Thinking of doing a Let's Play -- Need Advice

[Edmond Dantes]

So, in celebration of the fact that I just built a new legacy gaming PC (video to be posted in my blog soon) I wanted to do a Lets Play of a PC game. I was thinking Heretic II since I have a friend who wants to see it.

The only thing is, I don't know how LPs are traditionally recorded. I've heard people say "pointing a webcam at a monitor" is a bad way to do it, but what's the alternative? Would "pointing a webcam" be okay IF you adjusted the cam's settings to pick up the monitor image really well and also did some thoughtful editing of the end result to eliminate the dull parts (or the parts where you got interrupted by IRL) and re-dubbed bits where you thought of a better line, would that be okay?

Thanks in advance!

[Guyra]

There are a bunch of programs that will let you record your screen + sound when playing on a computer. Much easier than if you were playing on a console. So no, don't point the webcam at the screen. ;)

[Edmond Dantes]

There are a bunch of programs that will let you record your screen + sound when playing on a computer. Much easier than if you were playing on a console. So no, don't point the webcam at the screen. ;)

Keep in mind I'll be playing a legacy computer running Windows 98. Are there still such programs for an OS that old?

[bigbacon]

come on be different and just record the TV.

[JakeM]

come on be different and just record the TV.

With The Avermedia Live Gamer Portable. :)


The Game Sack guys got footage of a X68000 in a recent episode. So maybe ask them how they did it. Maybe they just used an emulator, but they usually tell you when they do to get hard to find games recorded.

[RP2A03]

I seriously doubt that a legacy machine running Win98 is going to have enough power to record good quality video while playing games at the same time. You will probably have to get a little creative if you don't just want to point a camera at the monitor. I suppose you could split the video to a DVR. If you can't find one with a VGA input then you will have to run the signal to something the can convert it to component first. The audio can be recorded to a tape deck with an external microphone if necessary. Then you just simply find a way to get it all back into a computer, mix it all together, edit as needed, and post it to YouTube.

[Daltone]

I'd be interested in watching it, but alas have no idea how to record it without cheating and using a VM on a modern computer.