The Life of a Youtube Creator – Versatile’s Story

Main page of Youtube.com/MoNeYinPhx

Revisions:
8-10-13: Initial release.

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I’ve been a Youtube creator since the 2009, and from 2009 to 2013 present day, I’ve been part of 4 Youtube channels: VersatileNinja, GameDexterity, vstPower, and now MoNeYinPHX.

I will spare you the reasons and history of why I have jumped from one Youtube account to another, but what I can tell you is that during these last 4 years, I have seen a lot of interesting things on Youtube.  I’ve probably answered thousands of comments, and made over 1,000 Youtube videos on all kinds of subjects:

• Modding Tutorials
• PC Tech Tutorials
• Life Tutorials
• LAN Tutorials
• and more

Multitasking – How Good Are You At It?

Revisions:
5-4-13: Initial release.

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So here we are 5 months into year 2013, and if there is one thing I know that will continue to be a good skill for any person, that is learning how to multitask.

Why is this such an important skill to know? By knowing how to multitask properly, you will not only save time, but you will become a more efficient person of your time and efforts.

So how do you properly multitask? The best advice I can say is start simple, and then work your way up.

Let’s say that you are busy studying for school. So while you are studying, you could be eating a snack, downloading your latest TV show, backing up the contents of your laptop, and listening to your favorite song. The possibilities of what you can do all at the same time is endless.

But you got to be smart about it. You don’t want to text and drive at the same time, as that is highly dangerous, and could get you into an accident, or even worse, hurt or even killed.

How do I multitask in my busy life? After all, I contribute to two blogs, manage a youtube channel, play videogams, and make video tutorials. Oh yes, I work a full-time job outside of the Internet, and manage a personal life as well. You got to be careful to never let work take over your personal life, or vice versa. There must be an adequate balance among everything.

So what do I do to manage this craziness? I just do it in small steps. If I know there is a new game tutorial I want to do, I make sure to research the methods while I am listening to latest TV show or news on TV. If I am writing a blog article, I do it while I wait for my dinner to cook.

The more tasks you can do simultaneously, the better off you will be in terms of getting more stuff done. The only time you may want to do things sequentially or in order is when you want to devote 100% of your attention at the task at hand.

If you are at work, if you spend 100% of your time during a two hour block to get all your emails done, you will do better than if you take a break and answer a few phone calls.

How about you? What kind of multitasking activities do you normally find yourself doing? How do you manage it all? Tell us, and maybe we too can laern! 🙂

MysteryBlock Is Back in Action!

Revisions:
3-24-13: Initial release.

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For those that didn’t know, Mysteryblock is back in action, which is another blog that I used to write on last year, until the hosting expired. In that case, I had to come back here and continue with my blog writing.

Unfortunately, all the data on the old mysteryblock was gone, and with that some of my game tutorials with screenshots have fallen off the face of the planet.

The team has learned through its struggles, and the future is bright. I am still going to be continuing to be writing at both blogs, but the content will be slightly different from this blog versus Mysteryblock. What kind of content? Well, that is going to be a surprise. Stay tuned!

2013 Youtube News – Versatile Moving from vstPower to MoNeYinPHX

Revisions:
1-12-13: Initial release.

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I know a lot of people don’t like to read, so I’ll keep this “short”. The last few weeks I’ve tasked vstPower team member MoNeYinPHX to scout out partnership opportunities for vstPower. Coincidentally, within the last 2 weeks, we must have done something right with our channel, because we got partnership offers from various networks, including Zoomin.tv, Machinima, Fullscreen, and more.

Mysteryblock Webhosting Suspended – I’m Back!

Revisions:
10-5-12: Initial release.

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Hey guys, its been a few months and it feels great to be back here. It appears between yesterday and today, the web hosting company that hosted Mysteryblock.com (among other websites) had suspended the account.

Granted, I am not an account holder, so I cannot tell you why the account got suspended. The only good thing is I did not write as many articles on that website like I originally hoped, which now gives more fuel to my original philosophy of how I should NOT stray away from free wordpress.com.

In fact, today is a great example of what happens when you try to put all your eggs in one basket. What really ticks me off though is I have no idea if I can get my old posts back, but that is for another day.

