214 Posts

Linux with Windows 10? May 2020 Update
https://www.pcworld.com/article/3545909/microsoft-releases-the-windows-10-may-2020-update.html

Above is the headline that it was released but even after checking for updates, I still have build 1909, so maybe it hasn't been completely distributed yet.

However, I read the article below and it sounds very interesting. It sounds like Microsoft is now accepting Linux into Windows. I think this is unexpected. This could mean one may not have to have separate computers for Windows and Linux. It also seems like they work together. I thought this was interesting enough to share.

The article has details about other pieces of the May 2020 Update, too, so go check it out. As for Cortana, I've never really used it.

https://www.pcworld.com/article/3526472/windows-10-20h1-review-microsoft-boosts-linux-and-your-phone-but-cortana-slips-hard.html

Looking At Doom 3: BFG Edition
GregoPeck gives this a solid "Rad" on the Ghost Scale
This is fun, with very few issues, and is well worth your time.
GregoPeck gives this a "Rad" on the Ghost Scale
This is fun, with very few issues, and is well worth your time.
After playing Doom 64 recently, I got Doom 3 BFG Edition on Steam. It was certainly different. The best description I’ve found is put simply in the embedded video as the original Doom games were action games, while Doom 3 is a "realistic" horror game. This made the game unappealing to me at first and is a bit still, but I see other parts of the game that make me think it’s not bad. I’m not a fan of horror games, but I’ve played a few Resident Evil games. It’s just not the kind of game I’m into.

Instead of running around killing already spawned in demons in a mostly open area like the original, Doom 3 leads you through a mostly linear path down corridors. Although all Doom games can have you running in circles, confused about what you’ve missed, where you’re supposed to go, but there’s plenty of info on the web to help you find your way around when you get stuck. You’ll need to find PDAs to get security clearance to access some places. They may also contain some of the game’s lore, but not forcing you to listen to recorded audio. You’ll also collect some inventory items along the way, which are important for the task at hand. For instance, sometimes you’ll have to remove a power cell from one generator and place it in another.

There are some scary lighting effects going on, there is a lot of darkness, flashing lights, and you can’t always walk with your flashlight on, sometimes it has to charge. It can be hard to see enemies at times, but it’s best to look all around as much as possible. Usually monsters will spawn in with a noticeable sound and flash in an area. There are also plenty of “jump scares” and pieces of the environment falling out of place at times to scar you, too. It is a bit of a thrilling experience.

The demons all look different than we’re used to seeing them in the Doom series, you should take a look at them, if you’re a fan. Their design is definitely close to “realistic” horror. Some are difficult to recognize, while others are easily recognizable. Perhaps the scariest of them are the bosses, which can be “bullet sponges.” Some take strategy to defeat, while some just take enough fire power.

Console issue: I like cheating in these kinds of games (Doom in particular), it makes it more fun for me. I thought that I might turn on cheats eventually, but that moment never came. As soon as I started a new game, the game told me achievements were disabled because the console was being used. After some troubleshooting this seems to be an issue in the game and there’s a simple remedy for it. You just need to add “seta com_allowconsole 0“ (without quotes) to the “default.cfg” file that’s in the folder at “C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\DOOM 3 BFG Edition\base\” as noted by “IcyDeadPeople” here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/208200/discussions/0/828925849197513340. This resolved the issue for me, although it may have allowed me to get achievements even if I used console commands, but I never reached the point of deciding to cheat, so I never looked into those commands.

Technically, the game runs extremely well. Granted this could be expected with modern hardware and the game’s age, but I still can’t help but be impressed just how little time it takes to load. This version of the game also comes with the original Doom and Doom 2, however they’re a bit functionally different than the recent Doom Classic Complete Collection I recently wrote about here: https://cheerfulghost.com/GregoPeck/posts/4401/getting-the-doom-complete-collection-to-run-on-windows-10 That is because that version wouldn’t run on it’s own. Instead, I had to copy the .WAD files to a source port and play it that way, however that’s not necessary with the versions in this edition. These work well with no extra configuration needed. I find this impressive, but also confusing as to why the two versions don’t just simply work in the same way. Since this version of those games lets them run just fine, you can work on getting their achievements, too.

