Community:Zelda Dungeon Live Streams

Zelda Dungeon Video Podcast
The Zelda Dungeon Video Podcast is a live podcast that takes place roughly every two weeks at the Zelda Dungeon forums. The podcasts are about thirty to forty minutes long, and are typically comprised of updates for the Zelda Dungeon website, community news, and guest interviews.

Topics of Discussion
Below is a listing of the topics that appear on the video podcast.

News and Content Updates
A quick run through of the recent site updates and content additions for the previous two weeks. There are usually discussions of what the site staff is currently working on and mentions of their future plans.

Additionally, news or updates with the Zelda Dungeons forums are mentioned during this time. If the podcast takes place near the 1st of the month, Mases will usually reveal the monthly forum promotions.

A quick run through of any small Zelda or Nintendo related news is also reported, followed by a brief discussion. Larger pieces of Zelda news, are often times left for a later portion of the podcast where the special guest also participates in the discussion.

Featured Thread Discussion
Beginning during the 5th podcast, the featured thread discussion was included. Mases would select a thread from one of the Zelda sections of the forums, and it would be discussed during the podcast. Mases would pull several notable quotes from users within the thread and these would be used as talking points for the hosts and guest during the podcast. Mases would also call upon members who are active in the shoutbox to take part in these discussions.

Topics

 * Podcast #5 - The Color of Link's Hair
 * Podcast #6 - Life as a Kokiri
 * Podcast #7 - Water Temple in The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.
 * Podcast #9 - The Temple of the Ocean King in The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass.
 * Podcast #10 - The Cave of Ordeals
 * Podcast #11 - Most Useless Item

Question and Answer
In this section, the hosts and guests of the podcast will answer questions that were given by the fans. Prior to the podcast, users send in questions for the podcast and Mases picks out 4-5 of them to answer during the podcast. Depending on the length of the podcast, Mases occasionally takes live questions from members who are participating within the shoutbox.

Special Podcasts
There are occasional Special Podcasts that Zelda Dungeon will be offering. To date, only one such special podcast has taken place, and it was a round table discussion commemorating the announcing of Spirit Tracks.

Spirit Tracks
On March 28th, 2009, Mases hosted a Spirit Tracks Roundtable discussion. The general format of the podcast was dropped and the entire one hour discussion was dedicated to Spirit Tracks. There were three guests on the show, but they were not given interviews like special guests are usually given, because of the nature of the different format. The Missing Link, The King of Hyrule, and Cody were the three guests that were a part of the podcast.

There were certain topics of discussion that were brought forth by Mases, including the meaning of the title Spirit Tracks. There were also several questions that were submitted prior to the podcast, and these were used as talking points. The discussion opened up drastically, and often times the discussion was not even related to the original topics that were asked. This was the purpose of the round table discussion, since it was meant to exchange ideas amongst the participants.

The discussion of Spirit Tracks lasted just over one hour. This was the first podcast that used the Ustream video service. Unfortunately, difficulties arose half way through the podcast, and the live stream was taken down, the forums had crashed, and the site was moving terribly slow. This caused members that were viewing the podcast to be unable to view it live and participate in the discussion. The podcast was still recorded and was made available for download the following day.

Special Guests

 * Judai - Appeared on the 2nd podcast on January 1st, 2009
 * Matt - Appeared on the 3rd podcast on January 17th, 2009, and on the 10th podcast on April 18th, 2009.
 * ebuch - Appeared on the 4th podcast on January 31st, 2009
 * DekuLink - Appeared on the 5th podcast on February 14th, 2009
 * Gravity - Special guest for the 6th podcast on February 28th, 2009
 * F3 - Appeared on the 7th podcast on March 14th, 2009
 * The King of Hyrule - Appeared on the 9th podcast on April 4th, 2009
 * Yumil - Appeared on the 10th podcast on April 18th, 2009.
 * Steven - Appeared on the 11th podcast on May 23rd, 2009.

Hosts

 * Mases — Mases Hagopian is the Webmaster of Zelda Dungeon and main host of the podcasts. While there are other special guests on the podcast, the video is always focused on Mases.


 * Caleb — Caleb is the co-host of the podcast, but is not available for every podcast. In podcasts that he is available on, Caleb is the 2nd man behind Mases in running the podcast. Caleb is often times available during podcasts that are scheduled to begin at 9pm or 10pm US Central Time.


 * Dabombster — Dabombster is the other co-host of the podcast. Dabombster is usually the co-host when the podcasts are schedule to begin at 3pm, 4pm, or 5pm US Central Time.

Times of Podcasts
With Mases being based in the United States, the podcast is often recorded at times considered inconvenient for members in other timezones, such as those in Europe. Due to the complaints raised by this, Mases has decided to stagger the podcast airing times, with some airing earlier in the afternoon and some airing in the evening to accommodate international viewers. Mases will always announce the time of his podcast in US Central time. There are plans to have a morning podcast, which would take place at roughly 10am US Central Time to further accommodate international viewers.

After Hours
After the officially recorded podcast is over with, Mases and his guest usually stay online for several more hours in a live stream discussing various topics. On the 3rd podcast, Mases was live streaming on the forums for 12 hours straight. Mases at times will play various music and take requests from fans who are online at the time in the shoutbox. Mases will also occasionally sing a few songs, of which his vocals have received harshly mixed opinions. In podcast #3 he, with the webcam, moved about showing viewers the room he was in, even filming his computer monitor which displayed the Zelda Dungeon shoutbox. Overall, the video stream after the Zelda Dungeon podcast is considered by members to be very entertaining.

