Blog: Going Forward (09/03/21 - 09/07/21)

Friday, September 3rd - Rough Release Day :(

I released the U-Force video this past Wednesday (September 1st), and unfortunately, it did not go well. I scheduled the video for noon and shared it around my socials. But soon after its release, I got a flood of messages from people saying YouTube didn't tell them I had a new video.

I've never gotten messages like this before, so I was concerned. I contacted my network, who said they would look into it. Several hours later, YouTube confirmed it: Their notifications were broken. Later that evening, they told me it was all fixed. But the damage was already done, unfortunately. Some people did get a notification, but not everyone. So this means not as many people watched as usual, which hurts the video overall in the mysterious YouTube algorithm. 

Needless to say, it had me feeling bummed out. I worked for months on this video, only to see YouTube bug out on its release date. 

But this did teach me a lesson: Don't put all of your eggs in one basket. By that I mean, I can't just rely on these big projects always doing well. So I'm going to modify my work schedule a little bit. 

In the future, I'm hoping to release a new video every month. Currently, I work on videos one at a time. But now, I've decided to sort of split my week between a smaller project (like Microsoft's 3 Biggest Mistakes) and a big project (Super Mario World). That way, content is consistently coming out, but at the same time, I get to work on the bigger topics I really enjoy. 

We'll see how it works, but I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Saturday, September 4th - Mario Character Name Origins!

Last week, I posted a list of upcoming topics for the show.  But I decided I wanted to do something completely new that has been on my mind for a while. 

Last year, I spent two weeks scanning documents from the Universal v. Nintendo lawsuit. In this case, Universal was confident that Nintendo came up with the name "Donkey Kong" because of the film King Kong. Many of the documents contain never-before-seen information on how Nintendo came up with the name Donkey Kong. 

I always like it when new information comes out about our favorite video games. So I wanted to dive into the origin of all the major Mario characters! I'll be looking at the following characters, which is basically the Mario Kart 64 roster.

- Mario
- Luigi
- Princess Peach
- Toad
- Yoshi
- Donkey Kong
- Wario
- Bowser

Should be a relatively quick episode to make and I think it will be really interesting and fun.

Sunday, September 5th - Donkey Kong could have been Mr. Kong

This list represents the 10 names Nintendo considered for their new arcade game starring a gorilla and a mustached hero. As you can see, Donkey Kong is underlined, the eventual title of the game. But some of the other nominees are interesting! Personally, I kind of like Mr. Kong. What do you think?

I've pretty much finalized my research on the Mario characters episode. Luckily, a lot of the research was already done thanks to previous episodes I have worked on. I'm waiting to hear back from two former NoA employees about one name. But besides that, I think I can start the script!

Monday, September 6th - Happy Labor Day!

It's Labor Day here in the United States, a celebration of the labor movement and the workers! So, I gave myself the day off. Although admittedly, I did do a little work on the light gun episode. Just some simple searches for products I might be missing. 

I'll pick work back up tomorrow. Enjoy the day off!

Tuesday, September 7th - Outline for Mario Character Names Complete!

Today I finished outlining the new video and will start writing it on Friday. This was so much fun to research and I learned a lot about our favorite Mario characters! Also, I stumbled on this cursed image you see above. This is from the Mario Ice Capades from 1989.

One name that is still a mystery is Bowser. No one really knows where that name came from. I have reached out to 2 former Nintendo of America employees about the name. One said they had no idea where it came from. I'm still waiting to hear back from the other.

Another mystery is the resurgence of the name. Bowser was first called Bowser in the Super Mario Bros. manual. But in popular culture (television, movies, newspapers, magazines), he was mostly called "King Koopa." But starting with the Nintendo 64, Nintendo seemed to go all-in on the Bowser name. 

If there is one thing I learned from researching this episode, it's that Nintendo changes things frequently and isn't always consistent with their characters. History is messy!

- Norm