I should also note there is a source port for this, which seems to work more for Doom and Doom 2, although it does come with some extra features for Doom 3. It's called Doom 3: BFA Edition. I started out with this version, but it didn't really connect to Steam and I didn't find it necessary. In fact, I enjoyed the game(s) just fine without it.

It’s kind of hard to say whether I recommend this or not. If you’re into horror games and Doom, then you’ll probably be into this. It does have a “very positive” score on Steam. Personally, I think I like the action kind of Doom game better, like Doom (2016). If you’re a Doom fan, you should at least take a look at some video of it. I’ve embedded a video that talks about why it is a good game.

Recommended: Doom 64
GregoPeck gives this an astounding "Must Play" on the Ghost Scale
This achieves something special, and it would be a shame to miss it.
GregoPeck gives this a "Must Play" on the Ghost Scale
This achieves something special, and it would be a shame to miss it.
I’ve recently taken a trip back into the 90’s by getting some gaming nostalgia. Recently, I got the Doom Classic Complete collection, which contains Doom, Final Doom, Ultimate Doom, Doom II, and the Master Levels for Doom II. I write a post about getting it to run as it was actually a bit difficult to play right away and without a source port. Having copies of the games on Steam is quite helpful, because it gives you the .WAD files you’ll need to use with a source port. If you’d like, you can check out my post about that here: https://cheerfulghost.com/GregoPeck/posts/4401/getting-the-doom-complete-collection-to-run-on-windows-10

As for Doom 64, I never played this when it originally came out, even though I still have my N64. I wish I had gotten this game back then. I don't know why or how I ignored it, after all I played the Doom and Quake games during high school. This looks and feels much like the Doom and Quake games, although it’s unique and possibly not what you’d expect for a N64 game. Granted, everything in the game looks different from the original, it’s still wonderful. The game controls beautifully with a mouse and keyboard with no need to use a source port. Although, you can check out Doom 64 EX, if you’re interested. The embedded video goes into some detail about porting EX and making it as close to the original game as possible. For just $5 on Steam, this is a must own if you’re a fan of the series!

There are ways in which this iteration of Doom surpasses the original, especially when it comes to keyboard and mouse controls. I also really appreciate the excellent distinction between yellow and red keys, in the original games these colors looked way too similar, yellow looked more orange. Perhaps the one thing that this game does not match the original is when it comes to music. This game doesn’t exactly have music as the original did, instead it’s more of a scary ambiance, which is still nice, but it’s not the awesome rock riffs we’re used to.

One thing I’ve always loved about these games was being able to cheat. Gaming can be fun and challenging, separately or in balance, but for me I have more fun when I’m able to ease and relax without much of a challenge. I did try the game out without cheats, but I knew I’d reach a point where I’d enable them. The only downside is that this disables your ability to get achievements on that save file, but I’m ok with that, there seems to only be 10 of them anyway and I already got one. Doom 64 has the ability to save and load games, but it also uses a password system. You can look online for passwords to input into the game. One of them will open a “features” option on the main menu and you can select the cheats you want to use or you can press ` to access the debug screen and type them in such as “noclip” (without quotes). I believe I read that you have to get all three keys in level 32 without cheating to unlock “feature” in the main menu without having to input a password, but it really looks tough to do. There are also other passwords that will bring you to different levels or just do different things. You can check the guides section on Steam or you can also refer to IGN’s N64 cheat guide here: https://www.ign.com/wikis/n64-cheats/Doom_64_Cheats

I really do give this a strong recommendation. I can’t stress enough how even a base price of $5 for this game is extremely and surprisingly low. I think it’s worth a bit more at least, but this just adds it to the list of great games that are at or under $5. Do yourself a favor, if you like the Doom and Quake games and haven’t checked this out, do so, I don’t think you’d regret it.

