How to prepare for a Let's Play?

[Chishio Kunrin]

I've actually been kinda thinking about doing Let's Plays, but I don't really have stuff for it. I keep thinking about how cool it'd be, how it's something I'd kinda like to do, and I've finally decided there's no use in just thinking about it because it won't happen unless I make it happen. I'm sure I'll be nervous at first, as I am a shy person, but I should push through, right? I'll get used to it.

So, what I'd really like to ask you guys is what all do I need to get set up for it and be able to do a Let's Play? I may start on the computer, with Minecraft and maybe Tekkit. But that would be after I get a graphics card and my own personal Minecraft account. So, for that
- What do I need for recording the game screen and saving the video?
- I have a microphone, though it's kind of an old style one, seems kinda crappy, I think. Is there any kind of microphone or headset you'd suggest?
- How should I put together the audio and video?

I may end up also asking for advice on how to make my computer better, and I'll try to provide as much info about my computer as possible. I'd love to just get a brand new computer, but that's not happening any time soon.

If/when I do Let's Plays of console games, I'm gonna need to know how to do that too. I have a PS3, an Xbox360 Slim, and a Wii, but I really dunno how much I'd play Wii games for LPs. Really, I'd prefer to do console LPs in my living room because that's where our really big TV is, but my mom tends to use the living room a lot.

If info about the TV to use is needed, I'll try my best, and I may give info on multiple TVs.
       Preferably, I wouldn't use my TV in my bedroom, even though it's a newer kind with an LCD screen and whatnot. However, I guess doing an LP in my room would have more privacy than in the living room on the big screen or in the den with a fairly large TV. This is especially since the den is where the door everyone enters from is in, and the living room is, well, the room my mom often uses and where everyone hangs out when we have company over.

Ah yes, and I'm probably going to even record LoE when it comes out, if I start doing LPs. I may be nervous doing that if I actually somehow have a certain amount of subscribers by then (Me? Getting subscribers for my content? Pfft, yeah right!), but I'll try not to give in to the worry of any being anti-bronies!

Finally, I'll say this:
Keep in mind, we don't have much money. We truly do not have much right now.
      But I'm already planning on spending whatever money I get for Christmas on a graphics card, and I'm asking for a Minecraft account card from Walmart for Christmas. I'm willing to save up for stuff that you guys suggest, and my mom has already gotten to me to start trying to look for a job. I'm gonna try to convince her to let me try to save at least some of the money I get for LP supplies, but the rest of what I make will go toward bills and food.

Why start doing LPs at a time like this?
It'll be fun, I've been dreaming of it for quite some time now, and even better, if I get a Youtube Partnership, I can start earning money for my videos. If I get a YT Partnership, I'll even try my best to get lots of views. You get paid for every 1,000 views on each of your videos.
    And hey, if I start getting paid for my videos, I'll even be able to set aside money for upgrades, more games for LPs, and maybe even a proper camera for, perhaps, vlogging. I think vlogging would have to wait a long, long while, though.


Reply to answers 1

[Xeno Aura]

- What do I need for recording the game screen and saving the video?

FRAPS is used by most. Commercial software, but it's good quality and doesn't take tonnes of power to run, you'll need a fair amount of HDD space free to store the raw AVI files though.

- I have a microphone, though it's kind of an old style one, seems kinda crappy, I think. Is there any kind of microphone or headset you'd suggest?

As you're on a budget I can't really suggest good Mic's here... a good quality headset may be good enough quality. I know of a £60 one that is good quality but that may be too much for you.

- How should I put together the audio and video?

FRAPS lets you record video, audio output from your PC, as well as microphone input.

I may end up also asking for advice on how to make my computer better, and I'll try to provide as much info about my computer as possible. I'd love to just get a brand new computer, but that's not happening any time soon.

For recording MC with FRAPS at max settings I recommend the following:

8GB of RAM (You could probably get away with 6GB, maybe even 4GB *IF* you run at settings below max, and don't record at 1920x1080 (1080p))
A quad core CPU, preferably mid-range.
GFX card doesn't seem to affect recording MC too much, as long as it can run MC well, you should be able to record.

If/when I do Let's Plays of console games, I'm gonna need to know how to do that too. I have a PS3, an Xbox360 Slim, and a Wii, but I really dunno how much I'd play Wii games for LPs. Really, I'd prefer to do console LPs in my living room because that's where our really big TV is, but my mom tends to use the living room a lot.