Other Guests
In the after podcast hours, Mases often times allows regular forum members and various other guests to jump on board on the podcast and participate in miscellaneous discussions. Often times this includes site staff members, ranked forum members, registered forum members, or other website webmasters. There is only one other Zelda Dungeon webmaster other than Mases, and he is Caleb, who does game walkthroughs at Zelda Dungeon's main site. He has appeared on at least one occasion as a podcast guest, and others have come from other sites too, such as a guest from Zelda Temple.

Name That Tune
On January 1st when Mases recorded the 2nd Zelda Dungeon Video Podcast, the aftermath included a Name That Tune game. Mases would play various songs, ranging from Metal, to country, to pop, and users in the shoutbox would guess the artist and the song title. The first member to give a correct answer was rewarded with a point. The webcam during this portion of the stream was focused on a yellow pad of paper which showed the current standings of who was winning the name that tune game. The first winner of name that tune was ebuch.

Zelda Edition
On the 4th podcast on January 31st, 2009, Mases ran another name that tune game, but this one was the Zelda edition. Mases played songs from the first nine Zelda games and users had to guess which game the music came from and the name of the title. The game was running live for over half an hour and Dabombster was the winner.

After the 6th podcast on February 28th, 2009, Mases hosted another round of the Name That Zelda Tune game. The rules were laid out a little differently, instead rewarding first place with two points and second place with 1 point. This round also introduced the 'Lightning Round', in which Mases would give a specific game title and play music only from that game. Participants would then have to give, in detail, what the song was. The winner of the second round of Name That Zelda Tune was Keats.

Zelda Dungeon Hangman
Hangman works similar to the game Wheel of Fortune, just without any money and without a wheel. Two users would be matched up against each other and a word or phrase was written down. The category would be given and it would usually be a person, location, item, or a quote. User A would guess a letter, and if the letter was in the puzzle, they would get 1 point for every letter, and then get a chance to solve the puzzle after their turn. Then User B would have a chance to guess a letter, and if correct, they would get 1 point per correct letter. Vowels on the other hand were not worth any points but were useful in helping users solve the puzzle. Solving the puzzle gave a user 5 points, and the user that concluded with the most points would advance to the next round.

The first ever Hangman contest took place during the after hours of the 7th podcast, where eight participants took place in the event. Zeldatwilight was the winner of the eight man tournament, beating Master Link in the final round when solving the puzzle for the location Maze Island.

Zelda Dungeon Trivia
On April 4th, 2009 during the 9th Podcast, Dabombster and Mases hosted the first ever Zelda Dungeon Trivia. The format was similar to the Name that Tune game, where Dabombster would read off trivia questions and fans would answer them in the shoutbox. The video stream during the game would show a scoreboard that Mases would edit after each question. Each correct answer was worth one point, with occasional difficult questions being worth multiple points. Points were rewarded to the first two users that answered the questions correctly. ChargewithSword was the first ever winner of the Trivia, recording 25 correct answers.

The Amazing Gameplay Adventures
During the after hours of the Zelda Dungeon Podcast, Mases as well as various guests and staff members may take part in playing Zelda and other videos games and the videos are live streamed onto the forums.

Bomby's Adventures
In the after hours of the 7th podcast, Dabombster took over the live stream when Mases had to step out. He hosted the very first ever gameplay adventures and tackled numerous Zelda titles. He played and completed A Link to the Past in 3 hours and 17 minutes, and finished The Minish Cap in just under six hours. He also started, but did not complete the original Legend of Zelda and The Adventure of Link.

Mases's Adventures
During the after hours of the 9th podcast, Mases officially began airing Mases's Adventures. Mases would play old classics from the Legend of Zelda series, as well as other Nintendo titles. During the after hours of the 9th podcast, Mases played through the entire first quest of the original Legend of Zelda. Additionally, Mases played through the original Mega Man for the NES, and finished the night off with a game of Tetris from the NES in which he completed 111 lines in marathon mode.

After the 10th podcast, Mases played another round of Classic NES games. He completed the original Super Mario Bros. for the NES. Mases went on to complete the 1st Contra title for the NES. He then attempted to beat Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde but was unable to do so, dying at the 6th and final screen. The podcast was concluded with another round of Tetris where Mases completed 119 lines in marathon mode.

During the after hours of the 11th podcast, Mases attempted to do a 3 heart-minimalist challenge of the original Legend of Zelda. Mases was not allowed to get any heart containers or any items that were not vital to the completed of the game, (Blue Ring, Magical Shield, Boomerang, Magical Rod, etc...) Mases was able to make it to the 8th dungeon of the game with his death count at 63. After 3 hours of playing, Mases called it quits but has stated that he would like to attempt a 3 heart-minimalist challenge of the original Legend of Zelda at another time.

Mases's Pokémon Gym
During the after hours of the 9th podcast, Mases and Dabombster took part in two Pokémon battles via Nintendo DS WiFi. During the battles, the webcam was focused on the Nintendo DS screen that Mases was playing on. Only the top screen was displayed, so Dabombster could not see the moves and Pokémon that Mases had. Dabombster was victorious during both Pokémon battles.

There are plans of future Pokémon battles with other site staff members, as well as various forum members are planned for the future. Bold text