If you guys haven’t been keeping up, I’ve been busy at youtube.com/vstPower making new videos since the GameDexterity account got shut down in June of 2012. Since then, I’ve been hard at work recreating vstPower, and man, we got a lot of good tutorial videos to show off!

The first article I am going to write is going to go back to the Underground roots, and its going to be HOT. Stay tuned!

[Important] Versatile Has Moved To New Blog Domain

Revisions:

4-7-12: Initial release.

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Note: This post is NOT fake. Please read this post carefully, as it has instructions about the new blog that Versatile will now be posting at.

Hey guys,

The purpose of this post is to inform you that I am now going to posting all new content at what I consider the next version of “The Underground”. I will now be found at Mysteryblock.com, working with former Underground Blog writer Toughtrasher.

If you are currently a blog writer for The Underground, and you wish to write more, then please consider writing at Mysteryblock.com. We will welcome all new and old writers.

Versatile, why are you leaving this blog?

I am not actually leaving. I will continue to monitor this blog and answer comments as they come up but here is the story as to why I am making the decision to write new content at Mysteryblock.com.

As you may (or may not have known), the Underground has survived these many years being hosted on free WordPress.com, and for that, I am very thankful for it. But as time went on, my activity on this blog has slowly went down as I put more effort in growing my youtube channel (GameDexterity), and also the Versatile Street Team, and other projects.

In late February, Toughtrasher found me on Skype and told me of an opportunity that I could not refuse. He loved the Underground, and wanted to help it grow. However, he and I knew that we cannot grow it exponentially within the confines of free WordPress.

So he offered his services, his domain name, and help me grow The Underground at the new web host. At first, I was reluctant, but the the more we talked about, and the potential with new plugins and new badass themes (and more), I decided now was the time to make that move.

Don’t worry. I will still write what I always love to write about, and the type of content you will see is more of less what you have seen before.

Over time, I may (or may not) move the highly viewed articles over to the new blog. In fact, during this transition period, I may re-write many of the old tutorials into better, more structured formats, and its going to have better synergy between the blog and my Youtube video tutorials. In short, we will have good times.

What is the meaning behind Mysteryblock.com?

The name is quite simple. A lot of the information in this world is a mystery, especially if you never knew if certain information existed. Henceforth, it will be our mission to expose the mystery, hence Mysteryblock.com.

What articles are moving over to Mysterblock.com?

As times goes on and if any specific articles are moved over to the new blog, I will write them here.

Claim Your Comment – A Radical New Concept Show

Revisions:
10-25-10: Initial release.

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Hey guys, so here is a quick update as to what I have been doing recently. About two weeks ago I was talking to a new friend on Skype from the Netherlands that is a follower of GameDexterity.  Actually, he was even a follower of my old Youtube account VersatileNinja before I discontinued it.

 

Anyway, during our Skype conversations we were sharing stories of what it felt like to be uploading videos to Youtube, and somehow we came across the discussion of cringing whenever we see a “dumb” comment posted on a video.

After talking about it for quite a bit, we thought how funny and fun it would be to create a show where we look at comments from our videos and tear them apart?

It sounds like a ridiculous idea, but I created a teaser intro. No one knew  what the show was going to be about.  The next day I released episode one, and from what I can tell, everyone loved it!  I have gotten so many messages telling me they were laughing their ass off and they can’t wait for the second episode.

This last weekend we released the second episode, and we got another great turnout.  One person had asked if we would consider tearing apart other comments that we see from other people’s youtube videos, and I said I would think about it.

Now last night I thought about it further and decided it was a great idea!  In fact, I loved it so much that I created this new google docs form where people can submit comments they found on Youtube in hopes of us reviewing it in a future episode.  I think if enough viewers catch on, I might be able to start up a “Claim Your Comment” movement?  I was even toying about the idea of creating a video that people can host on their own channels to educate others about the “Claim Your Comment” philosophy.

Man, I am drooling just thinking about it!

To see the Claim Your Comments playlist, go here and take a look at what I have been up to!

http://www.youtube.com/gamedexterity#p/c/3E03F1BB6492A213

[Indirect Tutorial] Killing Floor – The New Left 4 Dead?

