Cheerful Ghost: An Awesome Community For Gamers

The Oregon Trail Handheld Is A Great Way To Relive The Classic Game

A few weeks ago The Oregon Trail Handheld was marked down to under $10 and I picked it up. If you don't remember, last year Target had the Oregon Trail handheld exclusively in stores alongside an Oregon Trail card game. I picked up the card game and wasn't impressed but when I recently got the handheld I took it to a beach trip with some friends and asked them if they wanted to play it. We had a very lucky run and made it all the way to Oregon only having one person in our party die on the rapids on the Willamette River. The Oregon Trail Handheld is a great port of the game that looks like it might not work with the odd controls on front but I was very surprised how... Read All A few weeks ago The Oregon Trail Handheld was marked down to under $10 and I picked it up. If you don't remember, last year Target had the Oregon Trail handheld exclusively in stores alongside an Oregon Trail card game. I picked up the card game and wasn't impressed but when I recently got the handheld I took it to a beach trip with some friends and asked them if they wanted to play it. We had a very lucky run and made it all the way to Oregon only having one person in our party die on the rapids on the Willamette River. The Oregon Trail Handheld is a great port of the game that looks like it might not work with the odd controls on front but I was very surprised how seamless everything worked. The games screen is light enough to see quite well and the speaker is good enough to do the original bleeps and bloop effects justice.

At the end of the day these kinds of handhelds are a great way to come back and play a game you miss but if you didn't grow up in the glow of Oregon Trail on the Apple II this might not be interesting to you. The game itself is quite good and i'd my only critique is that some runs are so punishing as to be quite dark in tone. In one run everything might be going in your favor and the game seems easy and the next run you can have everyone in your party wiped out before you hit the halfway point.

As I said before I took this game to a beach house and played it with friends and if you are so included, I recommend playing it that way. Not that you must play this game from a beach house but playing this with friends feels like a shared experience game akin to Dungeons and Dragons. Basically you have one person take the roll of the Wagon Leader who controls the game and reads out what's happening on screen and everyone takes part in what choices you make to head west.

It seems that the incredibly cheap price I picked up the game for was a discount to clear out stock but if you can find it, i'd recommend getting it. As LGR says in his video above, this handheld will become collectable at some point and if it's well worth a couple bucks to play every so often to die of dysentery, a broken leg or actually make it to Oregon alive.

The Witcher 3 on Switch Looks Like The Best Way To Play it On The Go

When it was announced The Witcher 3 was coming to the Switch many people were excited about being able to play it on the go but had doubts about how it would perform. The Witcher 3 finally launched on Switch and Digital Foundry reviewed the port and it looks to be a pretty good port of the game that is cut down visually to accommodate the hardware and fit on a 32G install. I haven't played Witcher 3 yet and this seems like a great way to check it out.

GregoPeck Super Member wrote about 18 hours ago

Man, it looks like digital vibrance is set high in this video.

I played The Witcher 3 on my Alienware PC and I really enjoyed it! I think I was using the GTX 690 at the time. I'm not really sure there was anything I didn't like about this game. I really liked the story, the characters, the mini-game customizable card game called Gwent, etc. Geralt is certainly a favorite "hero" in my eyes now. I recently got to play as him in Monster Hunter: World as there was a collaboration done between the two games. It tempted me to play Witcher 3 again.

As for this video. It looks really good on PS4, but not so great on the Switch. I'm not even sure if I'd notice the difference if they weren't compared together on the same screen.

I seem to recall recently discovering that there is a new texture pack (possibly via the Steam Workshop) that you can download to make the game look even better.

As I said, I really loved Witcher 3. I haven't played it a second time, probably because it's so long, especially if you do every quest, there are very many of them. I often wouldn't leave an area until I finished all the quests in the area that were around the level I was at. I hesitated moving on, although it wasn't really necessary. Maybe I'll play the game again, I do believe it is a great game. I wasn't so fond of the first two games in the series, especially the first and I have my reasons. I don't think you really need to play the first two before this one, I don't think they really gave much of a back story, so they're kind of, maybe slightly irrelevant to this one.

