Cheerful Ghost Blog

Cheerful Ghost Radio Episode 81: Tale of the White Wyvern First Anniversary Celebration!

It's hard to believe that a year of Tale of the White Wyvern is behind us. In this episode of Cheerful Ghost Radio, we're looking back at our favorite moments from Wyrmdoor, and looking forward to what's ahead.

Thank you all so much for playing Tale of the White Wyvern!

Tale of the White Wyvern Fishing Update Coming March 9, Season Two Coming Soon!

First off, Season One was a blast! Thanks to everyone who played! Without further ado, here are your winners...

Overall Winners

Saturday has won the season and brought peace to Wyrmdoor!

Declan

Quite Dapper

Azure Azul

Beo Rubirnen

Most Adventurers Killed

Nawt Wynnor: 10 kills

Quite Dapper: 9 kills

Bre Orgligrat: 4 kills

Azure Azul: 3 kills

Mystical Lord: 3 kills

Most Deaths

Nawt Wynnor: 27 deaths

Declan: 27 deaths

Saturday: 19 deaths

Bre Orgligrat: 17 deaths

Quite Dapper: 16 deaths

Looks like the developers die a lot! :D

Thanks to everyone who played our first season! Let us know what you thought about the season and things you'd like to see in future... Read All

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 03/03/2020 at 01:43am

Congrats to Saturday! Looking forward to the new stuff!

jaelte wrote on 03/03/2020 at 05:10am

What good is an RPG if you can't fish in it? I'm glad Tale of the White Wyvern won't have to answer that question anymore. :)
Congratulations, Saturday! I'll get you next time. ;-)

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 03/06/2020 at 10:10pm

One thing made this season special for me and that is I made a new friend. Even though it sounds corny, I thought I'd share, because I think if you make a new friend by playing a game that just adds to the positive experience. So, even though this game was already great, it's also accomplished something greater that not every game can do.

jdodson Admin wrote on 03/06/2020 at 11:32pm

That’s incredible to hear, thanks for sharing Greg!

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 03/07/2020 at 12:09am

I thought you'd appreciate that.

If you want to join this conversation you need to sign in.

Paragon Points Coming to Tale of the White Wyvern Wednesday!

If you've been keeping up with Tale of the White Wyvern development and the happenings in-game, you know that the fifth wyvern kill is the "last" one, as in the one where you unlock all the game story, and the one where you need some intense grinding to win. And you may also know that a few have already hit that threshold and are working on their sixth time through. Well, if you're wondering what comes next on this journey, look no further: Paragon. Here's how it works:

After your fifth wyvern kill, the five repeat themselves. The 1st and 6th fight are the same, the 2nd and 7th, and so on. But every fifth wyvern kill will get you a paragon coin that you can spend... Read All If you've been keeping up with Tale of the White Wyvern development and the happenings in-game, you know that the fifth wyvern kill is the "last" one, as in the one where you unlock all the game story, and the one where you need some intense grinding to win. And you may also know that a few have already hit that threshold and are working on their sixth time through. Well, if you're wondering what comes next on this journey, look no further: Paragon. Here's how it works:

After your fifth wyvern kill, the five repeat themselves. The 1st and 6th fight are the same, the 2nd and 7th, and so on. But every fifth wyvern kill will get you a paragon coin that you can spend whenever you like. (And not to worry-- if you've beaten the 5th already, you'll retroactively receive one).

Each time you spend one of these paragon coins, you will lose all of your charm and your dead card and be reset back to the starting point of 1 charm and 0 dead card punches. These are things that never reset by default when you start back at level 1, but in order to use these coins, you're cashing them in.

But it's worth it because you get some pretty great perks:

+1 to your player paragon points.

A permanent +5% boost to forest exp gain.

A permanent +5% boost to forest gold find.

A permanent +5% boost to your bank interest.

New titles, up to your third redemption:
- First redemption: Prestigious & Prestidigitonium
- Second redemption: Demigod & Demigoddess
- Third redemption: God & Goddess

These are additive, so on your second redemption you'll have +10% experience gain and gold find, for example.

