
I'm an Engineer and built the video game community Cheerful Ghost and text based mini-MMO Tale of the White Wyvern.
2757 Posts
When it was announced The Witcher 3 was coming to the Switch many people were excited about being able to play it on the go but had doubts about how it would perform. The Witcher 3 finally launched on Switch and Digital Foundry reviewed the port and it looks to be a pretty good port of the game that is cut down visually to accommodate the hardware and fit on a 32G install. I haven't played Witcher 3 yet and this seems like a great way to check it out.

Night of the Living Dead legendary film maker George Romero's first film that create the entire Zombie horror genre. Night of the Living Dead is a black and white film from 1968 that hold's up today as a "bottle" horror film in that it all takes place in a farmhouse. Night of the Living Dead would inspire Romero to create the Night of the Living Dead series including the incredible Day of the Dead.
The original copyright holder didn't renew Night of the Living Dead so it fell into public domain allowing it to be put on YouTube for free and included on Cheerful Ghost for your viewing pleasure. Night of the Living dead has some pretty campy effects but i'd argue the film holds up and is one of the best horror films of all time.
Check it out, IF YOU SCARE! (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rZX1JCPAXQ)
The original copyright holder didn't renew Night of the Living Dead so it fell into public domain allowing it to be put on YouTube for free and included on Cheerful Ghost for your viewing pleasure. Night of the Living dead has some pretty campy effects but i'd argue the film holds up and is one of the best horror films of all time.
Check it out, IF YOU SCARE! (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rZX1JCPAXQ)

Hey everybody! Thanks for playing Tale of the White Wyvern and reading this game update, we’ve been working on a bunch of quality of life updates to the game as well as getting ready for Portland Retro Game Expo. As such there is a lot to share and we’d love to get your input on it all so let’s dive in!
https://cheerfulghost.com/jdodson/posts/4214/come-hang-out-at-portland-retro-game-expo-2019-with-cheerful-ghost
Wyvern Balancing: Significantly changed the 5th Wyvern fight balancing and how the fight operates. The fight is much more fair to players that don't dual class. 🐉
PvP Update: You can now attack players one level below you in the fields. We’ve also Increased the cost of staying in the Inn to a graduated scale that is roughly the amount of gold you find from 3 forest fights at your current level. The Inn protections stay the same.
One piece of feedback we were hearing from players is that they wanted more opportunities to engage in PvP. Also, the Inn protections are so good it was discouraging people from attacking. We think that Inn protections as is are something we want to keep but we thought we could make changes to the fields to encourage more PvP. The goal of increasing the cost of gold to stay at the Inn and broadening the levels you can fight in the fields increases the distinction between the Inn VS the fields and gives the choice more weight.
Player List Update: Change (L)ist Players to (P)layers Online in the menu for clarity and consistency. We now have two selections in the Players Online section in Active Players and Full Player List. Active players is the new top most selection showing you people that have played in the last week. Full player list lists all players.
In game Gold Transfers: You can now transfer gold to other players in the bank. The amount of gold you can transfer depends on the player receiving it and the scale is graduated based on their level. You can effectively transfer the gold the receiver would acquire by fighting 5 times at their level in the forest. Right now you can ONLY send and receive one gold transfer per in-game day.
Portland Retro Game Expo: Added the Portland Retro Game Expo in-game event. Players that join the game during that time will be a fun bonus to daily forest fights.
What’s Next and the Post Endgame
October 18th - 20th Cheerful Ghost will be hanging out at Portland Retro Game Expo at our booth #611. Beyond that we are working on an upcoming in-game event called The Pumpkin Festival which runs October 23rd - November 2nd and will not only provide some daily in-game rewards but also an entirely new Pumpkin Festival square to hang out in and enjoy the festivities. In terms of new features we have finished the concept of another all new area that should add some fun new gameplay that we can’t wait for you to try.
