Capturing circuit bent visuals

[caine]

hello peeps! its been a while since i've really contributed much to the forum (not that i have that much experience to make much of a contribution anyway...), but i have a quick question about capturing footage from some circuit bent toys i have been working on, so any advice would be great...


i have a couple of circuit bent NES consoles that provide nice glitchy/crashing footage, like Mario running arround in a world of acid induced madness! you can still play the games to full effect, but they are far more entertaining for the mangled clubbers to play with!!!

up until now i've just been running them through a panasonic mx12 and letting people play them while i mix loops and effects over it from my mac, but i'd like to capture the game play to my hard drive to make loops, but short of getting a DV camera with an analougue input(which are few and far between in my price range) or using an A/D card(which i dont have nor can afford at the moment either), are there any other options?

i though about using a dvd recorder and then ripping the dvd to my mac, but i'm concerned about the quality of the dvd as i would only be using a cheap ?70 recorder nicked from my folks for the weekend...... i dont think i have any other options, but knowing the amount of knowledge you lot have i thought i'd see what you have to say about it.



either way, if any one is interested in one of the units, then i'll be selling a few on ebay shortly, as i need the funds to work on a MK2 model that gives dual screen output, one normal, the other bent, it seems feesible, just need to buy a load of NES consoles to butcher for parts!!! :D


and cheers in advance for any tips. tis much appreciated.

[DrEskaton]

the only options that I'm aware of involve spending money.

record to the DVD player or point a DV camera at the screen on a tripod and record are the cheap options. Everything else requires you puchasing more hardware.

Considering it's already glitchy footage I can't see that an occasional DVD artifact is going to make a difference ad the blurred effect from aiming a DV camera at the screen could actually look cool.

I'd really like to see some of the results when you capture some. Got any still images?

[robotfunk]

just give it a shot on the highest possible record quality. even the cheapo dvd recorders can do a decent job.

[caine]

cool, i'll just give it a go with the dvd recorder. lets face it, NES only has 8 bit visuals any way so it couldnt get any worse could it? lol!

other than taking photos of the screen i dont have any still images either, but i'll get something organised and post it up for you DrEskaton.

[cat]

The problem with circuit bent stuff is that the sync errors you tend to get, throw the recorder into confusion, what happends mainly is you drop frames. Pointing a camera at the screen is definatly the best method, it does depend how bent the games are though! If its just corrupted gfx then you may get away with recording to tape dvd etc, most of my stuff wacks the sync way off though!
Lovely glitch......

[robotfunk]

yeah i was assuming they were not bent to the point of sync loss. if this is the case, avoid any mixer in between or any other gear for that matter, just plug it straight into your telly and use a camera to film it.

[caine]

well i've not had any problems with using it through the projector and an mx12, so i'm hoping its not going to be an issue with the dvd recorder. i dont see why though if its worked so far, but a very good point!

i'll let you know....

[dongbamage]

how about a screenshot of the acidized mario (sounds crazy :D)

[caine]

i'll try and get some screen shots put up over the next few days, i dont even have a digital camera just now. :( i'll make them before and after shots so you can see the difference it makes.

cheers for the advice again guys!

[DrEskaton]

hey caine. had any luck capturing your stuff? would still like to see some screen shots or video footage of what you do...

[caine]

getting close to it!!! spoken to dav from pointless creations who is up for helping me record some footage, so if its of a good enough quality then i'll try up loading some stuff for you all to abuse and use.

i'm currently working on a dual system version that allows you to play the game as normal on one screen while outputting the bent version to a mixer/projector. :D

i do have a digital camera now so i could just take some screen shots for you as well.

[caine]

having said that, there is another guy who has images on his website of the sort of thing it can produce, but to be honest it doesnt really do it justice.

http://www.cementimental.com/videobend/noise.gif

http://www.cementimental.com/videobend/44.jpg

http://www.cementimental.com/videobend/mess.jpg

that should keep you going till i get my finger out......

[caine]

finally got round to shooting some footage on my digital camera, heres the link for the folder. http://www.filefarmer.com/vidiot/NES/

when i get round to doing the same with my atari's and ti99 i'll post them up for you, and hopefully some proper samples for you to play about with within the next month.... ish. ;)