Capturing Video/Audio for consoles is probably harder and more expensive, you'd need a capture card for good quality video, they vary on price quite a bit depending on quality. Because of the extra cost here, most people tend to use emulators to record footage of N64/PS1 games and earlier.

Ah yes, and I'm probably going to even record LoE when it comes out, if I start doing LPs. I may be nervous doing that if I actually somehow have a certain amount of subscribers by then (Me? Getting subscribers for my content? Pfft, yeah right!), but I'll try not to give in to the worry of any being anti-bronies!

If people like your videos, I don't think they'd do anything, anyone who reacts to that is probably just a troll.

Why start doing LPs at a time like this?
It'll be fun, I've been dreaming of it for quite some time now, and even better, if I get a Youtube Partnership, I can start earning money for my videos. If I get a YT Partnership, I'll even try my best to get lots of views. You get paid for every 1,000 views on each of your videos.
    And hey, if I start getting paid for my videos, I'll even be able to set aside money for upgrades, more games for LPs, and maybe even a proper camera for, perhaps, vlogging. I think vlogging would have to wait a long, long while, though.

Hehe, I'd definitely be too shy to do any camera shots of me. But I hope you do well on Youtube.

[Book Smarts]

Let's play series are tough, especially today on youtube because everybody does it and only few succeed in obtaining a real audience. I'm not trying to be discouraging, you could be one of the few who could break out and gain a subscriber base.

A good Let's Play needs a...
-Decent running computer with the capability to multi task
-Solid screen capturing program
-Microphone

I have more to say, but I'm in a rush to complete some work 

There's an example of a Let's Play episode on my youtube channel, just click on the website icon under the avatar.

[lurk852]

My knowledge may be a bit outdated, as the last time I looked into this stuff seriously was several years ago, but I can at least give you an idea of what to expect.

For recording video from PC games, you need a program like Fraps and a lot of hard drive space, because uncompressed video is huge. Last time I checked, you could get something like this for $35-50 (Fraps is $37, with a trial version that only records in 30-second watermarked intervals). If you're okay with significantly lower quality (= less hard drive space needed too, of course), I've heard there are some free alternatives, like GameCam, although I know little about them, so I couldn't tell you how much of a quality hit you'd take there. Capturing video at decent quality will also lower your FPS.

I'm not an expert on different headsets, but from what I've heard, headsets are generally preferable to cheap stand-alone mics.

Putting together the audio and video shouldn't be a concern - even if your video recording program doesn't also record audio, I'm sure it would be pretty easy to record the sound with a separate program and then just stick the sound/video together in a cheap/free video program (e.g. Windows Movie Maker, which you likely already have).

Recording video from console games will be less affordable, unfortunately. For that, you need special video capture hardware (e.g. http://www.roxio.com/enu/products/game-capture/console/system-requirements.html) which is likely to run you at least $100.

Good luck with all this stuff.

[Rissian]

I've actually streamed a few things in the old forum I used to go to, I know you need a capture card to record consoles, and a program like Xsplit to view your capture card. It's hard to find free options for Let's plays and some free programs are pretty complicated to use.

If you plan to record Minecraft you will need a Graphics Card and good RAM, and well a good CPU is also needed because recording videos is a lot of processing for a computer to do especially if you are playing a game while recording it.

I don't want to discourage you but the specs of my current PC are as follows and it still has a few issues recording especially with it's laggy sound sometimes or laggy video.

Intel Pentium Dual Core CPU 3.00GHZ
6GB of RAM
ATI Radeon HD5670 Graphics card
Windows 7 64 bit.
1TB HDD You need a lot of free hard drive space to record videos just recording me and Zaner's let's play of Minecraft took like 4GB per video and the videos were split into 7-11 mins each. But I also suck at compressing videos so that could be my own issue.

Xsplit though records really long videos at low data rates so using that would help you a lot but you also have to use a video converter and convert it into a normal video file instead of a flash video file, if you want to edit things or cut the video if it gets too long as the youtube upload limit is 20 minutes if I recall. Flash video editors exist but I think most cost money.

RAM and CPU are really important for Minecraft as it's not that graphical of a game.

