General Discussion [ Page 14 ]

Cheerful Ghost Radio Episode 35: Infinity War Review, Part 2

In the newest episode of Cheerful Ghost Radio yet, we talk about the home release of Avengers: Infinity War, how our thoughts have changed since we saw it in the theater, and the extra stuff on the Blu-Ray.

But because it's us, and we love talking about Star Wars... we talk about Star Wars first.

The Video Game Site Webring Is Now Live!

When I launched Cheerful Ghost in 2012 I built something that solved a problem I had. It wasn’t easy to collect all the games you owned in one digital list that you could share and write about. You could write on Facebook but none of that sticks around, Twitter isn’t a great place for conversations and no one cares if you start up yet another game blog. To me Cheerful Ghost set out to bring the discussion with my friends to one place where we could talk about the games we loved. Over time we started The Cheerful Ghost Roundtable that later became the Cheerful Ghost Radio Podcast, we published Starship Rubicon on Steam and this year launched the Cheerful Ghost Games... Read All When I launched Cheerful Ghost in 2012 I built something that solved a problem I had. It wasn’t easy to collect all the games you owned in one digital list that you could share and write about. You could write on Facebook but none of that sticks around, Twitter isn’t a great place for conversations and no one cares if you start up yet another game blog. To me Cheerful Ghost set out to bring the discussion with my friends to one place where we could talk about the games we loved. Over time we started The Cheerful Ghost Roundtable that later became the Cheerful Ghost Radio Podcast, we published Starship Rubicon on Steam and this year launched the Cheerful Ghost Games BBS. Recently I got the itch to create something new and I’m excited to launch The Video Game Site Webring!

As I was reading The SNES Omnibus by Brett Weiss I noticed that he included a lot of great game quotes from sites i'd never heard of. As an independent game site creator I realized that a tool to help discover independent and lesser known sites would be useful to the larger game community. In a couple days I hacked out a prototype and started collecting a list of game sites. I decided to model the base website on old 90's Webrings and Stumbleupon. The final site is what we are launching today and you can find it at http://vgw.io.

The Video Game Site Webring makes discovering new video game sites fun by randomly taking you site in our list. Over time we plan on adding even more games to the list and if you know of any, let us know. The Video Game Site Webring aims at making the discovery of niche gaming sites easy and fun. We’re purposefully NOT including the top gaming sites like IGN and Kotaku because we feel these sites get enough attention. The goal of VGW is to give focus to smaller site and have these site link to VGW so we can all benefit from the increase in visibility. Part of the launch today is to give attention to these sites but over time I’ll reach out to these sites and see if they can all link to the VGW to help give everybody a boost. This is the core tenant of a webring and I hope, over time, VGW catches on. Also bringing back old stuff from the 90’s like Webrings is pretty cool too.

On last important thing but the Video Game Site Webring is that it is entirely open source and available for anyone to look at and modify on GitHub. I felt this was an important part of this project so everyone could see the source code and know how it worked and change it if they wanted. Cheerful Ghost has benefited from Open Source and it’s cool to create new projects that might be useful to others too.

I want to thank Travis for helping on this project and Brett Weiss for writing The SNES Omnibus which was a big inspiration for this project.

http://vgw.io/

My review of the SNES Omnibus by Brett Weiss

https://cheerfulghost.com/jdodson/posts/3829/hop-aboard-the-snes-omnibus-for-a-fun-ride-around-video-game-land

View the VGW source code on GitHub

https://github.com/jdodson/vgswebring

Cheerful Ghost Radio Episode 34: What Makes a Good Game Sequel?

In this episode we ponder what makes a good game sequel. This started as a conversation between Jon and Travis and as we discussed and debated sequels we decided this would be the perfect topic for an episode of Cheerful Ghost Radio! Have a listen and let us know what you think: what makes a good sequel, and what are some of your favorites?

Steam is Introducing a New Version of Steam Play, Allowing Windows Games to Run on Linux

This... this may be huge.

A new beta of the Steam client on Linux will allow you to play Windows-only games on Linux. Currently only a few games are in the list of supported titles BUT in true Linux-user fashion, you can enable it for every game and try your luck.

This works using Proton, a fork of Wine, a Windows compatibility layer that many on Linux use to run Windows software and games already. Proton provides the following improvements:

Windows games with no Linux version currently available can now be installed and run directly from the Linux Steam client, complete with native Steamworks and OpenVR support.

DirectX 11 and 12 implementations are now based on... Read All

This... this may be huge.

A new beta of the Steam client on Linux will allow you to play Windows-only games on Linux. Currently only a few games are in the list of supported titles BUT in true Linux-user fashion, you can enable it for every game and try your luck.

This works using Proton, a fork of Wine, a Windows compatibility layer that many on Linux use to run Windows software and games already. Proton provides the following improvements:

Windows games with no Linux version currently available can now be installed and run directly from the Linux Steam client, complete with native Steamworks and OpenVR support.

DirectX 11 and 12 implementations are now based on Vulkan, resulting in improved game compatibility and reduced performance impact.

