First of all, a Special Thanks to my much-valued donors:
You guys prove there’s too much good in the world.
About “Problem Gamer” (The Show):
I love video games, sometimes a little too much. “Problem Gamer” is my first stab at hosting a series on video games (if not the best stab, as should be apparent from the videos.) It’s something I want to do, but I’m hoping it will be at least somewhat entertaining and informational for you, too.
It’s just about hardcore gaming as a lifestyle: the games I play wayyy too much, the crappy games I end up buying habitually, and why they keep me coming back for more. It’s mostly supposed to be funny, and a little informative (as in, non-MMO spectrum games, for a change).
There are enough parodies of MMO’s and the people who play them, I’m pretty sure. I honestly don’t give a crap about MMO’s–haven’t touched the things for years. The many, MANY other varieties of habit-forming game don’t get nearly as much attention… not anymore, at least. Not to mention the outright fanaticism–be it in competition, in idol-worship, or both–that some of these games inspire in their players. So, let’s fill some of that void with tales of the odd, the obscure, and the downright freakishly-adored games that populate gaming lore.
You can help me by leaving some constructive criticism… and maybe a positive comment, too. 
About The Problem Gamer (Me):
Hi! I’ve never formerly introduced myself, and after a few shows, I thought you might appreciate some biographical details. Don’t correct me if I’m wrong–I can appreciate feigned interest, too!
So, I’m Katie Montminy, 25 years old, primary occupation: Gamer. Oh, and a university degree-type-thing I’m finishing part-time. I hold a college diploma in Computer Programming (though they call it “Computer Programmer”) which I received in 2005. I’ve held a lot of jobs and don’t know what I “want to do” yet–but I hope to find it both in and outside the hours of 9-5.
On the internet, I was a long-time contributor of reviews and articles at Siliconera.com, where I helmed the Retro Reviews section for a while. A feature I wrote there on advertising in games got me a contract at a blog called “ButtonSmasher”, hosted by Pricegrabber.com, where I wrote for a year. More recently, I did copy editing for GamingExcellence.com, but I’ve decided to see where my credentials can get me before I write again. I used to run a site called “The Sega Gamer’s Guide”, which started on free Tripod servers and moved to a subdomain at Synbios.net, from June 1998 to sometime in 2003 or so; it focused on reviews and game media, spurred by my Sega fangirl-ism. The final design was the sweetest I could imagine in basic HTML, crafted in the classic Sega colour scheme of blue and black.
I got my NES in the Christmas of ‘88, I believe–but I was really young, so I might be mistaken. In any case, it was the start of a beeeyuuuutiful friendship. I can now proudly claim (after a deeeeeep breath) the Sega Genesis, Super Nintendo, Game Gear, Game Boy, Game Boy Advance, Virtual Boy, Playstation, Sega Saturn, Sega CD, Nintendo 64, Sega Dreamcast, Gamecube, Playstation 2, Xbox, Nintendo DS, Sony PSP, Wii, Xbox360, and Playstation 3 to be among the gaming systems I own (or jointly own), in addition to the PC I’m using to write this.
Hope I’m not missing any….. just kidding, that’s it.
FAQ
Did you code/design/write this site yourself?
Yes! …Well, based on a WordPress CSS template called Sandbox. I overwrote a lot of the default elements to give you the design you see now. The old design in blue and grey was called Andreas04, which I had nothing to do with.
I hope you like the new one better, anyhow!
What kind of hardware do you use for the videos?
The camera I have now is a Kodak Zx1, a nice little HD pocket in the under $200 class. (The audio is crap, though.) Depending on the power to your USB ports, such cams may need an external power source–in my case, it’s a Rockband USB Hub.
Then there’s a cheap USB mic for narration, a lot of lights (cheap cams don’t perform well in low light!), and of course a computer–an Intel 4 desktop with a 2-core, 2.8gHz CPU and 1 Gig now 2 WHOLE GIGS of RAM, which I was so fortunate as to get from the last place I worked.. free.
I then proceeded to buy a 256MB video card (~US$60), because I wasn’t at all convinced the 96MB integrated video would do the trick (and it was the best I could afford).
There’s still some things my machine can’t do very well–for example, captures of Playstation 1 games stress it out a bit. My philosophy: 10fps or more is OK!
Does the show benefit from purchases made via the Play-Asia.com link?
Yes, it does. Play-Asia has a great customer loyalty program: I link to them, and every time someone makes a purchase at my affiliate address, I get some commission. I withdraw these funds to Paypal, and then my bank account, and put them towards some Problem Gamer-related purchase.
Anyone can sign up, so why not become an affiliate yourself?
Some general facts & references about Problem Gamer, so I don’t have to keep including them in every episode:
- “Kayenmon” Logo design originally inspired by Josh Crawford
- Intro music: “Sabre Dance” from Super Bonk (Hudson, SNES)
A BIG thanks to the developers of the following software, without which the show would not exist:
- ZSNES (zsnes.com)
- ePSXe (epsxe.com)
- Nestopia (http://nestopia.sourceforge.net/)
- Gens32 (http://gens32.emubase.de/)
- StepMania (http://www.stepmania.com)
- Camstudio Screen capture and codec (http://camstudio.org/)
- Audacity Sound editor (http://audacity.sourceforge.net/)
- Virtual Dub Video Post-processing (http://virtualdub.org/)
- Super C (http://www.erightsoft.com)
- WordPress (oh come on, you can find it from here
Some shout-outs I’d like to give to people who’ve helped me along the way:
- My brother Mike and sister Lisa
- All the kind staff and g1s at Screwattack.com, especially:
- DarkLinkDude77 (YT: goldenreciver7 ), and Vkmies (YT and SA)
- Sagat_Belmont, Wandering_Swordsman, and..
- Silent_Protagonist for being awesome
- Tom Raymond and Andrew Lardi of Wapeach
…and a BIG THANKS! to everyone who subscribes to my Youtube channel! I appreciate it.
If I’ve missed anybody, you know who you are. Thanks everyone!
I’ll be adding more to this page as the questions roll in!… or not =P
problemgamer
2 Comments
Wow, I should have known you were such an industry veteran. That’s really amazing.
BTW, this website, did you design it yourself? I just recently noticed all the neat nuances of this site, like the little screen that pops up when I move my mouse over those links on the upper righthand corner. I think it’s brilliant.
I definitely think you deserve a good break after your success with Sonichosis trilogy. Hopefully, your viewership grows stronger as you continue and I’m sure with all those experiences that’d look super good on your resume, you probably have a really bright future in this realm.
One last thing is that I noticed that you actually benefit from me purchasing stuff from play-asia via that link? I had no idea. I’ll probably do that then when I have the chance.
Anywho, keep on rockin and happy problem gaming!
A veteran, you say? ^^’ I am flattered, but I would still say I’m just an aspiring.. well, I’m not sure what exactly. But thank you
I’d like to take credit for the design here, but it’s a WordPress preset theme, and one Andreas04 should get the credit (I believe). I’ve done my share of web page programming, but I wanted to focus on the content this time. Blogs are well-made for that.
The Snapshots feature when you mouseover links is one reason I chose this design.
I’ll be back in action in a while. Once school starts up, I want to give it the attention it deserves. Then I’ll see when I can get my next video started.
And yeah, to the future!