After taking a break, the Cheerful Ghost Roundtable is back on the air. Since we have spent so much time away, this episode is a bit different and contains a few more technical glitches than usual.

We break into song and dance talking about what we've been playing since the last Roundtable as well as the new that Microsoft purchased Mojang for 2.5 billion dollars. With all the negativity surrounding the recent #gamergate controversy we talk about what positive influences games have had on our lives.

http://cheerfulghost.com/Travis/posts/2209/confirmed-microsoft-is-buying-mojang-for-2-5-billion

It's interesting to see films and music videos without music. Someone clipped John Williams score out of the Star Wars throne room scene and the results are interesting. I loved how they dubbed in Chewbaccas voice each time.

Starting with the The Brown Box in 1967 to the current generation of consoles this infographic covers each important gaming console to be released.

I wonder if Valve's "Orange Box" release is a nod to The Brown Box console?

"Super World Karts is a retro mode-7 style 16-bit kart racer, being created by solo indie developer Paul Hamilton (One Legged Seagull) in Australia. It looks and plays like a classic '90s karts game, but also adds some modern game elements like:

• 16:9 - 1080p HD resolution at 60 fps, (where available)


• achievements & collection goals,


• drift-boosts & analogue steering,


• character & track unlocks,


• original fun split-screen Battle modes,


• and 3 star rankings for each race.

Creating a great PC based Kart game has been something I have been waiting for for a long time. Super World Karts seems like it delivers on that SNES Mario Kart styled game and is coming to the PC, Mac & Ouya.

The has been successfully Kickstarted and if the game raises an extra $200 it will be ported to Linux. That said, I have no doubt they will raise that last bit of funding because this game would be awesome on SteamOS.

What do you think of Super World Karts, does an Indie Kart racer seem like something you would be into?

Ah Contra... Just about every time I played Contra it was with friends and we always used the Konami Code. I loved the sci-fi Alien Marine feel and loved blasting everything on screen.

I respect and enjoy listening to Richard Stallman talk about technology and found his recent TED talk in Geneva worth sharing. This talk slips a bit outside the realm of gaming, but with Steam coming to Linux I think these kinds of discussions are important.

Richard's talk is essentially about the principles of free software and why they are critically important for a free society. I agree with many of his points, but like any philosophy or religion, I don't adhere to every component of it. A few years ago I did, going so far as to run a system that was nearly all free software save a few drivers. Over time, my thoughts changed as I enjoyed running certain non-free programs, like Steam and games. That said, the underlying philosophy of the Free Software movement is important and alive and well even if one doesn't adhere to every element of it.

Lately i've been thinking that while important, free software is just a step in the path to digital freedom. One important part, and possibly more important is that our digital life should be accessible to us in open formats. It seems to me that the digital content we consume and create like pictures, music, documents and video should be available only in completely open formats. Since I use Mac, Linux and Windows depending on what I am doing, keeping my digital stuff open in formats that they can all understand is really important. This is one reason I prefer Steam games that ship on all platforms because if the things we consume can be run anywhere, then we don't need to be tied down to any particular system.

Heading to the PS4, Vita and Steam November 4th The Binding of Isaac Rebirth is everyone's favoriate religious insanity rogue like SNES de-make. Getting a ton of new features including a form of local co-op, The Binding of Isaac Rebirth looks to be an interesting continuation of the original game that doesn't suffer from many of the core issues the original flash game suffered.

Interested in heading back to the basement to confront Mom?

Recently Gaming on Linux contacted Aspyr about Borderlands 2 coming to Linux after someone detected some Linux builds in Steam.

"Michael Blair, Aspyr Media: Yes! BL2 Linux is absolutely real! We've been working hard on it for months and will talk about a release date as soon as possible."

This is great news as whenever 2K has been asked about this they have been pretty cagy about it. So the question for me isn't "when will Linux get it's gaming chance" I am not curious if it will remain as a viable platform. I guess the answer to that lies in the popularity of SteamOS and other unannounced platforms.

http://www.gamingonlinux.com/articles/borderlands-2-also-looks-like-its-coming-to-linux-update-confirmed.4235

Aaron of RetroLiberty posted an interesting video called "Earthbound Convinced." The premise is that Aaron reads off the text on the Earthbound box and shows off some of the game art and then asks if that was enough to convince you to buy it. It's not quite fair as Aaron's video is well cut and is more than simply reading off the box art but it does showcase what little information we had to go off to make choices as kids. That said, I had Nintendo Power and they did a great job hyping up whatever video games Nintendo wanted us to buy at the time, Earthbound included.

Earthbound, were you convinced?

"In the 24th century, humanity is at war with a hostile alien race. Outnumbered a million to one, mankind's only hope of survival is the J.U.M.P. Corps. Its mission is to fight the alien menace hive by hive and planet by planet.

Hive Jump is one part Spelunky, one part XCOM, and all parts alien ass-kicking. You and your friends assume the role of JUMPERS, and blast your way through subterranean alien hives in run-and-gun 2D platforming action. Kill aliens, avoid traps, collect resources, and defeat the hive queen lurking at the bottom of the hive to complete the JUMP."

Hive Jump is a cool Kickstarter that is only a 26 hours away(at the time I wrote this) from completing so if you want in on the action you'd better hop to it. The art style is reminiscent of Altered Beast and worked really well with the score.

Hive Jump will drop when it's ready on PC, Mac, Linux and Wii U.