I don't think I'd be to upset if they were skipped 😁

Honestly, they're the only thing you make I don't watch. Love everything else, but I have never cared for the Sims and it's just not my cup of tea. But hey, plenty of people do and that's cool too.

Der he is!

We love you LGR!

hall of fame comment

I agree

8-bit guy comes off genuine. he's the nigel saunders of old tech.

Same and not only that there are more eyeballs on UKposts then ever before which for me views, subs are up but ad revnue is down despite my core videos being over saturated for nearly a dacade now. So yeah it's more that there are less ad sponsors then their were because wev've been in a recestion here in the US any way for 5 years now.

Couldnt agree more

Definitely agree

I was thinking just this as I was watching.

Not to mention a good half of his videos now are about his games or other projects like the Commander X16. Don't get me wrong, I think that stuff's cool, but it's not what got me watching the channel in the first place. Old hardware reviews, restorations and all that stuff is what made me a subscriber. I think a lot of people are probably like me - not as interested in more videos about Planet X3, Petscii Robots, X16, etc. Not throwing shade at David, just being honest. :)

I wholeheartly agree with this comment, also adding there's been a lot of history videos which are great but we are missing the 8bitkey / restoration videos. Those in my opinion are where things shine.

this

Also, the production value of the videos seem to have dropped in favor of more B-Roll and less information per video. It's not hard to see why people are getting turned off, especially considering how long new videos now take to come out.

@@OmarRodriguez-vl2tq Gosh, the RetroBrite - it was always so ultra satisfying to watch. The way he invented method after method to make it better and how beautiful the machines looked afterwards ... It was so soothing and, in fact, helped me through rough times. I was distracted from my own worries for a while, which was like medicine.

Well i dont know if he invented it but definitely popularized it@@OmarRodriguez-vl2tq

i agree, i pretty much wrote the same thing in another comment. he used to do great restorations of interesting tech including the retrobrighting and then at the peak of it all he just stopped and so i stopped watching. i am still subbed but after this "rant" it makes me think about unsubbing. he's acting a little snobby

Well said totally agree

Yeah, that was the feeling I got too , make sure you don't get burnt-out David: try to not get hung up on only the negatives comments/voices and know that a lot of people love the content you make

Saying that things have changed, and not for the better, doesn't make one a troll.

It's perfectly fine to be burned out creatively. But I think it's important to then allow yourself to be that. And also important to let your viewers know that it's because of this, instead of trying to blame all kinds of different factors.

I would avoid calling everyone who isn't a fanboy automatically a "troll". People have opinions, and it might not always align with the opinions of the creator.

Completely disagree here. He is being very clear and concise about his plans. Its a small change in direction, I hear no burnout. And to look objectively at your content and make a change is no easy thing to do. I'm glad for any content that's created, love watching these videos. ❤

I second that

I agree. He has shifted the content from retro stuff to his own projects of retro computing. I get he has to do something for a living, but the last videos were all focused about himself instead of we all like and came to see here.

I want to add some possible topics that I'd love to see: For me it would be really interesting to learn what role that 8088 played (as a kid I got this as my first computer from my dad when he bought a 2 or 386). Also those old machines had co-processors. Why? And how did that work? Maybe that fits in somewhere.

what are some other channels you watch? struggling to find

@@RobertSmith-ue8if me too!

Love your stuff Jrose!

I really want to point out, that even when you're subscribed, you also stop getting recommendations with infrequent uploads. I watch UKposts every day and it happens regularly that I lose sight of channels. then one day I remember them, wonder why they didn't upload anything just to discover I missed 6 months of content because UKposts stopped recommending them. I still think the algorithm is not as half as good as people say and it's an unfortunate truth that uploading many videos helps a lot. I value quality over quantity, but the algorithm doesn't.

🤔🤔🤔🤔 It seems to be one of main assumptions of yt algorithm... To publish very often even worse quality... In some areas it's not the problem when you have videos ex. what you ate lately... In some like tech it's much more challenging... Many suffer from this rule... But how can you fight against algorithm...?