Oh, one more thing… Many players are coming around to kill the Wyvern for the 5th time and not only does that unlock the final chapter in the Tome of Lore but also awards the player the Wyvernslayer title. We’re not going to talk about all the updates to the endgame here but from a high level we still consider the 5th Wyvern kill to be the proper Wyvern story end. With that we are adding another 5 Wyvern fights to the mix and adding more opportunity for people to unlock even more incredible titles! Wyvern power wise we will scale the 6th-10th fights like the 1st-5th. We don’t feel having each Wyvern fight after the 5th be as hard would be very much fun. There are a few more changes to the post endgame that we’ll talk about in a future post that we think will give the game even more replay-ability so stay tuned!
https://cheerfulghost.com/jdodson/posts/4214/come-hang-out-at-portland-retro-game-expo-2019-with-cheerful-ghost
Wyvern Balancing: Significantly changed the 5th Wyvern fight balancing and how the fight operates. The fight is much more fair to players that don't dual class. 🐉
PvP Update: You can now attack players one level below you in the fields. We’ve also Increased the cost of staying in the Inn to a graduated scale that is roughly the amount of gold you find from 3 forest fights at your current level. The Inn protections stay the same.
One piece of feedback we were hearing from players is that they wanted more opportunities to engage in PvP. Also, the Inn protections are so good it was discouraging people from attacking. We think that Inn protections as is are something we want to keep but we thought we could make changes to the fields to encourage more PvP. The goal of increasing the cost of gold to stay at the Inn and broadening the levels you can fight in the fields increases the distinction between the Inn VS the fields and gives the choice more weight.
Player List Update: Change (L)ist Players to (P)layers Online in the menu for clarity and consistency. We now have two selections in the Players Online section in Active Players and Full Player List. Active players is the new top most selection showing you people that have played in the last week. Full player list lists all players.
In game Gold Transfers: You can now transfer gold to other players in the bank. The amount of gold you can transfer depends on the player receiving it and the scale is graduated based on their level. You can effectively transfer the gold the receiver would acquire by fighting 5 times at their level in the forest. Right now you can ONLY send and receive one gold transfer per in-game day.
Portland Retro Game Expo: Added the Portland Retro Game Expo in-game event. Players that join the game during that time will be a fun bonus to daily forest fights.
What’s Next and the Post Endgame
October 18th - 20th Cheerful Ghost will be hanging out at Portland Retro Game Expo at our booth #611. Beyond that we are working on an upcoming in-game event called The Pumpkin Festival which runs October 23rd - November 2nd and will not only provide some daily in-game rewards but also an entirely new Pumpkin Festival square to hang out in and enjoy the festivities. In terms of new features we have finished the concept of another all new area that should add some fun new gameplay that we can’t wait for you to try.
Oh, one more thing… Many players are coming around to kill the Wyvern for the 5th time and not only does that unlock the final chapter in the Tome of Lore but also awards the player the Wyvernslayer title. We’re not going to talk about all the updates to the endgame here but from a high level we still consider the 5th Wyvern kill to be the proper Wyvern story end. With that we are adding another 5 Wyvern fights to the mix and adding more opportunity for people to unlock even more incredible titles! Wyvern power wise we will scale the 6th-10th fights like the 1st-5th. We don’t feel having each Wyvern fight after the 5th be as hard would be very much fun. There are a few more changes to the post endgame that we’ll talk about in a future post that we think will give the game even more replay-ability so stay tuned!

For me, since its launch, Link's Awakening has been all over game news sites, the YouTube channels I watch and gaming podcasts. It seems the little Gameboy game made a huge impression on a ton of gamers and because of that, and the incredible artistry of the remake by Grezzo, this month might as well be called Link's Awakening month.
For years I've downloaded and included the video game remix albums by OCRemix into my gaming playlists and they are back with an all new remix album to celebrate the Link's Awakening remake. OCRemix already released a Link's Awakening remix album in 2010 that I consider one fo the best remix albums of all time called Threshold of a Dream so the bar was set pretty high for this release. That said, they are back with an all new 14 track album called Song of the Sirens that is quite good and if you want to jam even more Link's Awakening into your earholes... this album is for you!
My standout tracks on this remix album are Domain of Darkness, Tal Tal Future, Imprisoned (Color Dungeon), Le Mystere du Possion-Reve and Why is the Island Gone?
After you give this a listen i'd be very interested to know what songs you enjoy.