Foreword:  I have named this tutorial very strangely.  The “Indirect Tutorial”?  What is that supposed to mean?  *smiles*  Please recognize that the nature of this article is to simply open your eyes about this game, and what it can do for you, or what you can do for it.  I leave the rest of the mystery to you.  ~ Versatile

Revisions:

5-27-09: Initial release

5-29-09: Added the new link to the other tutorial website. >_>

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It was bound to happen. With the success of Valve’s game of the year “Left 4 Dead”, it was bound that another zombie game would hit the market soon. Tripwire has the answer with their different game called “Killing Floor”.

What is Killing Floor?

Per Wikipedia:

Killing Floor is a mod for the Unreal Tournament 2004 video game, first released in 2005 as a demo, and full version, later that year. The mod acquired popularity after appearing in several game magazines. It is a survival horror first-person shooter based game, with Co-op multiplayer action. A retail version of the game was released via Steam on May 14, 2009.

To me, think of it as Counter Strike meets Left 4 Dead.  Main features include:

• Killing zombies for cash.
• Fighting waves of zombies similar to Left 4 Dead.
• 6 player co-op.
• Each map has a “boss”.
• Available SDK map making kit.
• In game voice communication

and more!  See the full details at http://www.killingfloorthegame.com/.

Is there a Single Player?

Yes, sort of.  All you do is go as yourself and fight against waves of zombies until you reach the boss. You can earn perks this way too so you can unlock other achievements.  Due note that there are no AI computer players to help you, so you are definitely on your own here.

How about Online Multiplayer?

Yes, there is online multiplayer. You can host your own online games and have up to six people playing with you on Steam.  If you have a custom map that your friend doesn’t, your friend will automatically download the map from you.  Left 4 Dead currently does not have this feature, so this is nice to have.

Can Killing Floor be played without Steam? *wink*

Yes, there is a LAN mode so you can play offline.

No, you misunderstood me.  Can Killing Floor be played online without Steam? *double wink*

Oh, you mean can it be played online without having Steam?  Yes, it can.  However, you do realize that this is circumventing the Steam system.  I have heard the argument from players who own the game that Steam players are bothersome, and they would like to try a different way of playing their game online.  Perhaps with more mature audience.  I have no argument against these cases.  In fact, I want people to be aware of all opportunities to play their game online besides Steam.

Currently there are two popular ways to play your game online:

• Garena  (most popular)
• Hamachi (second most popular)

Garena is starting to become the most popular online portal to help you play your games online.  In fact, as of today 5-27-09, Killing Floor was added to the Garena network!

Hamachi is another good way to play online.  It is a virtual VPN solution that essentially emulates the LAN over the Internet so you can play with your friends by playing in what is called Hamachi networks.

How can I play Killing Floor Online with Garena or Hamachi?  Do I need special patches?

Due to the nature of WordPress.com, I don’t think I am allowed to go into those type of details as that is frowned upon.  However, I do recall among my adventures on the Internet that there are guides that explain how to play Killing Floor online with Garena or Hamachi.  Should I post a link to one of those sites?  Would there be any harm in that?  I don’t think so, do you?

Here is the link:  [How To] Play Killing Floor Online – Garena/Hamachi

Note:  This article is simply to make you aware of other online gaming alternatives.  No way do we infer or advocate piracy. We are not held liable for what you may learn at other websites on the Internet.  How you want to live your digital life is up to you, and the Underground Staff wishes you the best of luck on your journey.

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[How To] Boot Games Off USB (External Hard Drive) With Playstation 2 (PS2)

Foreword:  After a year and a half later, I have decided to re-write this guide, because honestly, it was not my own and it was presented very poorly.  Remember, I do no support piracy. Use the USB method to play your games on the hard drive to help your PS2 laser last longer.  The performance will vary, but that is up to you if you want to stick with it.  Good luck! (6-13-09) ~Versatile

IMPORTANT NEWS (5-1-10): It seems that there are a lot of dishonest users on the Internet that are copying this guide without giving credit back to me, Versatile. Because of this, I will be looking to update all the pictures in this article to have a watermark.  We have an active team scouring the net for those who have copied this article. If caught, we will be forced to take action against you. This is your warning. – Versatile

Revisions:

[Update: 1/15/08] I have gotten Viewtiful Joe 2 to copy to my hard drive, and I was able to boot off the hard drive and play it on the PS2. Now my laser will live longer! All help will be given in the comments as usual.

