Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Classic Game Room Available for Pre-Order!

The big day has been announced. The DVD "Classic Game Room - The Rise and Fall of the Internet's Greatest Video Game Review Show" will be unleashed on AUGUST 28, 2007.

In fact it was already brought to my attention that it is available for pre-order on Amazon.com HERE and will be at all major online stores soon. It takes a while to get all the info out there, but the good news is that the DVD is NOT region encoded. I notice that 50% of my readers are from outside the United States. (we call you guys foreigners!)

VIEW THE TRAILER!



The official website is www.ClassicGameRoom.net

Tell your friends. Email the trailer around. Make it the 1 billion view online sensation everyone is talking about. The Classic Game Room needs your support because if you want the CGR to come back big time... the DVD has to move! Now I'm pretty biased, but I assure you that this film is a fun ride full of laughs.

Monday, March 19, 2007

Classic Game Room Explodes Online

Finally, another Classic Game Room related post! I've been very busy writing and dealing with numerous computer related issues over the past few weeks. Computers are the enemy. Anyway, to make a long story short, the last thing I've wanted to do recently is look at ANOTHER computer when I get home. Instead I'd rather grill or watch Battlestar Galactica (the 1978 version) or walk Stella the Wonderdog with the Mrs.

Stella the Wonderdog

Speaking of which, Stella the Wonderdog is now an online sensation.

I've been enjoying working on Classic Game Room so much that it got me back into classic gaming after a brief hiatus away from my old-school consoles. In fact, in an upcoming post I'll show how I hooked my Sega Genesis up to my HDTV.

I thought it would be fun to introduce new fans to Classic Game Room and thought Stella would like to help out with some new episodes. And apparently it works, lots of new gamers are discovering the Classic Game Room on YouTube. Hopefully the battle hardened, original fans from the 90's and 2k are also happy to see some of the classics up there. The following video is what happens when Stella has to defend Puppyland from alien invaders in the first original, new review in 7 years:



Stella the Wonderdog reviews Defender for the Atari 2600! I cut this together on a smaller editing system, so its not as sharp as I might like. I'm hoping to put it on an upcoming DVD with the real, uncompressed video and proper, crisp picture quality and color correction. I shot it on a Sony Handycam in Digital 8 with a wide angle lens converter (with the exception of her running down the stairs which was a pickup on my Canon powershot, but I'll reshoot that for the DVD)

Another video game review with Stella is in the works shot on the Canon XL1, look for it in a week or so. Its even better than the first... perhaps? And her third and fourth are also in my head and will get made if I can find the time. If the Classic Game Room DVD does well I can make lots of these and put them on DVD with 5.1 surround sound and we'll start reviewing Genesis games again.

The Classic Game Room film release date is coming soon. Editing is complete and its a lot of fun. We're making the DVD now. It takes forever to get all the details together and coordinate with distribution. But its coming!!!! www.ClassicGameRoom.net

Stella the Wonderdog the classic video game reviewer

The photos of Stella were shot with a Canon Rebel XTi with the 70-300mm IS lens in room lighting.

Tuesday, March 6, 2007

New Classic Game Room Package and DVD Specs

Short of an actual release date, which is coming very soon, here is the updated, final Classic Game Room packaging for my new film "Classic Game Room: The Rise and Fall of the Internet's Greatest Video Game Review Show"

Classic Game Room: The Rise and Fall of the Internet's Greatest Video Game Review Show

We decided to change it to something that really matched the attitude of the show... a giant beer and a video game controller. Who's going to argue with that?

The photographs were taken last week with my Canon Rebel XTi. The glass is a sold, 1970's beer mug that I adopted as a hand-me-down from my parents. Its a small glass but worked well because it didn't tower over the game controller pad. The pad is also mine, its an aftermarket generic game controller for the old school gaming systems.

I've been a bit slow posting on my blog as of late, been very busy with writing Westinghouse (my next HD documentary on George Westinghouse) and finishing all the technical details on Classic Game Room. And now the film is done, done, done.

It ended up being 100 minutes of solid, fast paced, humorous action. The DVD details (which could change but not likely) are as follows:

100 minute film, transfer made directly from the editing system.
4x3 aspect ratio as it was originally shot
Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo

Special Features:
Feature length commentary track with Director, Mark Bussler
3 video blogs
Classic Game Room trailer
Trailers for Expo: Magic of the White City, World War 1 - American Legacy and Horses of Gettysburg

I just recorded the commentary track yesterday which was fun. Went into depth on some of our original filming stories and techniques. I then compared them to the new footage in the film and my new filming techniques. Also some good thoughts on old vs. new video games and which are more fun. And much, much more.

The comedy documentary is a mixed bag of footage but it really works. The original episodes were shot in Betacam SP and DVCpro. Some footage back in the day was shot on Hi-8 and Digital 8. My student film is in there which was shot on Super 8. There's a 16mm Japanese film that I use in editing, some ancient 16mm film from the early 1900's. The interviews were shot on Betacam SP, the new footage was shot in high definition on DVCpro HD with Varicam on a Steadicam. Some new footage was shot on MiniDV. I think the only thing we're missing is Super 35mm or 70mm film... which sadly was out of my budget.

I personally designed the DVD menus and selected the music so they match the style of the film exactly.

There are some new promotional clips on YouTube that can be viewed now, including a new short that I filmed last weekend just for fun. More release information to come as well as new details on the Westinghouse script and production.

Video Blog 3: A look at finishing the Classic Game Room edit.



Puppy Reviews Defender for Atari 2600: An experimental short film with my dog where she does a game review in Classic Game Room style.