Surprise cameo! | May 2024 Report (Patreon)

Happy not-E3 month! (In all seriousness, RIP)

Can't wait for that Rhythm Heaven game to be announced at this month's Nintendo Direct amirite

The most recent video on the main channel was uploaded two weeks ago, and since then I've been taking a half-break, sorta outside of my own volition. I've been doing a bunch of script writing whenever I'm able to (and I'll update you all on the progress of that in a bit), but haven't found time to do voice recording because I've either been developing a nose allergy on days I was planning to do so, been too physically tired to do recording after work, playing Paper Mario, or have been occupied by personal events (like my birthday yesterday as of this report going up lol)

But hey! I've still got updates and a neat little story to share further down, so let's begin!

Nintendo's Hotel SNES: The Super Famicom Box | Things of Interest

The video on the Super Famicom Box is out, and is doing quite well! The goal of the video was to pretty much make the near-definitive 'scripted' video on the Super Famicom Box as most videos I've seen were more unscripted overviews, and aside from doing a full on teardown and diving deep into every menu option, I think I've covered most of the system pretty well!

If for some reason that video wasn't enough to satisfy your curiosity about the Super Famicom Box though, here are a few additional videos from around YouTube that cover aspects of it which I didn't:

• Long Island Retro Gaming has done a mod adding RGB to the system -- and with some results you may not have expected!

• Some of their footage was used in my video, but Impendo64 has both added a custom coin slot to their unit, but has also apparently modified one of the game cartridges to add custom games onto it! I hope they make another video showing how they did it in the future!

• This is about the original FamicomBox and not the SFC variant, but Yukki games came across a few working FamicomBoxes still doing their jobs in a small Japanese hot spring inn, if you'd like to take in the vibes!

Cameo on a local YouTube channel!

Alright, let's do a quick little detour. You may have seen from my YouTube community tab and announcement in the Discord server that I recently made an appearance in a video from a Hong Kong-based media channel. The video is in Cantonese, but hey, just for Patreon, let me offer a little bit more context behind this!

This appearance was partly made possible thanks to Eric (on the very left in the above screenshot), one of my local acquaintances that runs a private retro game and computer museum in Hong Kong, which is open to a private group of local collectors and hobbyists, and has also seen a fair share of guests. I first visited it in 2022 and made a video about it on the Plus channel, but the museum has definitely changed and expanded since, and I'd love to do a more in-depth and polished video on it in the future.

During one of my visits to the museum back in February, Eric had apparently invited Ken, a local collector who moderates a Facebook page about the history of video games in Hong Kong, to bring over his large collection of Game & Watch systems! Along with him were cameramen from the Hong Kong-based variety YouTube channel Mill Milk, who were shooting in the museum for a future video about the Game & Watch. So we just sat around talking about our experiences while they filmed!

The final video is a quick layman's history lesson about the Game & Watch, including parts of its distribution in Hong Kong back in the 80s. Ken is a featured guest in that video, talking about his memories of buying and collecting Game & Watches back in the day, and a group of folks from Eric's museum (including me) also make an appearance discussing our favorite Game & Watch models as well as the effort required to repair broken units (some people in the group are experienced in repair for retro hardware, I've had a few of my own systems fixed by them on occasion!)

In the video, I specifically bring up Donkey Kong as the one quintessential Game & Watch I would own if I could only pick one to collect, because of its form factor, ties to the arcade original and the historical significance of the first D-Pad (similar to the sentiments I expressed in my own video about the system!) And as the youngest person in the group featured in the video, I was also asked how I was exposed to the retro gaming community in the first place. While I first started handheld gaming with the DS, I did hear about the Game Boy growing up, and not owning one of those when they were mainstream made me more interested to revisit and try to find one when I got older, and my collection truly started when I bought a used Game Boy Color for cheap at a flea market back in 2014.

On another note, if you'd like to see a list of all my appearances and cameos on other YouTube channels, I have a dedicated playlist for that!

Okay, now for updates on current projects!

Useless Nintendo Trivia #4

The script for Useless Nintendo Trivia #4 is all done, but as I've mentioned at the very beginning of this post, I'm trying to find time to record it! It also covers quite a whole bunch of systems and accessories that I need to also get footage for, but it'll definitely be released this month.

The SummerCart64

 That's right, it's time for a new impromptu video topic!

This is the SummerCart64 -- an open-source flashcart for the N64 that I recently acquired. It's been around and in development for a few years now, but a purchase opportunity popped up recently, so I took the chance! The main reason this flashcart is of interest is that it has more functions than the older Everdrive model I have, while also being cheaper than the highest-end Everdrive 64 model, and even has something the Everdrive doesn't...hardware emulation support for the 64DD!

  Short of blowing multiple paychecks on a disk drive and games, this is probably the most convenient way to enjoy 64DD games on real hardware so far, so I wanted to make a Things of Interest video about it to sorta spread awareness about the increased accessibility of 64DD functionality, as while homebrew development and fan translation efforts for the system haven't been exactly super fast over the past decade, some steady progress has been made and is still worth checking out!

This video won't be a super in-depth dive and will take a half-unscripted format similar to the videos about Rhythm Tengoku arcade and the SNES Mouse + Famicom keyboard, so if things go well it'll be able to release this month!

Pyoro

As for the Pyoro core video, writing is underway! I'll need to start playing the minigames to gather my thoughts soon, so you might be able to find me in the Patron Lounge of the Discord server in the future doing some recording! For now, I'm targeting a July release for the video.

And that's it for the month! The only bad thing about it was the inconsistent weather, which my nose really hates. Hopefully things simmer back down soon so I can get back into the groove of working on stuff!

Oh and also, looks like I'm getting close to finally hitting the 50k mark on YouTube. Perhaps it's time to start spreading the word a little more? 👀