To redeem these new coins, just pay a visit to Wrymdoor's favorite healer, Helga. She'll perform some secret magic and you'll be gaining experience and gold much faster! Just don't be surprised when Crugg acts like he doesn't know you anymore.

As I said above, you can redeem these whenever you like-- if you want to wait until you get into the later levels before losing your charm, you can do that. If you want to hoard your paragon coins you can do that too. The choice is yours.

We should have Paragon Coins in the game for you to redeem by Wednesday. Prepare yourself for speedy leveling!

If you haven't played Tale of the White Wyvern yet, head over to https://thewhitewyvern.com/ now to play for free!

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 10/29/2019 at 05:30am

Cool! I was wondering what would happen after that final kill, since I'm extremely close to accomplishing that now. I think losing all your charm is a bit of a small price to pay, yet it also kind of sucks. I think there shouldn't be any negative outcome for getting that final kill. Although perhaps it's kind of a balancing act so that players don't get too OP. Losing all your charm isn't too bad since we all seem to accumulate so much of it that at a certain point it no longer matters if you end up losing some of it in the forest. So this change kind of puts some polish on the charm stat, I think. When some of us stated how much charm we had, we were around 100-200+. I don't remember how much charm you need for that ultimate NPC interaction, but I'm guessing it's no where near that much. It doesn't take very long to accumulate enough charm to get to that point, but it's very easy to get so much charm that if you lose some in the forest, it's no big deal at all, other than a wasted forest fight.

Anyway, thanks again to you and Jon for making the game and continuing to develop it.

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 10/29/2019 at 01:55pm

Thank you and everyone for continuing to play it!

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 10/29/2019 at 03:56pm

And yeah, you’re right about the reasoning a bit.

Once you’ve gone through maybe 18 levels total or so, those lower-charm responses from
NPCs just become worthless, and your charm stat effectively doesn’t matter. This gives it meaning again, but definitely pays you for taking away your charm.

And you can always choose not to use this if you want to keep that charm, but you’ll lose out in the long run. It’s really a better deal for you than it is Helga. 😂

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 10/30/2019 at 03:40am

We are live! The 5+ crew should have a shiny coin in their inventories now.

AdamPFarnsworth wrote on 10/30/2019 at 09:52pm

Crugg acts like he doesn't know me!

But, I am swimming in gold, so I will just find someone I can pay to be my friend.

If you want to join this conversation you need to sign in.

Wear Your Love For Cheerful Ghost and Tale of the White Wyvern On Your Sleeve... Literally!

You want some swag? Who doesn't want swag? We've just launched the Cheerful Ghost Zazzle shop, where you can get shirts and mugs for Tale of the White Wyvern.

We have two Tale mugs to choose from-- one black text on a white mug, and the other with the full purple/teal/fuchsia color scheme you know and love from the game. We call this the "Janky AF Version" because, the way the Zazzle printing works... it looks a little janky. But we love it and hope you do too.

As for Tale shirts, you can choose the classic black shirt with white text, a black shirt with white/teal/fuchsia text, or the super special purple shirt with white/teal/fuchsia text!

We gave you some options... Read All

jdodson Admin wrote on 09/06/2019 at 04:06am

What Travis failed to mention is that he means buy 20k shirts and things per month! That would be super.

Seriously, happy we finally have this so I can rep the game I made. I know it's a bit self aggrandizing but I never thought it be able to buy a shirt for a game I made. Maybe you might like it too? It's possible, that said, I'll always have one and I'm really happy about that.

jdodson Admin wrote on 09/06/2019 at 04:08am

ALSO Zazzle has, seemingly, endless 15% off and other codes so if you want to save now, you can. I imagine they will have more and if they do we'll let you know if the stuff dips to a price you'd rather pull the trigger on.

AdamPFarnsworth wrote on 09/06/2019 at 04:35am

Thank you for naming a version after me!