Now when LoE comes out just having RAM and a good Graphics card will probably run well for recording since the game isn't that demanding on resources other than ram and they will probably have that fixed by the time it comes out I assume.

On the youtube partnership thing you have to be careful my cousin said you can actually get in trouble with companies if you don't know how the partnership system works I'd have to ask him on the details when he gets online though as I can't remember everything he told me.

I would suggest using Xsplit as it is a free recording software though the audio sucks in it sometimes, unless you buy the premium version which isn't free.

[Remedy]

I'm no expert in this field, but I've been looking into starting it myself. First and foremost on the list, which you've already got on your list, is your microphone. You say it's an old one, how old is it? As a rule of thumb, I find longer lasting microphones are generally better than the cheaper, newer ones.
Record some clips with sound recorder, and see how much noise there is coming from your mic, and judge for yourself how good it is.

I only know of three video recording programs, all of which are vastly different. First of all there's Fraps, which I believe has a rather low quality free version... And I have no idea how audio works into that.
Then there's CamStudio, this one's open source. It might take a little more post production editing than the other two, but the plus side is it'll always come out with a nice quality and it'll never nag you for money.
Finally, there's XSplit Broadcaster - despite it's name, I'm pretty sure it can stream to file as well as to the internet. It's got a really easy to use interface and can easily pick up in game sound and microphone sound, and is very easy to set up with either portions of the screen or with specific programs like games. The downside to this one is that, while it does have a free version, it's going to be very persistent in begging you to buy the full version. (Which, I doubt you'll need.)

As for the consoles, I believe you would need a video capture card on your computer to do that. I've seen them for sale all over the internet, yet I've never seen one for real.

Though, perhaps it would be an idea to get some practice in talking. It sounds strange, but it's my own biggest hang up on starting trying anything like this. I say "Um" and "Right" far too much.
I personally am probably going to try using Skype to just talk at someone about random things for as long as I can without hesitating to try and improve that.
Either that or get four friends together on Skype to play Just a Minute.

[Xeno Aura]

I can record MC at 1080p at 30FPS, and my PC cost around £250 ($350ish) to build from scratch.

You have several options when getting a PC, eBay has cheap PC's, but obviously not the safest place to buy from. I wouldn't really consider a retail shop for a PC myself, they overcharge massively.

I bought parts for my PC off Amazon and then fitted them together, I used the DVD and HDD's from my old PC, along with its fans and casing.

Also, It has a ATI Radeon HD 5450 Graphics card in it currently, which is a low-end GFX card from 2009 or so. So GFX card shouldn't be a worry for you. Mine was only about $30 a few months ago, and I'm guessing your PC will have a better one.

[Rissian]

I can record MC at 1080p at 30FPS, and my PC cost around £250 ($350ish) to build from scratch.

You have several options when getting a PC, eBay has cheap PC's, but obviously not the safest place to buy from. I wouldn't really consider a retail shop for a PC myself, they overcharge massively.

I bought parts for my PC off Amazon and then fitted them together, I used the DVD and HDD's from my old PC, along with its fans and casing.

Yeah building your own PC is usually the best way to go, my cousin bought parts for his own custom PC, and me and him put together his PC for him and it's basically a powerhouse. I wish I had the money to build my own but my friend gave me my current PC for free he bought it a few years ago but no longer needed it as he had a gaming laptop and went into the army.
a few years ago.

Though, perhaps it would be an idea to get some practice in talking. It sounds strange, but it's my own biggest hang up on starting trying anything like this. I say "Um" and "Right" far too much.
I personally am probably going to try using Skype to just talk at someone about random things for as long as I can without hesitating to try and improve that.
Either that or get four friends together on Skype to play Just a Minute.

I actually have that same problem with Let's plays or streams but to a different extent. Unless I have someone to talk to it is horribly boring and I can't think of anything to say. 

[Xeno Aura]

I can record MC at 1080p at 30FPS, and my PC cost around £250 ($350ish) to build from scratch.

You have several options when getting a PC, eBay has cheap PC's, but obviously not the safest place to buy from. I wouldn't really consider a retail shop for a PC myself, they overcharge massively.

I bought parts for my PC off Amazon and then fitted them together, I used the DVD and HDD's from my old PC, along with its fans and casing.

