Proper Analog Retro Video Capture With The Datapath E1/E1s

Capturing analog video can be a difficult task.  Analog video follows rather imprecise standards and is increasingly being discarded in today's world where 100% digital video solutions like HDMI and DisplayPort rule.  Capturing a digital signal is often simply a matter of buying a capture card/box and plugging everything in.  But capturing audio signals, at least those signals that do not conform to the "broadcast standards of 525/625i", is not quite so easy.  But while there exist inexpensive devices that can handle low quality composite and medium quality s-video sources, what about high-end analog sources like component video, 15KHz RGB and 31KHz VGA signals?  Moreover, are any of them compatible with 240p signals put out by retro consoles and home computers?  While there are affordable devices that can sort of handle these signals like the Startech USB3HDCAP, the results are often second rate.  But what if there was a device that you can acquire for similar cost and provide truly first-rate capture?  Interested?  Well if you are, read on to discover the power and the caveats of the Datapath VisionRGB E1 and E1s.

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Kolgrima - A Tour Of Trolls

For my first Tour of Trolls post, I decided to go with Kolgrima, our newest warlock.  

When she went through CID I was utterly meh on her and was too focused on all the other changes to the faction during the few playtest games I was able to conduct and report on the forum.  I had no idea how wrong I was about her!

Even when she came out I didn't really dojo with her, all the other changes really commanded my attention until it came time to find a tournament pair for the inevitable Madrak1 list I had cooked up.

I really think I've got a winner with this list, it pairs great with Madrak1 Band of Heroes and it's frankly terrifying in its own right:

War Room Army

Trollblood - A Song of Ice & Fire
Theme: The Power of Dhunia
3 / 3 Free Cards 75 / 75 Army

Kolgrima Stonetruth, Winter Witch - WB: +28
- Trollkin Runebearer - PC: 0
- Dire Troll Mauler - PC: 15 (Battlegroup Points Used: 15)
- Earthborn Dire Troll - PC: 14 (Battlegroup Points Used: 13)
- Earthborn Dire Troll - PC: 14
- Mulg the Ancient - PC: 22
- Troll Axer - PC: 10

Northkin Shaman - PC: 0
Northkin Shaman - PC: 0

Croak Raiders - Leader & 9 Grunts: 16
Krielstone Bearer & Stone Scribes - Leader & 5 Grunts: 9
- Stone Scribe Elder - PC: 3

THEME: The Power of Dhunia

The Theory Behind the List

I wanted something that could answer gunlines, especially Cygnar with Haley3 Grave Diggers coming up as a particularly scary boogeyman in the meta.   I think Kolgrima clearly prefers having a classic Troll Beast Brick given that she gets an incredible amount of use out of the New Mulg™.  This means we're going to be playing Power of Dhunia (PoD), which really limits our infantry choices.

The problem with nearly all Power of Dhunia (PoD) lists is that if your opponent has more than one infantry unit, it's very easy for your opponent to bog down a big beast brick and take you down, and the Runeshapers you can take as your own infantry just don't do very well against a lot of other opposing dudes.

My eureka moment was realizing that the single minions unit we can take with the new theme changes really can change how PoD plays.  Farrow Brigands, Nyss Hunters, and Croak Raiders all seem to be strong choices as a ranged anti-infantry option.  I already owned some Croaks from MK2 and they were both the cheapest option (once you consider the near mandatory Brigand Warlord) and they were recently buffed to POW 11 on their guns and given Pathfinder natively.

What's better is that Kolgrima really turns these guys on as an anti-infantry option with her spell Cursed Fate.  The Croaks become effectively RAT 8 and it doesn't matter what armor your target infantry has, they just take an auto point of damage when hit!   

Things like Iron Fang Pikemen, Dawnguard Sentinels, or Houseguard Halberdiers, or Banes under the Wraith Engine Aura that would all normally be a huge problem for a PoD beast brick to deal with suddenly melt away under these guns.  

But wait, there's more! Kolgrima has an insane SP10 POW12 spell that has effectively Signs and Portents for attack and damage. With Mulg as a quasi arc node, you can cast out multiple Cursed Fates on different units and then simply spray them all down.  She even deals with nearly impossible to take down at range troops like Satyxis Raiders since she's using a spell, not a ranged attack.

If this is all that Kolgrima did, she'd already be a strong caster for any PoD list given that she really helps take down infantry that would otherwise give you fits, but there's still more!

Kolgrima can build a cloud wall in trolls, where playing in PoD lets you take Northkin Shaman as free solo options, which can further extend your cloud wall.  On top of that there is Kolgrima's feat, which is effectively a Hard-No on guns: any enemies in her control area when she feats can't make ranged attacks! On top of this they get pushed 2" directly away from her, lose Pathfinder, Eyeless Sight, and Flight.  

She can be a very strong answer to things like Haley 3 Grave Diggers and can really help deliver a full Troll Beast Brick, possibly even giving you the alpha due to the cloud wall.  This was all the theory I had going in, and here's what I realized on the table.

