Strange quest; Keyboard cameras

[Goose]

Ehm... this is going to be embarassing...

Would you help me with a film? I want to make a short film about Armagetron. And I'll do that in a way that it showcases what physically happens when an Armagetron match takes place. Meaning what the lightning-fast fingers are doing.

Could someone (better would be a couple of people for comparison) film their keyboard in action? When a tough Team Sumo or Fort match is being fought out?

This idea might turn to dust... but I want to see this film being tried out at least. Showcasing the haptic way of gaming.

In the attachments is how I tried to film my keyboard for another video. It should show all the keys, that are being pressed. Preferably slightly from above to give a nice view on the key rows. The background noise is not important at all.
Could you shoot some raw material for me? Film the keyboard during the whole match, please! I'll cut everything afterwards! You can use a low resolution (640x480 for example), as the video will be scaled down anyways.

[delinquent]

Done, split into two parts for some reason. Will stitch and render... probably tomorrow.

[Goose]

Thank you, deli. How should we share the video material? I have some 2GB of personal web land, could give you access there.

[delinquent]

No need, I have my own webserver. Here is the video in 720p30, x265. If you want the original x264x60, let me know - but it is a sizeable 1.2gb.
https://vixen.international/assets/pub/Sequence1-1.m4v

Note: It's x265, so it probably won't play in your browser. Right-click on the media and save it.

[Goose]

@delinquent: Thank you very much, it's exactly that kind of keyboard footage that I'm looking for. 20 minutes looks good and the file size is reasonable. Lots of idling with some dancing fingers. And... eh, dramatic clouds of smoke blowing over the battlefield. I also thought that the video was broken, because the image looked to be frozen. But no, it must have been your focus to keep the fingers perfectly calm.

Allow me to ask some questions. Which game mode did you play? I'd expect a Sumo game to have more going on at the keyboard than a Submarine or Fort game. What's your take on that?

Does someone else has some keyboard footage? I think I'll give it a go with four different keyboards on video.

[delinquent]

I'm terribly sorry about the vapour! I didn't even consider it until after I'd exported the cut.

As for the match, this was a game of TST, from start to finish. TST, played from position 2, is often lengthy periods of minimal presses, interspersed with brief periods of hectic activity. TST from position 1 would be a little more dramatic, at least once the round gets going and you can no longer simply drive in a circle.

I also have an ultra low-profile keyboard, which is why it is a) very quiet, and b) not easy to see the motion. I'd offer a different keyboard but I no longer have a little collection. My last quietkey bit the dust a good five years or so ago, besideswhich PS/2 is no longer easy to find on motherboards.

[Goose]

@delinquent: No problem, I might play some other keyboards by myself, if no one else wants to give their "key" tactics away. Though it wouldn't be as authentic and so I hope, someone else will play for the camera.

Also, this upcoming Sumo Bar Tournament in 4 days, this Sunday... probably that 1p-team sumo game would lead to the best shots. It's much more hectic that TST, and with the best of the best playing there, the game must get very spicy! I really would appreciate it, if someone would film their keyboard in action at a whole match of SBT.

[Monkey]

@deli
You can get PS/2 to USB adapters. I had one. They are simple and work perfectly.

@Goose
I single bind, which would be interesting to see in a sumo match, however I don't have a camera.

[Goose]

Well, should be fine. I have enough material to make something short. Although it all went past my inner eye already... someone using gloves maybe. Iceland player. Someone painting the fingernails in the colour that matches the light cycle... those images have lots of potential to get the imagination going. Now I have to cut the materials together, whenever the mood is right for that.
I only have a scratched small digital camera which is enough for low-fi films. But the tripod is helpful.

[delinquent]

You can get PS/2 to USB adapters. I had one. They are simple and work perfectly.

I've never had much luck getting them to work properly past usb 1.1 (or is it 1.3?). I'm not even sure my current machine has anything below 2.0.

I mucked around with it a few years ago, and I think I remember something about polling - but I can remember precisely nothing about how I managed to get things working. In any case, I'm not gonna bother. If I have the urge to find an old keyboard I'll probably just put the membrane from a USB keyboard in it if needs be.

[Goose]

The little 2-minute film is now finished. It's in 320x240 low resolution and low framerate to get it as small as possible (only 6 MB). The soundtrack of that film are two Amiga Music songs being called "Light Cycle".

@Delinquent: Your hands became the "villan" writing an angry comment in the chat, to which the other players react to. The names were slightly altered from real Armagetron players (ageel, nelch, larva), although they have nothing to do with the way how those specific people write. Thinking about it, this should have been done differently, as it might offend people, who don't deserve to be offended. Sorry.
Anyways, thanks for sending your video in. About 15 seconds of it became very useful.

I have no plans to release it, but if someone wants to have a look, write a PM to me and I'll send you a link.

[delinquent]

I'd love to see it!

[Goose]

Looks like the Goose240p Studio found a publisher: Monkey's Video Corp.

https://yewtu.be/watch?v=27dbNnJcHzs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27dbNnJcHzs