Yeah building your own PC is usually the best way to go, my cousin bought parts for his own PC and me and him put together his PC for him and it's basically a powerhouse. I wish I had the money to build my own but my friend gave me my current PC for free he bought it a few years ago but no longer needed it as he had a gaming laptop and went into the army.
a few years ago.

Though, perhaps it would be an idea to get some practice in talking. It sounds strange, but it's my own biggest hang up on starting trying anything like this. I say "Um" and "Right" far too much.
I personally am probably going to try using Skype to just talk at someone about random things for as long as I can without hesitating to try and improve that.
Either that or get four friends together on Skype to play Just a Minute.

I actually have that same problem with Let's plays or streams.  Unless I have someone to talk to it is horribly boring and I can't think of anything to say. 

Big youtubers often script a lot of their dialogue, so that'd help them. Any unscripted dialogue is usually banter among 2 or more people. If you shoved them in a video with noone else and no script, I bet they'd be saying "err" and "right" a lot.

[Rissian]

Spoiler: show

I can record MC at 1080p at 30FPS, and my PC cost around £250 ($350ish) to build from scratch.

You have several options when getting a PC, eBay has cheap PC's, but obviously not the safest place to buy from. I wouldn't really consider a retail shop for a PC myself, they overcharge massively.

I bought parts for my PC off Amazon and then fitted them together, I used the DVD and HDD's from my old PC, along with its fans and casing.

Yeah building your own PC is usually the best way to go, my cousin bought parts for his own PC and me and him put together his PC for him and it's basically a powerhouse. I wish I had the money to build my own but my friend gave me my current PC for free he bought it a few years ago but no longer needed it as he had a gaming laptop and went into the army.
a few years ago.

Though, perhaps it would be an idea to get some practice in talking. It sounds strange, but it's my own biggest hang up on starting trying anything like this. I say "Um" and "Right" far too much.
I personally am probably going to try using Skype to just talk at someone about random things for as long as I can without hesitating to try and improve that.
Either that or get four friends together on Skype to play Just a Minute.

I actually have that same problem with Let's plays or streams.  Unless I have someone to talk to it is horribly boring and I can't think of anything to say. 

Big youtubers often script a lot of their dialogue, so that'd help them. Any unscripted dialogue is usually banter among 2 or more people. If you shoved them in a video with noone else and no script, I bet they'd be saying "err" and "right" a lot.

Unscripted dialog can go well sometimes though, but only if it's in the bigger let's plays with more then one person talking because often conversations are pretty funny in games if weird things happen. I doubt I'd ever be able to come up with a script.

In the old forum I went to we basically just played the games while streaming and had random conversations which was pretty fun.

[Xeno Aura]

For people like Yogscast, it's a job, so they probably rely on scripts more than the average YouTuber would, they need to produce high quality videos, and you can tell a lot of their Tekkit series is scripted events, especially on BlueXephos's channel. They might not script their dialogue word for word, but they probably discuss how the conversation goes so each of them can form an idea of what they're going to say.

There are plus sides to both ways, you can often tell in Yogscast Tekkit when they're doing something scripted and then something unexpected happens and they suddenly sort of go off the rails a bit. Those are the bits I like the most.

Although to be fair, BlueXephos's Tekkit is less of a Let's Play and more of a storyline. xD

[Rissian]

I actually wonder if The Walls was scripted maybe some of it but since you can't predict what people will do unless they were instructed on how to play and what to do with what they find but then that would probably be kind of boring.

(This is a little off topic though. )

But yeah Xsplit is a good free program to use for Let's plays although sometimes it's a bit resource heavy, it's compression for local HDD recordings is actually pretty top notch. I could record long videos and only adds up to around 100-300MB instead of 4000MB per 11 minute video, but once again I'm not good at choosing compression codecs for the other programs that have more quality settings so other programs are good as well I just need to learn codec settings.
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Edit :

If you don't have a headset gamestop has USB PS2 headsets for $7 or so I think which may be worth trying if all you have is a standup MIC.

http://www.gamestop.com/ps2/accessories/ps2-usb-headset/29462

I'm pretty sure these work on PC's as well at least I've heard they do.

If you ever need help working with Xsplit if you use it I could also help a bit with that I've used it for a year or so.

[Billow Pillow]

Seem's like at this point most of your question's have already been answered, so the least i can do now is wish you the best of luck! and offer my help if you ever so need it!