I hate that, but its true. YT has become so bad, shame there isnt a good alternative yet.

It was on the top of my recommended all day before I finally watched it, but then the subject was not specified in the title

@@joecarnegy But if a channel posts rarely, what's the benifet of ubsubbing?? If a channel only has some vids I'm interested in then posting rarely is a big positive. Any channel that posts a lot, better have vast majority I want to watch for me to sub.

Can't be true. Karl Jobst or Summoning Salt don't post videos often and they get tons of views.

I have same problem. Those new games, x16 stuff and solar stuff is boring.

I actually enjoyed all those videos he made beyond just repairs. To be fair though, I'm also a computer science major, so maybe that's why the other stuff appeals to me more

THIS. Like it or not, youtube creators get pigeon holed, whether they want to or not, simply because there are so many channels to choose from. Interests can be very specific and you can watch very specific things on UKposts. Seems that most channels, once the become successful they think "wow, now I can do anything I want and branch out." Nope. Doesn't fly. I've been watching since the first days of UKposts and I've now seen probably a dozen channels go that route and flounder. As technology has advanced we've gone from "broadcasting" with limited media channels to "narrowcasting" (cable and internet). Bottom line is that you gain an audience doing something and that's also how you keep an audience. Whether you get bored doing the same thing over and over is irrelevant. It's how the free marketplace works.

@@videodistro But he isn't doing 'the same thing' as a few years ago. I can understand the reason he is just promoting products now like so many other channels turned in Tell Sell crap, but that doesn't mean I have to keep watching them.

I just posted basically the same opinion. Glad to know that I not the only one with this opinion.

People actually watch YT on TV!?!🤯

@@halfsourlizard9319 of course we do! in my case I use my pixel 6A to communicate with my Chromecast HD which is plugged into my 10-year-old television.

Kinda agree

@@halfsourlizard9319 yes i rarely watch it in my phone, yt is tv for me

I dunno. I think it's better it comes to an end imho.

A compromise might be to make a rule of only one video per computer/monitor model. That also means it's likely a history video too.

Do you watch Adrian's Digital Basement ? He does loads of C64 and Apple repairs.

Fewer

It gets old fast IMO.

Nah his views are down due to reasons he can’t control, nothing to do with the content. Ignore the amount of likes the OP is getting. /s

@@cynic5581 number of likes

Agree Dave's hosting skills are unmatched by the majority of UKpostsrs producing content today. He's also clearly spoken and polishes his videos way too much.. the high quality is the enemy of the quantity. He has what they call a "Voice for Radio" and could easily have gone into Radio in years past and done well. I think he has many talents.. including those as a Drone Pilot that are underutilized.. if I had the capital I would fund him and build up a content genera unique to his skills. Dave was an early entry into the UKposts scheme and they do poorly not to pay attention to what he has done over the years. I kind of wish Spotify had snagged him at the same time they got Joe Rogan and enabled him to produce even more high quality content. - He reminds me of what we have in Texas called the -"Texas Country Reporter" touring the landscape and the Timescape of technology.. living in the Present but fascinated with the Past.. and connecting things with the Future. He's our own Marty McFly and Doc Brown rolled into one. Its a shared depression when he gets down or flinches at griping criticism. I do wish.. or would suggest.. he get into Time Capsules for the Future however.. I think he could turn taht into a interesting series.. at least once a year.. thinking about how to communicate with the year 2100 or so.. working out where, how to sequester it.. who to leave it with.. and how it would be found so far in the future. Arcades are kind of like that but so narrow cast for the near future.. maybe he will work up to something like that.

Well said!

Exactly! They aren’t just restorations, they’re almost mini documentaries and adventures going over how the computer is built and troubleshooting issues by understanding the hardware.

@@wil7173 I never met Dave, but I feel like we were highschool buddies when I watch his videos. He just has an honest heart and he shares his enthusiasm for cool stuff with us. I dig. I'll tell you this though: his arcade idea is quite ambitious. I followed Punished Props on their journey over the last decade. It can be super challenging.