[Update 2/13/08] Added link to SKS Apps.  Without that site, this tutorial is nothing. 🙂

[Update 7/13/08] Added 2 new youtube videos of my own!

[Update 11/25/08]  I am so frickin sick of people asking why their game doesn’t work and all they see is a black screen.  Is it because your game isn’t compatible? Check out this list below and stop whining, or use swap magic and ditch the whole USB hard drive all together.  The USB 1.1 performance IS NOT WORTH IT in my eyes.

http://www.elotrolado.net/hilo_Listado-de-compatibilidad-en-USBExtreme_744276?pagenumber=1

[Update 6-8-09]  Re-wrote the whole tutorial.  Will expand upon the USB Extreme GUI interface software at a later date.

[Update 6-12-09] Re-wrote major sections of the tutorial again to make it more clear.

[Update 6-13-09]  Added new Youtube Video tutorial on the USB Extreme Windows Installer!

[Update 6-28-09]  Added new Youtube Video tutorial on list of selectable games!

[Update 12-18-09] Here is another source for finding compatibility list:

http://list.sksapps.com/

[Update 12-25-09] Fixed the instructions, I left some important notes out.

Note: USB advance is in last column. Everything else is for HDAloader.

[Update 12-26-09] Added new PS2 Slim USB Booting tutorials. Enjoy!

[Update 1-9-10] Added free mcboot video.

[Update 9-24-12] Removed old video tutorials.

[Update 9-25-12] Added new video tutorial.

[Update 12-6-12] Fixed video tutorials to be consistent.

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Introduction

The PS2 is a great console. After 9+ years, it is still going strong. With the new $99 price point, more and more people are getting the PS2 to play old school PS2 games. What better way to preserve your games and your PS2 laser than playing off the USB interface?  This guide is based off of Swap Magic implementation.

Wait, you can play games off the USB interface?

Yes, you can but it requires some work.  Here are the PROs and Cons:

Pros

• Uses USB 1.1 interface (slow but better than nothing).
• Saves strain on PS2 laser because using USB interface for game playing.
• Can have a list of selectable games in the USBExtreme interface.
• Works on both fat and slim PS2.
• Novelty factor is awesome!

Cons

• Game compatibility is low.
• Requires USB hard drive.  Highly recommend USB drives that have their own power adapter.
• Flash drives can work , but the performance is so horrible its not worth doing it.
• Need to have third party tool to launch the “boot CD”.  This can be done with modchip, swap magic, or exploited memory card.
• DVD9 games (like God of War 2) are larger than 4.4 GB and will not work with USBExtreme.

What tools do I need to make this work?

Hardware/Software tool: You need to have at least one of the items below before we continue:

• Modchip
• Swap Magic
• Exploited memory card (such as Free McBoot)

IMPORTANT: For this guide, I will be using Swap Magic 3.6 CD to boot the USBExtreme disc!

Blank Media:

• 1 CD-R (700MB is fine)

Note: I highly suggest swap magic if you are unwilling to mess with the other options.  You can learn more about swap magic at this guide:

https://versatile1.wordpress.com/2008/01/05/how-to-find-swap-magic-for-ps2/

Download the Software below (more detailed instructions to follow):

Usb Xtreme:  Link [Optional. Get this if you want to use the graphical user interface for easier format/game installing.]

Usb Advance: Link [This is required.]

What should I use for the USB mass storage device?

This is what I recommend:

• USB 2.0 hard drive that uses its own power supply (for example, it requires power from the outlet).
• A USB hard drive that is at least 10 gigs or larger is highly recommended.  The average PS2 game size will vary from as low as 282 MB up to as high as 4483 MB or 4.483 GB.
• Do not use laptop external hard drives which gets its power from the PS2 USB 1.1 port.  It is not enough power.
• You could use pen or usb flash drives, but performance will be horrible.  The game will chug, and you will have ridiculously long load times, that is, if your game can load!

Note: I understand when going through this tutorial, you may see that your PS2 may not see your USB hard drive enclosure. If that is the case, please try a different USB hard drive. I have people verifying this may fix the issue.

