MY STORY
From recording Minecraft on an Android 4.4.2 tablet to building the Mr. Monkey website today.
This story was originally written years ago and later continued through 2026. The older wording has been intentionally preserved because it shows how I wrote and thought during the early years of the channel.
THE EARLY DAYS
Early Days
One day in 2015, I was playing some games on my tablet, like Minecraft and Roblox.
While playing, I was watching YouTube on my other tablet. Those YouTubers were playing games and talking about what they were doing, so I randomly started doing the same as them, talking about what I was doing while playing the games.
I was randomly doing it for weeks and months, and months—almost a year-ish—without even realizing it.
Early Days
Later down the line, I opened the YouTube app on my tablet, and then I saw a video in my YouTube recommendations. It was about some guy reviewing a screen recorder for his Android 5.0 device, and he said you could only screen record with apps on Android 5.0 and up because that feature was added in Android 5.0.
So, I was mad that I only had an Android 4.4.2 tablet. I looked and looked and looked, but only found apps that worked with recording or streaming the camera on Android 4.4.2, cause the screen recording part was Android 5—as I said many times.
But I kept looking and looking, and looking. Then one day, I found an app called “Mobizen Screen Recorder - Record, Capture, Edit.”
Of course, it didn’t work on Samsung Android 4.0–4.4.2 devices, so it told me to install the version made for Samsung Android 4.0–4.4.2 devices. So, I did, and it was the only screen recorder in the world that worked for Android 4.4.2 devices, cause it used a bug/workaround that was not fixed until Android 6, around 2016-ish.
Later that week, I figured out how to use it by watching YouTube videos—how YouTube has a video for everything, good or bad—and then I recorded a video. But it was so bad that I deleted it and just kept trying.
First Upload
Down the line, about two months later, I got a video that was good enough to use for my first-ever video.
So, I went to Google and searched for a free intro maker. I used it, and the intro was so bad. It was like 45 seconds long.
Anyway, then I found a horrible video editor. I tried and tried to edit it. Eventually, I got the video edited, but it was still bad because the video editor put a logo in the corner, cause it was the free version.
Away I went. My first-ever video was live on YouTube for the world to see, and it was titled “Tsmc Buildings.”
Later on, after that video had been up for a little less than a month, I went and tried a second video. Then I kept making videos after that for the time being and uploading them.
First Milestone
After a while, I got my first 100 subs. I was so astonished that I released five videos in one day (wow).
Then my subscribers kept coming in slowly. After 100 subs, I changed my Twitter name and picture to my YouTube one, so I didn’t have to make a new one, but I made a new Instagram.
Later, I made a better intro, and some other small changes happened, like a different profile picture and banner.
Collaboration
I was just uploading and having fun with my channel. Then, around January 2016, some other small YouTubers, like me, messaged me on Twitter and asked if we could record together.
So we did, then we uploaded the videos, and it turned into a series. The videos are now deleted.
We all mentioned each other in our videos, so some of my subs went and subbed to them, and some of their subs came to my channel. We got a small boost from the series.
After that series ended, I just kept uploading.
New Setup
Eventually, the screen recorder didn’t work anymore because they updated it for Android 5 only.
I got a new tablet for Christmas in 2016, so I could record again and also not have laggy videos.
Eventually, I used my phone—when I got one sometime—to record everything. Then I was around 600+ subs, and I started growing a little faster.
Around that time, some of those small YouTubers quit, and only one stayed with me. But then they got a boost in subs from something and left me in the dust, even when I helped start their channel.
EXPANDING THE CHANNEL
PC Era
Then I started doing normal YouTube stuff, and I lost subs cause I was only uploading every once in a while, like once every month or so.
But then, in August, I got a computer. It’s not the best, but it’s better than a phone, so I could play some other games that are not on mobile.
I went and found some ROMs—games extracted off discs, like from GameCube and stuff, just games extracted from their discs—and I installed an emulator.
Then I recorded a video on that game, Super Mario Sunshine, and I got like 200+ subs from that one video.
So, I went and found some old games that were on computers long ago and played them on my channel. Fun, I say FUN.
2020
At the time, I was slowly coming back to my channel. Some people were unsubscribing, but more people were taking their place.
I said that in 2020 I would be fully back on YouTube and that I would have fun.
Like the masters of the platform say, if you want to do something, don’t worry. Just do it. You will get better at it over time.
2020
At the end of the original story I said that in 2020 I would be fully back on YouTube and well I did come back more, but I was not fully back like I said I would be.
I was mostly uploading Minecraft videos and just uploading whenever I felt like uploading, so I was doing more than before but I was still not uploading all the time or anything like that.
2021
In 2021 I was uploading Minecraft, Roblox and other random crap and by this point I was using a PC to record instead of only using a tablet or phone, so I could record more games and do more things than I could before.
I had also already been doing crap livestreams for years, so livestreaming was not something brand new that I suddenly started doing around this time. I had already been doing it for a while even if the streams were not always that good.
Name Change
At some point I changed my name from Minecraft Monkey to Mr. Monkey because I thought if you have a game in your name people expect you to only upload that one game.
So, if I kept Minecraft in my name, people would probably expect me to only upload Minecraft. By getting rid of Minecraft and adding Mr. instead, I could upload whatever game I wanted without the name making it look like I was only a Minecraft channel, even though I still uploaded a lot of Minecraft anyway.
INACTIVE, BUT NEVER GONE
Inactive Years
From around 2022 onward I became inactive a lot, and I did not delete all of my old series, but I abandoned most of them and just stopped continuing them.
I would upload something or stream something every once in a while, but then I would disappear again and not upload for a while, then maybe come back and upload something again, so there was never really a normal upload schedule anymore.
2023
In 2023 I did a few streams and uploaded a few videos, but I was still mostly inactive and nothing really major happened with the channel that year.
I would sometimes think about coming back and doing more, then I would upload or stream a little bit and then become inactive again.
2024
In 2024 the biggest thing I probably did was stream Minecraft live, but other than that I was still inactive for most of the year.
I did some stuff here and there, but there was no big series or anything that I kept doing for a long time.
2025
In 2025 I was still mostly inactive and I uploaded a few videos from local events and a few other random things, but I was not regularly uploading gaming videos or starting any big new series.
I was still doing the same thing where I would upload something once in a while and then disappear again for who knows how long.
Present Day
Now it is 2026 and I hate a lot of my old videos because some of them are bad, some of them are embarrassing and some of them I just do not like anymore, but they are still part of the channel and part of how I started, even if I do not really want to watch most of them now.
I am planning on coming back to YouTube and making more videos again, but there are no guarantees because I have said I was coming back before and then I became inactive again, so I am not going to promise that I will suddenly upload all the time and then not do it.
I still want to upload, stream and have fun with the channel, and maybe I will come back more this time, but we will see what happens.
From 2020 to 2026 I uploaded, streamed, disappeared for a while, came back again, disappeared again and kept doing that over and over, but I never completely gave up on the channel and it is still here.
The channel has gone through active years, inactive years, different devices, different games and different names, but it has never completely disappeared.
Visit My YouTube Channel