Masked Longplayer

Hey there, everyone.
Just a quick question I'd like to ask you all, to measure out an interest, as usual.
After starting to record videos on actual consoles and working a real LOT on the overall presentation (like the CRT stuff), I started pouring more and more time into this whole process.
Which brings me to an important point: this channel has been surviving for many years with low views and relatively small base of subscribers. It has always been mostly about passion about games in general, about preserving retro games and showcasing new ones. So as you can imagine, it doesn't really bring any money - or, to be more precisely, almost zero. Just the pocket change from ads. Which was okay for an occasional hobby, but if I wanted to get serious and do a lot more of walkthroughs of this quality, then the logical next step would be to consider memberships, like the Youtube membership and Patreon one.
And that's where I need to understand if there are actually people who are interested in this kind of support for the channel. The question is simple - would you consider supporting the channel montly, and if yes, then what would be the more desired option? I'm working out the list of perks for now, like ability to influence what comes at what days, specific game and challenge requests, access to raw unedited captured footage and so on, and there probably would be just 1 or 2 tiers, nothing crazy.
What I want to understand if it's even desired in the first place. So if you have anything to say or ask, you can leave comments below this post.
Have a good day, everyone!

2 weeks ago | [YT] | 5

Masked Longplayer

Sup, ladies and gents.
Just a quick thing I've been meaning to share with everyone in regards to my non-gamedev videos, a.k.a. game walkthroughs. As some of you know, a cheating-detective-turned-lolcow Karl Jobst made a low-effort video where my channel got 1 minute of shame for my "not so transparent" presentation about me using tools such as savestates, even on actual consoles (possible through flashcarts like Everdrive), without mentioning it literally everywhere - in the title, in the description, in each comment, and so on. And while I could care less about irrelevant critique of non-competitive walkthrough videos by a self-appointed control freak, the whole debacle actually gave me a good idea about how to further develop my channel.
If you think about it, there exist a lot of longplay/walkthrough channels on youtube. And most of them only vary slightly by the skill of the player, while visually, corresponding games look about the same - pixelated, sometimes ratio-skewed. People even do pixelated 4K stuff, which I absolutely don't understand, but I digress.
Anyway, here's where my idea comes in. I never claimed I have great gaming skills "in general". I often struggle with high-intensity games, probably more so than other gamers. Hell, in my life I broke 10+ controllers in various feats of rage, while trying to beat some of the games. My point is, skills aren't my greatest fit. But what I do have, is genuine interest to present game walkthroughs in esthetically pleasing manner.
To that end, over the last year, I've acquired most of the consoles that were ever officially released - from both original NES and Famicom, to Genesis Model 1 and 2, Japanese Super Famicom, to all Sony's from PS1 to PS5, to both original and 360 XBox, Dreamcast, PCEngine, NeoGeo CD, Saturn, 3DO - the list can go on, and it's extensive. I'm moving from recording the games in emulators, to recording them through actual hardware, where I actually have that hardware (hello, wonderswan), and I intentionally capture them through either SCART or RCA cables and RetroTink 2X. The goal is to have the footage as authentically looking as possible.
But as we know, some stuff like CRT screen aesthetics cannot be captured with capture card. That's why, afterwards, I enhance the footage further with software like Shaderglass with special filters, emulating CRT effects - it adds scanlines, ghosting, bleeding/blending, and other things. The way I make it look, I try to match what I see on my Flatron 795FT Plus CRT Monitor. The resulting videos have "CRT Walkthrough" as part of their titles, and you can already see several videos were released in this format. All future videos for retro-consoles will be out in this format only, though videos for platforms like Wii, PS3, X360 and alike will be remain in clean HD format.
Have fun, and don't hesitate to let me know your thoughts on the matter. Your likes and comments help shape the channel as it moves forward.
Have a good day.

