Back when we had that discussion about ways to keep regular website updates going, one of your suggestions was to sell combo DVDs. That sounds like a pretty good idea at the moment. In fact the more i thought about it, the less of a reason i had not to give it a shot.
My first idea was to compile a DVD of all my previous work from 2002-2008, then put together a second DVD collecting every SF4 TACV episode. However, it seems like a much better plan to wait until i’ve finished the entire SF4 TACV series to include every project i’ve completed thus far on one disc. Of course, that means it’ll take longer to finish and i’ll have to take a small break from SF4 when SSF4 arrives, but i think the wait will be worth it in the long-run.
If i make it a priority, i’m fairly certain i can get this thing done by Evo2k10 in early July. I can even take a bunch of copies with me to Evo for anyone who wants to pick one up in person instead of waiting for it to arrive in the mail.
Alright, so what’s this going to cost? I think $15 (plus shipping) is a fair price. Nobody can say that i haven’t been putting enough effort into this, and i couldn’t even calculate how much time i’ve sunk into making combo videos if we go all the way back to 2002. But more importantly, 95% of everything i’ve ever produced is freely available – either through sh/classic or my u2b channel. Obviously i’ll include a few small extras as a bonus for people who buy the DVD, but otherwise i’m not holding anything back from people who hate spending money.
For the record, i’m still not too comfortable with accepting donations, but at least this way people can support the site while receiving something tangible in return. And if anyone wants to give more, you can always buy a second copy and give it away as a gift to your friends.
Now the big question is, how much interest is there for this sort of thing? It would help out a lot if everyone who wants a copy would preorder now. I know it’s early, but i have to start sometime so i’d like use this month as a gauge to see whether it’s worth all the trouble of assembling this DVD. I know not to place too much stock in preorder figures, but at the same time if nobody bothers, then i might just call off this whole endeavor altogether. Also, the quantity of preorders will give me an better sense of whether to print them myself or go through a bulk DVD replication service.
If you’d like to own a copy, just send $15 plus $5 for shipping for orders in the US or Canada, or $10 for international shipping. As an added bonus for preordering within the month of April, i’ll include a mini-booklet of random footnotes to go inside the DVD case.
If i should somehow decease in an horrific three-way boat/bus/fighter jet accident over the Bermuda Triangle before i can finish the DVD, i’ll use my newfound extrasensory powers to communicate to my family that your moneys are to be refunded. Sound good?
update: Due to a combination of personal and legal reasons, the DVD had to be canceled. Please read the formal announcement for more information.
Guys, if you have questions or concerns or objections or anything of the sort, please don’t be afraid to voice them. This is a total shot in the dark for me so i’m open to discuss anything here.
Quality? – I know a lot of your earlier stuff was captured in different ways, but you’ve got HD encodes possible for the newer stuff, right?
Either way, I’m down. Just asking.
I’m game.
Also, that sounds like an awesome death. Are you in the boat, bus or jet fighter?
Errrr… Maj this news story about a guy on a rubber ring being hit by a bus isn’t you is it. Anyway if it isn’t I’m in, when I’m out of debt to my mum.
aside from the guile video (which was beyond awesome), wasnt most of the stuff from 2002-2008 short videos showing various quirks, rather than full blown combos?
depending on the actual combo content, i would buy one but i’m not too sure what the content will be. for $20 including shipping i would like to have a little more than counter attack denial and steel rain set ups, you know? throw in that killer ryu combo video and the SF4 TACV series like you were talking about and you have my sale.
i’ll check back to see you response on what you’re including for sure, then decide if i’m ordering. either way, good luck with the sales.
Any chance you’ll include transcripts?
I’m not used to purchasing game video DVDs, so forgive my noobness: what’s the format used? Is it a video DVD (i.e., compatible with common DVD players) or a data DVD containing several video files? I’m asking because a video DVD, with its rather outdated technology, wouldn’t be capable of as much content, would show more compression artifacts (which is worrisome on sprite-based games, compared to typical live-action movies), and lack HD quality (when that makes sense, of course).
onreload: I’ll definitely re-encode everything so it’ll end up being the quality of the captured footage. The old stuff obviously doesn’t look as good as the new stuff, but you’d be surprised at how good some of it actually looks when it’s not MPEG1 compressed or blurred up by u2b. And my capture card isn’t HD but all my SF4 footage is in 720×480 which is DVD quality anyway so it looks a LOT better than what’s on u2b.
Kareeem Haha haven’t decided yet.
