Scheduling updates due to current weather!

Okay folks, due to the current weather situation, I can’t reliably predict when videos will be coming out from me, mainly because the heat is either too draining for me, or it’s making me feel unwell! Therefore, I’ll have to adopt a pattern more in line with what I call “I’ll do it as and when I’m able”; Monday and Tuesday are going to be especially rough, given that they’re going to hit temps of 40C & 39C, which makes it near-impossible to work on anything during the day! I’ll do what I can to get episodes out, but be warned that things will probably end up being on a very random and impromptu schedule because it’ll be based upon when I’m well enough to record videos! All I can say is keep an eye out for the announcements on social media, and check out the Geeked Up Network schedule here every now and again to see when & if something is due to be published, as until it cools down enough, I can’t give a firm promise as to when something will be published!

I’ll still be dipping in and out of social media as and when I can, so whilst videos are currently adhering to an erratic schedule, I’ll still be about keeping an eye on things, as well as continuing to do stuff in the background to help make things easier for me in the future. I’ll also be trying to find a way to make the heat affect me less, so I can get a degree of normality with things! I know this isn’t ideal, but extreme weather is not something a lot of people in this country are able to cope with, especially me, who starts getting uncomfortable above 18C, considering whilst it is that outside right now, it’s around 26C in my flat! With that in mind, I don’t think I could successfully complete another episode of IsaacStorm without coughing through a lot of it, which would both affect my ability to play, as well as my commentary!

I may actually start adjusting my sleep patterns to factor in a siesta on certain days so I can record videos later in the day when it’s cooler! Of course, I also need to take steps to reduce the temperatures in every room in my flat too, a process that will take me a little while to implement! Ultimately, for the time being, you can expect the videos for all of July and most of August to be released outside that 12-hour window; I’ve updated the calendar for IsaacStorm for July & August to be All Day from the 16/07-20/08, and tapering the 23-27/08 down to the 12 hour window of 23:00-11:05, before starting the intended schedule from the 30/08, that being 23:00-23:05. I’m hoping by then that one way or another, things will become more manageable, but it’s looking like around 01:00 onwards is when it gets cool enough to record right now, at least for the time being!

I’m obviously going to also hydrate myself more often too, and start having cool drinks to hand, on top of also using fans to help things cool down. Hopefully, by the time the September schedule starts, Zeus will be fully upgraded (enabling me to play more games), but also I’ll have my mini PC in place; an erratic schedule does work out for me in other ways, even if it’s harder to do things consistently right now! Of course, with my mini PC being deployed, I don’t have to leave Zeus on as long either – especially as more heat and power draw will occur when upgrades happen – so I’m both generating less heat, as well as also saving money on my electricity bill, which is likely going to be going up twice more! I’m looking at offloading some electricity generation for charging stuff like batteries and small electronics to my USB solar panels – gotta use that heat and sun after all! – so hopefully that’ll also make my electricity bills more manageable.

One benefit of Zeus getting upgraded is that it’ll open up my ability to play certain games! I do want to properly start doing some first look or similar types of videos – for upcoming, soon to be released, games that have entered EA, as well as Kickstarter projects, and games that have been out for a while – and I’m currently toying with the idea of calling the series “WTH/What The Heck Is…”, both as a direct tribute to TotalBiscuit, but also as a universal brand for Gamed Up, so any team member can use it, although “Lightning Plays” will remain as the series alternate name, at least on my channel! The name of this may end up changing as it’s currently a working title, but I may as well mention this now because I’m weeks to months away from even being able to do those videos anyway, especially as I want to also plan out my LP videos too, so a lot of work needs to be done regarding video scheduling overall! As always though, updates will be provided in due course.

For now, though, I’m going to call it here, as I have some backend work to do. If anyone has any thoughts on the above, feel free to comment below, or get a hold of me on Facebook, Mastodon, Minds, PeakD, or Twitter.

