My Amiga Tech YouTube videos - direction to take?

[roondar]

As some of you may know, I have a small YouTube channel and have made a few episodes of my series about Amiga effects, called Amiga Tech. I've been wondering in what direction to take this "series" (big word for a three episode thing ). At the moment, I try to cover effects that are interesting on a technical level and not discussed or seen as much. This has worked out fine and I still have plenty of ideas to keep adding more videos.

However, I've received some feedback via e-mail asking if I couldn't feature more down-to-earth explanations about basic effects and how the Amiga hardware works.

This would include things such as:

• Setting up a screen
• Blitting bobs
• Scrolling
• Playing samples
• Copper gradients
• Maybe introductory assembly stuff
• etc.

So I'm wondering if people are interested in that. Going this direction would mean fewer (or none) of the "weird and wonderful" effects and more basic effects and how to code them.

Edit: for those of you who do not know about them, you can see the videos here to get a feeling for what I do: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...KmVV64jRgFjSeE

[robinsonb5]

I'd say just make whatever you're going to get the most satisfaction from making.
(I've just watched the audio mixing video and found it really interesting.)

[roondar]

Ah, good answer and I agree wholeheartedly!

The reason for asking is because I like the idea of both. Part of the reason I'm doing this is to hopefully help some people out with either ideas or actual code and I could do that in several ways. I have been toying with the idea of doing some basic effects as well, but was wondering what people like to see me do.

And thanks for the compliment, I hope to do more interesting videos in the future

[robinsonb5]

Originally Posted by roondar

The reason for asking is because I like the idea of both. Part of the reason I'm doing this is to hopefully help some people out with either ideas or actual code and I could do that in several ways. I have been toying with the idea of doing some basic effects as well, but was wondering what people like to see me do.

Anything like that can only leave the Amiga scene richer.


Speaking for myself - and this might be just me - but while I like video as a format for learning about new concepts, I don't like video as a format for information I need to refer back to - because it's much harder to "skim" a section of video looking for the relevant piece, and harder to "re-read" a paragraph.



So if you end up doing step-by-step tutorials please consider presenting the same information somewhere in text form!

[roondar]

Originally Posted by robinsonb5

Anything like that can only leave the Amiga scene richer.

I agree

Which is why I love Photon's YouTube series on Amiga Assembly as well. And McGeezer has also started an Amiga game dev YouTube series, which is also great. The more the merrier, I say!

So if you end up doing step-by-step tutorials please consider presenting the same information somewhere in text form!

Way ahead of you, all my Amiga Tech videos have an accompanying article on my website with the same information (and actually more details). I also post all source code for each effect I do on my website as well

[KONEY]

great! anything related to graphics would go for me!

[roondar]

Originally Posted by KONEY

great! anything related to graphics would go for me!

The reaction so far seems to be mostly positive (both on here and via my e-mail), so I'm going to look into making some videos. Graphics subjects will definitely be covered.

And of course, I won't quit with the more advanced stuff as no one seems to want me to do that and I like doing it as well

[dreamkatcha]

What I'd like to see is analysis of the old games with explanations for why technical decisions may have been made. The limitations that may have led to them, workarounds etc. It would have to be accessible/dumbed down for dumbos like me because those in the know... erm, already know, so don't need to be tutored.

One way to 'read' videos is to download the time-stamped subtitles. How accurate they are depends on interpretation by automated systems and the clarity of the speaker so your mileage may vary. I've generally been impressed with the results though. Check out downsub.com

[roondar]

Originally Posted by dreamkatcha

What I'd like to see is analysis of the old games with explanations for why technical decisions may have been made. The limitations that may have led to them, workarounds etc. It would have to be accessible/dumbed down for dumbos like me because those in the know... erm, already know, so don't need to be tutored.

That's an interesting idea, but I'm probably not going to be doing that. However, Codetapper has done some of that with his Sprite Tricks series. Might be nice to check out

One way to 'read' videos is to download the time-stamped subtitles. How accurate they are depends on interpretation by automated systems and the clarity of the speaker so your mileage may vary. I've generally been impressed with the results though. Check out downsub.com

Or, you could go and visit my website (link in earlier post) where I have an article for each video containing all the information found in these videos. Just sayin'

[dreamkatcha]

Yep, I've seen and quoted Codetapper's brilliant articles/interviews. He works hard to explain things in a way the non-programmer can understand and has talked to some people who don't normally comment on their Amiga game developing history so it's a great resource.

Ah, you've already got that covered then so we can forget the bodged workarounds. I should have done some research before replying, sorry.