In 2015 Viz Media reissued The Legend of Zelda Link To the Past comic series that originally ran in Nintendo Power starting in January 1992 for 12 issues. A couple years ago I found it at a store for $20 and picked it up because I remember reading a few episodes in Nintendo Power magazines and quite enjoyed the story and art. I've never read it start to finish and recently sat down and read through the whole thing.

Nintendo Power Magazines were aimed at kids and these comics are too. It's fun reading them now but I never noticed how strange Link acts. I always thought the comics were fun adventure stories but the story is played mostly straight and Link brings all of the comic relief. His facial expressions, way of speaking and how he approaches his quest are very quirky and in re-reading the comics it plays as fun but sometimes breaks the tone of the story.

Shotaro Ishinomori was the artist & writer on the Link to the Past comics and he tells a simple story that follows the game while doing something a bit different. Each beat that the story borrows from the game isn't quite the same and while many bosses are lifted the game whole cloth some, like a giant spider are entirely unique. Shotaro created the original character Roam for the comic that is another knight from Hyrule that competes with Link to kill Ganon. The Link and Roam story receives an interesting end I won't spoil but I felt it didn't quite add much to the story.

The Link to the Past reissue is a highlight from the SNES era but after reading it I didn't feel it quite hit the incredible heights of the Link to the Past game. That's a hard mark to hit for arguably on the best games of all time but if you are a huge Link to the Past fan this is something you should read. The art is incredible and if you are a collector of video game books this will be a fun addition to your collection.

Cygnus Destroyer takes Duke Nukem Forever to court and the results of the trial might shock you! Or it might turn out the way you'd expect from this notorious game in the Duke franchise. I always root for the underdog and Duke Nukem Forever is seen as a terrible game after it launched and it seems this video doesn't help it much. That said, if you want to know why this game is seen the way it is, Cygnus lays it out well and i've always wanted to play it as it's in my Steam back catalog but after watching this I'm having second thoughts.

"If you’re eager to get your hands on Mega Man 11, you won’t have to wait much longer; a downloadable demo is available starting today, September 6th, for Nintendo Switch! The PlayStation 4 and Xbox One demos will also be available starting tomorrow, September 7th. Explore Block Man’s stage with Rush by your side, and check out three different difficulties that are sure to appeal to everyone from 8-bit veterans to brand new players. Read on for more info about the Mega Man 11 Demo, including a special challenge for all demo players. Plus, catch up on the newest Robot Master for Mega Man 11: Bounce Man!"

This seemed like awesome news and to my Switch owning friends I'm curious what you think of it? How's the first level play? Is Mega Man 11 a game you're gonna pick up at launch now?

http://www.capcom-unity.com/capkel/blog/2018/09/06/bust-block-man-in-the-mega-man-11-demo

I've shared a few AwesomeFaceProd Zelda videos before and thought his latest was worth sharing too. He's continuing his console wars series where he focuses on the shifts in gaming and how Zelda fit in to it all. In this episode he wraps up the Nintendo and moves in the Super Nintendo era cataloging each Zelda game to come out for that system. It's a fun look at the system, Link to the Past and the Zelda title that only was released in Japan Zelda Ancient Stone Tablets.

If you didn't know, Nintendo is licensing some Wii games for release in China by Nvidia on it's Nvidia Shield system. Essentially these are emulation/rebuilds of the games running on modern hardware you can download to play on the Shield in China only. DigitalFoundry has been downloading these games and running them through the paces and it seems like Twilight Princess is a bit more than just a Wii port. It does show that these games run incredibly well on the Shield paving the way for a possible re-release on the Switch as both systems share very similar hardware.

I'd love to see a bunch of Wii games get ported to the Switch, what about you?

Game demos used to be a staple of gaming but in recent years are few and far between. Some live on mostly as console downloads and seem to have nearly evaporated on PC. Ben Paddon of PortsCenter takes a look at why and it seems to be because game demos ... don't really sell games. Still it's fun to look back at what game demos were and some good examples of modern titles that did well with releasing a demo.

