Let's Read: PC Engine Fan Magazine

[SamIAm]

We talked about it in this topic, and now it's getting off the ground.

I read the March 1992 issue of PC Engine Fan from cover to cover with a microphone in hand, talking about what I saw along the way. It took three sessions, and including pauses while I read, the raw audio was over four hours long. After cleaning it up in editing, it's down to 82 minutes, and among other things you can hear about such topics as:

-The beginning of the Ys IV project
-Terraforming's development and Syd Mead
-Reader reviews of Salamander, Coryoon, and a few other games
-A 20 reader debate about allowing sexual content in PCE games
-Monthly sales and popularity rankings
-Winter CES, American Duo, US developed games
...and more!
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/32377930/PCEFan%20March%201992.mp3


This was my first shot at this, so I hope you'll be forgiving of minor imperfections. I think that if I made another one, I could do a substantially better job. I'll definitely be quicker when skipping over low-content areas in the future, that's for sure.

Anyway, for me, this was more enjoyable than the writing I had done before. Do any of you enjoy listening to this? I could imagine making more.

The ideal thing would be to match the audio up with images and make a video. However, I don't have scans of the issue, nor the immediate means to scan my own copy. If anyone has a copy and a scanner, please let me know. I think we could make something cool.

[Necromancer]

Downloading now for later listening.  Hopefully it'll soon warm up (and quit raining) so I can listen to it on my daily bike ride. 

[esteban]

I will make the video, somehow. Hopefully we can get scans of the relevant pages.

[Punch]

I always wondered if they ever discussed us-only retardness in Japanese magazines. Thanks for the audio narration.

[SamIAm]

So, guys, what do you think?

In terms of sheer volume, this method lets me get the most stuff translated, and by a considerable margin at that. If I had written everything that I talked about, it would have taken a lot longer and been way more tedious. I'd burn out quickly if I did that. Esteban has offered to help with audio editing, so if all I have to do is read and talk, I could churn out one of these every week or two.

Are you interested in this kind of content? Would you be more interested if there was a visual component? Would you prefer it if I axed certain sections to keep the runtime down?

I realize that the script-less nature of this makes it a bit less easy to listen to than you might hope for. On one hand, I think I could improve my speaking style with a bit of practice and figuring out the best methods for approaching the different sections. On the other hand, I don't think I could avoid the general live-interpretation feeling that the recording has. How did you feel about the presentation style?

A pop filter would probably be a good idea. I could also try recording in a smaller space to reduce the echo. My voice is my voice, though. Did anything about the sound rub you the wrong way?

Making more of these would be a considerable time investment. If people liked this, I'm all for it. If not, well, let me know. I could go back to writing tidbits in the other thread.

Thanks!

[Arkhan]

I'd prefer a visual component, like, magical scans of the magazines that turn to line up with what you are talking about, but that's considerably more effort. 

I personally completely blow at just listening to a thing.   I need some sort of visual thing to go with it, or I tend to taper off and stop paying attention.

I can't be the only one. 

Your voice isn't annoying.  That's a plus for me.  Outside of a filter thing so I don't have to hear the mouth spitty pop noises, I think it's good.   You don't sound like you're deep-throating the mic.


I also actually prefer the lack of script.   It sounds natural, because it is.  Scripted sounding stuff is jarring for me, because it sounds like faked up horseshit and then I start to get annoyed and stop listening, lol.

I'd maybe put some soft music in the background too.   It could be neat, or it could just be distracting/dumb.   Try it!

[Necromancer]

I've not listened to the whole thing yet, but I didn't hear anything wrong with the first ten minutes or so.   Scans of the mag would definitely help, though; like a cat, I get distracted by shiny things, so I can't pay attention to stuff like this unless I'm doing something else on autopilot (like a bike ride or long drive).

[esteban]

I've not listened to the whole thing yet, but I didn't hear anything wrong with the first ten minutes or so.   Scans of the mag would definitely help, though; like a cat, I get distracted by shiny things, so I can't pay attention to stuff like this unless I'm doing something else on autopilot (like a bike ride or long drive).

I'll make a video to fit the commentary, the problem was that we didn't have scans.

In addition to the page scan itself, I was also going to add (1) the names of games (2) advertisements (3) game art (4) etc. to keep things visually interesting.

[SamIAm]

Thanks for the feedback, guys.

I was thinking the same thing about background music.

A visual element would be very nice, I think. Unfortunately, I just don't have a scanner, nor do I have a camera that takes pictures at acceptable quality. I'll see if I can pick up a used scanner for cheap sometime soon, and maybe borrow my wife's camera to see if it's any better.

[Gredler]

I am just about to leave the office, but this sounds like a great thing to listen to while at the office, so thanks for sharing! I will listen tomorrow!

[Punch]

If you are good with video editing software, you could do a video narration, showing the magazine's pages while  you talk about it. Just like this channel which even replace the printed screenshots with live footage of the games:


Of course you won't understand a word of it but it's a good idea of how you can create an entertaining video. Obviously this requires 10x more effort but if you have time and know how to edit videos, why not?

[Arkhan]

Thanks for the feedback, guys.

I was thinking the same thing about background music.

A visual element would be very nice, I think. Unfortunately, I just don't have a scanner, nor do I have a camera that takes pictures at acceptable quality. I'll see if I can pick up a used scanner for cheap sometime soon, and maybe borrow my wife's camera to see if it's any better.

You'd have to trash the magazines essentially (cut the binding), but they make those nice, high speed ones that can suck a whole book in at once.  You could get things done in record time.

I don't know if you really want to do that, though.

What if you instead just strap a camera to your head, zoomed in, and just film yourself reading the thing.  Like, basically GoPro yourself doing some extreme magazine reading.

[Jibbajaba]

You could consider doing this as a video instead of just audio, but not doing it with scans as was suggested.  I played around with this idea but ultimately decided that it wasn't for me, but you can check out what I did and see if it's something you could consider trying:

https://youtu.be/efrzGJrqnX4?list=PL9onTXKN_kdVijISrDGggwyTDgkS5W9A9

The nice thing about it is that as long as you pause briefly between pages, you can skip over things that aren't interesting by just editing them out.  That's what I did in the 3rd and final video (the EGM one).

[SuperPlay]

I have managed to pick up a printed copy of the March 1992 issue. As I do not read/speak Japanese your audio commentary compliments the printed material fantastically.

You have saved me hours of time attempting to use Google to translate the interesting bits.

I look forward to more of this kind of work, great job :-)

[CPTBadAss]

Just stumbled on to this thread and I'm really excited to give this a listen. I'll leave some feedback after but as it stands right now, I don't see any issue with it being audio only