N00b_Saib0t: Um … okay, this is probably going to annoy some people, but the Evo Guile video and the Evo Ryu video won’t be included. Partly because they won’t fit but mostly because (without spoiling any surprises or giving too much away) i’m not done with those projects yet. But in terms of how much footage there is, i’ve got 45 minutes of old Sonic Hurricane stuff and in addition to over 45 minutes of SF4 vids if you figure roughly 1:30 per character for 25 characters plus all the extra random SF4 stuff i’ve recorded. That’s an hour and a half and i’m pretty sure i can push it closer to an hour and 45 minutes once all is said and done.
Rufus: You mean like a folder of text files on the DVD?
Numsigmernen: It’s probably going to be a standard NTSC video DVD, though i’ll also try to include a few data folders of bonus stuff, like variants of all the screenshots i took that i never got to show. In terms of quality, i don’t think DVD compression will introduce a noticeable downgrade, but if it becomes a problem i’ll post comparisons and ask you guys what you think. I mean, this is the first time i’m doing this and i have no reason to hide anything from you guys so i’ll try to include everyone in the process as much as possible.
Awww man, I was hoping that you would include the Ryu Evo vid. On another note, could you tell me which games will be featured in this? And one more question, have you ever done BlazBlue combos?
Even if the this dvd doesn’t do well, would you still make another that includes the guile and ryu evo combo vids? I’m interested in both, and I’ll probably end up getting the first dvd anyway.
ShaXan: It’s going to be mostly CvS2 and SF4, but i’ve done stuff for random other Capcom games too so it’ll be a little bit of everything. And nope, i’ve never played BlazBlue. Isn’t the whole Guilty Gear community playing though? There’s always been crazy Japanese combovids for all the GGX games so i’d think at least some of those people would’ve stuck around for BlazBlue.
Arc: I don’t know, that’s too far ahead in the future for me to worry about it. But the thing you have to remember about those is they were released as HQ downloadable versions first. Putting them on a DVD wouldn’t improve picture quality all that much. On the other hand, the SF4 TACV quality will improve significantly. For example i have no idea why the screen turns so ugly during El Fuerte’s ultra slam on u2b, but it sure doesn’t look that way in my clip.
bummer about the ryu and guile videos, on the other hand i’m kinda excited to see what more you can do with those.
anyway, an hour and a half + of content seems fair.
Well…I guess what I’m really interested in is the extra content you are putting in. Just in case you left out combos or some other things in the final cut. I know you already put the descriptions of what you did on the site already. I don’t quite know how to say it but I’m interested in the work you put into them and the methods you used that led up to the actual combos.
Oh there’s definitely gonna be new stuff in there. I mean, i always try to be as thorough as possible with my combovids, but there’s always a few ideas that pop up way later on. Don’t be surprised if several SF4 characters have either a whole new combo on the DVD or a slight revision with like one more hit added through a more elaborate setup or a better understanding of the game or whatever.
And in terms of writing about the process, i try to include as much info as i can in the transcripts but there’s always more to discuss if someone asks a thoughtful question. I’m sure if you talk to anyone who’s been making combovids for a while, they’ll have quite a few stories like this to share. We usually don’t get an opportunity to tell them because even people who write transcripts rarely bother telling the whole story behind each combo, either to save time or to keep it concise.
You will have a sale all the way from NZ Maj. Would it be possible to make some sort of video collection of all your ‘Footies’ articles. Kinda like how the evo moments on u2b are done except with all the concepts from your footsies articles. Or maybe even something similar to Sirlins ST tutorial. I know it has nothing to do with combos but I find them a very useful read and I’ve noticed how much smarter I play now. I would definitely get a copy of that too
Thanks. Looking forward to the DVD
I’ll definitely support the idea. I’d even pay for it if I had access to Paypal/CC.
+1 for you
I don’t suppose there’s an alternative way to pay for these, is there? I’m just a miserable minor who uses prepaid Visa cards to purchase things online, which Paypal doesn’t accept, unfortunately.
mousetrAP: Thank you sir. A few people have asked me to package those articles into some unified format, but i’m not sure how to do it. Maybe grouped into an e-book or something? To be honest i’m not even sure it’s necessary, because they’ll always be indexed here. Can’t really do much about compiling the videos because it’s not my content. Half that stuff is Evo or SBO footage and the other half is local tournaments which i respect just as much. I’m not even okay with posting that stuff on my u2b channel, much less trying to make money off it.
LittLeLives: Oh, i didn’t realize that was the case. Thanks for bringing it up. Do you happen to know of any alternatives?
i’m in.
if you could please decide to include the guile and ryu videos that’d be really great though! those are easily the best combo videos i’ve ever seen.
Thank you sir. Well, i don’t think there’s much i can do about Guile. I have a strong feeling that total runtime will end up going over the 1:45 mark as it is. There simply won’t be enough room to fit 17 minutes of Guile on a two-hour DVD without degrading the quality of everything else.