Also, credit to Jon for posting about this before I even played it. smile https://cheerfulghost.com/jdodson/posts/4395/nightdive-studios-brings-an-incredible-port-of-doom-64

If you’ve played this, feel free to share your thoughts about this, too. If you haven’t let me know why or if you’re interested now.

The Madalorian Season 2 Trailer!
Well, this is certainly interesting. Although I'm confused at the same time. If "the one" aka "baby Yoda" was about 50 in season one of the Mandalorian, why is it like a teen in such a seemingly short period of time? Unless a significant amount f time has passed or something else happened. Granted, no one really knows anything about Yoda's species, so who knows.

*Update* Ah, well after looking in the comment section of the video, I didn't quite realize the connection today, 4/20, which is a typical day of marijuana "celebration" or awareness or whatever. Although, even for that to be a part of Disney, still seems kind of odd for Disney. Marijuana still is illegal at the federal level and in many states, although it's becoming more accepted, especially for certain medicinal uses. Now that I think about it, this whole month has been 4/20. laughing

What do you think about this? Let me know!

Getting the Doom Classic Complete Collection to Run on Windows 10
I just recently picked up the “Doom Classic Complete” collection for less than $5 and I came across something I thought I’d share. First of all, this collection contains Ultimate and Final Doom, Doom II, and the Master Levels for Doom II. I recently re-discovered a CD I have for Ultimate Doom, but the game wouldn’t run the way I wanted it to. However, I made a discovery then and ran into the issue again with my recent purchase of this collection, so I thought I’d share my tip.

As a PC gamer, I’ve gotten used to playing games with a keyboard and a mouse. WASD keys move forward, left, back, and right. The mouse looks up, down, left, and right. I can’t recall how I played the Doom games back in the 90’s, but it certainly feels odd now. This is because moving the mouse forward or backward will move your character in that direction. I found this to be quite odd and annoying. I did some digging online and I found a few different solutions. Some weren’t helping, the game would still lock up and such, but I found another, perhaps easier, solution.

This Steam version of the collection uses DOSBox and I have played around with it a bit starting a few weeks ago. Sure, if you load a separate instance of DOSBox, mount your Doom directory and run “novert.com” (a file you can download for free on the Internet) before “doom.exe” it might work properly, but it’s a bit of a hassle to have to go through that every time.

The simplest solution I found is to use a free “source port” and the one I have the most experience with is Chocolate Doom, which was incredibly easy to set up. After downloading and extracting the program, run the included setup file and under the “mouse configuration” make sure “allow vertical mouse movement” is unchecked. Then copy the .WAD file from wherever you have it stored and drop it into your Chocolate Doom directory. Then all you have to do is run Chocolate Doom. This works for all the .WAD files included in this collection. Without a .WAD file, the game will run the shareware version of Doom II. There are other source ports out there with different features. I’ve barely played with some others as I decided I wanted to stick with the most authentic experience and Chocolate Doom gives me exactly what I want.

As for getting each of the .WADs in the Master Levels for Doom II to work, you may need to use some command lines or another source port, like ZDoom. In Chocolate Doom, you can open the setup file, hit F2 for warp and W to add a .WAD. Put the .WAD file in the same directory and just type in the name of the .WAD file (including the file extension). You may need to read the .TXT file that comes with the .WAD to make sure you're on the right level. ATTACK.WAD was easy to get going, but BLACKTWR.WAD was more difficult, until I read that it's on level 25 and I had to warp to it, which I did the Chocolate Doom setup file.

I did check out GLDoom and GZDoom (or ZDoom). GLDoom didn't have an obvious way of disabling vertical mouse movement, like Chocolate Doom does, but you can turn the vertical sensitivity down to zero. GZDoom (or Zdoom) is like GLDoom in that it runs on OpenGL, but as far as I can tell it does a whole lot more than any of the other source ports I've tried. It has tons of features and even allows you to look around and jump.

