Lets racing time

Truth is success in these races is less "being good at games" and more "doing a test run". You'll see what I mean in the MMX race. Dan and I have both been kicking this game's ass for years, but he did a test run and I didn't, and you'll see that reflected in the video.

It's pretty clear the SMB2 runners did test runs, too. Not only because they all play the game pretty well, but because they have discussion about level layouts and gameplay strategies that wouldn't have been possible if the game weren't fresh in their minds.

This doesn't help for pentathlons, of course...

This is true, so far the only game I did any kind of test run in was Super Mario World, and I stopped at Chocolate Island 2. I played Mario 3 up to giant land, but I had not touched MM3 in something like 10 years XD. That is one of the reasons I want to race Super Metroid, I play that game once a year at least too; and I have been practicing it lol.

By the way, will "commitment-based games" like Metroid or Zelda be in the pentathlon? Not specifically those games, but games that were designed to be played over the course of days or weeks (even if they can be speedrun). I can speedrun something like SMB1 or Bionic Commando that was designed to be played in a single sitting, but I just can't get into speedrunning great adventures.

I did a 'test run' up to World 4, and it was only a test run in the sense that 'this game came out on Wii U's VC awhile ago and I played it for a bit'.

However, I used to play SMB2 a lot on my old All-stars cart, particularly World 7. Yeah 7-1 didn't go great for me, but 7-2 was a different story. Playing that level was like coming home, so once I got there it was basically over, I just know the stage well. Yes besides the part where I went the wrong way first shut up.


I've actually never f'real played any of the Genesis Sonic games, so Narish probably wouldn't be the only one fighting for last place in a video like that. Of course, having a racer or two still stuck in the stage when the two minutes are up would be pretty appropriate.

A good racing game doesn't have much to do with how long it takes to learn. Zelda and Metroid can both be completed in an hour by a decent player. I am certain we will race them both eventually. On the flip side, a game like Yoshi's Island would be too long to race, even though it's a much more arcade-y style game.

Pentathlons are different from races. The idea of the pentathlon is to offer short, discrete challenges, regardless of the style of game.

It sounds like you haven't watched any of the videos to see what it is we actually are doing here.

I think this would be accurate XD!

That time still works for me. Even if I'm not in it, I don't have anything on my plate right now, so I can put it together.

PM me after the race if you want me to send you the backdrop, counter images and avs file.

Thanks! I was really happy with how SMB2 turned out, and I think it has a lot to do with preparation. Even if it doesn't really help with the gameplay that much it'll help with commentary to have some notes and recent experiences. Unless your particularly good at being entertaining while failing (Hey Nodal!) then I would highly recommend practicing.

You know, I was thinking, Iron Chef will do a thing where they give the chefs a list of possible secret ingredients before the show, and I had several teachers would would give us a big list of possible exam questions. It might not be a bad idea to give a list of maybe 10 possible games that the five challenges will come from for future pentathlons so people can at least have a chance to try a game they maybe never played before.

I was thinking of trying like a themed Pentathlon too, where all the challenges are from the same series of games; or it's the same challenge in multiple games.

Example 1: Mega Man Edition, beat a robot master (and their level) from the first 5 games with the buster only. 1 from each game: Gravity Man, Skull Man, Hard Man, Crash Man, Ice Man.

Example 2: Boss Rush Edition, defeat Fryguy in Mario 2, defeat Krang in TMNT2, defeat the mounted blue Iron Knuckle in Zelda 2, defeat Ridley in Metroid, and defeat the Grim Reaper in Castlevania.

(Note that these are only ideas, and although they could be pentathlons in their own right are meant to try and spark new ideas of future runs)

I can do some stuff if needed, but I'll be pretty busy this weekend. Also gonna move 350 miles in July so I may need to start planning/packing soon, but some artwork for the channel page shouldn't take too much time to do.

Will need to know the size of the images needed and stuff like that. Also not exactly sure what I could make either, so I'll be open to ideas. But I'll be glad to draw anything.

There was a link in my original post, but here it is again. YouTube One Channel Art Specs.

So I upgraded to Windows 7. That's good! Everything runs a lot better (like, a millions times better). But now my mic is picking up game audio again. So I'm going to have to fiddle tomorrow before the race.

Either way I should still be in.

Ok, an image of that size could take some work, at least if I do the entire 2560x1440 image(and I'm not even sure how it will end up looking on a full size TV or whatever as they don't show an example). 2560x423 however, shouldn't be too bad.
One thing I could do, which saves me a lot of work, and could be modified later, is just drawing a lot of crazy characters, both from games we race, intern jokes(Toilet Man, Percy, etc), general stuff like that, and just paste them together. Then I can easily draw more characters and just add or re-arrange later on. All around that central logo area.

I have some stuff I need to do quickly before I move. But in 1-2 weeks, I might be able to start on something and hopefully have it done by the end of the month(if not, it probably won't be done until some time in August or so). Don't want to make any promises, but I want to try. Also would help me a lot if people have any requests for art or characters.

When is the inevitable Princess Tomato race?

9 PM my time shoooooooould be good, but again I'll keep you guys in the know.

Yeah just focus on the main area that will actually show up. The rest of space can be filled with whatever.

If you just want to do the lineart I could do the coloring and piece it together properly.

When we have at least four racers we want to punish.

Ok. I'll get started on it next week, hopefully, don't think it will take too long. I'll probably do coloring as well, but good to know someone can take over if I don't get the time.

I need to get a Genesis emulator, but I'd totally race the 2 minute Green Hill video.

I see it as a video with a cold start.

Re: Pentathalon #2, that time should be GREAT for me.

I will probably be able to do that time, but no promises. Incidentally, I have no idea what to do tech-wise on my end, if someone could PM me about that that would be great.

You have a video let's play, so I imagine you know how to record your footage. You need to record your voice only, not the game audio (you should be able to finagle this in your recording software).

Oh, are we not syncing?

Everyone records their own audio. While recording, but before the actual race starts, we usually do a "3... 2... 1... sync." announcement.

The person putting the video together uses that to sync up the audio.

But there's no like... live communication? Or are we using Skype?

Skype.

I'm not against newbies joining the race if there's any space left, but don't sign up until you have completely tested out your setup. We should probably put something about this in the first post, but basically this means:

1) You can record video at 30 frames per second
2) Your video records your microphone for Skype chat but DOES NOT record the game audio
3) You are able to successfully record for over 2 hours in a single shot

None of those things is easy to get right on your first try, and number 3 requires you to dedicate an afternoon or so to doing a long test run. Get those things taken care of before you sign up for a race, otherwise you run the risk of losing your footage, which is bad for everyone.

Yeah, now that we have most of the kinks worked out of the system, I should work on getting the first post in order. I'll try and draft something up tonight after I rub one out to this incredibly sexy and just-finished-rendering Mega Man X video.

Your video doesn't have the Shaft of Misery 2.0.

oh yeah i can't do #3 because my computer can't run decent free screen recorders

My Hypercam records at 20 frames per second. 30 speeds up the video a lot. Is that a problem for these? Because 20 fps looks perfect after Hypercam finishes making the video.