I always get a sense of satisfaction when I beat a game for the first time and today was such a day in that I finished Candy Box. If you didn't know, we launched a Games BBS on Cheerful Ghost and Candy Box was one of the first wave of games to launch on it. It was one of the original games in the web clicker genre and it proved that you can do really creatively simple things in JavaScript. If you haven't played Candy Box I recommend trying it out, it really is just a couple clicks away => "Games / Candy Box."

That said, you start the game by collecting candy one piece at a time. The only controls you start with are the ability to eat the candy or throw it. If you amass enough candy other things happen and those things make the game something special. My on critique of Candy Box is that the ending isn't as good as the first half. It's such a well paced game in the early parts but to the end it's quite grindy and not as much fun. I sort of put in the time over a series of weeks to complete it because I really wanted to, not because it was a lot of fun.

I'm really happy the developer of Candy Box aniwey decided to release the game as Open Source. That makes it possible to include it to run on Cheerful Ghost and allows anyone the ability to read the code, learn from it and make a game just like it.

If you haven't tried it I seriously recommend it and Travis tells me that Candy Box 2 is WAY better and I can't wait to dig in and eat more candy.

Shovel Knight had a very successful Kickstarter and because of that keeps getting a bunch of new incredible updates to the base game. That said, we're nearing the end of the Shovel Knight feature train and the last few stops seem to be some of the most compelling! Announced today, Shovel Knight Showdown looks to create a brawler style local multiplayer game featuring Shovel Knight and a ton of other boss characters. IGN got a 10 minute gameplay trailer linked above and from that it looks like a fun brawler that looks right at home on the PS4, Switch and XBox One!

"Duel with up to 4 players and scramble after gems as your favorite heroic or villainous knight in Shovel Knight Showdown. All the classic Shovel Knight characters you know and love are playable, many for the first time ever! Gather your pals for endless multiplayer clashes, or take control of your favorite character and dig into Story Mode. Familiar controls, items, and mechanics return, making this a platform fighting game that anyone can jump into and try.

Shovel Knight Showdown features local only multiplayer, and arrives as a free update to all existing versions of Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove on consoles and PC. It will not be available on portable platforms (3DS and Vita). It will also be made available as a standalone game!"

http://yachtclubgames.com/2018/08/shovel-knight-showdown/

When we originally launched the Cheerful Ghost Games BBS we let you know that more games would be coming that you could play. Today is a good day because we’re launching the ability for everyone to play Crescent Loom right here on Cheerful Ghost in your browser. Crescent Loom is a game created by Wick, the developer of Starship Rubicon (a game Cheerful Ghost published) and according to Wick Crescent Loom is a game about creating life. Knit bones, stitch muscles, and weave neurons into a biologically-realistic simple creature.

You can find Crescent Loom by clicking the Games link about and selecting it or hitting the link below. I encourage everyone to give Crescent Loom a shot as it’s a very unique game that isn’t like much out there. To help celebrate the launch of Crescent Loom on our BBS I reached out to Wick to talk about the game and how development has been going.

https://cheerfulghost.com/games

jdodson: The last time we interviewed you was October of last year. We were about to head over to our booth at Portland Retro Game Expo and we ran an interview in celebration of all that. What have you been up to since then?

Wick: Finished up & delivered on the Kickstarter, i.e. I got the basic mechanics for the engine down and put it out as a sandbox. I also was accepted to (and just returned from!) the indie game accelerator Stugan (http://www.stugan.com/), where I spent two months in the Swedish woods working on a tutorial / introduction to the game.

jdodson: At what point will you consider Crescent Loom released?

Wick: I think going Early Access on Steam is the right path for Crescent Loom, but at minimum I need to polish the heck out of the introduction, implement the open-ended challenge modes, and work with an artist to really bring the game to life visually.

Personally, I have a goal to exit early access and "finish" the game in three years (by the end of 2021). There are other projects I have in the pipeline that I'm excited to get to.

jdodson: Wow! Three years is an awesome amount of time to get the game right, what do you plan on adding in that time?