"Songs of the Sirens: Link's Awakening ReMixed is the 71st free community arrangement album published by OverClocked ReMix. It features 14 arrangements of the soundtrack to legendary Game Boy adventure title The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening from 14 artists in a variety of styles and in celebration of this classic game's remake for the Nintendo Switch."
Songs of the Sirens: Link's Awakening ReMixed:
http://sirens.ocremix.org/
and if you are looking for Threshold of a Dream released in 2010:
http://threshold.ocremix.org/
For years I've downloaded and included the video game remix albums by OCRemix into my gaming playlists and they are back with an all new remix album to celebrate the Link's Awakening remake. OCRemix already released a Link's Awakening remix album in 2010 that I consider one fo the best remix albums of all time called Threshold of a Dream so the bar was set pretty high for this release. That said, they are back with an all new 14 track album called Song of the Sirens that is quite good and if you want to jam even more Link's Awakening into your earholes... this album is for you!
My standout tracks on this remix album are Domain of Darkness, Tal Tal Future, Imprisoned (Color Dungeon), Le Mystere du Possion-Reve and Why is the Island Gone?
After you give this a listen i'd be very interested to know what songs you enjoy.
"Songs of the Sirens: Link's Awakening ReMixed is the 71st free community arrangement album published by OverClocked ReMix. It features 14 arrangements of the soundtrack to legendary Game Boy adventure title The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening from 14 artists in a variety of styles and in celebration of this classic game's remake for the Nintendo Switch."
Songs of the Sirens: Link's Awakening ReMixed:
http://sirens.ocremix.org/
and if you are looking for Threshold of a Dream released in 2010:
http://threshold.ocremix.org/

Games Done Quick at this years Twitch Con was a weekend of incredible runs and as I've been catching up watching the runs I missed I wanted to share with you this speedrun of Zelda II: The Adventure of Link by mustbetuesdaymusic and megmacattack. The run clocks in at 1:17:12 making this a quite speedy run of Adventure of Link but one difference is that instead of hearing the in-game audio mustbetuesdaymusic plays the score on his piano for the entire run. Come for The Adventure of Link and stay for the sweet piano ballads during the entire run.

October 18th - 20th Cheerful Ghost will be at the Portland Retro Game Expo at booth #611! This year is going to be a fun one as we have quite a few things happening at our booth you will absolutely want to check out!
Our Retro Gaming Tournaments
We are running two retro game tournaments per day over the course of the two expo days starting with Super Mario Bros. 3 and F-Zero on Saturday and finishing up with Super Mario Bros. and Dr. Mario on Sunday. The rules and prizes for the tournaments are on the PRGE website and will be printed in the guide available for all attendees.
https://www.retrogamingexpo.com/tournaments.php
Tale of the White Wyvern Free DLC, In-Game Event and Stickers!
We'll have an expo build of Tale of the White Wyvern available for attendees to play as well as handing out special Portland Retro Game Expo in game DLC. Attendees of PRGE 2019 that stop by our booth will get a special code to unlock the "Dot Matrix Defender" title alongside 500 gold and 2 gems! This special DLC will only last a month after the expo so make sure to redeem it once you can! To add to the fun we'll also be running an in-game Wyvern PRGE event that will give everyone that logs in during the Portland Retro Game Expo extra forest fights as a fun convention bonus!
We also have some brand new Tale of the White Wyvern stickers so check out our booth on how you'll be able pick one up.
You can play Tale of the White Wyvern for free right now at https://thewhitewyvern.com/
VHS Tapes For Sale
Each year we hand select fun VHS tapes to sell and this year we will be curating an extra special selection that will make your Magnavox jealous.
https://www.retrogamingexpo.com/
Our Retro Gaming Tournaments
We are running two retro game tournaments per day over the course of the two expo days starting with Super Mario Bros. 3 and F-Zero on Saturday and finishing up with Super Mario Bros. and Dr. Mario on Sunday. The rules and prizes for the tournaments are on the PRGE website and will be printed in the guide available for all attendees.
https://www.retrogamingexpo.com/tournaments.php
Tale of the White Wyvern Free DLC, In-Game Event and Stickers!
