Topic: Question for all you video game bloggers

This is for people who write about video games, specifically console games. What do you do about screenshots? I'd like to start writing some game reviews etc., but I'm unsure what to do in terms of images. PC is easy, I can just take screenshots, but I'm at a bit of a loss in terms of my Wii, DS and SNES.

I know I COULD just link to screenshots from a gaming site, but many have fine print saying it's not OK to use images without permission etc. which seems to exclude using their images even with proper acknowledgement of the source. Does anyone know where 'free' screenshots are available, or have any other suggestions?

Screen capture devices to hook up to your tv

That won't help him for DS.

You can email the PR company/ developer/ publisher and ask for some screenshots to be sent over. Given that it's free publicity, most of them will be more than happy to help you out.

Or you can buy yourself a box, like avermedia game capture hd, which will record video and take screenshots for you (tv consoles at least). It's not that expensive, and it's actually really, really easy to use. I rate it.

http://thehelpfulweb.blogspot.com/2008/09/how-to-screen-captu...

There's a way of doing on DS called Nitro Capture but it's not cheap. I also heard Q-Mark makes a DS USB charging cable that you can find software to download and use it.

OK, great - thanks for the sugestions! I'll have a look at the capture boxes - I had a card for my PC a while ago, but it wasn't that good.

@OlympicCho: thanks for the suggestion on emailing the companies, I hadn;t thought of that. Might be a good way to get some DS screens.

For TV consoles, you can either get a capture card or a DVD recorder, I suppose. The former is more common, and I believe both should come with the appropriate editing software, from what I know. As for the DS, you can either use a nifty little device called Q-Mark, or any other third-party TV-out peripherals for the DS that may be out there. I doubt these will come cheap though, but it's worth a shot.

I either don't use them or nick them from the internet.