1 month ago | [YT] | 6

Masked Longplayer

Hey guys. I'd like to clarify some things in regards to my latest projects, since there are a lot of questions about that coming in both Yutube and Discord. Particularly, in regards to Digimon World 2 HD.
As of now, the project is paused. It's not cancelled, though. While waiting for Bandai representatives' response for months, and getting none, I decided to fully submerge myself into another project, codenamed "Crystallis", as many of saw by the posts and videos on the Channel. This project is my personal property, it's not a remake or a hack of some existing game, I create it from scratch. And while waiting for DMW2HD, I got to a point with Crystallis where it actually looks like something I can complete and release as a fully commercial project. So that's what I decided to focus on fully. That's why I've decided to put the DMW2HD on hiatus for the time being, and get this project released, before I can get back to working in remake.
DMW2HD is ultimately my hobby project, and once I get back to it, it'll be finished as a non-commercial fan project, and released for free. I estimate my work on Crystallis for about 2 next years top, and for now I'll focus on working on it, with most of the progress videos scheduled towards later, maybe the end of this year, when there's more to show, aside from basic gameplay mechanics I'm working on now.
So for now, please stay tuned, and thanks for your attention.

2 months ago | [YT] | 18

Masked Longplayer

Hey everyone.
Just a quick heads-up/update for the Channel - I'm taking a temporary vacation from posting any kind of content for the next month. I haven't taken any breaks from posting videos ever since I've started the channel, so the burnout has finally crept in, especially considering all the side-projects and other real world stuff.
So here's hoping I'll get back fresh and energized in April, with new videos, including new stuff on Crystallis.
Have a good day!

5 months ago | [YT] | 18

Masked Longplayer

Hey, ladies and gents.
I decided to start an interesting walkthrough series regarding Dark Souls 1. But since many content creators are doing hard or weird challenge series, there's little to do in that category - no hit or LV1 runs aren't that fresh of an idea anymore, even if they do show skill. And "only X weapon" runs aren't exactly too fun nowadays too...
But then I thought... alright, the game plays with a concept that you can create whatever the character that you want; and, even though it's fun as a game mechanics, it relies heavily on player's imagination and creativity, which is why most of us eventually say "f@ck it" and go with Giant Dad, or some bulky mage build, or whatever.
But what if I told you that there is a more fun way to play the game, by imposing certain limitations based on existing characters and enemies from the game? The idea came to me after playing the Dark Souls Network Test Demo, where the game actually allowed you to pick actual character, as opposed to starting class - characters like Black Knight or Solaire. So I thought, it would be really interesting to recreate this in the final game, considering how many different characters with their own ammunition and armor exist. And we don't just talk NPCs here - every humanoid character or enemy that has something interesting to him or her is worth a try, in my opinion. Ofcourse, in this case a little stretch of imagination is expected, as I clearly can't grow or shrink in size for specific characters, but I still can "cosplay" them. Hence, the name of this whole project - "Dark Souls Cosplay Series". Starting classes are, ofcourse, worth their own runs too, provided I won't change their equipment too much.
I'll be using the PTDE / DSFix version of the game, not the remastered. The rules are simple: this is not "mad skillz" challenge, so I'm allowed to use a special save where I preemptively 100% the game, get max level and stats, and all equipment, spells and consumables, to be able to use the proper build from the get-go, the moment the game starts in Asylum. Naturally, All Bonfires are going to be pre-kindled to 20 and Estus Flask pre-upgraded to maximum, with Humanity at 99. The fun part of the challenge is rather in going through the game using only the equipment and behavior that the character would normally use, and nothing else (e.g. knight-type characters would not roll, even if they can use light or mid-roll; melee-focused characters wouldn't use spells, and so on). All in all, there are like 100+ characters like this, each with his/her own unique behavior and equipment, giving the runs unique flavors, even though it's going to be basically just a skipless speedrun of the game (all bosses). Normal enemies will mostly be ignored, offline invaders will be fought whenever they spawn, and co-op phantoms summoning is going to be something that's specific to the character in question - for instance, mad hollow styled character would not use any help, where as Solaire, a Cleric or any supportive type character definitely would.
Last but not least, it's important to understand that I'm going to limit myself to established characters/classes/builds that are canonical part of the game. That means no popular (or unpopular) community builds, as they are just mishmash of what is otherwise already in the game.
Except for GiantDad, ofcourse. THE LEGEND NEVER DIES.

