It's a special time when Valve talks about a new game coming out but this one i've been speculating about for months. Digital Card games are the new hotness seen through the massive success of Hearthstone, Magic Online, Faeria, The Witcher Card Game, Elder Scrolls Legends and more and I've thought that Valve would be interested in getting in on it. Looks like they were thinking the same thing because in 2018 Artifact - The Dota Card Game will launch. So far all we've got is a very short trailer that only shows off the games four color logo that may be a tip to the different colored cards in Artifact? I guess time will tell what kind of digital card game it is but so far all the information about the game Valve is releasing on the Artifact Twitter page.

I imagine the game will be free to play with packs you can open and a ton of loot chests with cosmetic card backs and more. I am curious if there will be some shared loot with Dota 2 though? Also wondering how different Artifact will be from other existing digital card games on the market or if Valve will do something different? Will there be a VR component to Artifact? Are you interested in Dota digital card game from Valve?

So many questions that will be answered as time marches closer to the 2018 release date.

https://twitter.com/playartifact

**UPDATE**

A few websites are noting a few details about the game, i've clipped the important bits below:

"The digital card game will be out in 2018. It’ll feature lanes, use characters like Bounty Hunter, and have cards like barracks that will push waves of minions down each player’s avenue of attack. It’ll be a card game version of Dota 2, essentially."

https://compete.kotaku.com/valve-announces-artifact-a-dota-card-game-1797662448

GameCube has been traditionally bound to composite OR crazy expensive component cables UNITL NOW! Metal Jesus reviewed a really awesome GameCube HDMI connector made by zeldaxpro and the interest for them has been so high he can't meet demand right now! Basically zeldaxpro hacked the GameCube digital out port to accept HDMI and apparently makes them by hand at his house, which is why he is having a hard time meeting demand.

This is one of the reasons why I love the retro game community so much because long after the lifespan of a console is over people are still creating really amazing hardware to keep systems going.

https://zzblogs.wixsite.com/home/single-post/pnpgc2

UPDATE Apparently if version 2 of this HDMI adapter is moved during use it can brick your GameCube. The creator is moving to make a version 3 that doesn't do this but MetalJesus has an update video about it:

https://youtu.be/wvd-73clV6E

New Wolfenstein is coming soon and as such Bethesda is pushing it hard online. Some of the stuff coming out is pretty interesting including the above mini conversation with Wolfensteins designers. The key takeaway from this video? Expect many Nazis to die by the hands of the resistance.

Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus and all of it's Nazi murder simulative goodness will release October 27th on PC, PS4 and XBox One.

I got a new 3DS for Christmas this year and after getting it i've been picking up a growing back catalog of DS and 3DS games. New Super Mario Bros. DS was one of those games and I've always wanted to try it after it came out in 2006. I found it at Goodwill and then later picked up the box and manual for a couple bucks at Portland Retro Game Expo. I've had a save that's been at World 8 for the last couple months and recently I decided to finally beat the game. I'm glad I did too because it was nice to finally wrap things up.

In 2006 Nintendo tried to bring back old school Mario platforming and New Super Mario Bros smashed on the scene to great reviews. I'd say it's a nearly perfect Mario game in that it's fun and feels challenging enough. The first handful of Worlds aren't terribly difficult but they are inventive and fun. The last few Worlds, 8 in particular, ramp the difficulty up considerably which makes beating them all the more rewarding.

Nintendo brought Mario to iPhones and Androids recently and I much prefer a traditional play style Mario game like New Super Mario Bros to the tap to play Mario Run. Mario Run is just about the best you can do on a phone but New Super Mario Bros is some of the best Mario platforming around and the traditional style d-pad thumb controls on the 3DS really make it shine.

If you have a DS or 3DS I recommend adding New Super Mario Bros to your collection. The "New" Mario platforming series has received a couple sequels such as New Super Mario Bros Wii, New Super Mario Bros 2(on 3DS) & New Super Mario Bros U. All of those games look great and I plan on picking them up at some point. It seems Nintendo is hip to keep the "New" Mario platforming franchise going and I expect that they will bring a new game to the Switch at some point to keep the old school platforming alive for their new shiny system. And if they do and you have a Switch I recommend you look into it because if it's anything like New Super Mario Bros it will be well worth playing.

Elder Scrolls Legends dropped on iPhone and Android recently and I installed it to try it out and it's a really solid port of the PC game. It seems Bethesda is following the tried and true path of releasing a digital card game on PC first, come to tablets next and then phones afterward. The phone ports come right in time for the Skyrim coming to Elder Scrolls Legends so if you wanted to try that out, now is the time.

Hopefully Valve and EA join the digital card game market and release phone game clients because by then we won't call them smartphones anymore, we'll call them card game handhelds.

https://legends.bethesda.net/articles/legends-on-phones?locale=en

Actraiser by Straevaras in 1:01:12 is a run worth watching especially if you are unfamiliar with ActRaiser like I was. Yeah, ActRasier might be on my "list of shame" but this run is still amazing to watch and Straevaras makes the game look like a breeze.

