8-bit Memoirs Issue #1 released!!!

[mr_lou]

Well, officially the release isn't till tomorrow, but I figure the CPC community deserves a headstart.     Afterall, the CPC definitely plays the main role in 8-bit Memoirs.



8-bit Memoirs Issue #1 released!!!

8-bit Memoirs is intended to become a series of eBooks about how different authors experienced the computers and consoles back in the 8-bit era, written from the perspective of the kids we were at the time.

I'm proud to be able to present you with the first issue of 8-bit Memoirs, written by myself. 

The computers and consoles I experienced back in the 8-bit era includes the Philips Videopac G7000, the Amstrad CPC and the Amiga. So the stories in issue #1 describes how I experienced (some of) the games on those systems, and how I experienced creating my own BASIC stuff on the Amstrad CPC.

My stories contain supplemental illustrations, screenshots and videos - and there's a 5-hour long playlist to accompany you while you're reading, mainly consisting of the Amstrad CPC music I made back then, but also some tracks by various artists of IndieGameMusic.com


I have wrapped all the stories in a somewhat retrostyled diskmag-like GUI, because I've always found diskmags extremely cosy myself, and my biggest wish is that 8-bit Memoirs will give you the same nostalgic relaxation that diskmags has given me in the past. I also wanted to boost the retro-feeling while you're reading, and I think the diskmag-like GUI helps doing that.




8-bit Memoirs is completely free!

Issue #1 is available as a 23 gb ISO file that you can download from www.8bitMemoirs.com
(If you don't want 23 gb taking up space on your harddisk, you can choose to put it on a USB stick instead).

You can play this ISO file on your PC with any software media player that supports BD-J. I strongly recommend Cyberlink PowerDVD for this. Otherwise VLC is your buddy. (Although VLC is still in its early stages of getting BD-J support, so it's not the best way to experience 8-bit Memoirs at the moment. Expect bugs!)

Other devices should also play the ISO file, either from harddisk or from a USB: Devices such as the Popcorn Hour, or Dune HD Smart D1. In the near future you can also expect various software media centers, such as Kodi, to be able to play it.


The recommended way of experiencing 8-bit Memoirs Issue #1 is on a real Blu-ray player though. This includes the gaming consoles PlayStation 3 (and later) and Xbox One (and later).

But burning the ISO to a disc requires a Blu-ray burner, and not many people have one of those. You could buy one of course - they are exceptionally cheap nowadays - but that still only makes sense if you plan on using it for other things too.

If you don't want to buy a Blu-ray burner, but still prefers having a physical disc, then you can simply buy disc from me. It comes complete with printed label and cover for 17 Euro including shipping (regardless of your location). This disc can be bought from www.8bitMemoirs.com.

I can also send you a USB version for 23 Euro if you prefer, but you'll have to send me a PM about that.


Thank you for your interest!

[robcfg]

Cool!


I'll try to give it a go during the weekend.


I'll be using VLC as I'm on OSX, will look for a better alternative.


Congratulations!

[mr_lou]

Cool!

I'll try to give it a go during the weekend.

I'll be using VLC as I'm on OSX, will look for a better alternative.

Congratulations!

Thanks! 
Very happy to be done with it. (Never starting up a project that size again  )

VLC developers has been notified of the critical bug, so maybe they'll fix it in a nightly build in the near future.
I have worked around all other minor bugs in VLC, but I can't do anything about the one that makes the app disappear when the playlist goes to the next track.
Until they fix it, you can just press SPACE to pause the music. Then you can still browse and read the stories - just without background music.

[ervin]

Holy cow I've been looking forward to this!
Thanks so much for all of your phenomenal efforts in getting this done.

I'll download it over the weekend and have a perusal!

[Shaun M. Neary]

Looks good. Will have a gawk at this over the weekend. =)

[GUNHED]

Great piece of work, just looked at the vid and so on. Great thing! 

[mr_lou]

Thank you for all the likes! 

I have been researching a bit, and have found a list of media players that should be able to play the ISO from harddisk and/or USB:

Egreat A5 / A10 / A11
Egreat S5A / A1080
Dune HD Base 3.0
Dune HD Prime 3.0
Dune HD MAX
Dune HD Duo
Dune HD Smart B1
Dune HD Smart D1
Dune HD Smart H1
Dune HD Solo Lite
Dune HD Solo 4k
Dune HD Duo 4k
HiMedia Q10 Pro
HDX-BD1
Netgear NeoTV 550
Popcorn Hour A-200 / A-210
Popcorn Hour A-300
Popcorn Hour C-200
Popcorn Hour C-300
QNAP NMP-1000P
VidOn.me AV200
Zidoo X9S / X10

So if you have yourself one of those devices, you should be able to enjoy 8-bit Memoirs on your TV from the sofa. 
Just remember to switch the setting to "Full BD Menus" instead of "Simple BD Menu".

(Some devices may need latest firmware).

If you have success with media players not listed above, please let me know. I'm very curious! 

[ComSoft6128]

Blu-ray arrived yesterday, only managed to get a brief look.


Superb.


Very professional.


I can only imagine that your home has no furniture in it due to the amount of hardware you must have used!


Very much looking forward to having a more detailed and pleasurable look thru it over the next few days.


Cheers,


Peter

[mr_lou]

Glad you like it Peter. 
Hope it'll bring you lots and lots of nostalgic relaxation!


Meanwhile, I have added an option to buy a "budget version" for 7 Euro. This is a plain disc with a white mat surface. No print and no case. For those who want to see the project but doesn't want the Collectors Edition and doesn't want to download.