But i’m definitely not done with that project either. He’s in a lot of other games that i never got to explore and i won’t have time to do that before Evo for sure. Haha i’ve been looking forward to making SFA3 Guile combos for like three years now. And you better believe i’ma get to it eventually.
im in.
this site is boss
@Maj
Apologies for the late response.
And I really don’t know of any alternatives aside from becoming a merchant on Amazon or GoogleCheckout or something. But don’t worry about it, other family members have me covered.
Cool. So i’ll just stick to paypal for now, but if i happen to come across a good alternative i’ll consider it. In the meantime if anyone runs into the same problem and has any suggestions, let me know.
What do you guys think of the new (square) banner in the top right sidebar? Got someone to make it for me. It’s kinda bootleg but i think i like it. Better than google ads for hurricane shutters and bison steaks, right?
How are you going to deal with address changes? I want one (obviously) but will almost certainly be living someplace different by the time it comes out.
Hadn’t thought about it, but you can just email me your new address whenever you move. I’ll make an announcement at least a week before they’re ready to be mailed out, so it won’t be a problem as long as you let me know before or within that period. Cool?
Will the combovideos still have all that neat music?
Good question sir. I’m not exactly sure how i’m gonna handle that, but i can’t really get away with putting copyrighted music on there. I’ll have to re-encode everything in high quality anyway, so i was thinking i’d probably just use random SF stage themes for each video like i’ve been doing with SF4 Challenge vids, etc. I’ll include the names of the original songs in footnotes, along with release dates and so on, just for record-keeping.
All the SF4 combos are probably gonna get re-edited into one giant video from beginning to end, so i’ll probably just fade one SF4 theme to the next. Or i could leave out music completely for that SF4 segment (sound effects only) and let people play whatever music they want. What do you guys think?
“Haha i’ve been looking forward to making SFA3 Guile combos for like three years now. And you better believe i’ma get to it eventually.”
Gonna hold you to this. To the graaaaaaave
Hold away sir. It’s gonna happen, i just don’t know when. Guile doesn’t have as much priority as he used to.
About the artifacts that I asked before, yeah, thinking about it, it’s not really as bad as I made it sound. You do have a point that DVD is better than YouTube’s “480p”, which is already acceptable for a lot of things.
I’m talking to a couple friends, so we can make a single order and save a bit on international shipping fees, still by this week.
Every minute i had lately was spent on SSF4. I can’t wait for the DVD and the combo videos you got so far are awesome. I’ll be on here more often now that the tourney is over so keep up the great work.
p.s. to any guile players in SSF4 a quick tip… as far as i have experienced its like this
L flash kick>hawk dive
M flash kick=hawk dive
H flash kick<hawk dive
FU%*&@#G T hawk and his priority grabs.
Ordered! Always great seeing your work, Maj. I can’t wait for the DVD!
Thank you sirs, much appreciated. I’ll try to post an update about this after i finish the Sakura/Vega TACV.
hey maj, i pre-ordered this about a month ago, and im itchy for something. I was wondering while you are putting the dvd together if you could maybe give out some cool exclusive stuff to tid us over…. you know.
Just to make us feel like we are appreciated for pre-ordering so early?
This also gave me an idea of maybe in the future thought could be put into a hub combo site where yourself, and the best combo vid makers could upload their content and users could pay like a $20 fee to get exclusive behind the scenes commentary, tutorials on setup of your controller, tips, tricks, exclusive contests the $20 fee would only be for the people who really wanted to support the video makers and get the behind the scene stuff, not paying the fee would allow everyone to still get like 90% of the content…
…this is just a thought to go along with the dvd idea.
…i’m blabbering now.
Man, i hope you know, i feel really bad for making you guys wait. If i could go back in time, i definitely would’ve pushed back the annoucement date, or at least held off on taking preorders. There’s nothing i can do about it now though, except try to finish as soon as i can.
I’ll try to come up with an exclusive bonus for you guys, but it’ll be tough. The two main problems with that are:
1) anything extra i do will delay the DVD
2) anything digital will get leaked within a matter of days
But maybe i can post an unlisted bonus video on u2b and send private links to everyone who preordered? That way at least you can have the pleasure of showing your friends before everyone else finds out about it.
As for your other suggestion, believe it or not i’m actually working on something like that right now, except without the subscription fee. That’s partly why the latest SF4 TACV episodes are getting delayed so much. But if all goes well, it should be ready within a couple of weeks. It’ll be basic at first, but who knows? It might grow into something cool and/or sophisticated.
Anyway i don’t want to get into any further details too soon. Hey, maybe i can send you guys a sneak preview of that too – like a day or two before it’s ready to launch? So keep an eye out for that.
when the dvd be out
I’m not sure yet, but as soon as i have a reliable estimate, you’ll see it here.
Due to a combination of personal and legal reasons, the DVD had to be canceled. Please read the full announcement for more information.