Tutorial Begins here *drools*:

• Extract the USB Advance zip file that you downloaded earlier into its own folder.  You will see contents like the screenshot below:

• Now double-click the USBAdvance-PC-Software.  You will see two programs inside it: ul_format.exe and ul_install.exe.  Extract these to your C:\.  This will make more sense later.
• Notice there is a .bin and a .cue file.  The .cue file is 1KB, and the .bin file is 34 MB.
• You need to burn the image file.  Use Nero, PowerIso, Alcohol120%, ImgBurn, or any other type of CD burning software and burn this image file to your blank CD-R disc.  Once the CD-R is burnt, label it and set that disc aside.
• Now extract the other zip file called “USBExtreme_wininst” to its own folder.  You will now have a program called USBExtreme.exe.  A dedicated section to this program will be covered later in this tutorial.

Now go to preparing the USB hard drive step.

Preparing the USB hard drive:

• Insert USB hard drive to your PC.
• It is important that the USB hard drive is FAT32. If it is not, go to My Computer, right click the USB drive, and go to quick format for FAT32.
• If your hard drive is FAT32, great. No need to format it again.
• You can also launch the USBExtreme Software, go to the format tab, and tell it to format your USB drive as well as shown below:

Here the I: drive is my USB drive.

Note: If you want, but not required, you can use the ul_format.exe command to format your USB hard drive.  This is how to use it:

• Go to Start -> Run.
• Type “cmd” and press enter.
• Go to your C:\ root.
• The command to use the program is “ul_format X format” where X is your USB hard drive.
• Example: My USB hard drive is E:.  I would type “ul_format E format”.

We are almost done.  Let’s enable fast transfer speeds on your USB drive before we start copying games.

Enabling fast USB hard drive transfer speeds:

• Go to My Computer->Properties->Hardware->Device Manager->Disk Drives->(external one here)->Properties->Policies->Optimize for performance. Speed varies from from 1MBps to about 10-15MBps, which is pretty fast! Also, do not forget to unplug the device the proper way (that is Unplug or eject hardware) when you remove the USB drive!

Installing games onto your USB hard drive:

This is pretty easy.  We have two methods.  Method one uses the “ul_install.exe” command, and method 2 uses the USBExtreme.exe windows software.  Both programs do the same job, and the second program is easier to use for those who are novices. 🙂

Method 1:  Using the command line

• Insert your PS2 game into your computer’s DVD drive.
• Go to Start -> Run.
• Type “cmd” and press enter.
• Navigate to your C:\> drive.
• The command to use here is “ul_install SourceDrive TargetDrive GameName CD/DVD”.

Example:

• I insert Viewtiful Joe PS2 game into my computer.  To verify if your game is CD or DVD format, right click on the disc and go to properties.  If the file size is less 700MB or less, then it is CD format. Anything else and it is DVD.
• My DVD drive has letter H:\>.  My USB drive is I:\>.
• At the command prompt on my C:\> drive, I type “ul_install H I ViewtifulJoe DVD”.  Press enter and it will start copying the game.  See picture below:

• Here it will copy the game from my DVD drive to my USB drive and prepare it in the special USB game playing format.

Method 2:  Using the USBExtreme Windows Software

Launch the software. Insert your game.  Configure the “Gamer Installer” window for your game and click start. It will start ripping the game.

Example:

My DVD drive is letter H.  My USB drive is I.  The name of my game is The Bouncer. The type of disc I am ripping from is DVD.

After you click Start, it will prompt you:

Click Yes, and then it will start ripping the game from DVD drive to the USB hard drive:

When the rip is done, you will see a screen like the one below:

Repeat the process over and over for additional games and you will get a list as shown below.  When you load the USB drive from the PS2, this list will be selectable.

Finally you are done. Let’s play on the PS2!

• Turn on PS2.  Load your Swap Magic CD disc.
• At the main Swap Magic screen, load your USB Advance CD-R that you burnt earlier.
• Now you will be at the USBExtreme screen.
  
• Connect USB hard drive to PS2.  Turn it on, within a few seconds, you will see your game(s) show up on the screen. Highlight your desired game, press “X”, and within 7 seconds your game will load! Enjoy!

Troubleshooting

1) Make sure to make your USB hard drive partition a primary. I am not sure if it needs to be logical drive, but I made my drive a primary partition.

Visit SKS Apps here.

Video Tutorials

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCwGs3aLZ3A&list=PL8FB2D7062B84BBBA&index=18]