Saturday, November 1, 2014

Housecleaning and Announcements

Right. I know that everything has been pretty quiet on the Chrontendo front for quite some time.  It sure feels like Chrontendo has become the Dresden Codak of videogame blogs lately. Let me assure you that at least it's not turning into the Achewood of game blogs. Not anytime soon, anyway.

Hell, if Chronogamer can suddenly bring back his project after a few years, I can keep this one going.

Chrontendo Episode 48 is completely recorded and is being edited now. I'm not going to speculate about an actual release date. Depends on how things go in the personal life.

I'll be doing a bit of maintenance on this site, such as updating links etc. Most of you will be aware of this, but another big player entered the chrono-gaming arena a while ago.  Jeremy Parish started doing a Game Boy video series, in a very sensible one-game-per-episode fashion. The series starts here:



Currently he's up to 18 games. So anyone hoping I would do a chron-Game Boy thing now has a perfectly acceptable alternative.  Parish even sounds a bit like me.

I know there are a number of  other chrono type gaming projects out there. I  have a bad habit of finding out about one, thinking that I can remember it instead of bookmarking it, and then forgetting what it was called. Please fill me in on any that you know about, so I can add them to the links.

I also have a couple non-gaming projects going on, one of which has already surfaced.  The Jaxxon Appreciation Society is an in-depth look at Marvel's Star Wars comic book series, which ran from 1977 to 1986. Jaxxon was, of course, the bipedal green talking rabbit that appeared in the series. My inspiration was Matt Yezpitelok's Superman '86-'99, dedicated to the John Byrne reboot era Superman comics. JAS just launched last week, and so far it's got the first two issues in the can.

Also in the works: more frequent updates to the Chrontendo Tumblr. Specifically, regular status updates, to let you know how upcoming episodes are progressing.

You may have heard that Youtube has unlocked 60 fps capabilities for HD videos. At the moment, this only works on Chrome. I'll upload Episode 48 in 60 fps form and see how it works. I sure hope it will be compatible with other browsers soon.

That's it for today. Check back soon.


21 comments:

Chris Sobieniak said...

Take your time!

Matt Turner said...

We're a patient bunch it seems. Hope all is well on the real life side.

k8track said...

Very happy to see you back on here, Dr. Sparkle. I'm really looking forward to Chrontendo #48. In your absence, I've really been enjoying all of Jeremy Parish's videos. Another series I've been enjoying is Zachary Clifton's SG Awesome (later renamed Ages of Sega) which has been chronicling all of the Sega SG-1000 games. And thanks for the heads up about the Chronogamer blog, I didn't realize it had returned!

Unknown said...

60fps YT works in Firefox on Linux, at least for me(using Mint 17 and I believe you might need to opt-in to html5). I've also heard that it works in IE11 but I can't be asked to actually try it :)

Unknown said...

Thanks for the update! I rewatch the series constantly, its a great way to relax before falling sleep. Looking forward to #48!

Matt Turner said...

Couldn't agree more with Djniteshade1. I rewatched Chronsega, Chronturbo, and Chrontendo over this last summer in bed with my laptop. It's a perfect nightcap. Really looking forward to future episodes, Doc.

-Blinky McBlinkerson

ShaneWM said...

This update made my day! Can't wait for the next episode of Chrontendo! :D

Doctor Sparkle said...

Josh - I've checked and it seems to be somewhat supported, though only in Nightly Firefox. H.264 is not in FF, so Chrome has the advantage there.

ogg said...

Cool, take your time and thank you!

Hot Broad said...

ever think about a patreon? I'd chuck some cash at you for what you have done and to keep going.

Z Shoemaker said...

I second the Patreon idea. I support a few people through them, and it feels good to support the content I love to watch. But like the rest of your fans said, take the time to take care of yourself, and we'll be here waiting to hear the next installment of Chrontendo whenever it comes.

Unknown said...

Thanks Doctor Sparkle for updating us and when I'm here, I must say your twitter-feed is very enjoyable as well. Also thanks for recommending Jeremy's Gameboy Vids it'll keep me going until my next Chrontendo fix arrives perfectly :)

Anyway, I know you were asking for suggestions for other shows. May I suggest a series of TG-16/PCE game reviews called "Turbo Views" although they're not in chronological order, it seeks to cover all the games in Chris Bucci's collection which includes both Hu-Card and CD formats.

Anonymous said...

you're back!!! hey gimme your paypal and I'll send some encouragement your way eventually. this project deserves it.

lmtr14

lepermessiahtr@hotmail.com

Anonymous said...

Thank you for the update! Cant wait till the next one!!!

Horgh666 said...

Whatever happened to the dude who did the Gold Box AD&D Chronogaming series?

Anonymous said...

"Whatever happened to the dude who did the Gold Box AD&D Chronogaming series?"

You mean the CRPG Addict? He's on a brief hiatus now, but is generally still active.

Unknown said...

Wow. The chronogamer is back. I did not see that coming.
Outside of Gameboy World, there is one other Chronogaming project I've been following. Dylan Cornelious who reviewed every US released NES game over on questicle http://www.questicle.net started a chronogaming project last March I believe called Sega Does http://segadoes.com reviewing every game released on a Segalatform in Chronolgical order starting with the SG-1000. Quite a task. He's just into the master system. Also does a companion podcast. Also there was a series doing roughly the same thing started a couple of months later on YouTube called ages of SEGA or something like that but seems to have stopped doing them about 12 games in to the SG-1000.

I really hope yputube gets the 60 FPS thing working with all browsers in HTML5. Until then I'm sticking with archive for my primary viewing as a lot of frames and effects go missing, especially on upcoming Mega Drive games as seen when you watch Generation 16 episodes on YouTube.

Horgh666 said...

"You mean the CRPG Addict? He's on a brief hiatus now, but is generally still active."

No, not him, it was another website. Sparkle got rid of it a while back since the page was down.

It was devoted solely to the SSI AD&D Gold Box games. The last update featured the opening to Eye of the Beholder.

k8track said...

@Sean Clements: In my comment above, I mentioned the same guy you referenced, Zachary Clifton, who is still actively doing his Ages of Sega series (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7QN3mV0vmrRZc7CUWLYsBg). He just released episode #17, Pacar, after a 2-month break. You may notice that numbers 5 and 7 in his series seem to be missing. He says that those were Japanese language games that he wanted to study a bit before he tried to make episodes for them.

Zeloz Mk.II said...

I... um... tried my hand at Chronogaming once...

http://ps1e.wordpress.com/chronogaming-list/

It's not really all that polished, and I haven't done an article in months, but it was just kind of something to do while waiting for Chrontendo Ep. 47 to drop.

Rodneylives said...

I disagree about Gradius III, it's a very nice game, although the arcade version has notorious difficulty and no continues.

Block Hole isn't a bad game, and it's better remembered in Japan, but I find it's just frustrating near the end. There is a Famicom version of it coming up, by the way.

I am greatly partial to Atari's output at this time, it was really a second flowering for the company, which was unfortunately cut short by the debut of Street Fighter II and the advent fighting game craze two years later. I think Rampart, which I have long considered to be the best designed video game ever made, and is pretty damn great even if there's something better, is coming up next year.

Zippo Games was actually founded by the legendary Pickford Brothers, who made Wizards and Warriors II and III, Plok, a number of other games, and much later Wetrix. They're still around, still making games, and are awesome.