E.V.O.: Search for Eden by Darkwing Duck in 51:06 is a fun run especially if you like jumping. Taking advantage of buils that favor agility, this run is blisteringly quick. There are more than a few tense moments as the Darkwing Duck sinks nearly all the skill points into agility making it quite possible to get one shotted many moments in the run.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8a5ioaqzWfw

Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment by MunchaKoopas in 45:02 if you haven't played this follow up to Shovel Knight check out this run because you see all of it quickly. Wait, isn't that every speedrun? Well yeah but Shovel Knight is a great example of a modern game that was made for speedrunning and this run shows off why.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCnsVsre2KU

Avenging Spirit by johncarls in 9:27 If you are looking for a run of Gameboy game you never heard of, check out Avenging Spirit. The game starts out with you dying and then coming back as an... AVENGING SPIRIT! It's a cool premise and the game is well explained along the way by johncarls.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tdw1X-noXw8

I'm not going to pretend I understand this but I thought it was worth sharing.

Please give your interpretations in the comments.

Just wanted to post a follow up about my Super Nintendo Classic pre-order. It might not be news to anyone at this point but Walmart sent out the pre-order for the Super Nintendo Classic by mistake and as such cancelled them. Apparently everyone that got one isn't getting one anymore and we are now back in line for a Super Nintendo Classic with everyone else. And it's quite upsetting.

I was beyond happy that I got a pre-order and thought that I was one of the lucky few. As someone that plans on actually playing it when I get it, this is really unfortunate. It's possible Nintendo could increase stock on the Super Nintendo Classic making it easier to buy in stores... but i'm not counting on it. It's possible I could find myself lucky again to get a pre-order but again... i'm not counting on it even though i've signed up for pre-order notices on BestBuy, Walmart and Amazon.

Recently I picked up 8Bitdo's NES30 Pro bluetooth gamepad. I have a bunch of PC controllers but most of them like the XBox 360 controller are great for PC shooters and other games but not great for traditional platformers or retro games.

The NES30 advertises support for the PC, Mac, Android, iOS & more recently the Switch. With some research I found out that the NES30 supports iOS through iCade which is a pseduo-standard that began with the iCade for iPad where the controller acts like a keyboard and games that support the iCade respond to certain keyboard button presses. It's an interesting work around to Apple not having a controller standard at the time until they released MFi which is a new Apple certification standard for controllers. Because of this iCade support is limited to a handful of games and apparently 8Bitdo doesn't support it anymore because in the recent controller firmware they removed iCade support and added support for the Switch. I can understand why they did that and truth be told, you can rollback the firmware to get iCade support but you'd then lose support for the Switch. It would be nice to eventually buy one controller to work with all your devices but it seems Apple disallows this in the MFi licensing terms so, for now, it's not going to happen.

The NES30 pairs beautifully with my Mac, PC and Android devices and once setup works flawlessly. It's very light and feels great in the hand. The buttons and action really remind me of the original Nintendo controllers and the analog thumbsticks aren't too bad. I don't think i'd use the NES30 for a modern shooter but for the handful of platformers and retro games I played with it it worked really well.

Last night after we tucked away the little one to sleep my partner and I decided to watch a movie. More than half way in a Cheerful Ghost user hardeyez texts me that he just pre-ordered the Super Nintendo Classic on Walmart and I should head over to do the same. Immediately I let my partner know the emergency situation and we paused the film and I frantically created a Walmart account and put in the pre-order in what I consider to be the quickest new account creation process ever. A few minutes later I messaged Travis, WhiteboySlim and Scrypt but by the time Travis went to pre-order the Classic that Walmart page had crashed. I heard stories that people that pre-ordered the system woke up to Walmart telling them they didn't have stock for them but... so far... it looks like it's a pre-order success story.

Needless to say securing a Super Nintendo Classic really made my evening and that next morning. I really wanted to get the Nintendo Classic and wasn't looking forward to having another year roll by and missing out on Nintendo next retro re-release. According to Walmart the Super Nintendo Classic should arrive on October 6th which is just in time for it to get packed away for Christmas. Even though i'm getting the Super Nintendo Classic October 6th I still want to wrap it up and open it on Christmas. It just seems like playing it on Christmas morning is the best way to experience it.. or at least that's the plan right now.

Some people have noted what the point of getting one is if you own quite a few of these games already? That's a good point but considering I don't actually own most of these games, this is a pretty inexpensive way to get them. I don't own Earthbound and getting the SNES cart for $300 doesn't sound that appealing to me. Plus out of all 21 games on the Super Nintendo Classic technically I only own 5 and it would be 6 if the kid I loaned Secret of Mana too returned it to me. Funny story with that is a couple of years ago I met that kid at a bar and I mentioned to him he still had my Secret of Mana cart. We both laughed and he said that i'd never get it back.

Now I will.

http://www.nintendo.com/super-nes-classic

If you want to listen to me pine away about the Super Nintendo Classic you should listen to the first Episode of a new Podcast "Cheerful Ghost Radio."

http://cheerfulghost.com/jdodson/posts/3391/cheerful-ghost-radio-episode-1-the-first-one-where-we-talk-about-the-super-nintendo-classic