[Chishio Kunrin]

Recording console games is more expensive
I figured as much. I figured it'd probably require more stuff to set up and would cost more. That's why I decided to start on the computer and wait to do console games until later on.

About requirements for max settings on Minecraft with 1080p video
I'm not sure I'd go for that high of quality yet. Right now, using a mere chip set, I play Minecraft on the lowest settings overall just to be safe, and it runs really well except for the occasional tiny twitch of lag that causes a single click to count as a double-click. When I get a graphics card, I'm gonna try to experiment with how high I can comfortably put my settings, but I don't think I'll put it at the highest settings.

Upgrading/building/buying computer
Looking at how much upgrading may or may not need to go into this computer, considering it's a few years old, I'm kind of thinking... I'll try to weigh the pros and cons of upgrading this computer vs building one.

I don't know much about computers, so I'll obviously get some help in assessing my computer and seeing what would need to be done. Factor in the fact that my mom actually knows some things about building computers. She actually put together a computer tower that she's now using in her bedroom, connected to her TV, so she can surf the internet while laying in her bed. If she can't fully help, we know people who can.

My microphone
It's actually pretty old. I just now found a closed eBay bid on one from 2011, where the starting bid was $5. Here's a picture from the page.

Talking
As shy as I am, once I get comfortable, I can get to talking, especially if people give me an opening and allowance to. Once I start talking, I can get going. I sometimes even end up talking to myself when I'm home alone a lot, even doing little commentary to myself of what I'm doing or having a conversation with myself. But yes, I'm gonna try to practice and be sure I'll be able to do quite some commentary.

Big youtubers often script a lot of their dialogue, so that'd help them. Any unscripted dialogue is usually banter among 2 or more people. If you shoved them in a video with noone else and no script, I bet they'd be saying "err" and "right" a lot.

Not Tobuscus. Though, on his TobyGames channel, he fills in with randomness and craziness, like singing or smack-talk to enemy NPCs or random little conversations with himself, stuff like that.

Youtube video length limit
I'm not sure the length limit is really 20 minutes, though. I've seen 30 minute videos, and even 1 hour special videos. There's no way I'm gonna make a 30 minute, or even 1 hour, video, but still. However, I definitely am gonna have to try to keep an eye on the time, as I'm very bad with time and don't wanna record for too long.

[Rissian]

You may want to invest in a headset instead of a stand up mic, I use a stand up mic and the dang thing picks up everything in the room even the air noises.    If you have relatives randomly walking in and out of your room then it would probably also pick up them.

[Chishio Kunrin]

You may want to invest in a headset instead of a stand up mic, I use a stand up mic and the dang thing picks up everything in the room even the air noises.    If you have relatives randomly walking in and out of your room then it would probably also pick up them.

Yes, definitely, especially since I'll likely end up starting out in the den, which tends to have a lot of traffic.

The more I think about it, I'm really starting to want to end up using my bedroom as an office, or I'm gonna have to work my schedule around making sure that I won't be playing during random interruptions or people coming over to visit. My room's door has a lock on it now. I could put up a sign on the outside saying that I'm working.

If I use my room as an office, though, I'm gonna need to clean it. What a mess. Probably even rearrange furniture, so I'd have a comfortable space for the computer. The desk I have in there, though, doesn't seem as comfortable as the one I use in the den. However, I don't think the one in the den is going anywhere soon because of how unstable it'd be to move it.

[Xeno Aura]

You can use a program to split your videos into nicer length pieces if you want. Most LP's tend to last for 15-30 minutes per episode. Some people just search their video for a convenient cutoff point in that area and end it there. (There's a good chance you'll probably want to edit your videos after you're done recording, incase of any unexpected events.)

To be fair, I only built this PC because my old one was completely outdated, every aspect of it was old, so I replaced the motherboard, CPU, RAM, GFX card and PSU, so in effect, I did "build" the PC from scratch, but transferred the stuff that didn't really need replacing across, like my 2 HDD's (both still decent size by todays standards) and a DVD drive, which doesn't really get outdated, except by Blu-Ray.

Upgrading/Building a PC really isn't that hard, fitting a motherboard is just a case of getting the right one for your case size and screwing it into the chassis, then RAM, and GFX card just plug into the motherboard in their respective slots. CPU's aren't all that hard, you firmly place them in the CPU socket on the motherboard and then secure them in place.