He released 0 repair/restoration videos in 2023...

he can do that every single video I won't mind! :D

This, id unironically watch just C64 restoration videos all say, not to mention other systems.

Seconded. I recently made a decision about buying a keyboard at a yardsale because of that channel.

@@survivalizer yeah why did he stop 8bit keys, ? That was a chance to meet/grow a wide music making audience

@@CourtWatchAu he hit the writers block, and put the channel on a hiatus. then covid came around and he wasn't able to go out and purchase new keyboards

@@fyr8513 oh ok, thanks. imo he should reactivate that hannel and discuss interesting retro music gear . The Arcade is a big risk, i mean spending on rent foor the place plus you have to sraff it, plus repar the games/machines to put in it . I hope it works out but i think he shouold maybe visit schools with a workshop teaching retro coding or something, teaching and explaining is a string skill he has

yea, i could do with 4 videos per year than 0

Dave is probably not getting a lot of reciprocal feedback on his restoration videos, or he's seeing the numbers drop off as the algorithm stops recommending them and perceives a lack of interest. Like it or not UKposts is the new TV Guide for finding stuff today and unfortunately it steers people upon rocky shoals sometimes and content creators get mislead. The best way to counter act that is Leave a Comment after ALL restoration videos.. good or bad, preferably highlighting what you like so he can focus more on that.. the Comments have a larger impact on the Algorithm than people think.. but Dave can't use that tool.. only viewers can. People tend to ASMR or passively zone out when they are getting more of what they like and that leads to less of that type of content.. and he gets paid less for it.

Yea they where good, lots and lots of retrobrigth 😁

I really think those are a powerhouse of this channel

I like them too, because I learn a lot while watching. But I see his point about what more can he do. Its been done.

​@@kenmccormack7801That and paperclips. People want to see restorations that aren't McGyver'ed together.

That’s the reason I liked this channel to begin with. Now it’s nothing like a few years ago and he’s feeling the effects of this.

This is the answer. A lot of his content on obscure things aren’t anywhere else

Same. I like the history videos as much but will still long for the old videos.

Yep. That's what brought me here as well.

Agree, I watch probably 99% of his videos, in my opinion they're all good.

I really agree. Doing more of the kind of subject matter David really likes, like history, will make his talent shine even more brightly. I'm very much looking forward to it.

Not to mention genuinely interesting! A notification from this channel usually results in halting everything to view the vid. 👍

@@projectartichoke That's the thing. He was doing an awesome series about early electronic companies in his area of Texas, but canceled it because it wasn't profitable enough. All these channels do the same thing: It starts off good, gets popular, and then gets seen as a cash cow by the owner. That's when people start moving to lesser known channels that haven't turned into infomercials. Rinse. Repeat.

@@misterhat5823 8-bit Guy is not and has never been an infomercial. Maybe you’re referring to other channels that do that. And there’s nothing wrong with him occasionally plugging his own products because they’re still within the context of the show, being retro gaming and computer products like the X16. Honestly I’d like to see more videos of that and watch the X16 community grow.

@@2crude2crudeofficialband3 I’d also add, that David says he is still in the red with the Commander X16 project. Given his passion (and talent) for coding 8-bit games, it’s very clear (and very believable), that his real motivation for working on the X16 is simply to provide a hardware platform that he’d love to code for. i.e. His dream system (from his retro 8-bit coding POV). He should feature the X16 in videos as much as he wants. If the minority are too thick to understand, and want to call it an infomercial, then let them troll and go on their merry way. The rest of us (and David), should just ignore the ignorant minority. 😎

Maybe... I would say that usagi and tech time traveller are generally more interesting to me, as they focus more on capabilities and real life use of the machines and showcase the rarer specimens. Not to say that I don't like 8bitguy's content, just not all of it. The mega65 should be pretty interesting, but what annoys me more is all the cool stuff that was sent in where he said in that mailbag ep there would be a video on at some point - it's been a long time coming and I'd rather see that than 20 vic20s in for repair or whatever. Hope the arcade goes well for him though.