I haven’t tried Doom 64 yet, in fact I’ve never played it. However, I did learn in recent weeks about Doom 64 EX. I think you don’t have to worry about this, because, I believe the Steam version was a port. Jon made a post about it, so I recommend checking that out as the included video is pretty informative. You need the .WAD file to run Doom 64 EX, which does not come with the software, but if you purchased the game via Steam and installed it, then I’m sure it’s just a matter of copying a file over into a single directory as described above for the other classics.

I hope this helps. If you need help, feel free to ask, I can try to help you out as best as I can. Have you played these games recently? Have you run into similar issues? If so, how did you get them to work?

Links:

“Doom Classic Complete” collection on IsThereAnyDeal.com: https://isthereanydeal.com/game/doomclassiccomplete/info/

DOSBox: https://www.dosbox.com/

Novert: https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/utils/misc/novert

Chocolate Doom: https://www.chocolate-doom.org/wiki/index.php/Chocolate_Doom

GZDoom (or ZDoom): https://zdoom.org/downloads

Jon’s post about the Doom 64 port: https://cheerfulghost.com/jdodson/posts/4395/nightdive-studios-brings-an-incredible-port-of-doom-64

Doom 64 EX: https://doom64ex.wordpress.com/

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Coming Out of Their Shells & TMNT Easter Eggs
I recently found an article on GameSpot, which covers the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Coming Out of Their Shells album and tour. I had this on cassette. I definitely remembered some songs, but it seems I forgot others. The article gives some interesting details on how the album and tour went. It also includes a documentary and the entire episode of Oprah that they were guests on. It's interesting to watch, at least for nostalgic value. You can check out the article here: https://www.gamespot.com/articles/ninja-turtles-how-the-coming-out-of-their-shells-a/1100-6475327/

I also just watched a video from GameSpot Universe on YouTube that covers some Easter eggs in the first movie. I know I didn't catch all of them, some until they were pointed out. Like, seeing the body actor of one of the turtles when they were laughing, yeah when you point it out, it looks creepy. I've embedded that video in this post, so go check it out.

I was a huge TMNT fan. I remember them very fondly. What about you? Did you have this album? Did you get to see them on tour? What do you think about this episode of Oprah? Did you notice the Easter eggs? Feel free to share your TMNT nostalgia.

Are Nintendo Products Really More Durable Than Other Consoles?
On the YouTube channel, Today I Found Out, Simon Whistler answers the question of why Nintendo products are more durable than their competitors. For some more information about Nintendo including how they got started, stick around for the bonus facts about half way into the video.

Yeah, Nintendo products are pretty durable, although I broke my first Game Boy and my son accidentally dropped his first 3DS in water. Neither system recovered, but we still have so many other Nintendo products around that still work just fine.

What about you? Do you have a Nintendo durability story to share?

Recommended Watching and Reading: Good Omens
“Armageddon is days away and we’ve lost the Antichrist,” says the demon Crowley, which sets up the basic premise of Good Omens. Good Omens was just a book written by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman that I read about 20 years ago. Now, as of 2019, it’s a TV series on Amazon Prime Video, which contains only six episodes. I’m not familiar with the rest of the cast, but I’m aware of David Tennant, who once played The Doctor in Doctor Who. I really like him and he plays my definitively favorite character in this series, Crowley. Crowley dresses in black, has red hair, which is some times long, wears sun glasses, even at night, listens to Queen a lot, and drives a 90 year old Bentley. His best friend is an angel named Aziraphale. They’re the only angel and demon that have been on Earth since the beginning (6,000 years ago), which you will see in the premier episode. Crowley has to deliver the baby Antichrist, but he and Aziraphale come up with a clever scheme to avoid the war between Heaven and Hell, which would ultimately be the end of the world. They love the world and don’t want to see it end.

The show is funny and may not be suitable for all (especially serious) audiences, but I think it’s great. I love the intro (https://youtu.be/BsrPO8qslBE)! I think it’s funny how Aziraphale is really the only “good” angel, all the others are mean-spirited (to put it nicely) and want Armageddon so that they can be the victors of the war against the forces of Hell. They even team up near the end, slightly, because all is not going according to plan and both sides need to push a bit to get Armageddon going, in the wake of the intervention of Aziraphale and Crowley.