#gaming #IsaacStormLPSeries_ #IsaacStormReboundSeries_ #IsaacStormRepentanceLPSubSeries_ #IsaacStormRepentanceReboundLPSubSeries_ #NewsUpdates #PCGaming #PlayedUpWithStormkeeper #YouTube

Okay, here’s the deal…

Evidently, the past few days have been a bit hectic and/or screwy for me, so I again missed a deadline for an IsaacStorm video! I’m going to try and work something out for tomorrow now, but I’m not willing to solidly commit to anything for the remainder of this week at least; I will gradually get back on track, but I’m having to get used to doing things again after over a year of being out of the loop! In any case, expect this week to be a bit ropey for published videos, although I’m hoping to have at least one episode out on Thursday or Saturday! In any case, watch out for the notifications on social media and/or other relevant platforms!

#gaming #NewsUpdates #PCGaming #PlayedUpWithStormkeeper #YouTube

Well, this is embarrassing…

Turns out that I messed up the audio channels on the last 2 videos I did… not happy about this, so I, unfortunately, will have to start back from scratch this time regarding the videos! The videos themselves I’m happy enough with, but without my commentary (which didn’t appear to be recorded, the series falls flat on its face! I won’t delete the videos, but they need to be sorted into the Xtras playlist because they aren’t what I’d want to start the restarted series with, as things were supposed to be improved in some form! this, therefore, means that Tuesday will have the first proper episode, but I’ll upload the video I recorded for Episode #1 and flag it (and #0) as “gameplay videos”, as opposed to actual let’s plays; keep in mind also that the game sound is pretty quiet too because the volume needed to be lower than my voice in order to facilitate my commentary!

Expect changes/uploads to be made on Monday, with the proper Episode #1 video dropping on Tuesday at 23:00 hours! On the plus side, I at least have everything set up for the new series to go live properly on Tuesday now! Also, I’m going to again reset my progress because there needs to be consistency with the series.

#gaming #IsaacStormLPSeries_ #IsaacStormRepentanceLPSubSeries_ #IsaacStormRepentanceReboundLPSubSeries_ #NewsUpdates #PlayedUpWithStormkeeper #TheBindingOfIsaacRepentanceGame_ #YouTube #TagsIsaacStormLPSeries_

The Rebinding of IsaacStorm and Other Updates

Anyone who gets the reference in the title gets 10 Internet Points!

Okay folks, so here’s the deal… I’ve decided to restart my Isaac save for Let’s Plays because it’s been so long since I’ve done a recording that I feel like a fresh start is the way forward! The old videos will of course be left on my channel, but I will be starting a brand new iteration of the series, although I should be able to reach my current status with relative ease, or at least that’s the plan anyway! The plan, for now, is to upload the first video of the restarted series today (Sunday) and work from there. I’m probably going to omit the words for the time being although I may go back and add them in the future, but I’m going to essentially just refer to their episode number from now on and will update my templates accordingly.

The stream save will remain intact though as I’ve little reason to restart that one too, but I’m hoping to reach ‘Golden God’ before the end of the year at least! Now that I’ve a larger upload limit on LBRY/Odysee, I no longer need to worry about missing videos on that channel, so I can upload to there more consistently without a time limit, so it changes the way I work doing IsaacStorm, meaning that the more I think about it, the more it makes sense to do a restart! I’ve learned a lot from recording both Afterbirth+ and also Repentance, so I should also feel more confident in playing, now that I’ve ironed out a lot of kinks with my setup; there are likely some more than just the ones I identified, but I’m hoping a fresh save will help with some of those as well, although I’ll need to be aware of anything else that comes up, such as my chair degassing and lowering my sitting height, which is playing havoc with my posture and making my shoulder sore!

In any case, this should hopefully lead to better things and help me get into a routine; if you want to see the Geeked Up Network events calendar, which covers my video dates (and will also cover my streams, and other GUN-related videos and streams), that’s available here. Note that I’ve switched over to 23:00 for the IsaacStorm videos (the 23:05 end time is the default time block the schedule is set for when a new time is selected, it doesn’t actually mean anything!) so I’m better able to schedule timings…. hopefully I can keep tho this schedule after a few weeks of rough starts! Anyway, besides the restart and an official schedule, I’ve also started adopting wireless for my gamepad, mouse (or rather will soon), and headset, because dealing with wires sucks and causes issues! I do have my wired headset inserted as a backup, and both of them (as well as the mixer) are connected to a push-button toggle USB hub connected to my new KVM switch, which itself is essentially a hub, at least until my workstation mini PC gets added to the mix!