LOL, no.

​@@TheEradorDavid was one of (if not THE) originator of this type of stuff, but many channels have surpassed him now. In my opinion that is.

@@PJBonoVox yes. I've been watching him for many years too.

Not to me, it's just one of the oldest. The main reason I don't watch as much anymore is precisely due to other channels simply being more interesting/skilled. Which doesn't mean I think this channel is bad, it means I just moved on.

I think the best documentaries are the ones where a restoration is combined with the documentary as part of the process, ties everything together.

@@ic_trab I could definitely get with that!

Did you enjoy all restoration videos he released in 2023?

I used to watch your videos back in the Dell0304 days.

@@metromodernism Nice lol

Especially when YT's algorithm favours upload frequency while also encouraging a rather narrow video duration (based on stats of click through rate and so on), which from other channels I've seen talk about it seems to be between 10 and 30 minutes. YT reinforces its own bias doing this, ie. fewer people watch all of a longer (say) 1 hour video, which means less ad exposure, so YT doesn't recommend the video as heavily, so fewer people see it anyway, hence fewer numbers to begin with, and round it goes. Shorter videos are likewise poorly promoted because YT can't cram so many ads into them. It doesn't help that YT also has so many other issues such as people being unsubscribed from channels without their involvement, like/dislike votes removed, shadowbanning, censorship, the removal of the dislike count (done purely to protect mainstream legacy media channels), a highly biased search function that favours legacy media channels, etc. YT also now doesn't give a damn about subscriber count. Dave Cullen (Computing Forever) explained several years ago that YT openly stated its intention to move towards a model where it functioned more like a conventional broadcaster (hence the creation of the Premiere feature), under which the notion of subscriber count becomes moot, ie. moving away from the platform focus being the creators towards one where all that matters is each video regarded separately, promoted or otherwise based on algorithms that follow view/interaction-related ad trends. It's like the beast chasing its own tail, YT reinforces the very things which damage channels' success, so they double down on bad policies, and round it goes. It reminds me of a neighbour's son who had a *huge* iTunes collection, but he knew little to nothing of the hundreds of bands and artists involved, to him each song was a separate entity, the 'album' notion meaningless. Recently I've noticed TV videos being repeatedly shown by default at low resolution, I keep having to manually select 1080p, and I'm on a 300meg link so download speed isn't an issue (works fine with anything else). Meanwhile, viewing YT on a TV using the YT-supplied app (like my gf does) has become a rotten experience, with insane numbers of ads, endless delays in function, consistently low initial resolution (often just 240p or 360p), annoying popup questions hunting for viewing data, etc. It's utterly different to how the TV app behaved when I first bought the TV about 5 years ago. Even the way YT presents post-watch recommendations for further viewing has changed for the worse, now one will often see very few or even no videos by the same creator after watching one of their videos; the algorithm far more heavily promotes other channels, again because YT doesn't care about individual creators anymore, they are not the foundation of the way YT wants its system to operate in the future. And personally I despise the Shorts format, but I suppose some people like it. No surprise they don't help with sub count though. In the end, YT will destroy the very things that made the platform popular in the first place.

everytime I go overseas, I take a downloaded version of the entire Commodore series with me and waych it over and over! Still hoping to see one on the TI-99 one day!

Cutting video count down 60-70% and having half of them being products he’s working on will do that. Seems like a conscious decision to diversify.

​@@dmacpher Agreed @dmacpher. Also the idea that other creators are taking views away is not the best perspective. It's a community. I watch many other videos, and I surmise other people do as well, from a lot of those channels. And I do subscribe to the good shorts. There's just not a lot of new retro content here. People are generally not going to go back and watch videos they have already seen. But, it does come down to doing what you love, and just "making content" for the sake of it will no doubt impact one's happiness. That's why UKposts Shorts isn't a bad idea I think, because it might (maybe) make creation of content less time consuming. I also always enjoyed donation unboxing videos which really don't need a lot of planning I would imagine.