6 months ago | [YT] | 8

Masked Longplayer

Sup everyone.
A lot of people are asking me whether I use emulators or actual consoles for recording retro games.
Just wanted to clarify that I actually utilize both. So far I've managed to get Genesis Model 1 and 2, US NES, PS1, PS2, PS3 and TurboGrafx16 consoles, as well as some Famiclones, as far original hardware goes. I also have a pretty stylish Retron 3 HD Setup (in the picture below), which frequently replaces NES/SNES/Genesis setups for my recordings. As for emulators, I have my Windows-driven ROG Ally Z1X, and use different emulators like Gens, Retroarch, PCSX2, RPCS3, Flycast, and others for different platforms.
The output from the consoles obviously does not look like CRT output, especially so if played on an LCD. That's why I apply special post-processing on the videos when I edit them and prepare them for the publishing on youtube. That's also when and where I add the side-bars to make the videos HD-aligned.
As for cartridges, I use various Everdrives (currently I have N8 Pro, Mega Pro, FXPAK Pro and Turbo Pro). I'm not a collector, and I don't really like to have huge spaces occupied by hardware I don't use often enough, expecially if it needs periodic maintenance, so I appreciate the ability to have all the games loaded into single ultimate cartridge. On the other side, I have some of the cartridges which I've managed to preserve from my childhood, such as the FamiCollections (999999-in-1s, etc) and some standalone carts like Adventure island and Chip'n'Dale for NES, entire Sonic collection for Genesis, and some others. They aren't English though, as I got them locally back in the day.
So there you go. I know I've stated it many times in the comments under the videos, but I use save state features on emulators and on consoles through Everdrive carts. Other than that, I do announce when I use actual cheats in the games - either in the videos' titles, or in the descriptions. Trolls appear here and there, trying to trash comment sections under my videos, but I really don't have any tolerance to those - I always try to explain things normally to everyone at first, even though I already did so in the channel's description. But if someone does not want to listen - then it's their own problem; I don't have time for such people.
And for the rest of those that are simply curious - well, as you may have seen, I try to answer your questions in the comments every time. I do like to engage in conversations, I just don't like baseless aggression and trolling.
Have a nice day!

1 year ago | [YT] | 42

Masked Longplayer

Hello guys and gals.
Today I would like to make an official announcement regarding my new personal original Project, which I've started working on recently. It's based on Unreal Engine 5.
As of now, I've decided on the working name "Crystallis" - the final name will be different to avoid any copyright issues, but for now the project has to have the name that can be referenced.
A video discussing the details and references for the project will be out soon, but for now I can say that it's going to be a Single-Player Action RPG with Platforming/Puzzle elements. Vagrant Story and Dark Souls are the main inspirations behind it, but as I've mentined above, more details will be revealed in the follow-up video.
Unlike Digimon World 2 HD or Adventure Island 4 Plus, this one is completely my personal new IP, and therefore will be developed and released as a commercial product without any legal restrictions.
The main release platforms are planned to be the desktop ones (Windows, Linux, Mac), as well as Steamdeck (which is a special version of Linux under the HUD).
For now I don't know the extent of popularity the project will gain, but if it will be possible, and if it will make sense - I will also think about other platform ports.
For instance, Mobile Ports are not out of the Question, but will otherwise be hard to pull off, considering this is Unreal Engine 5, after all. Maybe latest generation iPads and Galaxies, we'll see.
Consoles like Switch or XBox are very much possible, but I will need to get a professional console developer license from Microsoft and Nintendo respectively for those, which is actually doable, even for individual developers.
Finally, PS5 is probably out of question simply because the only way to develop games for it is to rent a very expensive Development Kit from Sony, which, at this point, does not appear to be feasible and possible for me, because only big companies in specific world regions are applicable, so no individual devs. Time will tell though.
Attention-wise, though, this project will actually benefit from absolutely every ounce of exposure it can muster, so I'm really counting on the support from people who are genuinely interested in the quality games.
As the game industry in general stands right now, we're being burried by a squall of AI slop, "whatever" online-based senseless gameplay craze, and microtransation madness. I believe the industry is due for the next huge and glorious renaissance, and I intend to make my own contribution to it.
Kickstarter/Patreon/etc. is being considered, but for now it doesn't make sense to jump to those - first I'm going to work on the basic prototype, and when the project starts being fleshed out, I'll think about it, provided there will be anyone wishing to support it.
Stay tuned, and have a great day!

