I've got a few videos up for anyone who's interested. I'll be adding some more in the next few days. I hope you don't have trouble viewing them. I'm open to suggestions for improving the quality (.avi?). Let me know what you think!

VIDEOS

sweetness, but since I can't watch vids(too slow on dial up), what are the vids of? :)

If you follow the link you can tell what the videos are by their titles (for future reference). As of right now I've got ALAP1 (:20), ALAP2 (:57), ALAP3 (2:26); ALAP4 (3:21); ALAP5 (4:59); Flowers AFAP (:39), Racetrack (:24), and Panda (220K).

just watched all of them! nice stuff ya got there! i think you should submit to SDA, but you can do what you want. :woot i prolly wont record anything else, though.

i will try out the routes on friday.

So on Friday I should just plan on you beating my records, right? :yes

Wish you would consider recording -- running your PS2 through a VCR is easy, and I'd be glad to digitize the tape (or SDA). I'd love to see your level 5 run more than anything.

Just wanted to let folks know that I added another video to my site (ALAP4, meteor). It's not a perfect run, by any stretch of the imagination, but it gets the job done. You can follow the link above.

:eek OMG!!! Just watched the ALAP 2. Terrific stuff. I'll have to check out the others - especially Panda where I can't ever make more than $120,000 - later when I've got more time and more bandwidth to spare. (One suggestion to make the files smaller is choose a lower sampling rate for the audio.)

BTW, I enjoyed the pics of Albuquerque. :) Is that you at the Cadillac Ranch? Cute kids.

Hey, kickstart, thanks for watching! My Panda video is a variation of Aaron's spectacular route -- I owe him a lot of credit. About the suggestion for the audio . . . I'll look into it, but I'm not a computer genius, and I'm not sure if I have the software. Right now I'm just using imovie, and exporting the files to QuickTime.

FYI: Just today I posted another video: ALAP5 (meteor) 4:59. And of course it's a huge file :rolleyes sorry!

I haven't used iMovie as yet - still noodling around with the whole iLife package - but there is a choice of audio preferences. 44.1k stereo, which you're using is, CD quality audio. If you bump it down to mono and a lower sampling rate it will definitely make your files smaller. Hope this helps. After I watch the Panda run tonight, I'm gonna give it a try. Sure you can't get that extra 70 cents? Soooooo close...

Hmm, okay, I'll have to see if my version of imovie gives me that choice. It probably does, but I didn't notice before. I failed to answer your question about the other pics. Yes, that's me at Cadillac Ranch, and those are my kiddos. My brother lives in Albuquerque.

EDIT: Kickstart, I looked at imovie, and while I do have audio options, those only appear under the "Expert Settings" mode. There are about twenty options for encoding, most of them I've never heard of. Any advice?

Matt, I just watched the Panda video :eek :eek :eek Un-freaking-believable!! When I play I'm rushing around like a maniac compared to you. Maybe that's why the damn rings keep bouncing off and I end up wasting time having to go back and find them. :doh

As for the video encoding, I'll ask my IT guy, er...husband. He does that sort of thing for his work so he should have some tips. How are you capturing the video?

Your IT guy . . . Funny! :D

Capturing: There aren't that many options for Mac-users. I bought a DV/FireWire port called the Studio MovieBox DV (Pinnacle makes it). I run my VCR through this, and the data is digitized before I import it into imovie. Once I have it there, I edit a little bit, add the titles, and voila!

Panda: I restart constantly because of the very thing you're talking about. There are times when you can be a little reckless, dashing and so forth; but at other times this level calls for real finesse. You'll notice that if you crash soon after grabbing a ring, you always lose the ring (whereas in other levels it's kinda random which recently rolled up item falls off). So it's important to be careful soon after grabbing anything of value.

Let me know what your IT guy says!

sorry, i can't run those because i don't want to install quicktime player, and it has quicktime player.

VLC media player can play .mov files.

Stubbscroll, good call: VLC is a GREAT little file; seems like it can play almost any movie type.

Best '94: I like your route! :thumbsup Though I didn't really use it to beat your time (not exactly), I did learn a thing or two. So thanks! BTW the video of that run is on my site, so I hope you're able to solve your movie problems soon. :D

you're right, but i'm gonna beat that record someday.

i beat matthew69's record

1:20.96

Kudos, Best of '94 :applause That's a great time.

I've seen only the first video (ALA1): congratulations, this is a great time!
Just a thing: I've tried doing your same run, C&Ring all times, but always a can't beat my record of 0:25. It is difficult for me Charge and Rolling... so I wondered., it is enough moving the sticks up and sown fastly to have a good C&R? I lose too much time for this :smirk

Thanks Lo7. Keep in mind that you're looking at my best run, and I restarted that level about 100 times! (Often because of CNR trouble.)

There are several varieties of CNRs. The rate of speed (and thus the distance that the katamari will go) depends on how quickly you move the sticks up and down. In my ALAP1 route, I only want the bigger/faster CNR right at first, to start the run. With the "slower" version, you want to toggle a minimal amount -- stop moving the sticks as soon as the katamari starts to spin, and move both sticks forward. Otherwise you lose time spinning while you're stationary. A good level to practice is Flowers!

The biggest piece of advice I can give you is to experiment with a different controller. I've used a handful of them, and they all play differently. My favorite is the Sony, but not the standard black. For some reason the semi-clear-colored versions feel better to me. Speaking of this, I need to buy another one today. My favorite controller is just about shot.

Thanks Matthew. :thumbsup I improved my record: 22 seconds!

The more difficult part for me is just rolling when I go down on the left side , because I always crash against the scorpion that carries the cousin. :dead

You shaved off :22 seconds! Cool. About the scorpion . . . remember you can always experiment with waiting while the king is talking. Use his words as a guide. On one level I start when he says the word "rules" as in "You know the RULES..."

BTW: I was at Game Stop today, buying my controller, and the guy mentioned that they had used black Sonys. I told him my thing about the semi-clear ones and he said, "Dude, it's all in your head." We went back and forth a little bit, and then I finally broke down and said, "Okay, you're right! It's probably all in my head! But playing these games is totally about what's going on in my head! So here's my credit card -- now give me the semi-clear controller!!"

Matthew you may try zipping videos into an archive if you don't know how to recude quality. ;)
I own a dial up connection like many others, if you want, make this present for us :P

I forgot: tonight Italy is going to win the world cup :smirk
I hope you're supporting me and all my national team :thumbsup

I actually have lots of control over how I encode the vids. I chose what I did because it seemed to have OK quality without making the files too large. But I can experiment with other options, maybe MPEG4. Not sure about zipping the files, but maybe I could do that with Stuffit???

I didn't realize you were rolling your katamari over there in Italy. Cool. World cup? What's that? :lol Just kidding . . . Go Italy!

Yeah, I am italian, and I found a great community of Katamari lovers only here :smirk

I don't know what stuffit is, but zipping shouldn't be difficult or boring. :howyoudoin

Thanks matthew!
And Go Italy!