It's not wild when he's hardly doing any content at this point.

@@jamesg872I agree with the idea of shorts. Watch a few and I do subscribe to ones that really get my attention. Maybe use it as a way to make a preview for episodes, maybe get a few extra watch counts from it.

Actually it isn't surprising that it's down so much. David is certainly right about Covid, Then there's the fact that he's put up far fewer videos. Then the ones that have been put up have been infomercials. Lastly you've got YT going hog wild with the ads to the point that even little old ladies know how to install adblock.

I totally agree!

I also agree, and I would like to add, that you make it easy to understand. And even though I am not an apple fan, the videos about them are very interesting.

I loved his solar videos but I've never watched his Commodore history stuff 😅

I agree. Great style. Just enough production quality but not over produced. Like Perifractic, which I like and appreciate the content, but maybe goes overboard on the cutesy stuff. Just too much of it. David hits it right.

@@jimweil8879 Perifractic's videos are aimed at 50-year-old incels with an IQ of a 9-year-old.

I'm in California and found your comment interesting. I had a job offer in Dallas and found it to be alien to me as well, LOL. I agree, I really liked those videos too. Cheers.

I agree 100% I loved that history of the companies etc. I was surprised when Dave said they didn't have the uptake.

I live in Houston and I find Dallas and Fort Worth to be alien as well 😅

@@zacharysandberg Aliens once landed in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex once and found it so completely, and irredeemably, alien.

Agreed! The Commodore history series was really well done. Especially with the inclusion of the Bil Herd commentary. -- Top notch work, for sure! 👍

They're my favorites as well. Glad to hear that's where your focus will be this year, at least as far as UKposts is concerned.

I agree! 😁

Agreed. Every time I have a project, part of me wants to record and upload it for people to watch. Even if it doesn't work out. I know I like to watch other people's projects

same here.. rewatch a lot of the programes

Writing whinging comments is not going to yield positive utility.

​@@halfsourlizard9319Define "whinging". I don't see any "whinging" here.

@@abzhuofficial I was referring to 'people complain[ing] about a video', not your comment.

@@halfsourlizard9319 Oh, my bad. Thanks

Agreed. The videos on the new studio and the solar power stuff were fine, but not really on topic. The history videos were great but there hasn't been one in a while.

I periodically revisit the famous Vic-20 restoration video; and I still tear up a bit at the end. It's like watching an old beat-up work dog being restored to health and given a loving home. Hell, I'm tearing up just talking about it. (It helps that my 1st computer was a Vic-20). And I, too, have taken a chance at restoring old computers I couldn't afford when they were new, thanks to his inspiration.

We just don’t need to see retrobriting for the 50th time

Most of those "restoration" channels are fake content farms that drop stuff in the mud or let it soak in abrasives to artificially induce age and wear. Then they post that same "restoration" video to about 50-100 duplicate channels.

and regularity: I've noticed that I've learnt when my favorite creators post and I'm more excited when they do, compared to other creators that don't post with a regular cadence. As with Internet connections: jitter and latency are terrible for performance.

100% agree with this

Agreed

Valid point. People enjoy the person besides the restoration item.

Maybe a few streaming games of x16 with his brother or other youtubers. Split the superchats with the fellow youtuber.

@@antayat123 IDK, Personally I would rather play games than watch someone play a game. I was think more of keeping with the educational theme of his channel. A demo every now and then wouldn't hurt though.

I can see the reasoning behind the "pandemic" but it was never illegal to walk outside during any part of covid, not sure how it was over in US. Things were rolling on over here like always barely anything at all had changed. The thing is people below the age of 50-60 were pretty much unaffected and we all got covid during March-June big deal. I've had common colds way, way worse. Once this fact hit people, ie you're not going to drop dead, everything went back to normal. I do know that many sites had a big increase in numbers and I'm guessing it was because people were terrified of nothing at all because let's be real nothing has changed since 2020. The virus is still going around all the time, I myself have had covid 3 times this year I think. I honestly don't know I stopped checking back in early 2021. The vaccine is a complete joke but hopefully they'll get something going eventually.

