Topic: YouTube channel! (JonLeung1)

[JonLeung]

Another Gamology "Ask A Gamer" clip - see me at 2:24 here, where I answer the question of what video game world to live in.  Is my answer a bit of a cop-out?

[JonLeung]

Another Gamology "Ask A Gamer" clip - it's eight days old, but I didn't even notice until today!  For my sixth appearance on this series, which is at 4:43 here, I answer the question of what game(s) I have spent the most on...  Is this a bit of a flex?

EDIT: Now that I've watched the whole video, I'm surprised everyone else talks about in-game downloadable content and I'm the only actual collector.  That is really weird.

Or maybe they're the weird ones because I'm actually buying real physical artifacts.

[JonLeung]

Back to some original content - I spent the last few days working just on this video (I even took Monday off from work), to ensure that this EXCLUSIVE FIRST LOOK is indeed that.  I'm getting some YouTube clout!

"Ultimate Game Guide For NES", is an app by Embraceware, who was nice enough to grant me a sneak peek.  This has got to be the best NES video game guide/reference/tracking app EVER!  Check it out - I'll be giving away redemption codes for the app, too.

[JonLeung]

Another Gamology "Ask A Gamer" clip - see me at 0:22 here, where I answer the question of what game is/was my secret guilty pleasure.  Does my answer surprise you?

[bustin98]

I enjoyed the old Facebook games, Mafia and Vampire Wars. Probably gave away too much personal information by playing those games.

[JonLeung]

Just got to 1000 subscribers on my YouTube channel!
https://www.youtube.com/@JonLeung1

Thank you all so much for your support!  You're the reason I keep making videos!

(Turns out, my 1000th subscriber is my brother, who was waiting for this moment... that's so like him...)

The 1k subscriber milestone was a goal I wasn't sure I would reach before spring, as I only had 900 by the end of December 2022, after doing this for over six years seriously.  To be monetized, I also need to have and maintain 4000 hours of watch time over the last 365 days, so there's still work to do.  It's not about money (not at this point, anyway, as it would be pennies to start with), but I think there are more tools available to me and a greater likelihood of my content being promoted by YouTube now, so hopefully the next 1000 won't take another six years and five months!

I'm currently working on another book review video, this time for The N64 Encyclopedia, by Chris Scullion, where near the end, I say "I hope to reach 1000 subscribers soon" - guess I now have to edit that!  Hopefully that video will be out soon... yes, I said that last week too... such is the life of a YouTuber... but now I can really say that I am one!

Thanks again!

[JonLeung]

I do have a review of The N64 Encyclopedia (by Chris Scullion) coming out soon (I know I said that last week)... but I had to edit some quick things to rack in some views. 

On Sunday, a video promoting The Super Mario Bros. Movie was released, showing a plumbing commercial featuring the opening theme from The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!  Not much of an edit to put them side-by-side, but it was cool to see that they used the song without really changing it.

And today, the final season of the reboot/revival of Animaniacs came out, so since my previous edits of the Season 1 and 2 openings (featuring all the word gags) consistently do well on YouTube, of course I had to make a third and final one.  Hope this will be as evergreen as the last video!

All right, back to my real content... 

[JonLeung]

Got sidetracked again today - with the release of three more The Super Mario Bros. Movie TV spots, I made a compilation of all 13 clips.  Which is pretty cool, but not original content.

But I SORT of made original content - or a new arrangement of them - by splitting up all of that footage and rearranging those shots into what I THINK is chronological order, essentially reconstructing what I can of the movie:

[JonLeung]

Back to my brand of content, here's my review of Chris Scullion's The N64 Encyclopedia!

This one took four weeks to edit - I kept getting sidetracked - but I wanted it done a lot earlier than that.  I bought The N64 Encyclopedia initially from an online book store based in the UK, as it got an official European release first.  I had sort of forgotten about it (I have a big list of things I'm waiting on for delivery, due to various Kickstarter campaigns and stuff, but though it was on the list, I didn't think much of it).  When I did remember, it was months later, with the North American release looming.  I inquired about the shipment and they said that it was lost.  So I got a refund and then bought it again from Amazon (the Canadian site seemed to have it before the American site).  I got the book soon after, but wasn't able to read it all and edit the video and publish it on the day of release in the US (since most of my audience is American, that would have been nice).  It's just annoying that when I actually took the effort to get ahead of the game and have more timely content, that forces beyond my control thwarted me.  I guess that means that if they really did send it, and it really is lost, someone out there in the world is another copy of The N64 Encyclopedia with my name on it.

Another suspenseful frustration - I also spent most of my three-day long weekend editing this, and the 4K version wasn't ready by the time I had to go to bed last night, the last day of that weekend.  So I didn't really relax this weekend at all, and it's only this morning that I am able to publish it, since I insist on having 4K and subtitles ready.