I’ve only read the book once and that was 20 years ago, so my memory of it has faded quite a lot. I’m not even sure if I still have it. But, I really did enjoy this show, very much and recommend it. If you like British comedy, David Tennant, or other stars of the show, you might like this one. It’s short, but free for Prime members, so go check it out! I love the trailer I've embedded here!

If you want to discuss it here, feel free to. I’d prefer not to spoil everything here though.

Sharing Some Doom Stuff!
I’ve seen some videos lately about Doom and wanted to share them, so I’m writing this post. The first (embedded) video is from the YouTube channel called Today I Found Out. Simon, the host, explains the origin of the game, including how it got it’s name. I think the video is worth watching, even funny at times, so I thought I’d share it.

I’ve also been watching some videos on the YouTube channel called Gaming Bolt. They’ve gone over the lore of Doom and some of the creatures. If you like the game, you should check these out as well: https://www.youtube.com/user/GamingBoltLive/search?query=doom

I also want to make you aware of Doom the Rogue-Like game. I found out about it from LGR on YouTube (https://youtu.be/DNYs7g1i_iQ). It’s fun and interesting. Every time you make a move, monsters do the same. You can pick up items and store them in your inventory and use them later. It’s free and cool, so go check it out!

Lastly, although it’s not Doom, Wolfenstein 3D is Doom’s predecessor, you might be familiar with it. However, on LGR I also found out about a quick game called Super Wolfenstein 3D. It has kind of realistic physics, such as enemies falling down when you shoot them. They may fall down when you shoot them, but if you didn't kill them, they'll stand back up. It's funny, actually. You’ll also find a shovel in some levels and you can use it (or your weapons) to break the blue bricks. So, you can find hidden places or ways around enemies. It’s a quick and short game, I wish there was much more to it as I thought it was awesome. You can check out that video here: https://youtu.be/MAmEgscx9hA

Recommended Watching: Star Trek Picard
Star Trek Picard is a new Star Trek series that premiered on CBS All Access. It currently only has one season, but is apparently getting at least a second. From the trailers we can see that Picard has settled down to retirement on his family vineyard. He meets up with a girl named Dahj, who comes to him for help. We see her fighting in one scene. There are also other images that only give us questions about what’s going on.

Some of those questions include the following:

Who is Dahj and why does she need help from Picard?

Why is Picard talking to Commander Data, who sacrificed himself to save Picard in the last TNG movie?

Is that Data we see stored in pieces?

What are Will Ricker and Dianna Troi doing? It looks like they’ve settled down.

What is Seven of Nine doing? We see her with some big phasers shooting up a place, what’s up with this?

Why is there a Romulan with a sword?

Speaking of Romulans, what are they doing on a Borg cube?

I’m not going to answer these questions as you can find their answers by watching the show. Although, if you want to discuss it with spoilers, feel free to send me a message. The show still leaves some questions unanswered, none of which have been listed here. I enjoyed the episodes and most of the characters. I recommend watching it. It also ends with an interesting surprise, hinting at the bisexual nature of two of the characters.

When you’re done watching the show check out the videos by New Rockstars and Looper (links below). The former only covers the first episode while the latter goes into each individual episode and more. If you’re curious about something, as was I, you can also search for an answer on the web. One of the questions I had at the end was the topic of a Google search for me, out of curiosity.

The New Rockstars video: https://youtu.be/z480APg2hb0

Looper not only has a break down of every episode, but extra videos pertaining to Picard’s history, the Borg, and more. Check out those videos here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCP1iRaFlS5EYjJBryFV9JPw/search?query=picard

Recent Activity...

Linux with Windows 10? May 2020 Update

Well that was incredibly easy to find. I believe...

Read

Linux with Windows 10? May 2020 Update

Wow, I had no idea. The only way I could think of...

Read

Linux with Windows 10? May 2020 Update

You've been able to run Linux fairly well in Windows...

Read

Season 7 of Star Wars: Clone Wars Arrives Feb. 21

Now that season 7 is done, I'm rewatching the...

Read