AdamPFarnsworth wrote on 09/06/2019 at 04:38am

Those are rad shirts. I appreciate the simple DOS design! And the purple looks pretty great :)

Will_Ball Game Mod Super Member wrote on 09/06/2019 at 04:50am

Ordered a shirt. You better put that $1.50 to good use!

jdodson Admin wrote on 09/06/2019 at 05:43am

Done and done!

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 09/06/2019 at 06:04am

There's the announcement I was waiting for! I noticed the new icon and hit Jon up w/ a message.

Will_Ball Game Mod Super Member wrote on 09/07/2019 at 06:22pm

Jon, has your kid made my shirt yet?

jdodson Admin wrote on 09/07/2019 at 07:35pm

I don't know but apparently he made mine because it just shipped!

If you want to join this conversation you need to sign in.

The State of The Wyvern Inaugural Address

Greetings, Adventurers and thank you for reading the inaugural edition of The State of the Wyvern. The State of the Wyvern is a periodical that will drop every few weeks that snapshots the state of Tale of the White Wyvern, highlight certain games and player rankings as well as talk about recent changes to the games and our plans. We're also open to hearing what you think about the game as it moves through time so feel free to chip in your thoughts.

Current Player Leaderboards

Tale of the White Wyvern has a few in-game places where you can see how players are currently ranked. The first is the current player rankings you can view by (L)ist Players -> (S)ee all... Read All

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 08/03/2019 at 08:56pm

Thanks for the State! GG top players!

Will_Ball Game Mod Super Member wrote on 08/03/2019 at 11:30pm

I tried to put my horse armor on Tiberius, but he just ended up killing me. Be warned, Tiberius does not like to horse around.

AdamPFarnsworth wrote on 08/04/2019 at 05:35pm

So far, it's going great! I'm really enjoying the game!

Tim wrote on 08/09/2019 at 10:40pm

The game is great, I forgot how much I enjoyed playing these kinds of games.

Will_Ball Game Mod Super Member wrote on 08/11/2019 at 05:13pm

What’a the secret to leveling up so fast? Is it player fights?

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 08/11/2019 at 05:44pm

> What’a the secret to leveling up so fast? Is it player fights?

Yep. PvP is a pretty big experience boost. With that, you have to balance it with not being equipped properly. For instance you can level faster but if you don't have a high enough weapon or armor, forest fight become hard. So it's a push and pull thing.

Will_Ball Game Mod Super Member wrote on 08/11/2019 at 06:08pm

Thx!

AdamPFarnsworth wrote on 08/12/2019 at 02:17pm

Seriously, I've been stuck at level 4 for a while now because I had enough exp to level up, but now not good enough equipment to beat the level 4 master lol

Will_Ball Game Mod Super Member wrote on 08/12/2019 at 04:27pm

I’ve been through that, Adam.

Timogorgon Member wrote on 08/12/2019 at 04:40pm

PvP nets you a crazy amount of XP when you win. The hardest part is keeping gear leveled with you.

Timogorgon Member wrote on 08/13/2019 at 04:28pm

The addition of the outhouse is most welcomed. The forest was getting pretty nasty with everyone doing their business out there! :P

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 08/13/2019 at 04:42pm

> The addition of the outhouse is most welcomed.

All Travis and I work on are the most important things for the game!

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 08/13/2019 at 04:43pm

🤣

If you want to join this conversation you need to sign in.

Play Tale of the White Wyvvern Right Now!

Tale of the White Wyvern is a text based, high fantasy, sword and magic adventure mini-MMO that you can play with your friends, and is finally here and ready for you to play by heading over to https://thewhitewyvern.com! We’ve spent the last few months working hard on the game and are happy you can finally play it! We also wanted your first day in game to go smoothly so we created a Let’s Play you can watch above to get a taste for what to expect in game!

Tale of the White Wyvern is in open beta, so let us know if you have any questions or run into any bugs. We have instructions you can read before you play from the game menu, and we also offer tips along the way to... Read All

jdodson Admin wrote on 07/28/2019 at 03:24pm

🐉🐉🐉

Will_Ball Game Mod Super Member wrote on 07/28/2019 at 04:34pm

Thanks for making this Jon & Travis!

