticeable improvements from year to year. Richard Garriott definitely had the same mindset with his Ultima series. He was always taking things to the next level, and I admire that about him.
I am sad to say that I never played any of the Ultimas growing up. I don't know how I managed to miss them, really. I guess it was just dumb luck that brought me to Bard's Tale and Pool of Radiance. I also missed Dungeon Master, the LucasArts adventure games, and Eye of the Beholder. There's this big gap in my gaming in the early 90s, because I was stuck with an old Amiga 1000 and a Commodore 64, with hardly any way to get new software. Of course I was unable to do much gaming in college due to the expense and studying required, but I'm trying to make up for it now. It's kind of sad for me, though, because I know I would've adored all those games. So random--like how'd I end up with something like Police Quest and didn't get to play any other Sierra games until much later. OF course you can go back and play them, but it's never as exciting.
I don't really like having the microphone on screen, but I was hoping it would give me better sound quality. I'll have to keep tinkering to try to find the best arrangement.
Those cutaways should be a simple matter, but it is pure, living hell getting them into the videos. Murphy's Law is always in full effect. It's hell actually getting usable footage that sounds and looks decent, and then Sony Vegas will give you a hernia. It is always bogging down, and the long-ass rendering times (1.5 hours for a 10 minute video??) will frequently crash 3/4 the way through and I'll have to start over. I've ordered some more RAM (2 more gigs, which will bring me to 8), so I'm hoping that will at least alleviate this issue. I usually have everything done around 4 or 5 p.m., but it's more like midnight before the goddamn thing has finally rendered and uploaded. Just such an unforgiving thing.
If I knew what I do now, I'd recommend that folks just put together a dedicated machine for rendering and video capture. That way you could focus on just playing the games on your main rig. If I keep doing Matt Chats, I'm sure I'll eventually want to buy or build such a system. I don't imagine it would be that expensive, but it would have to be pretty powerful, with a fast processor, top notch capture card, lots of RAM, and a big, fast hard drive. I guess it wouldn't need anything special in the GPU department. I wonder what such a thing would end up costing.
Haha, I almost spewed my sweet tea when I saw that line about Ruins of Myth Drannor. Thanks for not calling it Pool of Radiance. That games does NOT deserve that title. It's really fun that I've managed to talk to about three different people who were involved in the original PoR, including the guy who wrote the music (Warhol) and the main programmer (Brors). That must have been one heckuva team! I only wish they had been a bit more persistent about updating the engine; no matter how great the content, I like to see noticeable improvements from year to year. Richard Garriott definitely had the same mindset with his Ultima series. He was always taking things to the next level, and I admire that about him.
I am sad to say that I never played any of the Ultimas growing up. I don't know how I managed to miss them, really. I guess it was just dumb luck that brought me to Bard's Tale and Pool of Radiance. I also missed Dungeon Master, the LucasArts adventure games, and Eye of the Beholder. There's this big gap in my gaming in the early 90s, because I was stuck with an old Amiga 1000 and a Commodore 64, with hardly any way to get new software. Of course I was unable to do much gaming in college due to the expense and studying required, but I'm trying to make up for it now. It's kind of sad for me, though, because I know I would've adored all those games. So random--like how'd I end up with something like Police Quest and didn't get to play any other Sierra games until much later. OF course you can go back and play them, but it's never as exciting.
I don't really like having the microphone on screen, but I was hoping it would give me better sound quality. I'll have to keep tinkering to try to find the best arrangement.
Those cutaways should be a simple matter, but it is pure, living hell getting them into the videos. Murphy's Law is always in full effect. It's hell actually getting usable footage that sounds and looks decent, and then Sony Vegas will give you a hernia. It is always bogging down, and the long-ass rendering times (1.5 hours for a 10 minute video??) will frequently crash 3/4 the way through and I'll have to start over. I've ordered some more RAM (2 more gigs, which will bring me to 8), so I'm hoping that will at least alleviate this issue. I usually have everything done around 4 or 5 p.m., but it's more like midnight before the goddamn thing has finally rendered and uploaded. Just such an unforgiving thing.
If I knew what I do now, I'd recommend that folks just put together a dedicated machine for rendering and video capture. That way you could focus on just playing the games on your main rig. If I keep doing Matt Chats, I'm sure I'll eventually want to buy or build such a system. I don't imagine it would be that expensive, but it would have to be pretty powerful, with a fast processor, top notch capture card, lots of RAM, and a big, fast hard drive. I guess it wouldn't need anything special in the GPU department. I wonder what such a thing would end up costing.
Matt Barton, Managing Editor
Location: St. Cloud, Minnesota, USA
Email: matt@armchairarcade.com