Well, that camera setback I mentioned in my last post? Well that's been sorted out fortunately, just two weeks ago actually. Didn't have to dismantle the TRV820 too much to get to the mode select dial and dowse it with alcohol to clean the contacts inside it.The dial itself was a fused together piece of plastic that is not easy to take apart non-destructively, but there was a small opening big enough to feed alcohol into... A bit crude but it did the job. As for the video project itself I've been working mostly with the script and narration and filmed most of the clips I need, though I'll have to film a couple more clips and gameplay footage as the script I've written demands, as well as some hardware changes being done to the systems I'm covering mid-production. Should consider doing scripts and narration first before filming and capturing as its the most exhaustive part to do I found.

I can't help but notice how I don't really seem to feel as adept at making videos as I was just a few years ago, either my video projects were just simpler in nature at the time, which is most apparent in my last PSn00bSDK video which I was able to make in just a few weeks and just on time before the year's end, or maybe its the effect from getting older as doing certain things in video making gets quite tiring and I don't always feel like working on a video every day these days. I generally avoid working on such projects when I don't feel like it as the end result would most often be shit and I'd feel shit as well as a result. I guess this is to be expected as you get older and its a good thing I'm not being a stupid YouTube partner as I can take the time to get a video out.

Lately some marginal progress has been done to my Random Magical Girl project, namely the FartMaker music system which I need to get going first as its essentially the heart of the project much like the Touhou games I'm trying to do a western influenced rip-off of more or less. I've gotten note playback with chords to work last month and now I'm in the process of implementing the text interface for managing a whole song, such as multiple tracks and editing instrument patches. The photos below shows what these interfaces look like more or less.





Whilst I seem to be more of a MIDI guy with my CZ-5000 these days I still wanna dick around with 4op OPL3 FM synthesis and this FartMaker system should allow me to do just that, especially as Adlib Tracker II's 4op support is quite awkward to use and I can't really work with trackers anymore.

As for other DOS development related stuff goes I've given DJGPP a shot. And well I can see some potential with it, trouble is I find it to be a bit awkward to use compared to OpenWatcom. For one the gcc compiler wouldn't work under a Windows 95 Dosbox as it complains about no DPMI memory available, and another is there doesn't seem to be much in the way of remote debugging support other than doing it through a painfully slow serial connection. I could work with just having access to the GDB console through serial but that doesn't appear to be supported. I do like how CWSDPMI starts instantly even on a 386DX-40, whereas DOS/4GW would take a few seconds before the program actually starts on a system that slow.

But anyway, I guess that's all I have to say for now... And to be honest I wonder if anyone actually reads these posts...

If you've watched enough of one of my recent Wind Waker streams, you might've noticed that the camcorder I was using (Sony DCR-TRV820) as a webcam in such streams tends to exhibit some erratic behavior due to the mode select switch getting iffy... Well, that has gone a bit out of hand whilst I was in the middle of filming things for a new video and I can no longer use it to film things reliably as the iffy mode selection causes the camera to stop recording. What's worse is that my VX1000 seems to have developed some dislodged optics that makes it impossible to focus on anything, which it seems to have developed gradually as it was exhibiting some signs of it when I did that CZ-5000 stream earlier this year, so I can't fall back to using that camera again either. I don't know if its an optical issue it has developed or the driving electronics for the CCDs have gone daft, and is somewhat misaligned electronically for the lack of a better word.

I will try to get around fixing the mode select dial on the TRV820 as it seems to be a very common failure point of HandyCams from its time period, but taking apart these camcorders are not going to be fun as they're often packed to the brim with flat flex hell, and it'll be game over if any of those ribbons get broken by accident. The only other option I can think of is to obtain a FHD capable camcorder earlier than planned, which is going to cost me quite a lot and it'll also take quite some time for the thing to get here. Don't know if I can ever fix the VX1000 myself unfortunately.