Fullscreen support has been improved: fullscreen games will be seamlessly stretched to the desired display without interfering with the native monitor resolution or requiring the use of a virtual desktop.

Improved game controller support: games will automatically recognize all controllers supported by Steam. Expect more out-of-the-box controller compatibility than even the original version of the game.

Performance for multi-threaded games has been greatly improved compared to vanilla Wine.

They are taking on the daunting task of going through the entire Steam library and finding which games work well. So far, the supported list is as follows:

Beat Saber

Bejeweled 2 Deluxe

Doki Doki Literature Club!

DOOM

DOOM II: Hell on Earth

DOOM VFR

Fallout Shelter

FATE

FINAL FANTASY VI

Geometry Dash

Google Earth VR

Into The Breach

Magic: The Gathering - Duels of the Planeswalkers 2012

Magic: The Gathering - Duels of the Planeswalkers 2013

Mount & Blade

Mount & Blade: With Fire & Sword

NieR: Automata

PAYDAY: The Heist

QUAKE

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl

Star Wars: Battlefront 2

Tekken 7

The Last Remnant

Tropico 4

Ultimate Doom

Warhammer® 40,000: Dawn of War® - Dark Crusade

Warhammer® 40,000: Dawn of War® - Soulstorm

They've hosted Proton on Github (https://github.com/ValveSoftware/Proton/) so you can download it and make custom versions, and the Steam client will let you use your version instead of the built-in version. I can imagine this leading to Proton configs for specific games that don't necessarily work in the built-in version, thus letting you easily use multiple configs straight from the Steam client.

Proton supports Mac, and I bet enterprising nerds will release some custom Proton configs for running games on Macs, but as of now Valve says they don't have any plans for building this into the Steam client for Mac. Plans may change if demand is there, but their language on it seems pretty firm that they have no plans for it.

This is exciting because one Wine config doesn't necessarily work for multiple games, so getting Wine games running in Linux frequently requires making new Wine configs, with their own directory structure, and therefore with their own Steam install. So to install 20 Steam games with no native Linux version, you may have 10 or more different Steam clients installed and a messy file structure.

Some people will argue that this is a step back, and that developers don't need to target Linux now because Proton will pick up the slack. Others argue that this gets more gamers on Linux, leading to more reason for developers to target Linux. Who knows how the market will react, but I'm excited because this gets Linux closer to Windows in game support, and while over 3000 games on Steam currently support Linux natively, it's been harder to get some of the bigger publishers/developers on board, and even some indies. What do you think? Does this make you more likely to use Linux for gaming?

Original announcement: https://steamcommunity.com/games/221410/announcements/detail/1696055855739350561

jdodson Admin wrote on 08/21/2018 at 10:37pm

That first list of games is fun. I like they added Doom and Quake though there are lots of ways to run that on Linux.

That said it’s good to start with the easy stuff and move up from there. This is awesome news because to-date Wine has been a chore to configure properly so if Valve can do it, that’s awesome.

I’m wondering how much further Valve is gonna five in Linux support? I really am hoping for a handheld but that’s prob wishful thinking.

jdodson Admin wrote on 08/21/2018 at 10:41pm

This isn’t just Linux, this is to get games running on a Mac too!

jdodson Admin wrote on 08/21/2018 at 10:46pm

Spoke a bit too soon. Whereas the underlying software does support the Mac this isn’t supported on Mac in Steam quite yet.

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 08/22/2018 at 01:38am

Yeah I meant to add a bit about that to the post. Updated!

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 08/22/2018 at 01:39am

My only issue now is that my gaming rig doesn't have enough space on it to test this out.

jdodson Admin wrote on 08/22/2018 at 01:40am

Too bad! I have a desktop that dual boots between the latest Ubuntu and Windows. When this hits mainline Steam I’ll check it out.

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 08/22/2018 at 01:08pm

Maybe I’m just a beta junkie but I’m always running the steam beta. Never had any issues with it for what it’s worth. They do a good job of getting things pretty stable before it even heads to beta.

jdodson Admin wrote on 08/22/2018 at 01:59pm

Yep. Just have other stuff to do

jdodson Admin wrote on 08/27/2018 at 02:54pm

Looks like the community has play tested about 2k games so far https://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonevangelho/2018/08/27/steam-for-linux-adds-1000-perfectly-playable-windows-games-in-under-a-week/amp/

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 08/27/2018 at 07:27pm

Wow, that’s intense.

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Cheerful Ghost Radio Episode 31: Ant-Man and the Wasp

In this episode of Cheerful Ghost Radio, we visit the Quantum Realm and review the new cog in the Marvel Cinematic Universe machine, Ant-Man and the Wasp! We discuss our favorite things about the film and a few issues we had, and consider how it might affect Infinity War Part II and the wider MCU.

While we have you here, after a brief hiatus Cheerful Ghost Games Club is back! We'll be reviewing Kirby's Adventure in an upcoming episode and we want your input. Come play Kirby's Adventure with us and we'll include your thoughts in the episode!

https://cheerfulghost.com/Travis/events/163/cheerful-ghost-games-club-kirby-s-adventure

Valve May Soon Launch Steam.tv, a Game Streaming Site to Compete with Twitch. Maybe?

