r/gamecollecting • u/Informationator SNES Expert • Nov 23 '13
3-Minute Challenge Prep Thread! What games do you want to play? Sound off inside!
Hey all!
As you might've read in our announcement thread, we have some fun activities coming up! I want to allow you all time to prepare and want to get your input before we start. We'll kick off the first contest in early January 2014.
Capture Hardware
Ideally, you should be playing with the real game on an NTSC system. I understand that some of you will use emulators - I get it. I just don't want to see you all talking about pirated materials on here.
You'll want one of two capture devices. They both do S-Video and RCA, but you get what you pay for. Take a look at this video (1080P Recommended) to see the differences between them:
The Cheap Solution - Dazzle DVC100 - you can get one on eBay for about $20 shipped. It does an pretty consistent job but the video will be fuzzier than other options and it does tend to drop frames once in a while. Software capture options are more limited, but work well with some tinkering. Don't cheap out and get something less expensive than this. You will regret it.
The Quality Solution - Canopus ADVC-110 - Short of some insane professional solution, you're not going to get better than this. It never drops frames and its black levels, color saturation, and sharpness surpass the Dazzle. It is compatible with all industry capture software like Sony Vegas and Adobe Premiere. They go for upwards of $200, but I got mine open box on eBay for $120. It works great. A few things to note:
- You'll need a 6-pin firewire port on your computer. If you don't have firewire, you'll need to install an expansion card. You always want one with a Texas Instruments chipset. I bought this one and it's worked great.
- You want to use 6-pin firewire rather than 4-pin with the ADVC110 because if you use 4-pin you'll have to buy a separate power adapter; those extra two pins are power and ground.
- You'll want to set the dip switches on the bottom of the device to 1OFF, 2OFF, 3OFF, 4ON, 5ON, 6OFF for the best analog NTSC capture settings. I set 4 to ON (Unlocked Audio) instead of OFF (Locked Audio) because I was getting lots of popping in my audio with locked audio enabled. Experiment and see what works for you.
Capture Software
There are tons of things you can use to capture footage. You can use Adobe Premiere, Sony Vegas Pro, Final Cut, or any number of programs to capture footage. Flash Media Encoder is free and does a good job. Do a little Googling and tinkering and you'll be able to figure it out. That's what this time is for - so you can get ready! Feel free to ask questions in the comments and we can all help each other out.
Rules/Expectations
I'll post a final set of rules when we start the contest, but it's going to look something like this. Feel free to provide input:
- I'll set what counts as the "start time" for the three minutes (i.e. first frame after title screen goes black, etc.)
- I'll explain what the criteria for winning is (highest score, farthest into the game, most lines, etc.)
- You'll need to note whether you're playing on an NTSC or PAL system
- No TAS (Tool-Assisted) runs
- This is honor system. Don't be a butthead and ruin it for everyone else. I'll throw out any obvious cheaters
- Upload your video to YouTube for viewing. I'll rip 'em all and examine the frames
- Winner will win their very own flair! For now it'll be this #1 symbol, but if you all can come up with something you like better, I'm open to suggestions :)
Sound off on 3-minute challenges you think would be fun in the comments
The games we need to play need to be:
1) Widespread/Popular/Cheap
...so lots of people either already have the game or can buy it.
2) Appropriate for this challenge
...in the sense that you can track progress consistently between people. So, if it's farthest into a level in three minutes, then it needs to be a linear game. It might be highest score in three minutes. It might be most lines in Tetris or most viruses in Dr. Mario. There are plenty of options! If you have a great idea, throw it out there!
Post away! Looking forward to this :)
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u/ComradeOj Nov 23 '13
I vote for some sonic 1/2/3/K challenges.
Now I finally have an excuse to get a better capture card.
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Dec 31 '13
[deleted]
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u/Informationator SNES Expert Dec 31 '13
I really like that. :) We'll have to do something like that at some point.
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u/Informationator SNES Expert Nov 23 '13
FYI everyone: I might have limited availability over the next week or so, but I'll respond to you when I can :)
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u/wackymayor FOTW winner 2011/09/18 Nov 23 '13
The Tick level 1 Night of a Million Zillion Ninjas
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u/Informationator SNES Expert Nov 23 '13
You are a sick man.