I'm glad this review is out there now, especially after I snubbed his The NES Encyclopedia due to timing, and forgot about The SNES Encyclopedia the first time I compared many Super NES books against each other.  Though I did still review it and compare it, it would have been nice to have done so the first time.  I don't know how obligated I should feel about reviewing every book in any series like these, but it is kind of the bulk of my original content.  Wish the YouTube algorithms knew what to do with me sometimes, though...

[JonLeung]

After the release of the final trailer for The Super Mario Bros. Movie (which I put in this compilation), I reedited my previous edit of all the footage assembled into what I think is chronological order, now that there's a whole 8.5 minutes.  Out of 90-some minutes, that's actually a good chunk, close to 10% of the movie!

[JonLeung]

The Super Mario Bros. Movie content on my channel (mostly trailer compilations) made up a lot of views and watch time, and even subscribers (I recently got to 1000, but am now at 1241 already), but my application for monetization was declined, as I was told I need to have more watched hours of my OWN original content to qualify.  Which I'm not upset about, that actually makes sense, though you'd think they would be more clear about that up front.

Anyway, I do have some original videos on the go, and I decided to "quickly" whip this particular one up to get the people interested in Mario movie stuff (since probably a fifth or more of my subscribers subscribed specifically for that).  It's a review of Super Mario Bros.: The Great Mission To Rescue Princess Peach! (1986), an anime film that hasn't gotten much attention, but now probably should.  I also did this whole video as a voiceover, just to try something different.  Should be a nice segue back into my original content!

But boy, this ended up being more work to put together than originally expected, but I'm glad to get it done today.  Probably should have gotten it done yesterday when all the critics' reviews were going up on YouTube, but at least it's not "too" late...

EDIT: Here's an image of all the Mario & Luigi designs as seen in that video, just because:

[JonLeung]

A book - actually two books - that you might be surprised I didn't review earlier - it's "Video Game Maps: NES & Famicom" and its "Greatest Hits Edition", both by Brian Riggsbee of retrogamebooks.com.  Is it an atlas or an art book? A guide or a gallery?  Check out my review!

My Maniac Mansion map is in print!  Also, Guillaume Saint-Amant's Solstice map and MikeIsguder.com's map of Home Alone!  This video also makes reference to Vorpal86's Jajamaru Gekimaden: Maboroshi no Kinmajou (J) maps (though slightly modified to fit) and one of StarFighter76's maps for Jajamaru Ninpou Chou (J) on GameFAQs.

[JonLeung]

I just made my longest, and maybe most ambitious video to date...

I recently listened to ALL of the NES music to bring you a nearly-12-HOURS-LONG video of ONE MINUTE of music from EVERY official Nintendo Entertainment System game.  (Also, there's clean box art and title screenshots of all of these games.)  Check it out here:

There's 677 North American NES games, 35 PAL region-exclusives, 1 Hong Kong-exclusive game, 2 competition carts, and I also added EarthBound Beginnings at the end because though it's a Wii U VC release and a Switch NSO NES app game, it got official box art, so sure, why not.  Plus it's ironic to end with "Beginnings", so I had to!

The current maximum length of a YouTube video is 12 hours (720 minutes), so at 716 minutes long, it's only just four minutes short of that.

The box art is from The Cover Project, but I cleaned up some of them more, so this might be one of the cleanest sources of NES box art.  When I was cropping them from the full covers, I noticed the width of the front cover is 1536 pixels at their standard size.  A NES screenshot is 256 x 224 pixels, so the largest integer it can scale up to to fit in 4K is 9.  And then 9 x 256 means a width of 2304 pixels.  1536 pixels (box art) + 2304 pixels (title screenshot) = 3840, which is EXACTLY the length of 4K resolution, so I knew it was meant to be, I just HAD to do it in 4K.  But in order to easily render it, I had to make it 10 fps, and I also avoided any motion or transitions.  Kind of plain, but that's how it has to be.

I wrote a LOT more about it in the description, but that part was the most fascinating thing I wanted to share here.

[JonLeung]

Now you can see why I'd disappeared for months...

After five months of editing, the ten-episode "Jon 'N Jason In Japan" series will be released on my "JonLeung1" YouTube channel!  See my brother and I check out the sights in Osaka and Tokyo.
The two-episode series premiere will be released this Saturday, October 28 at 10:00 AM MST, with subsequent episodes releasing each Saturday until the end of the year.

I think I consider this my magnum opus... it's definitely been a lot of work, and if it's not the best, it's certainly up there!  I hope to be able to reapply for monetization partway through the series's run... YouTube can't say THIS content is "not original content"!

[JonLeung]

It has begun!  The first two episodes of my series, "Jon 'N Jason In Japan" are now available!  There are ten episodes in total, a new episode will be added each Saturday until close to the end of the year.

These first two episodes will probably be of interest to gamers and fans of themed attractions, as we check out Dragon Quest Island and Super Nintendo World, both in Osaka.