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 07/28/2019 at 04:52pm

What's the difference between staying at the Inn (which costs $400) and just logging out while in the Town Square? It seems you could save money by doing the latter, but I'm assuming that would leave you vulnerable to attack. It also seems you can attack people who are in the bar? The bartender said you can call someone down and they'll get first hit. Can you clear this up for me?

Personal request: would it be possible to get a custom color scheme? Maybe we could create one in the game. I don't have a problem w/ the color scheme, I'm just curious if it'd be possible to change it to something other than the other included themes.

Also are you going to be sending out the social media hype link and rewards?

jdodson Admin wrote on 07/28/2019 at 05:19pm

> What's the difference between staying at the Inn (which costs $400) and just logging out while in the Town Square? It seems you could save money by doing the latter, but I'm assuming that would leave you vulnerable to attack. It also seems you can attack people who are in the bar? The bartender said you can call someone down and they'll get first hit. Can you clear this up for me?

It's pretty much as you say. Plus:

* You can only attack people at your level or higher or one below you. So level 5 can attack 5 and up and level 4 but no one level 1-3.
* Staying in the Fields (quitting the game normally) makes you able to be attacked by people (with the rules above)
* You can pay to stay in the Inn (400 gold * level). This means people have to spend money to Call you Out plus you get one bonus. If you stay in the Inn you always get the first attack(to give the Inn a further bonus). (with same level rules above)

> Personal request: would it be possible to get a custom color scheme? Maybe we could create one in the game. I don't have a problem w/ the color scheme, I'm just curious if it'd be possible to change it to something other than the other included themes.

It's something Travis and I will add to the list. With that, what color scheme are you thinking about?

> Also are you going to be sending out the social media hype link and rewards?

That's going out on the 29th so check back tomorrow for more information on that!

jdodson Admin wrote on 07/28/2019 at 05:39pm

ALSO your Inn stay lasts until you log in next and experience a new day. Then you need to rent another room.

Will_Ball Game Mod Super Member wrote on 07/28/2019 at 05:42pm

Does staying at the inn regen health?

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 07/28/2019 at 05:49pm

Thanks for the clarifications. So, if you log out while in town, you're in the fields while logged out?

The color scheme I have in mind is a black background with blue text and purple for the highlights (like the parenthesis "()" surrounding letters/keys to press to activate action). I was surprised and pleased to find out that it's not just a keyboard game, but it's also point and click. :)

jdodson Admin wrote on 07/28/2019 at 06:02pm

> Does staying at the inn regen health?

No. You can heal at Helga's to pay to regen health. Also you regen health when a new game day hits. Also you have a random chance to regen health in the forest.

jdodson Admin wrote on 07/28/2019 at 06:05pm

> Thanks for the clarifications. So, if you log out while in town, you're in the fields while logged out?

Yep. Stepping away from the game at any point drops you to the fields.

Will_Ball Game Mod Super Member wrote on 07/28/2019 at 06:05pm

Cool. Thx for the info.

AdamPFarnsworth wrote on 07/28/2019 at 06:06pm

I played my first day, and was totally transported to high school (other than the fact that I was playing on my phone lol).

Travis and Jon, you two have done a fantastic job creating this game! It honestly feel super good playing it!

jdodson Admin wrote on 07/28/2019 at 06:07pm

❤️🐉

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 07/28/2019 at 06:19pm

> I played my first day, and was totally transported to high school (other than the fact that I was playing on my phone lol).

That's the basis of what I have going on in my head about creating a marketing message. Something like (in a deep voice) take a trip back to 1995, the era of the BBS. Cheerful Ghost brings you a game reminiscent of your favorite BBS games. Come check out Tale of the White Wyvern.

Something like that anyway.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 07/28/2019 at 07:48pm

I was leaving the forest and was attacked by something and couldn't run away (I didn't want to anyway). I killed it and now I have -1 fights. :( Will I lose one when they're replenished or will it just refill?