We'll have an expo build of Tale of the White Wyvern available for attendees to play as well as handing out special Portland Retro Game Expo in game DLC. Attendees of PRGE 2019 that stop by our booth will get a special code to unlock the "Dot Matrix Defender" title alongside 500 gold and 2 gems! This special DLC will only last a month after the expo so make sure to redeem it once you can! To add to the fun we'll also be running an in-game Wyvern PRGE event that will give everyone that logs in during the Portland Retro Game Expo extra forest fights as a fun convention bonus!
We also have some brand new Tale of the White Wyvern stickers so check out our booth on how you'll be able pick one up.
You can play Tale of the White Wyvern for free right now at https://thewhitewyvern.com/
VHS Tapes For Sale
Each year we hand select fun VHS tapes to sell and this year we will be curating an extra special selection that will make your Magnavox jealous.
https://www.retrogamingexpo.com/

Games Done Quick is the pinnacle charity speedrun event and is happening this weekend during Twitch Con. This years round of runs will benefit the Able Gamers Charity and I encourage you to watch it and donate!
https://gamesdonequick.com/
https://ablegamers.org/
https://gamesdonequick.com/
https://ablegamers.org/

To celebrate Batman week the Epic Games store is giving away the three Batman Arkham Collection games including
Batman: Arkham Asylum Game of the Year Edition, Batman: Arkham City - Game of the Year Edition, Batman Arkham Knight AND Lego Batman the Video Game, Lego Batman 2 DC Super Heroes and Lego Batman 3 Beyond Gotham.
This is an incredible amount of free Batman games on PC and if you were interested in playing these games this is a good time to get them.
https://www.epicgames.com/store/en-US/collection/batman-free-week
Batman: Arkham Asylum Game of the Year Edition, Batman: Arkham City - Game of the Year Edition, Batman Arkham Knight AND Lego Batman the Video Game, Lego Batman 2 DC Super Heroes and Lego Batman 3 Beyond Gotham.
This is an incredible amount of free Batman games on PC and if you were interested in playing these games this is a good time to get them.
https://www.epicgames.com/store/en-US/collection/batman-free-week

When Tale of the White Wyvern launched on July 28th we also released the free Original Hype DLC pack. If you share or have shared the game on any social media platform we will send you the Original Hype DLC pack for free that includes the Original Hype in-game title, 500 gold and 2 gems! If you haven't picked this up yet, I encourage you to do so because when October 1st hits the DLC will expire FOREVER!
The Original Hype unlock-able title you earn in Wyvern will transfer to any new game we create so get this now to be the envy of future Wyvern players!
Check the full post below if you are curious how this works and if you share it on social, let us know and we'll get you the Original Hype pack!
https://cheerfulghost.com/Travis/posts/4166/the-original-hype-launch-campaign-get-your-free-wyvern-dlc
The Original Hype unlock-able title you earn in Wyvern will transfer to any new game we create so get this now to be the envy of future Wyvern players!
Check the full post below if you are curious how this works and if you share it on social, let us know and we'll get you the Original Hype pack!
https://cheerfulghost.com/Travis/posts/4166/the-original-hype-launch-campaign-get-your-free-wyvern-dlc

When the Link's Awakening remake was recently announced in a Nintendo Direct I was in. Link's Awakening was already one of the best Zelda games in the franchise and remaking it seemed like a great idea. I pre-ordered the Dreamer Edition and it finally released last Friday and I wanted to write up my first thoughts as well as recap a bit of what others are saying about it.
A Worthy Remake of a Classic Game
In a nutshell the Link's Awakening remake is a very worthy remake for one of the best video games of all time. You can tell that a lot of love and attention was poured into this game by Grezzo and Nintendo and a very keen eye was paid to recreate the original game nearly beat for beat. That said, it's not perfect and a few glaring issues keep it from a perfect score.
Link's Awakening Suffers From Framerate Problems
The biggest issue that of the Link's Awakening remake is that it suffers from framerate issues. The game mostly keeps to a 60 hz/fps rate but at times dips to 30 and it's quite noticeable. Apparently this was an issue that many people noticed when the game was demoed originally that has improved but some issues still remain. I hope Greezo and Nintendo are working on an update because playing this game entirely lag free would be incredible. That said, it's a great game, you're just gonna notice the lag or at least, I do.