[||C|-|E||]

I am extremely happy you finished it, and I am really looking forward to have some time and going through it too 

[Gryzor]

Ah darn. I'd love the disc version because of the case and all, but I've got no drive to play it on (my laptop used to have one until I ripped it out in favor of a second HDD). Torn!


Maybe I'll just buy the disc and download the image; I think KODI can handle BR ISOs...

[mr_lou]

Ah darn. I'd love the disc version because of the case and all, but I've got no drive to play it on (my laptop used to have one until I ripped it out in favor of a second HDD). Torn!

And no PlayStation 3? PlayStation 4? Xbox One? 
Popcorn Hour C200 or C300?

Maybe I'll just buy the disc and download the image; I think KODI can handle BR ISOs...

I have been doing a lot of researching these days, looking for devices that should be able to play Blu-ray ISO files. And Kodi has come up a lot indeed. But I think it matters on what platform it's running. There seems to be a lot of Android TV Boxes nowadays. Some run Kodi, others run somethings else, but they all seem to be able to play Blu-ray ISO files with full Java support. That is a positive surprise.

I've only tried once with Kodi a good while back, installing it on a Rasberry Pi, but I had no luck playing my ISO back then.

Let me know your results! 

[Gryzor]

Playstation 4? XBOXBOwhatever? What are you talking about? The newest console I have is a 360, sitting in a box somewhere...


We'll have to see. I've tried Kodi BR playbak on my Nvidia Shield TV and it was all fine, but it was just a disc's FS (IIRC) containing just a movie. Supposedly it can do ISOs too, but I haven't tried it yet.


Does PLEX do BR ISO transcoding? Maybe I could use that on my NAS...

[mr_lou]

We'll have to see. I've tried Kodi BR playbak on my Nvidia Shield TV and it was all fine, but it was just a disc's FS (IIRC) containing just a movie. Supposedly it can do ISOs too, but I haven't tried it yet.

Does PLEX do BR ISO transcoding? Maybe I could use that on my NAS...

Sadly neither Nvidia Shield nor Plex can handle the Java stuff. They'll just play the videos on the ISO.

https://forums.plex.tv/discussion/223248/can-i-stream-a-full-bluray-with-menu

But you can use VLC on your PC. It does have a few bugs at the moment, but I'm in close contact with one of the developers, so hopefully they'll be fixed soon.

[Gryzor]

Oh, bummer. I really didn't want to involve my PC/laptop, I wanted the full laid-back experience, but oh well I guess!

[mr_lou]

4 more device that should be able to play the ISO from USB or harddisk:

Egreat A5 / A10 / A11
HDX-BD1
QNAP NMP-1000P
VidOn.me AV200

My post on previous page with the full list updated.

I've tried Kodi BR playbak on my Nvidia Shield TV and it was all fine, but it was just a disc's FS (IIRC) containing just a movie. Supposedly it can do ISOs too, but I haven't tried it yet.

According to rumours, Kodi v18 (Leia) should have Blu-ray ISO supprt with full Blu-ray menus.
I've tried the nightly build briefly here on Ubuntu, but didn't have much luck.

[Gryzor]

Well v18 is far from ready of course, so there's hope!

[ivarf]

I really liked what I saw in your preview. My newest console is a Xbox360 and I have no blue-ray player yet. I will probably get both in time. Downloading..


Thank you!

[mr_lou]

I really liked what I saw in your preview. My newest console is a Xbox360 and I have no blue-ray player yet. I will probably get both in time. Downloading..

Thanks!
Well, as mentioned, you can always use a nightly build of VLC to view it on your computer, unless you have one of the hardware media players listed on the previous page, which would be a better choice because of the current bugs in VLC.

Otherwise you could consider buying a used Blu-ray player. They can sometimes be found for 7 Euro or so. (I've bought a lot of them for testing purposes).


Meanwhile I find myself stuck in bed with the flu. I don't suppose anyone has written issue #2 yet?  I'm severely bored here....
(Is there ANYthing good on Netflix?)

[GUNHED]

There is really lot's of stuff to explore. Great piece of work! Thank you very much!!! 

[mr_lou]

There is really lot's of stuff to explore. Great piece of work! Thank you very much!!! 

I've mentioned a few times how much text there is and how many hours of music there is, but I actually didn't count the number of hours of video there is till after release: 9 hours!
I was a bit surprised by that amount myself.

Anyway, two more devices that'll play the ISO from USB/harddisk:

HiMedia Q10 Pro
Zidoo X9S / X10

The full list on page one has been updated.

I've been testing the ISO with the nightly builds of both VLC and Kodi, and the playlist issue seems to be present with both. This indicates that the bug is somewhere in libbluray.
I have mentioned the problem on their mailinglist, but I have a feeling it's of low priority to them. Time will tell. I can't do any more now.

[genesis8]

I'll try to give it a go during the weekend.

Well my next week-end will be busy it seems...


Damn, I want to be a celibate again, or not ! 

[Targhan]

I don't have an excellent internet connection, I simply can not download the 22gg. I never let my computer turned on long enough, and the Retry system doesn't always work. I've tried downloading the iso 4 or 5 times, never went through.


Is there a Torrent available? It would be very useful to me!

[mr_lou]

I don't have an excellent internet connection, I simply can not download the 22gg. I never let my computer turned on long enough, and the Retry system doesn't always work. I've tried downloading the iso 4 or 5 times, never went through.

Is there a Torrent available? It would be very useful to me!

There is one on the way. It was supposed to be ready at the time of release. SceneSat was going to handle it. But then had a major crash just after release, and I think they're still trying to get everything back online. Just bad timing.

If anyone else has created a torrent, feel free to share.

Otherwise I can snailmail you a USB for 20 Euro if you want. (Limited supply).

[Targhan]

It's all right, I can wait for the torrent. Thanks!