I was having trouble withdrawing all from the bank. It said "enter nothing for all" and I didn't input anything and I withdrew 0, tried again, same thing, was reporting the "bug," tried it again and it worked. Maybe I didn't do it right until the last time.

Oh, ok, now after depositing all w/ the "deposit all" button, I tried to withdraw 800. I typed "800" in the text box. It said I withdrew 0, but that I had 800 on hand. I don't know if there's some kind of bug/discrepancy or I just did something wrong. In the end it works out.

jdodson Admin wrote on 07/28/2019 at 08:03pm

> I was leaving the forest and was attacked by something and couldn't run away (I didn't want to anyway). I killed it and now I have -1 fights. :( Will I lose one when they're replenished or will it just refill?

You get all 25 at the new day.

> I was having trouble withdrawing all from the bank. It said "enter nothing for all" and I didn't input anything and I withdrew 0, tried again, same thing, was reporting the "bug," tried it again and it worked. Maybe I didn't do it right until the last time.

Should be fixed now.

> Oh, ok, now after depositing all w/ the "deposit all" button, I tried to withdraw 800. I typed "800" in the text box. It said I withdrew 0, but that I had 800 on hand. I don't know if there's some kind of bug/discrepancy or I just did something wrong. In the end it works out.

Should be fixed now.

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 07/28/2019 at 08:30pm

Greg, it's possible you were doing all those deposit/withdraw steps while we were actively squashing a bug there.

Everyone, thanks for joining up and playing, it's fun seeing a ton of people enjoying this game.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 07/29/2019 at 07:38am

> No. You can heal at Helga's to pay to regen health. Also you regen health when a new game day hits. Also you have a random chance to regen health in the forest.

You regen some health, right? I just logged in and I'm missing some health. Although I wasn't sure if I had stayed at the inn when I first wrote this comment, I now know that I did, because I tried to buy a room and it said "no need to pay twice."

Also, I'm sure a new in-game has started, but I only had 1 fight. :( Time is currently 3:35AM EST.

Will_Ball Game Mod Super Member wrote on 07/29/2019 at 02:05pm

I think it missed that midnight new day. I had 0 fights and could still sleep in my room.

jdodson Admin wrote on 07/29/2019 at 02:11pm

> I think it missed that midnight new day. I had 0 fights and could still sleep in my room.

Yeah, somehow the new day didn't trigger. I manually ran it this morning. Should be good now!

Will_Ball Game Mod Super Member wrote on 07/29/2019 at 02:32pm

thx Jon!

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 07/29/2019 at 07:25pm

I thought it was funny when I killed "Travis the Barbarian," but killing "Red Neck" really made me LOL.

jdodson Admin wrote on 07/29/2019 at 07:25pm

> Travis the Barbarian

I have a few Travis references in the game.

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 07/29/2019 at 10:29pm

I sprinkled in a couple Travis references in the bits of lore I wrote, but they’re somewhat esoteric. One is easier to spot than the other.

jdodson Admin wrote on 07/29/2019 at 10:32pm

> I sprinkled in a couple Travis references ...

IT'S RAINING TRAVIS!

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 07/30/2019 at 01:10am

> I sprinkled in a couple Travis references in the bits of lore I wrote, but they’re somewhat esoteric. One is easier to spot than the other.

Dude, "esoteric!" I wrote a play in high school for a class project and it was totally esoteric! One of my recent game reviews has an esoteric title. :) (Yes, I did look up the meaning of "esoteric" as I've heard of it before, but didn't remember/know what it meant.) Mostly what I'm talking about are music references.

I'm still finding it humorous that I killed "Red Neck." I feel like I stomped all over his "Don't Tread on Me" flag/license plate.

If you want to join this conversation you need to sign in.

