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[Japo]

There are a lot of old games that are complex to learn (strategy, simulation...), often we don't even have the manual yet, but even with a complete manual, a tutorial is invaluable to get you started into the most complex games. I think it would be great to make these tutorials.

I had thought about video tutorials in YouTube, but I'm ready to listen about other formats. It seems the only clips in our channel are gameplay, intros, etc. Also I've never uploaded a video and don't know the restrictions (length, file size...).

What do you think?

[_r.u.s.s.]

i think it would be a great thing if we actually linked those tutorials to the game pages

and we should use some another "abandonia's tutorials" youtube account for it too, because people who are currently subscribed to the abandonia channel are probably interested in exploring the games and seeing the goodies themselves, not receive updates about long tutorials for games that they aren't interested in

[Japo]

I agree on both things, although I think we also wanted to link the rest of the videos, and we depend on Studentis for that.

As for the technical details, I guess one could record the game and a synchronous audio track at the same time with a mic. Then we just need to merge the additional audio track onto the video--although I don't know what program can do that.

[BranjoHello]

r.u.s.s. & Japo = smart people :thumbs:

[Dave]

It's ok for me, it's a good idea , but the upload limit is 10 minutes per video, not so much if you want to be exhaustive.

We could start linking videos into AGD forums since we can't modify the site, but I don't think a new channel is necessary, we can barely update one regularly.

@Japo: VirtualDub allow us to import external audio on videos made using DosBox, so it's possible

[Japo]

I wasn't sure about the time limit, but I thought it was precisely 10 minutes. I think we should actually aim for sticking to that limit when possible. A tutorial has to cover only enough to get you started and explain the options so you can continue, it doesn't have to go anywhere. If not at all possible, some tutorials could be split.

Linking them in the forum thread is a good idea, actually I think it would be OK to embed them there.

As for the channels, we can decide later among the staff, if we have little activity I guess it doesn't make sense to make separate channels. Anyway I think we should try to get regular users into submitting their own material for YouTube too, the same as reviews, even if we have to check it before adding it to the channel.

[Japo]

Originally Posted by Japo

As for the technical details, I guess one could record the game and a synchronous audio track at the same time with a mic. Then we just need to merge the additional audio track onto the video--although I don't know what program can do that.

OK so Windows Movie Maker can do this all right. Moreover you have the additional option to record your speech in MMaker after the clip is made, if you prefer that to speaking while you record it (although you may have recorded the video faster than you can explain it, if you made no planning). Also you can leave the audio track of the original clip superposed with your added speech, or not, and tune both volumes as you wish. Yay!

So it's easily feasible. As for the practical details, I'd recommend writing a script or outline of the points to cover in advance of the recording, and even make more than one take if necessary. This way you can do it in the 10 minutes (or 20...) YouTube limit, and more importantly you'll save History any indecent rambling, which we'd all no doubt indulge in, if we tried to make this kind of thing right off the bat.

I may make a first clip one of these days when I have time, and showcase it as a sample, but, if anyone wants to give this a try and beat me to it, please go ahead, PM me or any other updater or admin, after you're done with the raw recording, or before if you have further questions.
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There's the problem, though, that DOSBox includes a 32-bit (x86) installer for the video codec it uses (ZMBV), but not a 64-bit (x64) one. So if you have x86 Windows all will be well (after you install the codec that comes with DOSBox), but if you happen to use x64 Windows--which is rather common nowadays--when you try to import the video clip into MMaker it may appear as audio only instead of video. And I think there's no trustworthy provider of a ZMBV codec other than DOSBox--I mean you may find a x64 one if you google for it, but it may be malware. If you have other news please inform me!

This can be worked around one way or the other. (The simplest one being doing the work on a 32-bit Windows instead of your 64-bit one--even if it's a virtual machine.) So if you encounter this problem, don't let it stop you from contributing, just let us do the techie work and you do the hard part: record both files and send them to us, we'll merge them.

EDIT: OK now I see Dave's edit, it can also be done with VirtualDub, as you prefer.