Here's a shameless plug, I actually wrote about all three games on here, check it out if you want to learn more about it. I haven't looked at what I wrote in a long time. I'm not sure if I combined them together or not.

Thanks for sharing!

GregoPeck Super Member wrote about 18 hours ago

Also, regarding your title, isn't W3 on the Switch the only way to play it on the go?

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Start October Off Right With Night of the Living Dead!

Night of the Living Dead legendary film maker George Romero's first film that create the entire Zombie horror genre. Night of the Living Dead is a black and white film from 1968 that hold's up today as a "bottle" horror film in that it all takes place in a farmhouse. Night of the Living Dead would inspire Romero to create the Night of the Living Dead series including the incredible Day of the Dead.

The original copyright holder didn't renew Night of the Living Dead so it fell into public domain allowing it to be put on YouTube for free and included on Cheerful Ghost for your viewing pleasure. Night of the Living dead has some pretty campy effects but i'd argue the film... Read All

GregoPeck Super Member wrote on 10/12/2019 at 06:17am

Honestly, I liked this original movie when I saw it in the late 90's. I don't think I've liked another zombie movie as much since then. Maybe it's because it's in black and white that makes it less gorey, I don't know, but I think it was good.

On the topic of zombies, well first of all, how many zombie movies do we need? Geez there are so many of them! Now for video games, same question, must zombies be in every video game? Geez, we need some more creativity! LOL Ok, that's a broad generalization, but there just are so many zombies in our favorite media.

Travis Admin wrote on 10/12/2019 at 04:09pm

Yeah it definitely seems like Left 4 Dead created a new gaming zombie craze. Or maybe it was starting before then? Not sure. Resident Evil was already established and popular but it didn't seem to be as widespread until L4D.

But yeah, Call of Duty games have a zombies mode, it seems like most survival games are zombie related, Red Dead Redemption had the Undead Nightmare DLC... it's everywhere!

But, when done well it's really cool. If the AI in the enemies is programmed well, it's a big change from the kind of gameplay you see in other games, especially when you just get SWARMED by zombies without any inhibitions, who don't try to protect themselves, who just want your flesh at all cost.

Damn now I want to play Left 4 Dead.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 10/12/2019 at 04:34pm

I’d say Shaun of the Dead brought Zombies back to pop culture in what might be considered the second wave of Zombie stuff. I’d say that film inspired a lot of modern takes and it just keeps going. A lot of it is fun but on the gaming front it’s a bit played out yet we have fantastic takes like Death Road to Canada to keep things fresh.

GregoPeck Super Member wrote on 10/12/2019 at 07:58pm

:) I'm glad I'm not the only one who notices this. I don't really think about it much with some stuff, like Terraria and Minecraft.

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Cheerful Ghost Radio Episode 68: Sayonara Dragon Link

We love to check in every month or so about what we've been playing and watching. It had been a while, though, so we devoted almost the entire episode to it! And we check in on Jon's playthrough of Link's Awakening on the Switch to see how he liked the end.

State of the Wyvern III

Hey everybody! Thanks for playing Tale of the White Wyvern and reading this game update, we’ve been working on a bunch of quality of life updates to the game as well as getting ready for Portland Retro Game Expo. As such there is a lot to share and we’d love to get your input on it all so let’s dive in!

https://cheerfulghost.com/jdodson/posts/4214/come-hang-out-at-portland-retro-game-expo-2019-with-cheerful-ghost

Wyvern Balancing: Significantly changed the 5th Wyvern fight balancing and how the fight operates. The fight is much more fair to players that don't dual class.

PvP Update: You can now attack players one level below you in the fields. We’ve also Increased the... Read All

Will_Ball Game Mod Super Member wrote on 10/08/2019 at 03:05am

You can dual class?

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 10/08/2019 at 03:07am

> You can dual class?

YES! In the Tavern you can speak to the Bartender and one of the things you can do is choose a new class! One recommendation is that if you are a Rogue or Warrior you have got your new skill point so you are not mid skill gain and dual class losing out on it.

Will_Ball Game Mod Super Member wrote on 10/08/2019 at 03:10am

I have no idea what you are saying in the recommendation, but I didn’t know you could dual class.