My Results

I've played this list into two Khador lists: Irusk2 with 30 Iron Fang Pikemen + Conquest and an Old Witch 2 list with 7 heavies in Jaws of the Wolf.  I won both games on scenario, despite both lists being wildly different.

Gamer Dad's have to go to extreme measures to get our games in some times!

Against Irusk2 we played Standoff.  Irusk2 can answer the cloud wall with his feat, but I was fortunate enough to be able to go first in our game.  This enabled me to use the Croaks and Mulg's arc node ability to wipe almost 20 Pikemen from the table on my second turn.  All the while I was slowly scoring points, and by turn 3, I was able to deny my opponent from scoring any points at all, letting me get ahead a little.  Once my opponents first 20 pikemen were dead, I was able to send my beasts into his Colossal and get ahead on piece trades while staying up a little on points and eventually his remaining pikemen unit was too busy trying to deal with the beasts in the only zone he could score to stop me from scoring elsewhere to win via 5CP.  I think the matchup is harder for Kolgrima if she can't go first, but it's still doable if you position properly.

Against Old Witch 3 I was facing down 2x Marauders, 2x Juggernauts, 1 Spriggan, and 2 Marshalled Destroyers on the Pit 2 scenario.

I was forced to go second and used my clouds to protect most of my heavies and my Croaks.  My opponent had to either walk into my threat ranges or just toe the zones for his turn 2, he opted to just toe the zones with heavies and some infantry, not realizing she could get into a position to feat him out of all the zones. 

I was able to live the dream in this game and line it up so Kolgrima was in the center of the board and had her feat push every enemy model out of all the zones, with me sending in an Earthborn to kill an objective to get 4 CP's on the bottom of Turn 2!  From here out I would be fighting to come up ahead against 7 heavies to 4 Heavies + 1 Light, but when my opponent went in on Mulg with a Boundless Charged + 3 Focus Spriggan, Mulg was able to Primal Rage and get a very lucky Crit Slam to send the Spriggan away. This swung the game from an attrition race for me to score the last CP's as his heavy advantage came to bear to an easy victory on my part.  I still think I would be able to pull out a win with how the board position was, but it would have been dicey.

Conclusions

Kolgrima feels really, really strong especially as a pair to a troop heavy Madrak1 list that I'm currently running.  She's a quasi-control caster with LOS denial and shooting denial, as well as a feat that can really help you get ahead on scenario.  All the other changes we got in CID helped her list immensely: Arcane Repeater on the Runebearer and the Stone generating its own Fury really help her spend her 7 fury down on her feat turn where you can largely use distance to keep her safe from assassination.  I haven't even really had to make use of her Owl's Wisdom spell denial, but she can do it to herself to prevent any spell assassinations when you feat to deny shooting, and use distance to keep yourself safe from melee threats.

I'm sure Kolgrima can be built to deliver an infantry or balanced Troll list if you wanted, though it certainly seems like right now she's best using Power of Dhunia and a shooting minion unit to support the beast brick.   She's definitely got a lot of power and options for us to explore going forward, and I look forward to experimenting with her more.

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Game 327: Darkwood (1992)

               

Darkwood

United States
Published as shareware in 1992 for the Macintosh
Date Started: 15 May 2019

Date Finished: 16 May 2019

Total Hours: 4
Difficulty: Easy (2/5)
Final Rating: (to come later)
Ranking at time of posting: (to come later)

               

You are an orphan named Derek who wants to join the elite city guard of Darkwood, the safest city in the kingdom. Anyone who defeats the toughest creature in the arena will become Captain of the Guard. You start at Level 1 with no experience, a dagger, and 10 gold pieces. In front of you lies a town with a weapon shop, an armor shop, a magic shop, an inn, and an arena.
           

Starting the game. You click on buildings to enter them.

           

Because it's all you can afford, you buy some leather armor for 5 gold pieces before heading into the arena. You are offered battles against 20 creatures, listed in order of difficulty from a giant rat to a red dragon. You choose the giant rat. You defeat him in a few rounds of combat and get 10 gold pieces and 75 experience points. You rest up at the inn, and with your newfound wealth, you upgrade your weapon to a short sword. Back you go to the arena to face the next monster.

                   

Over the next several hours, you kill successively harder monsters, buy successively better equipment, and level up. You can save at any time, so death is not permanent. Eventually, you make your way to the arena wielding a Sword +5 Holy Avenger and wearing Full Plate +4, and you defeat the red dragon. Then the game is over.
         

Battering away at an enemy.

         
As tempting as it is to go immediately to GIMLET and make this the shortest entry of all time, there are a few more things to talk about. The first is that I've played this game before, when it was new. Someone had loaded it onto one of the lab computers at my university, and I copied it to floppy disk and brought it home. (This would have been around 1993, in my only Mac-owning period.) The entire time I played, I assumed I was playing a prologue, and once I was named Captain of the Guard, the game would open up and I'd perform a bunch of quests in my new role. I couldn't believe that it was over when it was over.
                                                            

Dad would be so proud.

