Hello, I’ve waited here for you.

I’m starting to sound like a broken record, but once again, I feel bad for letting this blog of mine go without an update for so long.  Even though I’ve made the occasional memory post, there are a few things I realized I hadn’t even mentioned yet.

 

Item #1 – A New Frontier

From the beginning, CPB has been more than just a blog.  It’s a place where I can put these memories so they can live on forever, like a photo album I can flip through on a rainy day to reminisce about the old days.  It’s a place where my friends, and even people around the world (apparently!) can join in on the nostalgia.

I’ve been dreaming a bit bigger as of late, however.

Late last year, I started writing “scripts” for a series I intended to create and post to my YouTube channel, aptly named ControlPadBlues.  Aside from basically taking posts from this blog and making them into videos, I also planned on making Top 10’s, series retrospectives (inspired by the GameTrailers series of the same name), and perhaps other kinds of informative videos.

With a few scripts completed, I started recording footage… and then the USB ports on the PC I was using to record went kaput.  It was a pretty old capturing device on a pretty old computer, and it wasn’t exactly the greatest quality (my current gen console recordings looked pretty abysmal), but it at least it was something.  I wasn’t sure how I would make these videos without being able to record anything – or even be able to get what I recorded off the PC – so I put this grandiose idea of mine on the back-burner for a while.

 

Item #2 – (Another) Christmas to Remember

One of the YouTube channels I had begun to watch regularly was The Gaming Historian.  Not only did his videos help inspire me to get my own videos off the ground, he eventually made one where he answered fan questions.  One of the questions just so happened to be “how do you record your game footage?”

It was called an Elgato GameCapture HD, and it recorded pretty much everything from the NES on-forward, and in HD.  Perfect!  I’d have to keep an eye out for it…

Then came Christmas.  My wife had an opportunity to hop on a flight and go visit her parents, who had recently moved about 4,000 kilometres away.  The only problem was, it was a bit of a last minute trip, and it didn’t leave her and I with much time to get some shopping done before the 25th.

Now, I hate to get all mushy on here – in fact, we both hate getting all mushy anywhere, about anything, period – but having her back home after a week of being alone was so great.  Hot damn, I missed my wingman like crazy.

The day after she got back, we set out to get at least some of our Christmas shopping done.  Our first stop was Future Shop (now Best Buy) to get some ideas for gifts.  She casually asked “hey, do they have your recording device here?”

To my surprise, they did – it was a bit pricey, and we had some presents to buy for others, so I stored that in my memory banks.  I went back and found her, told her they had it, and she promptly told me to go back and get it.

Now, she’s usually the type to encourage me to buy things like that.  She often has a “you only live once” mentality when it comes to me treating myself, whereas I’m a little more conservative and feel slightly guilty whenever I do.  We went back and forth a few times, and after she insisted one final time, I went and got it.

She took it, went to the counter, and with the cutest damn smile on her face, said “Merry Christmas!”  Long story short, I had no idea that her parents had given us a gift, and here she was, spending a chunk of it on me.  To have her buy me this silly little recording device so I could be an über-nerd and make Internet videos… well, it was amazing, and I almost choked up right there at Future Shop.  haha

 

 

We did some more shopping, and surprisingly managed the crowds well enough to get everyone’s gifts.  After a full day of walking around, I was so pumped to finally hook it up.  Figuring out how I was going to do it was going to be fun, though; I have my PC in one room, and all my consoles in another.  I thought maybe a bunch of USB extension cables would do the trick, but even that wouldn’t be ideal…

As I was thinking stuff out, Nita gave me that look she always gives me when she has a potentially-crazy-but-probably-awesome idea.

“So… what kind of laptop would you theoretically need to record stuff?”

I laughed it off, thinking she was being funny.  She was completely serious, though!  She wanted me to look at the requirements, and then drive us back uptown to shop around for a brand new laptop.

We managed to find one that suited my needs perfectly, so we used the rest of our gift to help buy a brand new laptop for me to record my game footage with.

 

 

I was absolutely floored by not only her parents’ generosity, but also by how lucky I was to have someone so willing to help me be my geeky self.

I avoid saying it on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or whatever, because typing it out makes it feel like I’m telling Google Chrome how I feel.  We’ve never been the type to be show the world how we feel about one another, mostly because it weirds us out when others do it in front of us.

At the same time, I can’t help but say HOLY SWEET MOTHER OF F*** I love my wife.  Anita, you mean so damn much to me, and I can’t thank you enough for everything you do for me.  Thank you for a Christmas I’ll never forget!

 

Item #3 – A New Generation!

Since the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 were announced a few E3’s ago, I knew the PS4 was probably the way I was going to go.  It was just a question of what would drive me over the edge and make me buy one…

Back in March, I pre-ordered Mortal Kombat X.  I didn’t own a console to play it on yet, but hey, at least I could get Goro as a playable character, and maybe a few extra goodies to go along with it.

Yada-yada-yada, PS4’s went on sale for $50 off a week later, and I finally took the next-gen plunge.

I was a little underwhelmed at first – Little Big Planet 3 is nice, just not quite next-gen-ey – but then I played MKX… and then I played Far Cry 4… that was it!  I was in!  I had experienced that moment that comes once a (console) generation, and it felt amazing.

 

So… yeah.

For the past six months, I’ve been writing more episodes and recording the game footage I need to make them.  I bought a Samson Meteorite USB Condenser Microphone, and although I haven’t received it yet, I’ve read up on various sound recording and editing tips.

I intend to do a bit of travelling to get footage that might help with relating some of the memories I’ll be sharing, even though I don’t have an ideal camera for that sort of thing – yet, anyway.

I have 14 episodes written with more being worked on regularly, and the idea of sharing them with the world is pretty damn exciting.  I don’t have a name for the show yet, but hey, that’ll come with time.

To the future of CPB!  *clink*