GregoPeck Super Member wrote on 10/08/2019 at 04:07am

Wait, more changes? What do you mean this wasn't a perfect game from the start? I'm so disappointed! LOL j/k

I really don't know about doing dual class, I haven't tried it. I don't really want to either. I feel like spending all of my gems on my skill is definitely worth it. I probably wouldn't have killed the wyvern last time if I hadn't done so, I had just enough (D)isappear skill points to win that fight. Although I'm sure some kind of balance between classes and skills would also be efficient.

Personally, I want LESS PVP, not more. I'd love to see some kind of bonus for those of us (or at least me) who don't participate in the PVP aspect of the game. Although, I think it's kind of fair that this isn't the case. I just have no interest in PVP.

It's already difficult to afford a room at the Inn in lower levels, but I guess saving your money for that instead of buying a weapon, armor, and a hat would resolve that issue.

Good job with the Wyvern kill updating. I have one more kill to discover the last lore. I was worrying about what I'd do when I finished, like there wouldn't be much point in playing after that. So, you've resolved that. :)

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 10/08/2019 at 04:57am

> Personally, I want LESS PVP, not more. I'd love to see some kind of bonus for those of us (or at least me) who don't participate in the PVP aspect of the game. Although, I think it's kind of fair that this isn't the case. I just have no interest in PVP.

Sounds good. We plan on running more games that don't allow people to play PvP. The main game will and we want to get it right and not be too annoying if you don't want to PvP.

> It's already difficult to afford a room at the Inn in lower levels, but I guess saving your money for that instead of buying a weapon, armor, and a hat would resolve that issue.

Yeah, at level one staying at the Inn is still the same price which was fairly high. After that it wasn't a big deal and at very high levels it was so cheap as to be not really a cost at all. Now the cost is effectively the gold you'd get during three forest fights which is graduated to each level. So not a ton of gold, but graduated more at higher levels.

That said, let me know how it feels as to know how it plays works out in practice can take a few days to feel out.

> Good job with the Wyvern kill updating. I have one more kill to discover the last lore. I was worrying about what I'd do when I finished, like there wouldn't be much point in playing after that. So, you've resolved that. :)

Travis and I have talked a bit about extending the game and we have some fun stuff cooked up I think you'll like. I know I will.

GregoPeck Super Member wrote on 10/08/2019 at 05:27am

Turn Helga's into a brothel. LOL

Anyway, thanks for the game, guys, and the work you've been putting into it.

AdamPFarnsworth wrote on 10/08/2019 at 05:28am

Oh man, the 5th Wyvern is HARD. And I like that a lot!

Duel classing has been great for me. This time around, i have 4 Rogue Disappears and 4 Warrior Screams. I'm currently a rogue, so more gems mean more disappears. Even with that, I need to significantly upgrade my gear! I bet I'll be playing the 5th Wyvern most of the rest of the week as I save up gold lol.

I'm really enjoying the changes that are being made, and can't wait to see how you expand it out!

AdamPFarnsworth wrote on 10/08/2019 at 05:30am

And it's not so much "duel classing," but rather changing your class and not losing what you've learned with the previous class (you do lose 1 skill point though)

Will_Ball Game Mod Super Member wrote on 10/08/2019 at 06:07am

Thanks for the info Adam!

jaelte wrote on 10/09/2019 at 07:09am

Wait, changing classes doesn't just make it like you'd started at level 1 with that class? I never had interest in changing my class mid-run as I'm no quitter, but this new information complicates/excites things. Hrm.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 10/14/2019 at 01:28am

Since i'm dead and can't tell everyone in the Inn, i'll drop the note here.

I just pushed a patch so hats effect the interest level in the bank. For instance wearing the Golden Yellow Hat would set your Bank interest rate to 7%.

GregoPeck Super Member wrote on 10/14/2019 at 09:31pm

I don't see interest rate raises on any hats. Am I missing something?

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 10/14/2019 at 09:56pm

The hat has to have an effect that would impact it. So all the hats that increase gold gain will impact the bank interest level.