Tale of the White Wyvern Development: Three Character Classes

Hey everyone. It's been a quick few weeks since we first dropped the first details of Tale of the White Wyvern and it was fun to see people in the community excited about playing it! As we put the finishing touches on the game for the upcoming beta I wanted to let you know a few more details a bit at a time to give you a taste of what to expect when the game launches.

How Player Leveling Works

In Tale of the White Wyvern you spend your daily turns per day fighting enemies in the forest to gain experience, gold and if you are lucky you may find some gems. Once you gain enough experience and feel you are powerful enough you can go to Tarbreth's Adventurer Training and... Read All

Tale of the White Wyvern, a New Game From Cheerful Ghost

We are very excited to announce Cheerful Ghost’s first game, Tale of the White Wyvern! Tale of the White Wyvern is a text based, high fantasy, sword and magic adventure mini-MMO that you can play with your friends! We were inspired by old-school BBS/text games such as Legend of the Red Dragon, Adventure, Zork, and Usurper.

We’re going to jump right in and show you about the game starting with the main game hub, the Town Square.

The Town Square
https://i.imgur.com/Mch5EyI.png

The Town Square is the main area of the Tale of the White Wyvern where you can do anything in game. Do you want to check out the latest armor and weapons, King Frosthelm’s Weaponry and Asadi’s Armor... Read All

AdamPFarnsworth wrote on 06/03/2019 at 02:37pm

I HAVE ACHIEVED MAXIMUM HYPE!

Seriously though, this looks fantastic, and a great throwback tribute to a classic. I can't wait to play!

jdodson Admin wrote on 06/03/2019 at 03:38pm

https://i.imgur.com/z0YaicJ.jpg

Will_Ball Game Mod Super Member wrote on 06/03/2019 at 05:03pm

Looking forward to it. I am still surprised that my monthly patreon does not put food on the table.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 06/03/2019 at 11:11pm

Sounds cool. The title sounds similar to Legend of the Red Dragon. The game looks somewhat similar, also reminds me of Usurper, games I played back in the BBS days.

jdodson Admin wrote on 06/03/2019 at 11:27pm

Tale of the White Wyvern is a love letter / homage to Legend of the Red Dragon for sure. I view it similarly to games that have come recently like Stardew Valley or any of the "Doom Clones" that permeate the industry. Thing is those are just shooters now and no one seems to make LORD clones, but hopefully we start a trend

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 06/04/2019 at 06:08pm

Yeah good call Greg, I updated the post to reflect that. We cover it in the podcast but not everyone will hear that.

BrothersForgeGaming wrote on 06/25/2019 at 09:28pm

Two questions; When can I play this, and when can I play this!? I am a huge fan of text based gaming and this idea couldn't be more exciting!! I fully understand the time constraint issues plaguing us adult gamers. Quick hit games seem to be the way to go when time is a factor. One of the characteristics of retro gaming I enjoy is simplicity. Modern gaming can be all to complicated and often times I give up a few minutes into a game knowing I will never have time for it. I know you touched on this, and I am currently not a Patron contributor, but I would really like to get my hands on an early access pass. It would be my pleasure to promote and review this game on our channel. Either way, I'll look forward to seeing the finished product.

jdodson Admin wrote on 06/26/2019 at 10:19pm

> Two questions; When can I play this, and when can I play this!?

Love the question. I really don't love dropping a date when it's a game we're working on in our spare time because things could happen that change it. That said, should be pretty soon and when we do it we'll drop it on social and here!

> I would really like to get my hands on an early access pass.

If that's something we do i'll let you know. Currently, the plan is to bring it into Beta as soon as possible and my current thought is i'm not sure what a closed beta would do.

My thinking on that is a few fold:

1. I want more people to play this much sooner. A closed beta with a few people would be good to get some private feedback. That said, since the game is VERY time based (you get forest fights every X real world hours) then if we had it to a few weeks that would be a few weeks that only a limited amount of people could play it.

Actually, that's really it, I want everyone to play it sooner so our current thinking, and this changed a few days after we posted this, is an open beta sooner for anyone that wants to partake. Also, the game won't be reset and we'll just balance things as we move on so people don't lose progress.

