Blog: A whole lotta research (10/02/21 - 10/06/21)

On Thursday, I helped a friend of mine move to his new home out in the country. His new house came with chickens! They were super friendly. Now I want chickens.  

Saturday, October 2nd - Mega Man Universe wins!

Last week, I posted a poll about what episode you all would like to see next. It looks like Mega Man Universe won by a slim margin!

I actually started researching this video back in July, so a lot of the research was already done. So today, I started doing some contextual research around Capcom. How was Capcom doing financially? Why did they choose to make another Mega Man game? What was the reason for Keiji Inafune's departure from the company?

There is also new information about the game. The Mega Man site Rockman Corner posted a great overview of the game's tumultuous development back in August.  I reached out to Brian (who runs the site) and we plan to speak over Discord about this game. 

By the end of the day, I had a much better understanding of the story I want to tell in this video. I'll wait to speak with Brian before I start scriptwriting. 

Overall, I had a great day of research!

Sunday, October 3rd - Miami Dolphins lost again

I have a talk scheduled with Brian from Rockman Corner next weekend for the Mega Man Universe video. So while I wait on that, let's do more Super Mario World research! This is my next big video project. 

This is my Zotero for Super Mario World. There are 83 sources so far (and counting.) If you aren't familiar, Zotero is a way for researchers to easily keep track of sources and research. It is completely free and I highly recommend it. 

Today, I took notes on a lot of these sources and hunted for new information as well. I did stumble on this, which I thought was entertaining.

According to this writer, Super Mario World was not the hottest video game at the 1991 Summer CES show: It was ToeJam and Earl! Maybe that game deserves its own video.

Another great day of research. It would be amazing if I could get this video out in December. I'll try my best!

Monday, October 4th - Japanese magazines!

Today, I combed through my collection of Japanese magazines for any information on the Super Famicom and Super Mario World. I work with a translator to get all of this stuff into English. And many times, it has never been translated before. 

There were lots of cool things to see, but I think the most interesting discovery was this:

One of the big criticisms with the Super Famicom was it wasn't backwards-compatible with the Famicom. Nintendo had never really had to deal with a problem like this before. Usually, the shelf life with their products was only a few years. However, the Famicom had been out for six years and was still selling well!

Their solution was...odd. Instead of adding the necessary hardware directly into the SFC, they came up with a new version of the Famicom that could connect directly to the SFC. So basically, you just had to buy another console for backwards-compatibility!

Of course, Nintendo abandoned the idea within a few months. Nintendo changed their marketing and showcased the Famicom as an "entry-level" console and the Super Famicom for the "hardcore players." 

I found about 20+ articles for the Super Mario World video. It will take some time to get everything into English, but I'm hoping I gain some new insight into the making of the game!

I also streamed on Twitch last night. You can find my channel here. I gave some insight into making the new episode, and we watched some 90's commercials. 

Tuesday, October 5th - How about that last Smash fighter?

Pretty crazy morning! Sora from Kingdom Hearts was announced as the last Smash character, and Doomguy gets a Mii outfit. I thought this drawing I found from a 1991 article about the SNES fit the Smash Bros. theme of the morning well.

Today, I had to sift through thousands of newspaper articles relating to Super Mario World. My first search returned over 7,000 results for 1991 alone. Luckily, most of them were advertisements from Toys 'R Us and other retailers. I did manage to find some great articles relating to parents' concerns over the Super Nintendo.

During this time, the US economy was experiencing a recession. And parents were upset that Nintendo wanted to charge $200 for a new system that wouldn't play the old games. It was a unique situation: In Japan, there was no conflict about the Super Famicom. I'll explain why in the video.

Wednesday, October 6th - Console Wars

Today is my last day of Super Mario World research before I get back into Mega Man Universe. I've jumped into the year 1992, where the Console Wars started taking off. 

The fact of the matter is, the Super Nintendo boosted the Sega Genesis into the spotlight. 16-bit hardware was sort of a niche, new technology in 1989 when the Genesis came out. But by 1991, Nintendo declared it the new standard. All of a sudden, a whole lot of eyes were on Sega. And people saw a huge software library and impressive speed/graphics. 

I can't tell you how happy I am with the amount of research I got done this week for the Super Mario World video. I'm continuing to get articles translated, and I need to dig through a few magazines. But I can imagine this episode going into production by next month.

Anyways, it is weekend time for me! So I'll be spending all day Friday playing Metroid Dread. See you next time!

- Norm