That’s a wrap on year two of Max Frequency! I’ve had a blast developing and refining this site throughout 2021. It’s been a creative haven during a year we all arguably thought was going to return to normal.
Last year’s “In Review” called out the introduction post when I launched Max Frequency. This year, I want to highlight a specific passage within:
It also opens up the possibility for audio content if I ever get behind the mic again.
I got a bit ambitious going behind the mic again this year…But before all that, per tradition (because I can say that now), let’s look at the site’s numbers in 2021. For reference, 2020’s total site view count was 2,619 with 1,702 visitors and 260 articles published.
Total Site Views – 5,546
Total Site Visitors – 3,729
Most viewed articles:
- The Home Page had 1,004 views
- Analogue DAC Thoughts and Impressions – 603
- My Journey to Playing with Super Power – Thoughts on the Super NT – 313
- MiSTer FPGA Thoughts and Impressions – My Tool for Researching the Past – 280
Number per top countries:
- USA – 3,438
- UK – 344
- Canada – 309
Most downloaded item:
Chapter Select Season 1 Announcement (CtS Edition) – 28,300~
Total Articles published – 304 (Plus 91 more imported from Go Left Gaming, PlayStation Insider, PlayStation Wire, and DualShockers)
The overall increase is more than double! It certainly helps having a back catalog of a year’s work for people to find while you create new things. Clearly, the big trend on my own site was FPGA gaming and those FPGA consoles that Analogue makes.
The article count nearly tripled, thanks to increased output on my end along with finally merging my previous online writing to Max Frequency. I felt like I wrote less this year, but it turns out I wrote 50 more articles than last year. Maybe that is in part to not having one 18,000 word story done in the year.
The most baffling number is the 28K downloads on the Chapter Select Season 1 Promo I uploaded to the Chasing the Stick feed to just cross promote the show. I talked about it briefly in the Chapter Select Season 1 look back post, but these numbers just don’t make sense. If anyone knows why this particular WordPress hosted podcast feed spiked, I’d love to know.
Speaking of Chapter Select, here are the overall numbers for both it and The Max Frequency Podcast. You can find more on Chapter Select‘s performance in the seasonal breakdowns (Season 2 – God of War will be live next Wednesday [01/12/22])
– Chapter Select Total Downloads – 6,480 with 15 episodes published
– The Max Frequency Podcast Total Downloads – 2,190 with 20 episode published (7 of which are Behind the Pixel)
If you tally all the totals together (besides the mysterious 28K), over 12,300 people engaged with Max Frequency in some way this year. I’m super proud of these numbers. Really, I’d be psyched with just one person, because the element I am truly proud of is the work itself.
Here’s a small collection of the posts and projects I am most proud of throughout 2021. Year 2 had a theme of creativity. I wanted to expand back out of writing into podcasts and video. I did just that with two new shows and rediscovered creative vigor. Thank you for taking the time to read or listen to my work. I truly appreciate it and hope you have enjoyed. Onto Year 3!
Chapter Select (duh)
The second of two podcasts I started this year, but its cool if I start with it, right? This was far and away my creative highlight of the year. It was engaging, rewarding, and satisfying to play, record, and produce the first two full seasons of Chapter Select. The pairing of Paper Mario and God of War is even better than we initially thought now that the year is over, I think. Very excited for this year’s seasons!
The Max Frequency Podcast (duh)
If Chapter Select was the cannonball of podcasting creativity for myself, then The Max Frequency Podcast was dipping my toes back into the podcast world. I am disappointed in myself that I wasn’t able to upkeep the original vision of three episodes a month, instead regressing back down to one a month. Expanding the pool of guests is still tough. I am happy to have put Behind the Pixel back out there and even touch base with some of that’s show’s guests for the new show. It’s comforting to have a neutral podcast feed that I can play around and experiment with.
Restoring Millennial Gaming Speak and Redesigning Max Frequency
A big plan I had for the site this year was to migrate to Squarespace and redesign the look; add some modern features that I’ve wanted from the beginning. None of that went according to plan, but it did lead me to finally merging my past writing at my first blog Go Left Gaming along with shared freelance posts, all searchable in an archive. This then led me to reviving the Millennial Gaming Speak podcast feed and creating back-dated posts to save nearly 150 episodes where Logan Moore and myself cut our podcasting teeth.
Reviews Thoughts and Impressions
Scattered throughout the year, I reviewed some games, a piece of hardware, and another book! All except for Death’s Door, I was fortunate enough to be given review copies. I’ve never taken these opportunities for granted and am always humbled that folks would be willing to work with me like this, especially on my own. Here are the reviews, or as I call them, Thoughts and Impressions, I wrote this year.
- Cyber Shadow
- Emily is Away <3
- Death’s Door
- Shovel Knight Pocket Dungeon
- GB Operator
- Final Fantasy VI by Sebastian Deken and Boss Fight Books
Preserving my Game Collection
The major theme in my game collection this year was preservation combined with accessibility. It all started when the PSN store was going to be shut down for the PS3 and Vita. Thankfully, that decision was reversed, but it did lead me to finding ways to back up my save data and games. Nearly my entire retro collection is now backed-up digitally.
Then I went down the MiSTer rabbit hole, before prices spiked and availability was scarce. I absolutely love the MiSTer project. With the PSX core on the horizon, there really is not a better all-in-one machine.
We cannot forget unlocking all of the PS TVs potential. Now I can finally play Uncharted: Golden Abyss on my TV. Some day…
Analogue Coverage
Analogue has had quite the 2021 with delays, restocks, and finally delivering the first wave of Pocket consoles. My top articles this year were posts I wrote last year about Analogue. People are passionate about this company and FPGA tech. If I had to pick one Analogue post from this year, it’d be the deep dive into Analogue OS and trying to gauge Analogue’s first real software offering. Right now though, it’s all just a check waiting to be cashed on the Pocket sometime here in January 2022.
Delta Thoughts and Impressions (Plus using the N64 Controller with an iPhone)
I tweet a lot, but if I had one favorite tweet, it was sharing a video of me using a real N64 controller with the iOS emulator Delta. I whipped up thoughts and impressions on the emulator; another way I focused on preserving and accessing my game collection.
Tom Olsen on the Big Shell – MGS2 20th Anniversary
I can’t think of a better celebration of Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty‘s 20th anniversary.
Nailing Predictions
I’m fairly confident I crushed my 2021 predictions, but you’ll have to wait and see for my tally when I share 2022’s own set of predictions (or just find the 2021 post and figure it out yourself).