If you want to join this conversation you need to sign in.

The Future Of Cheerful Ghost - Our First Game Is Coming!

Travis and I have been working over the last two months and finally happy to announce that Cheerful Ghost is in development of it's first game! In 2018 we launched our games BBS featuring the best open source web games you can play as the first step in us getting to the point of creating our own games. Each of the games we launched on our BBS so far are single player games and we think that what makes Cheerful Ghost great is hanging out with other users so each game we create ourselves will be multiplayer at their core.

What Are You Making?

We're not quite ready to drop the full details of our upcoming game yet, but I do want to talk about a few things. Firstly, as I... Read All

Cheerful Ghost Branded 1UP Cards And The Portland Video Game Swap Meet 2018!

In Oregon we are all lucky to have the Portland Retro Game Expo which is a fun event in the later summer for everything awesome in retro games and trading. Cheerful Ghost has a booth each year, which is something you should check out if you haven't yet. In the new year the Video Game Swap Meet is held at the Portland Double Tree and put on by the Portland Retro Game Expo and The GameFather and I wanted to write a bit about the event and some of my pickups. Spoiler alert, Will got quite a few more games than I did.

The Portland Retro Game Expo is a very large event with a wide reach including a huge free to play arcade, game tournaments, retro game vendors, toy... Read All In Oregon we are all lucky to have the Portland Retro Game Expo which is a fun event in the later summer for everything awesome in retro games and trading. Cheerful Ghost has a booth each year, which is something you should check out if you haven't yet. In the new year the Video Game Swap Meet is held at the Portland Double Tree and put on by the Portland Retro Game Expo and The GameFather and I wanted to write a bit about the event and some of my pickups. Spoiler alert, Will got quite a few more games than I did.

The Portland Retro Game Expo is a very large event with a wide reach including a huge free to play arcade, game tournaments, retro game vendors, toy collectables, geek swag (think Yeti style shirts) and various game creators and game sites and podcasts like Cheerful Ghost. The Video Game Swap Meet is more focused around vendors selling and trading games and it's a really focused one day event. I really enjoy it because it's easy to take in and go through each booth a few times to make sure you've picked up anything you want. The swap meet had a lot of people there but less folks than PRGE which is a nice change of pace.

I wasn't coming to the Swap Meet with anything in mind to get, I really just like hanging out with the Retro community and I also wanted to handout some of our new Cheerful Ghost branded 1UP cards. If you don't know, 1UP cards are a great way to clean your old retro NES, SNES, Genesis, 64, etc carts without blowing into them. Think a simple two sided cleaning card that has no downside of spitting into your carts, which you should never do to clean them. I've seen branded 1UP cards in the wild and have wanted some Cheerful Ghost cards printed so I contacted 1UP and had some made up. If you want to see what they look like hit the image link below.

https://i.imgur.com/qIN8dfv.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/UGtTWN3.jpg

Will and I were one of the first people in line and as such I was able to hand out the cards, some stickers and a podcast handout to the first 10 or so people easily. People seemed to dig the new 1UP cards so I'm going to do a similar giveaway at Portland Retro Game Expo this year as well as sell them at our booth. I'd like to get some Cheerful Ghost shirts printed this year too, but we'll see how it goes.

As to the stuff I picked up this year I finally was able to round out my collection of Just Dance games on the Wii with the original Just Dance 2009 game. I've got the others and it's a fun series and one reason I still have my Wii hooked up to my TV. I also picked up two DS games in Plants VS Zombies and Zoo Tycoon. Both are PC ports that landed in various forms and I've only played a bit of Plants VS Zombies DS so far. I want to do a more formal review of Plants VS Zombies DS but i'd say if you were a fan of the game and wanted to collect a version of it on DS, get it. I aim to collect all the Zelda games and finally added Oracle of Ages and Seasons on Gameboy Color to my collection after finding them both for a good price. I also saw Link to the Past in box and in great shape but I think i'm going to save that pickup for this years Portland Retro Game Expo.