          
I mis-remembered a few things about the game. I thought I remembered that you could only fight each creature once, but not only would this make for a 10-minute game, it would be impossible. You need to grind relentlessly against low-level creatures to survive and build wealth. The game doesn't really encourage you to test your limits. Even with reloading, if a goblin gives you 25 gold pieces and 110 experience points, and you can kill him 100% of the time (which you can after Level 2), what is your incentive to move up to a bugbear, which offers 40 gold pieces and 250 experience points but a 50% chance of death? Just fight the goblin twice. It only takes a few seconds.

You have to be careful not to be lured by the ghoul (400 gold, 500 experience) or the wight (500 gold, 700 experience). They can drain levels, so their rewards aren't worth it. If you can get to the point that you can defeat the troll, he's a reliably rewarding enemy, offering 1500 gold and 1800 experience. He's the third-to-last enemy, so he should be a lot harder, but something isn't programmed properly. He almost never hits you.
       

Grind all those experience points again? Or just reload?

        
I bought the best weapon and armor in the game, as well as a ring of protection +3, before purchasing any healing potions (easier just to reload than chug a 1000-gold-piece potion) or tomes. The tomes cost 2,000 gold pieces each and allow you to increase your dexterity and constitution to 18 and your strength to 18/100. (I don't think intelligence, wisdom, or charisma do anything. They can't be improved.) After that, the only things to spend money on are wands and potions.
          

Using a tome.

           
I made it to Level 8. It was taking too long to grind to Level 9. I found that the red dragon was unconquerable with melee weapons, even with a full stock of healing potions. But it was vulnerable to the lightning wand that you can buy in the magic shop. Four or five blasts and I was Captain of the Guard.
          

I don't want to accuse the author of anything, but our past experience with shareware titles makes me suspicious of the provenance of these graphics.

         
In a GIMLET, it earns:
           

• 2 points for the game world, featuring a basic backstory commensurate with the scope of the game.

• 1 point for character creation and development. There's no creation, and leveling doesn't seem to do much more than confer extra hit points.

• 0 points for no NPC interaction.

• 1 point for encounters and foes. The bestiary is Dungeons and Dragons standard, and the level-draining attacks of the undead are the only special attacks programmed in.

                 

A few statistics help you determine what foe you'll want to defeat next.

              

• 1 point for magic and combat. Your options are only to attack, use an item, or surrender.

                     

Using the Wand of Lightning in the final battle.

          

• 3 points for equipment. Only one weapon and armor slot, but the magic item selection is decent.

• 4 points for the economy. It lacks any complexity, but it remains relevant until the end.

• 2 points for a main quest.

• 2 points for graphics, sound, and interface. There are only a couple of sounds: hit, miss, and "you won!" Graphics are sparse enough that it might as well have been a text game. It's disappointing how all the monsters are represented by the same helmeted figure. I found the all-mouse interface annoying, as I do all all-mouse interfaces, but it was easy enough to determine what to click on.

• 2 points for gameplay. Too easy, too limited, and not replayable, it's at least short.

              
That gives us a final score of 18. It's about as minor as you can get and still qualify as an RPG at all. Author Robert Chancellor returned to the setting with Siege of Darkwood (1993), a light strategy game that he published through Pointware. Based in La Verne, California, Chancellor would later go on to work for Blizzard and Amazon Game Studios.
              

He sure got a lot of mileage out of that graphic.

             
What Darkwood does best is raise uncomfortable questions about what makes it a "lesser" RPG. Imagine that it is the menu town of something like a Gold Box game. Instead of leveling up and gaining wealth by fighting monsters in the arena in 30 seconds, you have to spend hours questing in dungeons, only to ultimately return to the city to spend your money and level up. What have all those extra hours gained you? Are they anything more than sound and fury? In stripping away the frills of typical, more elaborate RPGs, does Darkwood also strip illusions about the value of time spent playing those games? Can I honestly say that the endgame screen is less satisfying than a typical era title that takes 5 times as long but introduces no extra plot?

Those questions might be more worth thinking about if the combat in Darkwood were a bit more elaborate, a bit more tactical. I feel like if you're going to set your title entirely in the confines of an arena, combat needs to offer something more than clicking the icon of a sword until someone is dead. (Has any good RPG been set entirely in an arena? I'm open to the possibility.) Perhaps an action-oriented approach drawing upon the underlying attributes. Perhaps the ability to team up with other NPCs. As it is, Darkwood leaves me uncomfortable and unsatisfied. Perhaps I can pretend it's a prologue to Darklands.


****

I've removed Dragons Shard from the list after playing it for a while, then realizing that the shareware version caps character development at Level 5. This is my third half-hearted attempt to play a Bit Brothers game, all of which seem to feature the same engine. Until I can somehow obtain a full-featured copy of the game, I can't get far enough to bother writing about it.

Also gone is Mission: Thunderbolt, which it turns out is not really a 1992 game but a 1991 Macintosh release of a single mission of a mainframe game called Doomsday 2000 (1987). The game has been moved to re-consideration in its appropriate year.

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