Part of the reason for the KVM switch and also the hub is to save money on electricity, as I’m going to be using my mini PC for all “admin work”, such as dealing with emails, documents, research, watching videos/streams, and anything else it can take over from the main PC because times are going to get tough, and any way to reduce money spent on electricity is a good idea methinks! With regards to my main PC (Zeus), I’m moving the mainboard (with CPU & Cooler/m.2 SSD/RAM) and the BD-ROM/DVD-RW from Raiden to it, because a 0.5 incremental update now makes more sense to apply to Zeus, whilst I source around a 10th Gen intel or AMD equivalent (for Windows 11)! Raiden will still have its case, and also 2 HDDs (4TB/6TB – or maybe 6TB/8TB if I win the 8TB Skyhawk I’m bidding on!), a 1TB SATA (secondary) SSD, the power supply, and a BD-ROM drive assigned to it, though I need a new m.2 drive, mainboard, CPU, RAM, a cooler, and a BD-RW drive, as well as a new GPU, although the Quadro T600 (which is a cut-down GTX 1650, as I’ve put the 1050 Ti back into Zeus) may be used as a temporary GPU to get the ball rolling!

I’m gradually improving my setup over time (as well as sourcing new bits) via a site called i-bidder, which auctions off customer returns and the like, and I’ve already got some good stuff from there, such as 2 Logitech wireless keyboards (one will be used with my Multimedia Pi/Armiga), a Competition Pro Extra joystick (for a future project – bidding on a second one too for a pair of joysticks, but I’ll explain more later), 3 internet radio devices, a 240GB SATA SSD (useful for Haiku laptop), an SD card case, a toolless 2.5in USB drive enclosure, a 2TB HDD (for Summanus), another Xbox 360 wireless controller (I try to have pairs of things for consistency), which works with my first pad’s dongle and saves me a USB port! Also, a few WiFi 6 Mini PCI-E wireless cards (which means I can upgrade the wireless card in my laptops/mini-PCs!), some Panasonic Eneloop Pro batteries (for my Psions, as they have – as far as I know – 1.5v like non-rechargeable batteries rather than 1.2v!), a few PS4 games and a 3DS game (FFVIII HD Remake, Far Cry 4, Battlezone PSVR, and Mario Kart 7), 2x USB external DVD drives and an external USB floppy drive (for thin client projects), an 8GB DDR4 SO-DIMM (always useful), 3 internet radio devices (for listening to IR streams – eventually Stormhaven Radio – in my bedroom and kitchen), a USB handbrake (going to use with ETS2), various USB drives (that I’m also bidding on), a 64GB CompactFlash card, 2x emulation/Famiclone consoles, and MS Flight Sim (the new one), and also – which I forgot I wanted – a Thrustmaster T1600 FCS joystick, which will be great for flight sims, and also a wireless headset for my PS4!

There are other bits too I’m currently bidding on and haven’t mentioned, but they are summed up as more USB drives/enclosures, some cables, some m.2 SSDs, that 8TB SkyHawk, various laptop bags, a case for my new phone, and also a cool computer/electronic cleaning kit which includes cleaning disks for 3.5in and 5.25in floppy drives, which is cool! The added benefit is that I’ll also know what I need to keep equipment clean! I plan to bid on other stuff in the future as it’s a cheaper way to get things I need to build PCs or use in projects, and because the warranties are already gone in most cases, I don’t need to worry about voiding them when I open them up! I also have been on i-bidder’s sister site, The-Saleroom, and have secured myself a boxed Commodore+4, a boxed C64 breadbin, a mostly boxed Commodore VIC-20 – NOT a C64 (from EasyLive Auction), a boxed Intellivision with a few boxed games, and a boxed Philips Videopac G7000 (Magnavox 2 in the USA) with a bunch of games! I have no idea if the Intellivision or G7000 work yet, because I haven’t been able to test them, due to needing RF output, but the +4 needs a replacement plug, and the C64 powers on to a black screen. I also bought an Atari 520 STe (upgraded to 1MB RAM) from eBay, but as the board seems to have issues, I bought a replacement that I’m waiting to install in it!