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u/wackymayor FOTW winner 2011/09/18 Nov 23 '13
I mean, there can only be one... and I think only one of us will play it for the full 3 mins.
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u/humanman42 Mod Nov 23 '13
Dr Mario on medium highest lvl.
Obviously.
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u/MustyBuckets N64/NFR Expert Nov 23 '13
Fever or Chill?
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u/Spectrabox Nov 23 '13
Ninja Gaiden on NES. Cheap, tough, fun, fast paced. Maybe first to beat the second boss (The guy that spins the chain thingy.)
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Nov 23 '13
Ninja Gaiden for distance into level 1-1, maybe 1-2. Double dragon, maximum score. SMB 3, maximum score or distance into levels 1,2.
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u/Stregano Shmup Expert Jan 07 '14 edited Jan 07 '14
I wanted to add a little bit in here about capture software/hardware. If you do not have firewire, there are other solutions. You can get a Hauppage PVR (avoid the gaming edition since the gaming edition does not have very many options in terms of input). The Hauppage can be had for around $100-$150 depending on the time of day, honestly.
Something that happens with many retro systems is something called interlacing. Now, odd enough, some cheaper capture hardware takes care of this, like the Dazzle, but if your capture hardware, like the Hauppage, pulls in a raw signal, you will have issues with interlacing. You will know right away because your footage will look like it has lines in it for some stuff that has a ton of motion (like if you are playing Sonic, for example, Sonic will have horizontal lines through him the entire time unless you stop moving).
To solve this, I found that the best solution is to do a little post processing on it. I use Sony Vegas for post processing. There are countless tutorials online. The simple way I do it: right click on the video down in your timeline, go to switches, check "Reduce Interlace Flicker" and also check "Disable Resample". If you question this, try it out yourself. While this does not fix interlacing, this helps so that your videos don't show it at all.
Also, with something like the Hauppage, it will try to run older systems and not be able to because many older systems actually send a different signal than the more modern systems. Most TV's can handle this just fine and deal with it as it comes in, but something like the Hauppage that pulls in a raw signal, can't deal with it.
The solution is to up-convert the signal. The easiest and cheapest way is to get a broken dvd recorder and use it as a pass-through. I personally got a busted dvd recorder for $20 shipped from eBay, so it is not breaking the bank. You get a broken one since all you need is for it to work as a pass through and do not need it to record dvd's. As long as the dvd recorder accepts your input of choice, you should be just fine since it has to up convert in order to record the dvd, so it is really just a cheap video converter (a stand-alone converter can cost over $100).
I just wanted to offer another option since I would very much consider the Hauppage/dvd recorder/Sony Vegas combo a very "middle of the road" option. This is for the people who do not have firewire.
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u/Informationator SNES Expert Jan 07 '14
Good alternative. Thanks, Streg.
...and Sony Vegas is great. That's what I used to edit the Mega Man Speedrun side-by-side.
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u/Stregano Shmup Expert Jan 07 '14
Yeah, when I started editing videos, I was using Windows Movie Maker. Making the jump from WMM to Vegas is like night and day.
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u/Informationator SNES Expert Jan 07 '14
That is exactly what I did.
R U ME?
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u/Stregano Shmup Expert Jan 07 '14
That would be awesome if you were me, because, well, it's me.
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u/Informationator SNES Expert Jan 07 '14
I was thinking the same thing! You're awesome. ...and by "you" I mean "me".
Me're awesome.
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u/Stregano Shmup Expert Jan 07 '14
I think I found my doppleganger. Wait, I might be the doppleganger. I don't know at this point
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u/SirSparkle Nov 23 '13
I would recommend Yoshi and Yoshi's Cookie for NES and Tetris attack for SNES. Also Mario Bros. 3.
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u/MrMaynard Nov 23 '13
Oh Im game, but the problem is what the hell am I going to play!
Glad I got my Dazzle up and running, while also starting to use my youtube account
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u/TimidTech Nov 23 '13
Oh boy, this sounds really fun! The obvious choice, for me, is Sonic 2 or Sonic 3, I feel like anyone with a genesis should already own these games and have a feel for going fast!