I believe I've subbed since his "how old school graphics worked" that is from like 8 years ago. I also watch b/c I'm interested.

This. The thing I enjoy the most about David’s restoration videos is how he goes over things that didn’t work, why they didn’t work, and how he came up with a better solution. I think they would make great educational videos for kids.

Those are the best imo 🎉

So much for not being evil.

@@Derpy1969 🤣🤣🤣 ya they've gone full Evil Arts at this point

cop out how about we try to do something about it. oh wait we probably shouldn't say that on their own platform....

My last Google search was for, "alternatives to google".

The censorship here has become outrageous. There are alternative platforms.

On the flipside, I’ve seen arcades in my area flourish by having a mix of old and new games, of all different types (including a healthy mix of pinball, skeeball, etc), then really good food and drinks. One had a cider brewery inside it, the other had a rotating food truck section just outside. Having food/drink onsite does seem to be a key factor to success in the arcades I’ve seen, and food/drink margins are generally better than a single arcade machine.

I also hope he does well. To perhaps state the obvious, maybe the customer is a certain kind of person. Despite my love (like?) of retro games, I don't think that person is me. I have to believe the novelty of a place like that would wear off very quickly, and I wonder how many repeat customers they ever get. I gotta believe it's hard to make a living.

Yeah, we just had two Game Time Arcades close in the Central Florida area. There was no one there on the weekdays. With all of the square footage and electricity needed for an arcade, you just can't make it on weekend-only money. But, I absolutely wish them well. Maybe Texas is a different market.

@@ellavaderknows Doubt TX is different from any other market. The one retro arcade where I live, I found accidentally. I wandered in there on a Saturday afternoon. Might have been 3 or 4 customers. I didn't partake.

How much did they charge for admission? There's an arcade around me that charges $10 Canukistan rubles, which I feel is actually too little if you're going to be there for 2-3 hours. 30+ years ago I would bring a roll of quarters in and it was gone in under 2 hours (to give you an idea of how good I was). Now that arcades themselves are "retro" I would like them to survive and flourish, but one thing I do not miss is popping off those rolls. $10 was real money back then!

I appreciate this comment!

Are you a Peatron as well?

No, they are a ULTRON.@@edoz8939

great comment , well said

I guess I couldn't say it better but I want to add that your restoration videos belong to the best here on UKposts. Yeah, I had an C64 for a few weeks and wasted around 4 years of my youth on an Amiga A600 but I'm not picky about what you restore. I really enjoyed that MoonBase restoration although I've been only one time in my life to an arcade in the Netherlands. (I'm from Germany. Back than you had to be the age of 18 to go to any arcade. They kind of changed that just before I got 18. But at that point I already had the fastest PC hardware money could buy so I didn't care at all.) So count me in for 'wild' arcade restorations.

His best videos are his Disaster videos.. where he totally fails.. but sets it aside and refuses to give up.. but he lets us know what he's learned so far. That is incredibly generous.. to all those that come after.. to understand what didn't work or why. Remember the tabletop PacMan video game where we heard the CRACK and HISS of the CRT tube? We all felt that.

Expect videos moaning about how people treat the old arcade machines.

And keeping the torch alive for future generations. :)

100% agreed. I initially came for the history and resto videos, liked the occasional personal project. In the last year and a bit though, it was mostly personal and fairly random stuff that didn't really interest me too much, and way too much focus on his game. I appreciate that this was a work of love and it's close to his heart, but I just don't have any interest in it whatsoever, so I skipped most of his videos for over a year. If this were to go back more towards history, strange hardware and some fixeruppers, I'd devour every single one of these.

@@ithecasticthe Governanter indeed

Don't watch them! Easy fix...

can't stand them either. they're a plague I've blocked them on my desktop, there's a bunch of extensions that allow that. I use revanced on my phone which also completely disables them.