The Score
As a huge fan of the original Link's Awakening I consider that Gameboy the Gameboy Color DX to be nearly perfect games. Grezzo and Nintendo decided to go with a score that remakes the original chiptunes in a Breath of the Wild style orchestral motif. The end result is a very personal sounding score that makes you feel like the musicians are in the room playing along with the game. The recording of the songs is quite dynamic and the musicians themselves put a ton of style into the songs creating something very special. With that, this is one part of the game i'm not entirely sure about. The music is fantastic but as someone that adores chiptunes on the Gameboy i'm not sure the music is better or on par with the original score. Not all aspects of a remake will be better and for me, perhaps, i'm still stuck in the past with respect to the score.
The Remake Changes A Few Things
A few things I noticed that the remake changes were the opening cinematic. It's fairly faithful to the opening Gameboy scenes except the new anime style doesn't have music. The opening Gameboy scenes and score are forever burned into my brain so when the new cutscene dropped the music this was one change I noticed. Instead the new cutscene uses the visuals and sound effects to create tension instead of leaning into the score. It's a fun change and works quite well.
The Trendy game you play to collect the Yoshi doll and other items is one iconic element of the original Link's Awakening and they include it in the remake with a twist. In the old Trendy game the items moved around in a circle on a conveyer belt and the new game forgoes that entirely. The Trendy game claw in the remake, just like claw games in real life, can drop your items in odd ways that feel cheap but in the end this version of the game might be easier. This isn't a huge difference, but something I did notice.
The Visuals
Any review on the Link's Awakening Remake is going to mention the new lush toy like 3D visuals and how incredible they are and everyone would be correct. I won't talk much more about it but will note that the new interpretations of the Gameboy classic is quite bold and sometimes goofy. That said, the original game was pretty goofy too.
The Influence of Link Between Worlds
One thing I haven't seen discussed when people talk about the new Link's Awakening remake is how it feels like a proper follow up to Link Between Worlds. Link Between Worlds was a sequel to Link to the Past on the 3DS and the Link's Awakening Remake really feels like a continuation of that Zelda gameplay, art and musical style. Link Between Worlds didn't feature such a shiny 3D style, my guess is because the 3DS wasn't quite capable of it. That said, if Nintendo continues with the flagship Zelda games ala Breath of the Wild and the top-down Link Between Worlds / Link's Awakening style of game I'm in.
To compare Link Between Worlds and the new Link's Awakening Remake check the Link Between Worlds Trailer below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_auhDR8VjU
The Story So Far
I've played the game up to the Slime Dungeon and so far, it's been incredibly fun. Link's Awakening isn't a very long game and so far they haven't added anything to it in terms of extending the story. I'll do a full review once I'm done with the game but if the game ends like it starts, it's gonna be really fun.
A Worthy Remake of a Classic Game
In a nutshell the Link's Awakening remake is a very worthy remake for one of the best video games of all time. You can tell that a lot of love and attention was poured into this game by Grezzo and Nintendo and a very keen eye was paid to recreate the original game nearly beat for beat. That said, it's not perfect and a few glaring issues keep it from a perfect score.
Link's Awakening Suffers From Framerate Problems
The biggest issue that of the Link's Awakening remake is that it suffers from framerate issues. The game mostly keeps to a 60 hz/fps rate but at times dips to 30 and it's quite noticeable. Apparently this was an issue that many people noticed when the game was demoed originally that has improved but some issues still remain. I hope Greezo and Nintendo are working on an update because playing this game entirely lag free would be incredible. That said, it's a great game, you're just gonna notice the lag or at least, I do.
The Score
As a huge fan of the original Link's Awakening I consider that Gameboy the Gameboy Color DX to be nearly perfect games. Grezzo and Nintendo decided to go with a score that remakes the original chiptunes in a Breath of the Wild style orchestral motif. The end result is a very personal sounding score that makes you feel like the musicians are in the room playing along with the game. The recording of the songs is quite dynamic and the musicians themselves put a ton of style into the songs creating something very special. With that, this is one part of the game i'm not entirely sure about. The music is fantastic but as someone that adores chiptunes on the Gameboy i'm not sure the music is better or on par with the original score. Not all aspects of a remake will be better and for me, perhaps, i'm still stuck in the past with respect to the score.