The only part where you probably want to get someone with some know-how is when fitting the Power Supply Unit (PSU), as wiring it up wrong could damage the PC. I got my cousin who works in IT to fit that part for me, although after watching him, I will probably fit my own next time.

The components should all come with installation guides, which guide you through the process. Just that the PSU is harder, as not all motherboards are the same, so they can't describe exactly how it should all work.

[Rissian]

You may want to invest in a headset instead of a stand up mic, I use a stand up mic and the dang thing picks up everything in the room even the air noises.    If you have relatives randomly walking in and out of your room then it would probably also pick up them.

Yes, definitely, especially since I'll likely end up starting out in the den, which tends to have a lot of traffic.

The more I think about it, I'm really starting to want to end up using my bedroom as an office, or I'm gonna have to work my schedule around making sure that I won't be playing during random interruptions or people coming over to visit. My room's door has a lock on it now. I could put up a sign on the outside saying that I'm working.

If I use my room as an office, though, I'm gonna need to clean it. What a mess. Probably even rearrange furniture, so I'd have a comfortable space for the computer. The desk I have in there, though, doesn't seem as comfortable as the one I use in the den. However, I don't think the one in the den is going anywhere soon because of how unstable it'd be to move it.

My parents had an old Compact Desk they no longer needed so I kind of use it as my PC setup in my room, compact desks can work pretty well for space management if you want to make an office out of your room. My sister also has a desk for her PC in my room since she doesn't have enough room in her room for it.

I used to use an Xbox360 headset on my PC, it worked well it still picked up noise just not as bad plus you don't have to constantly adjust a headset so that your voice sounds clear.

Despite how messy my desk looks it's pretty compact and is a pretty good way to store a PC in your room. I use the lower part of the desk to put my feet up so something like that is pretty comfortable. I need to organize my room again eventually.

Spoiler: Desk setup • show

I don't remember how much we paid for the desk though as my parents got it a long time ago.

The only part where you probably want to get someone with some know-how is when fitting the Power Supply Unit (PSU), as wiring it up wrong could damage the PC. I got my cousin who works in IT to fit that part for me, although after watching him, I will probably fit my own next time.

The components should all come with installation guides, which guide you through the process. Just that the PSU is harder, as not all motherboards are the same, so they can't describe exactly how it should all work.

The most nerve wrecking part for me and my cousin was installing the CPU on his computer we were worried about damaging it as someone told as applying too much pressure could break part of the CPU.

He got one of those power supplies I can't remember what they were called but they had every cord organized and you only had to connect cords you needed to the PSU itself as to not clog up your case.

After that I think I had to adjust the bios for him because it wasn't booting properly or something and finally after that he got a powerhouse PC that basically won't be outdated for a pretty long time, other then maybe when the next Generation of CPU's is made then he might have to upgrade that.

[Chishio Kunrin]

Okie dokie, then. So, right now, plans I have are:
  1. Get a graphics card. Definitely. I'm gonna have to find a really good one that's compatible with my computer.
  2. Maybe probably upgrade HDD?
  3. Upgrade RAM. That's a most likely yes, in something I need to do.
  4. Upgrade processing!! My desktop computer isn't all that great at multitasking. I don't even use msn or Skype on it for the mere fact that it does not seem to like having a browser open at the same time as I'm using msn or Skype, especially if I watch a Youtube video. Any time I would play Perfect World (an MMO), it was the only program open on my computer, just in case.

Hopefully, by then, I'll be using an anti-virus/anti-malware whatever other than Norton. Probably Kapersky.

[Rissian]

Upgrading your CPU will be pretty hard it depends on how old your motherboard is, my 2005 PC was incompatible with any newer CPUs, it's one of the reasons I was glad my friend gave me his PC he no longer needed, upgrading your RAM is also hard as the wrong type can fry your RAM cards if it isn't compatible I've experienced this trying to upgrade an old 2001 Presario from compaq.

You have to find out if your RAM is SDRAM DDR2 or DDR3, DDR3 is only on newer PC's so it likely isn't that, depending on the exact age of your PC it's either SD RAM or DDR2. If you could post your PC Model Number we could see what kind of RAM and upgrades it can take. The model number is usually on the tower itself somewhere.

(If you don't prepare for the right parts needed you may buy something incompatible or something that could damage the hardware.)