I also want to upgrade the RAM on the board to 4MB so I can do more with it! I also won an Atari 800 XL with 1050 drive; the drive was why I wanted it, but it turned out to have a lot of interesting stuff, but again it’s not been tested yet, though I’ll do that soon as it has an RCA/composite cable! I did also pick up some WW2 strategy board games, which also contained a boxed copy of the Red Baron Mission Editor, which will go nicely with my boxed copy of Red Baron! I also picked up a ZX Spectrum printer with 4 rolls of thermal paper and also a cassette deck, which will feature in videos, I’m sure! I also picked up a pair of Atari 2600 wireless joysticks which are boxed, because I figured I just have to try them out, because they have those telescopic ariels, and it’s just awesome to see some retro wireless stuff! I also rescued a ZX Spectrum 128K from an undisclosable location, along with a bunch of old PC RAM, a couple of 486 motherboards (which advances my 486 build project a lot), as well as a bunch of video/sound/interface cards, one of which being an OPL3 Sound Blaster Vibra 16, and also a video card supported by my Kasan 3DMax, as well as a currently unidentifiable video card, though all of them need thorough cleaning!

There is also an Apple IIcx with keyboard and monitor at the property, which I intend to pick up because it’s the right era of Mac (68k) for me to be interested! There is also a lot of audio gear and other electronics/computer stuff there too, and I’ll be photographing it when I go there tomorrow, but I hope to be able to facilitate visits there in the future in conjunction with the guy who introduced me to the place, so if anyone is interested in the stuff I post up down the line, contact me (StormkeeperGU) on Twitter, Mastodon, etc.! But yeah, I’m going to stop here for now, as I need to get ready for Ep #0 of the IsaacStorm reset (I’ll record the reset and the first new run), and also update my templates accordingly. I know it’s a big post, but I had a lot to share! Actually… one more thing! I also have an 800/50 Meg connection now, so hopefully, that will result in faster uploads and better streaming-related stuff, once I have a system that can do 1080p @60 FPS!

One thing I also forgot to mention was that for a few days in April, I got to visit the lovely city of Norwich, home of the inimitable Nostalgia Nerd, and the legend (and thoroughly nice) Ashens! I got to see some folks I didn’t see in a couple of years – it was lovely to see you all again! – and also got to do a tiny bit of thrifting in Norwich City Centre, and also the nicest sausage roll I’ve ever had, as well as a vegetarian (Moroccan?) roll that I also liked but not as much as the sausage one! I plan to do a day trip (maybe longer) to Norwich in the future so I can take more photos for Diggerventures, as well as doing a proper thrifting session, and seeing a couple of friends I’ve yet to meet IRL, if they’re available of course!

In any case, I’ll try to start doing fortnightly or monthly updates at some point, so things are more easily digestible in the future, but for now, that’s it, so I’ll say goodbye for now, and I’ll see you all later on!

PS: If you guessed Steven Wilson – The Raven That Refused to Sing, then you have won your Internet Points!

#AtGeekedUp #Atari8Bit #AtariComputers #AtariST #auctions #boardGames #boxedComputers #boxedConsoles #boxedRetro #Commodore4 #Commodore64 #CommodoreComputers #CommodoreVIC20 #computerGames #computerHardware #gaming #iBidder #IsaacStormRepentanceLPSubSeries_ #NewsUpdates #PCGaming #PlayedUpWithStormkeeper #retroBenchmarking #RetroComputing #retroGameConsoles #retroGaming #retroHardware #RetroLaptopProject #retroLaptops #RetroPC #retroPcGaming #retroPcHardware #RetroRepair #SGUPickups #SGUPickupsThrifts #SinclairComputers #StormSWorkshop #StormSWorkshopSGU_ #StormkeeperAtGeekedUp #TheBindingOfIsaacRepentanceGame_ #TheSaleroom #YouTube #TagsIsaacStormLPSeries_

