Saturday, March 10, 2012

Problems with screenshotting

Hi guys,

first of all, I know that screenshotting is not a real word.

However, I'd like to ask a question to my fellow bloggers :

How to make a decent screenshot out of console games?

I asked the question to Zenic who told me he put the video feed on his PC, but I've got a major problem with that : My PC is a piece of crap. I've heard there is another solution which consist of using a DVD recorder, put the video feed through it and record it on DVD-RW. Did anyone around here already use this solution? Does it work? Is there another solution I'm yet to discover? And what about portable console gaming?

Thanks a lot in advance. I've managed to go through my first two games using only screenshots from the internet, but it's really hard to find something illustrating correctly what I want to say, and it's gonna be even harder when I'll tackle less known games (for example, let's say... Legacy of Kain?)

I'd love to know how you do this kind of things. If I can't find a simple solution, I might have to postpone a bit on my blog before going through the next games, because it's really hard to come by descent screenshots and a screens-less blog would be just sad.

I'm trying to get good pictures with my camera too, but it's really hard to get something correct. Any idea?

Update : 3 tests below to see how it fares. I can see myself in the first one, and the second is kinda blurry, but the 3rd one kinda works, what do you think?




5 comments:

  1. This is one of those instances where playing with an emulator is so convenient. Many of them have a screenshot function built in. For those that don't, alt-printscreen and then pasting into MS Paint works wonders. I'm sorry I don't have any better ideas.

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    1. Thanks anyway, I'm currently trying to play in the dark and take pictures with my camera, with a wide-open lens and real fast obturation, it kinda work, but considering I'm trying this on Blood Omen, which is a REALLY DARK game, I'm not sure of the results.

      Could be a temporary solution until I buy another PC (yeah, your lengthy post about that made me think ;)

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    2. Cool! I'm glad you stopped by and read that.

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  2. I suggested a DVD recorder in order to capture action shots in games, especially since you're playing more action type games. The pictures above are some of the best quality camera shots I've seen, so I think these would work. My computer is pretty old/slow as well (about 4 years old, and cheap for the time, only a single core), so using a USB capture device like a Dazzle or EasyCap is an alternative. The software for getting screenshots from those is fairly light.

    As for handhelds, the Game Cube has something called the Game Boy Player that allows it to run Game Boy, Game Boy Color, and Game Boy Advance games. The PSP model 3000 has A/V out. The Nintendo DS and Game Gear would require modification to the system in order to get video/audio out (DS audio can be capture from the headphone jack). There's a press (journalist) solution for the Nintendo DS that costs about $5000.

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  3. Well thanks for the tips (and thanks for the quality of my pictures ;). I'll try the computer solution if you say that it works even on an old PC.

    Yep, I didn't remember about the Game Boy Player. Pretty good idea on this one. I'll try to figure where my old cube is and give it a try.

    I think I'll pass on the $5000 solution for the DS, though, and just go for camera shots on this one too ;)

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