There's been speculation about this for a while, but earlier today Steam.tv launched to the world, appearing to be the long-assumed-to-be-coming Twitch competitor from Valve.

But it left us as quickly as it arrived!

Before it blinked out of existence, presenting merely a white page, it looked like the screenshot on this post. While it was up, all that was available was footage of the International, a Dota 2 competition. You could sign in and chat via voice or text using the new Discord-like chat that Steam recently released. You could invite groups of friends to watch videos with you and chat about it together.

But alas, someone was a bit quick on the trigger. In a... Read All

Jeff Vogel - Failing To Fail

A friend shared a recent talk Jeff Vogel of Spiderweb Software gave recently at this years GDC and i've been keeping it around for the right time to write about it. It's only available at the GDC Vault and not a YouTube video I can embed above, so sorry about that. Anyways, I recommend you check it out at the link below because not only is Jeff someone I admire but it's a really great talk about how not to fail in the games industry. Jeff admits that the kinds of games Spiderweb makes are not hits and that he makes just enough to have a good middle class life serving his niche audience. Usually the only stories people focus on in gaming are the rags to riches stories... Read All

Cheerful Ghost Week In Review!

This has been a busy week on Cheerful Ghost, so we thought we'd do a round-up to tell you all about what you might have missed!

Cheerful Ghost Games BBS
First and foremost, this week we launched the Cheerful Ghost Games BBS! This brings some classic BBS games and newer browser games to you in a nostalgic BBS-like interface. We have a nice bunch of games to start, and we're adding more!
https://cheerfulghost.com/jdodson/posts/3828/play-games-on-the-new-cheerful-ghost-bbs

Plus Game Giveaways to Celebrate!
In celebration of the aforementioned launch, we're giving away a couple of games that evoke the same kind of nostalgia we're going for, VVVVVV and Superbrothers Sword and... Read All

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 08/12/2018 at 04:05am

And Jon reported that Diablo still has a future! :) Good job guys!

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 08/12/2018 at 04:44am

Yep! And the QuakeCon discussion and the BotW timeline and a couple other things but for the sake of brevity I limited it to the new content we added rather than the content we shared and commented on. But good spot! :)

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 08/12/2018 at 05:14am

That's cool. I don't know if this is the first time you've done a review of the week, but I think it's a pretty cool idea. I think this is true especially if there's a lot of content posted in one week. I think this may help those who don't visit the site regularly or daily.

Travis Admin Post Author wrote on 08/12/2018 at 05:49am

Yep, I think this is the first and so-far-only Week In Review, just because of all the big stuff this week, but I'm glad you dig it. I could imagine it being useful for the future as well.

jdodson Admin wrote on 08/12/2018 at 06:14pm

We’re launching a site blog soon. I think these kinds of wrap up will live there too and be nice to check out as historical markers in time.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 08/12/2018 at 07:09pm

A site blog? Oh! You mean a blog about the site? That makes sense. Well I already consider this site a blog lol it's my gaming blog.

jdodson Admin wrote on 08/12/2018 at 07:42pm

Good question. It's a place you can go to read all the posts that relate to the site itself. So things like when we drop a new feature like the BBS or maybe these kinds of wrap up posts. For instance, if one wanted to see all the GoTY awards OR all the times we launched a feature that's not easy to do. This should make it easier to do that.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 08/12/2018 at 07:58pm

Cool, that makes sense. Perhaps it could also be a place to show what may be coming or what's in the works. Maybe it could be a place where we kick around some ideas and suggestions.

jdodson Admin wrote on 08/12/2018 at 08:07pm

Yeah, totally. I sort of view it like I view where our Cheerful Ghost Radio episodes go. We tag certain content that way and it lives on that page.

AdamPFarnsworth wrote on 08/25/2018 at 06:26am

I really do love this wrap-up! Keep up the great work.

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Cheerful Ghost Radio Episode 30: Extinction

In this episode, we talk about the new Netflix sci-fi film, Extinction! In Extinction, Michael Peña plays a man who has recurring nightmares about a terrible disaster... and then disaster strikes! Will his dreams help him and his family stay alive?

But first, we talk about what we've been playing and watching over the last month.

We've taken a short break from our classic game reviews, but that ends soon! We'll be back soon with our review of Kid Icarus, and we have a new Cheerful Ghost Games Club event up for our next review, Kirby's Adventure!

https://cheerfulghost.com/Travis/events/163/cheerful-ghost-games-club-kirby-s-adventure

Metal Jesus reviews a new Composite/Component/SVideo to HDMI converter

Metal Jesus posted a review of the RetroTINK 2x today on his youtube channel. This little device will take Composite/Component/SVideo input along with audio and convert it to 480p and output it over HDMI. All for $100. Compared to the framemeister and OSSC, this seems like it is a good affordable solution to get your old consoles up and running on modern TVs. To me it also seems easier to use, which is a bonus. I ended up pre-ordering one of these after watching Metal Jesus's review of it. What do you all think?