Some updates and future plans

Okay, so I’m going to be a bit erratic with uploading IsaacStorm videos this month, due to essentially trying to rearrange stuff to work more efficiently. I’m looking at maybe doing some unboxings of stuff I get in the post from around September, which is a couple of months away, I know, but I need time to get everything set up! Going back to the videos though, I’m going to pretty much aim for the nearest regular slot I’m able to aim for, rather than saying when or if a video will be uploaded because I don’t have as much energy as I’d like to record at present, so I’ll probably end up doing something a bit intermittent for this month, possibly next depending on how things go. This also means that I’m going to hold off on doing daily Isaac videos till at least February/March, whilst I work on a schedule incorporating a second game too, which I’ll need to work out how I’m going to go about doing it. I’m still thinking of doing Dungeon Hack, although it’s likely that I’ll have to do the game without music, and just suggest that you choose your own music to play with it, as I’m realising I’ll drive myself nuts if I end up trying to find the perfect music to go with the game, plus it means you have a choice of accompanying music from your end!

Anyway, expect that IsaacStorm videos will be going up, but do keep an eye on the usual outlets at around midnight on Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday; if there isn’t anything up by that time, assume that this time it’s been a miss! I’m giving this heads-up now in order for me to save energy up for doing future videos and schedules, plus there are only so many times I can say the same thing. At least by setting the expectations of adhering to the normally scheduled time slots in some fashion means that you have a better idea of how things are going, as eventually, I’ll be back to normal posting, but right now, I just want to try to get my PC transfer/upgrades done, as well as bringing my server properly into the fold, along with my workstation, as this will help me streamline things down the line. additionally, I’ll be getting a connection upgrade sometime this month, so that may result in some downtime for a short period, but I will be getting a slightly faster upload speed; in addition to the upgrade from 15 Meg to 30 Meg, I’ll be getting an upgrade to 40m Meg due to a connection upgrade, as well as getting 5 additional IP addresses, which will allow me to do some interesting things down the line!

Anyway, I do hope to be getting back to my regular schedule eventually, but in the meantime, I’m going to try to aim for at least one video a week minimum, though I’m not sure if it should be on a specific day, or whatever day I can manage. I do also need to start being a little less strict with my requirements for videos too, because I can’t keep on doing the haphazard approach I have been doing in the past and discarding a lot of videos, seeing as I end up spending hours on something and having nothing to show for it! I am going to aim for a minimum of 35 minutes per video, and ignore the maximum time it takes for a run or series of runs as I feel like worrying about that probably has an effect on my performance somewhat too! I do have other things planned down the line, most notably with ‘Storm’s Lab’ and ‘Storm’s Workshop’, but nothing I can really reveal till I’ve sorted out enough space for things, especially as I’m not sure myself what’s going to happen with it, but I do hope to do some things with 3D printing, most notably setting up Octoprint with a mini 3D printer and setting a webcam on it to allow people to watch the print happening (in theory at least).

I do also want to start streaming me repairing/cleaning/refurbing/etc various bits of hardware too, but that might take a little while longer, as I need to work out a camera setup, as well as making sure I protect my table and can facilitate a decent streaming setup somehow as well. Anyway, I’m going to stop it here for now, as I need to go and think about what needs to be done to make things easier and more efficient for me moving forward. I do also want to pick up my copies of Savage and Railroad Tycoon II Gold Edition from storage as well, so I can put them in the Linux box. I do also have plans for my Pentium MMX project, now I can almost get a preliminary trial to build going with that, plus I want to also start sorting out storage for it and the retro laptops I have to work on eventually; I have the 4 enclosures I need now, so I can replace the HDDs with SSDs eventually, although I do want to research other upgrades such as RAM, the CPUs, and GPUs, as well as making sure I have everything I need to clean everything!

I do have many plans that are almost ready to go, but they need space to be worked on, let alone filmed, so that’s something else I’ll be working on too! In any case, I know that it’s probably a bit disappointing to have me not release any videos after almost 2 weeks, but at least you have something consistent to work from, plus I’m going to give once a week (not this week) posting a go. In the meantime though, I’ll try to keep you all updated on any major developments.

Until next time, take care and see you all later on.

#Blog #NewsUpdates #PlayedUpWithStormkeeper