1 year ago (edited) | [YT] | 36

Masked Longplayer

Hello everyone.
A very important announcement regarding the Digimon World 2 HD Project here.
After I received a fake legal letter last year regarding the project, I've since become paranoid of the project's future. And then I've decided to further educate myself on the whole legal process regarding such projects, and the IP licensing as such.
Turns out, there IS a proper and official way of applying for licenses like this, and it may actually be possible for the project to become official and endorced/supported by Bandai Namco. The downside is that it will no longer be considered as free/open-source, and also I cannot share any discussion and development details in it's regards until everything is properly discussed and arranged with the IP owner.
As of now, I've applied for the license, but I haven't got any answer from Bandai's legal representative yet. The response may be one of several things - they can start negotiations for the commercial development; they can also refuse the whole thing and order me to stop working on the project; finally, they can refuse the commercial side but still endorce the project as the fan-game one.
Regardless of the potential future answer, I've decided to put the project on hold until the situation becomes clear. Unfortunately this process can last from several months to several years, depending on how Bandai reacts to this.
This does not mean the project is cancelled - it simply means it will be paused until the situation is fully resolved. I believe this is infinitely better than to shadow-develop it for a staggering amount of time, only to get taken down by the legal hammer out of nowhere.
Lastly, back when I was dealing with the fake letter, I've alluded to possibly starting a work on another project which has too been a passion of mine, should this one get cancelled or paused. It's not a fan-game, but rather an original IP which can freely be worked on. So while this Project goes on hiatus, I've decided to start a work on another one, so that I don't lose any time, and so that I still get to work on something cool that I can also share publicly with everyone.
Please stay tuned as I will soon announce what the next steps regarding all this situation will be.
Cheers!

1 year ago | [YT] | 84

Masked Longplayer

Hey guys,
I've decided to (temporarily) expand the amount of videos released, as I've started the walkthrough of TES: Oblivion Remastered. I already see myself why the game gets a reasonable amount of hate, but for me the original Oblivion is one of the best Western Action RPGs ever made, alongside Morrowind and Skyrim. And I've decided to do a full 100% playthough (meaning not only the main quest, but also absolutely everything - guilds, city quests, secret quests, daedric shrines, dlc quests, as well as explore all map locations). I want to do a true in-depth walkthrough which could server as a guidance point for other people, and I also want to (later) do the same walkthrough for the original game (albeit with some mods and patches, probably), so that we can see definitively what has changed between the 2 versions of the game.
If you're interested in these walkthroughs - they will be scheduled as 4 videos per week - meaning they will occupy the remaining slots that previously were empty - Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday.
They video are going to be long, but I'm structuring the whole walkthrough so that I do one quest at a time, meaning the videos will have strong and natural sense of continuity. That's also why there will be no premieres - they vids will be published as is.
If you're interested, and are generally fans of the TES games - your views, likes and comments will be greatly appreciated, as always. Have a good day, everyone.

1 year ago | [YT] | 18

Masked Longplayer

Sup guys. Another poll here.
Across several recent years, I've been trying to adapt different resolution videos from retro consoles to a FullHD format (1920x1080, which is 16:9), despite the fact that each of those consoles had it's own output screen ratio (ex. NES is 1.06666, Genesis - 1.518? etc.). In the end, though, we can all agreee that originally all these consoles were used together with standard 4:3 CRT TVs.
So here's my question: do you think I should do for retro games? Keep the 4:3 ratio, making it look like a CRT TV output? Or adapt it to 16:9 using secondary width-based scaling with blur, like I did it up until now?
Youtube actually supports both 16:9 and 4:3 as separate modes, and will adjust the player frame accordingly, which is pretty convenient. Plus some of the viewers surely use iPads, which always had 4:3 screens to begin with. The question is important because different people watch youtube in different way - some like it in fullscreen mode, others preffer windowed mode; people like me typically use it in theater mode. So there are many ways you can enjoy the videos.
As always, your input is greatly appreciated, and will help make the channel better in the long run, so thanks in advance.

1 year ago | [YT] | 7