User:AP Shinobi/podtacular

Podtacular is an unofficial Halo-themed podcast that debuted on July 28, 2005. Podtacular later evolved to include a video podcast known as PodTV, and the Podtacular staff started Seasonal Tournament that included many Halo and Xbox 360 related prizes.

History
Podtacular was created by FooMoJive (Mike Funk) in June 2005, and the first episode premiered on the Podtacular website on July 28, 2005. FooMoJive recruited a co-host, known by his online screen name Spelchek, for the second episode which aired on August 3, 2005. Jose Betancourt, also known as JVB, made his first appearance on the Podtacular podcast on 10 March 2006, and was recruited as a co-host. Betancourt was selected as the new co-host because of his previous gaming community backgrounds, such as being on Seatag, Gamertag Radio, Uncle Gamer, and Controller Freaks. CapnKrunk was also recruited to add call-ins and voice mail for the Audio Podcast.

The Audio Podcast for Podtacular was brought back on September 15, 2008 by the community after being discontinued as of April 20, 2008. The podcast resumed it's normal schedule with a new staff of "podcasters". Previous hosts Mike Funk and Jose Betancourt have not returned to the show as of the most recent episode.

Audio Podcast
The Audio Podcast was the main feature for Podtacular from July 2005 to April 2008 and was mainly based on discussion regarding Halo 2 (before Halo 3 launched) and then focused heavily on Halo 3. FooMoJive is the primary host for all of the audio podcasts, often joined by co-hosts such as SpelChek and JVB. Many members from the Podtacular community would appear on the Audio Podcast as guests to contribute to the discussions.

The Audio Podcast was also featured on the front page of iTunes for a short period of time.

The Audio Podcast had a set format of discussion depending on the week of the current month. Below is the format used by Podtacular as of the final podcast (April 2008):
 * Week 1 - Map of the Month
 * Week 2 - Customs and Creations
 * Week 3 - Call-ins and Tales from the Foxhole
 * Week 4 - Community updates

The Audio Podcast was mainly supported by listener submissions that related to that week's subject. Submissions would be read by the host(s) and guests to the listeners then discussed and commented on.

Video Podcast
The Podtacular video podcast, otherwise known as PodTV, is now no longer the primary source of media from Podtacular as of the return of the Audio Podcast. The video podcast followed the same schedule for it's podcasts as the audio podcast, before it was discontinued (Schedule Shown Above).

Only three episodes of official PodTV were published between the Audio Podcast's retirement and reinstatement. Ass of the return of the Audio podcast, PodTV is used for video "runthroughs" of the Halo 3 campaign mode.

The video podcast is filmed on the Halo 3 engine via the Custom Games feature. The voice audio for the show is seperatly recorded on the PC and Mac program, Skype. All podcast episodes are published via their website and their feed can be found via iTunes and Feedburner.

Bungie.net
Podtacular's All-Star clan, that is found on their website, recently challenged staff from Bungie, the makers of the Halo Series, to a Humpday Challenge. In this challenge Bungie staff went against the Podtacular All-Stars in a first to three wins Slayer game type. Podtacular lost the challenge to Bungie two to three.

iTunes
Podtacular was featured on the front of iTune's Podcast front page as one of the most subscribed video game podcasts on iTunes.