The Remake Changes A Few Things
A few things I noticed that the remake changes were the opening cinematic. It's fairly faithful to the opening Gameboy scenes except the new anime style doesn't have music. The opening Gameboy scenes and score are forever burned into my brain so when the new cutscene dropped the music this was one change I noticed. Instead the new cutscene uses the visuals and sound effects to create tension instead of leaning into the score. It's a fun change and works quite well.
The Trendy game you play to collect the Yoshi doll and other items is one iconic element of the original Link's Awakening and they include it in the remake with a twist. In the old Trendy game the items moved around in a circle on a conveyer belt and the new game forgoes that entirely. The Trendy game claw in the remake, just like claw games in real life, can drop your items in odd ways that feel cheap but in the end this version of the game might be easier. This isn't a huge difference, but something I did notice.
The Visuals
Any review on the Link's Awakening Remake is going to mention the new lush toy like 3D visuals and how incredible they are and everyone would be correct. I won't talk much more about it but will note that the new interpretations of the Gameboy classic is quite bold and sometimes goofy. That said, the original game was pretty goofy too.
The Influence of Link Between Worlds
One thing I haven't seen discussed when people talk about the new Link's Awakening remake is how it feels like a proper follow up to Link Between Worlds. Link Between Worlds was a sequel to Link to the Past on the 3DS and the Link's Awakening Remake really feels like a continuation of that Zelda gameplay, art and musical style. Link Between Worlds didn't feature such a shiny 3D style, my guess is because the 3DS wasn't quite capable of it. That said, if Nintendo continues with the flagship Zelda games ala Breath of the Wild and the top-down Link Between Worlds / Link's Awakening style of game I'm in.
To compare Link Between Worlds and the new Link's Awakening Remake check the Link Between Worlds Trailer below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_auhDR8VjU
The Story So Far
I've played the game up to the Slime Dungeon and so far, it's been incredibly fun. Link's Awakening isn't a very long game and so far they haven't added anything to it in terms of extending the story. I'll do a full review once I'm done with the game but if the game ends like it starts, it's gonna be really fun.

Man, it looks like digital vibrance is set high in this video.
I played The Witcher 3 on my Alienware PC and I really enjoyed it! I think I was using the GTX 690 at the time. I'm not really sure there was anything I didn't like about this game. I really liked the story, the characters, the mini-game customizable card game called Gwent, etc. Geralt is certainly a favorite "hero" in my eyes now. I recently got to play as him in Monster Hunter: World as there was a collaboration done between the two games. It tempted me to play Witcher 3 again.
As for this video. It looks really good on PS4, but not so great on the Switch. I'm not even sure if I'd notice the difference if they weren't compared together on the same screen.
I seem to recall recently discovering that there is a new texture pack (possibly via the Steam Workshop) that you can download to make the game look even better.
As I said, I really loved Witcher 3. I haven't played it a second time, probably because it's so long, especially if you do every quest, there are very many of them. I often wouldn't leave an area until I finished all the quests in the area that were around the level I was at. I hesitated moving on, although it wasn't really necessary. Maybe I'll play the game again, I do believe it is a great game. I wasn't so fond of the first two games in the series, especially the first and I have my reasons. I don't think you really need to play the first two before this one, I don't think they really gave much of a back story, so they're kind of, maybe slightly irrelevant to this one.
Here's a shameless plug, I actually wrote about all three games on here, check it out if you want to learn more about it. I haven't looked at what I wrote in a long time. I'm not sure if I combined them together or not.
Thanks for sharing!
Also, regarding your title, isn't W3 on the Switch the only way to play it on the go?
> Also, regarding your title, isn't W3 on the Switch the only way to play it on the go?
You can play it on a laptop and that's a great way to play it but the Switch is a bit lighter and quite a bit cheaper.
My apologies, I hadn't thought of that. I don't know why I didn't think about a laptop.