Wick: The stuff I mentioned above for early access, then a structured series of challenges to rebuild the planet's ecosystem & encourage players to explore the nuances of the building mechanics.

jdodson: This question is maybe just for me but have you considered Starship Rubicon 2? If so what would it be? I was thinking you could continue the Starship Rubicon story-verse thing and have it be a series of flight simulations with different students on new earth learning how to be pilots. Pilot from the first game is the leader of the flight academy. Your final test as a student is a recreation of the original game with a slightly different take based on it being a simulation. I have obviously more ideas but I guess none of that is really the question except STARSHIP RUBICON 2 HOW HYPE WOULD THAT BE?

Wick: Haha, I consider Crescent Loom to actually be a low-key sequel to Starship Rubicon, with a not-that-different setup from what you just described. I want to move away from the whole blowing-stuff-up game genre, so my current idea is that the characters are now working with the aliens from SR to restore their destroyed planets with bioengineering.

jdodson: If you could get everyone on the planet to do one thing for 2 minutes on the same day together what would it be?

Wick: Meditation. It'd be nice just to get myself to do it for two minutes a day...

jdodson: What’s the best movie you’ve seen this year?

Wick: I re-watched Secret of Kells. Still one of my absolute favorites.

jdodson: Starship Rubicon is the first new indie game to launch on the Cheerful Ghost Games BBS. You’re sharing space with games about candy and old DOS based BBS games about fishing. Why did you agree to be part of this crazy experiment?

Wick: 'cause you're cool and I like you and I wanna see where it goes.

jdodson: Right now, what’s the hardest part of game development?

Wick: Being solo, I think. I can manage alone, but I keep running into situation where having somebody as deep in the weeds as me to collaborate with would add so much to the game.

jdodson: You recently got back from spending some time at Stugan, which is a game development summer camp in Sweden! Did you collaborate with other developers on Crescent Loom while you were there?

Wick: Friendship is the real treasure! I wrote up a big ol blog post here about all the different ways I got help from my peers there.

jdodson: After we talked last year you said that due to your disappointment with Rogue One you weren’t excited for Episode VIII The Last Jedi. The Last Jedi is out now and it’s on Netflix, did you see it and what did you think?

Wick: Couldn't suspend my disbelief. Why didn't they do that hyperspace-explody thing as plan A, instead of waiting until all their escape pods had been exploded? Why is everybody so obsessed with going out in a blaze of glory? They love having these moments of artificial drama and then saving the day with a last-minute "clever" deus-ex-machinas.

jdodson: My thinking is because they were on the ship already and couldn't ram it into Snokes ship or they'd die on it. Then after they got everyone off, Lura Dern sort of was improvising?

Wick: Again, though, why was that improvising and not plan A?

jdodson: Thanks for doing this interview and double thanks for letting us put Crescent Loom up on our games BBS. Anything you want to leave us with before we part ways?

Wick: It was a pleasure! Remember to stay in school & brush your teeth.

You can play Crescent Loom below and if you want to follow Wick you can sign up for his newsletter at the tinyletter URL below.

https://cheerfulghost.com/games/crescentloom

https://tinyletter.com/wick

Game Dev's Quest is a cool local Oregon Podcast about game development and I was part of their most recent show. In this episode I talked about my history of BBS's and the launch of our new games BBS. If you wanted a deep dive of the games we launched and my absolute love for the retro days of BBS past this is a must listen! I've embedded the audio podcast above but I recommend heading over to Airpodcast to listen below or, even better, subscribing to Game Dev's Quest on the Podcast client of your choice.

"Jon Dodson is back to talk about launching the Cheerful Ghost BBS! We discuss what a Bulletin Board System is, its history, and why we are still interested in them today. We also talk about the history of games and technology and its preservation. Then we finish with a goals check-in."

http://airpodcast.com/game-devs-quest-e75-cheerful-ghost-bbs/

If you didn't know, you can checkout our games BBS by clicking the "games" link above!