GregoPeck Super Member wrote on 10/14/2019 at 10:12pm

Oh, ok, so not all hats. Even still, the ones that gain gold don't tell you this new fact. That might be helpful to know in-game at the shop. Although I only use hats that increase my strength and defense.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 10/14/2019 at 10:16pm

They now say "+5% gold gain" instead of "gold find" I know it's not a full explanation and i'll think about how to work that into the instructions. Good suggestion, thanks GregoPeck!

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Red Dead Redemption 2 PC Release November 5th

Red Dead Redemption 2 is coming to PC on November 5th. Rockstar Games created their own game launcher recently. If you hurry now, you can still get GTA: San Andreas for free. So, RDR2 will launch on their launcher and will include the extra bonuses for pre-ordering. This includes extra bonuses for RDR Online. The game will release on multiple other platforms, such as Epic Game Store, but will not launch on Steam until December. Pre-ordering the game on one of these other platforms doesn’t grant you the same amount of extra bonuses as you would get for doing so on the Rockstar Games launcher, but you still get something.

More details can be found in the embedded video.... Read All

Get The All New Songs of the Sirens: Link's Awakening ReMixed Album For Free!

For me, since its launch, Link's Awakening has been all over game news sites, the YouTube channels I watch and gaming podcasts. It seems the little Gameboy game made a huge impression on a ton of gamers and because of that, and the incredible artistry of the remake by Grezzo, this month might as well be called Link's Awakening month.

For years I've downloaded and included the video game remix albums by OCRemix into my gaming playlists and they are back with an all new remix album to celebrate the Link's Awakening remake. OCRemix already released a Link's Awakening remix album in 2010 that I consider one fo the best remix albums of all time called Threshold of a Dream... Read All

Watch This Adventure of Link Run at GDQX With Live Music!

Games Done Quick at this years Twitch Con was a weekend of incredible runs and as I've been catching up watching the runs I missed I wanted to share with you this speedrun of Zelda II: The Adventure of Link by mustbetuesdaymusic and megmacattack. The run clocks in at 1:17:12 making this a quite speedy run of Adventure of Link but one difference is that instead of hearing the in-game audio mustbetuesdaymusic plays the score on his piano for the entire run. Come for The Adventure of Link and stay for the sweet piano ballads during the entire run.

Come Hang Out At Portland Retro Game Expo 2019 with Cheerful Ghost!

October 18th - 20th Cheerful Ghost will be at the Portland Retro Game Expo at booth #611! This year is going to be a fun one as we have quite a few things happening at our booth you will absolutely want to check out!

Our Retro Gaming Tournaments

We are running two retro game tournaments per day over the course of the two expo days starting with Super Mario Bros. 3 and F-Zero on Saturday and finishing up with Super Mario Bros. and Dr. Mario on Sunday. The rules and prizes for the tournaments are on the PRGE website and will be printed in the guide available for all attendees.

https://www.retrogamingexpo.com/tournaments.php

Tale of the White Wyvern Free DLC, In-Game Event... Read All

Cheerful Ghost Radio Episode 67: The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening For Nintendo Switch

We've returned to Koholint Island after 26 years for this review of the new Nintendo Switch remake of The Legend of Zelda: Links Awakening. This is one of our most anticipated games in a while, and we're stoked to finally have our hands on it. Warning: this one gets surprisingly philosophical for a few minutes, and may be worth a listen just for that.

The Oregon Trail Handheld Is A Great Way To Relive The Classic Game

The Witcher 3 on Switch Looks Like The Best Way To Play it On The Go

Start October Off Right With Night of the Living Dead!

Cheerful Ghost Radio Episode 68: Sayonara Dragon Link

State of the Wyvern III

Red Dead Redemption 2 PC Release November 5th

Get The All New Songs of the Sirens: Link's Awakening ReMixed Album For Free!

Watch This Adventure of Link Run at GDQX With Live Music!

Come Hang Out At Portland Retro Game Expo 2019 with Cheerful Ghost!

Cheerful Ghost Radio Episode 67: The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening For Nintendo Switch

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The Witcher 3 on Switch Looks Like The Best Way To Play it On The Go

The Witcher 3 on Switch Looks Like The Best Way To Play it On The Go

Cheerful Ghost Radio Episode 68: Sayonara Dragon Link

Cheerful Ghost Radio Episode 68: Sayonara Dragon Link