Cheerful Ghost: An Awesome Community For Gamers

Portland Retro Game Expo 2016 - VHS, a Broken NES & The Retron 3

Portland Retro Game Expo is a mecca for retro game lovers. This year we had a booth a the convention and ran four NES speedrun and score tournaments. Packie was the overall tournament master by winning two of our contests starting with his blistering 2 minute 04 second Super Mario Brothers 1-4 speedrun. Packie then ended the convention by absolutely demolishing our Dr. Mario score tournament with a score of 334,400! His Dr Mario ability was incredible and i've never really seen anything like his setup and execution of combos. Ben won Papers, Please on Steam for his 1 minute 26 second speedrun of Super Mario Brothers 3 to the first Toad House. Philly won our RC Pro AM... Read All Portland Retro Game Expo is a mecca for retro game lovers. This year we had a booth a the convention and ran four NES speedrun and score tournaments. Packie was the overall tournament master by winning two of our contests starting with his blistering 2 minute 04 second Super Mario Brothers 1-4 speedrun. Packie then ended the convention by absolutely demolishing our Dr. Mario score tournament with a score of 334,400! His Dr Mario ability was incredible and i've never really seen anything like his setup and execution of combos. Ben won Papers, Please on Steam for his 1 minute 26 second speedrun of Super Mario Brothers 3 to the first Toad House. Philly won our RC Pro AM score tournament with a incredible final score of 18,658! I want to thank everyone that took part in our contests as each was unique to watch and some were won on the edge of a knife, or in this case a controller.

As Adam and I were preparing for our booth this year we identified early on that we wanted to run a few NES tournaments and I realized that the best way to do that was to get an old CRT TV. After looking at some options I decided that getting a TV/VCR combo seemed like the coolest option as I haven't owned a VCR in well more than a decade. As I scoured the local Goodwill and other second hand stores I also noticed how cheap VHS films were and that it might be fun to start a small collection. Between each tournament we played a couple VHS films such as Tron and Back to the Future and people seemed to really like that. Besides showing a few films between our tournaments I also had a few movies out on the table I was showing and more than a couple times people seemed interested in buying them. I didn't know there was even a small market for VHS films but I suppose a retro game convention would be the place to pick them up if you wanted to.

After our first NES tournament my childhood NES we were running the tournaments on stopped working. I was really upset as this NES had been with me since I got it for Christmas from my Grandparents back in the early 90's. Having your NES break at a retro game convention is pretty fortunate but I wasn't ready to pull the trigger on getting a new one quite yet but we had to continue the tournaments. In the end I decided on picking up a Retron 3 and that worked out really well. The Retron 3 not only plays NES games but it also accepts SNES and Genesis carts. We continued our NES tournaments without a hitch and I was surprised at how incredible the Retron worked with my existing NES games and controllers. After the convention was over I set it up with the TV in my office and played some of the games I picked up at the convention such as Mortal Kombat and NBA Jam on Genesis. Apparently Sega Genesis games are much cheaper than the SNES counterparts because collectors seem to prefer the Super Nintendo. Whereas I think the Super Nintendo does indeed have better colors and sound the Genesis ports of games are extremely solid and I have been having a blast playing Mortal Kombat on it. So much so that I plan on doing a formal review in the upcoming weeks on what I think of the game and my thoughts on the Genesis port.

I want to thank everyone that checked out the booth at this years Portland Retro Game Expo and hopefully we will be able to do it next year. We are already planning on attending and have some ideas on how to make it better but if you have ideas, i'd love to hear them.

If you are interested in seeing more of the convention you can hit the link on some pictures I took in an imgur album below:

http://imgur.com/a/YwFQk

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 11/02/2016 at 06:01am

That sounds awesome! Well, except that your NES failed you. I hope it's not dead. Nintendo used to have places you could take it for repairs, up until a few (or more) years ago that is. I never heard of the Retron 3, but it sounds amazing! I have an extremely small library of NES and SNES carts. I know exactly where my NES is (I think I got it around 13 years ago, maybe more), but I have no idea what happened to the SNES I had.

This event sounds and even looks totally awesome. I can imagine majorly geeking out there!

AdamPFarnsworth wrote on 11/02/2016 at 03:04pm

This was such a great experience. I've gone to the expo for the past few years as just an attendee, but when Jon asked if I could help out at the booth, I jumped at the chance.

This is such a great convention as there's so much to do and everyone is incredibly friendly. People really do come from all over the country, so everyone had an interesting perspective.

The game competitions we ran blew me away. The combos Packers was pulling out on Dr. Mario... I honestly thought he was messing up, until he started nailing multiple-stage combos (he'd clear 8-10 viruses at a time... I can't adequately describe how much it blew my mind). The speed running competitions we're amazing as well. The precision some players had was astounding. I think I learned a thing or two, but would need to practice forever to even get close to the fastest times.

I got to talk to people about Cheerful Ghost, but I wish I had talked more about the site. The competitions took up the majority of Jon's and my attention lol. Next year I hope to be able to talk CG up more.

All around it was a great couple days. Thank you Jon for letting me be a part of it! I already can't wait for next year!

Will_Ball Game Mod Super Member wrote on 11/02/2016 at 06:23pm

How does the retron 3 feel with inserting and pulling out carts? I read some comments on the 5 that it felt like it was going to break them.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 11/02/2016 at 08:26pm

Will: Yep, it really does clamp on to them hard. It didn't seem to harm them but I wonder how that would work longer term?

Will_Ball Game Mod Super Member wrote on 11/02/2016 at 09:31pm

I think it would be fun to try to build something similar to a retron... Maybe with a raspberry pi? Have an emulator that runs on the pi, then have a device of sorts that takes the carts, plus some retro controller to usb functionality.

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Twitch Prime Continues It's Rewards With 2 Free Games & Twitch Game Launcher

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Amazon recently debuted it's new Twitch Prime service that allowed existing and new Amazon Prime users a free Twitch subscription and some fun Hearthstone DLC. Since I already had Amazon Prime and play Hearthstone signing up for the free stuff made sense. Amazon mentioned that there would be monthly benefits to Twitch Prime and this month they are releasing some free DLC for Watch Dogs 2 and giving away Punch Club and This War Of Mine: Anniversary Edition. If Amazon keeps dropping free games and premium DLC every month it really makes the prospect of Twitch Prime a much sweeter deal. With that the free games don't seem to be Steam codes like you might expect.... Read All

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 11/02/2016 at 05:54am

I found out about the newest Prime free stuff in what seems quite a while ago. None of it interests me, though, so I don't really have any intention of grabbing any of it. Let me know what you think of it if you grab any of it.

As for the launcher, yeah that kind of sucks. Why are there so many game launchers? Ugh!

I have created a Twitch account because of Twitch Prime. I subscribed to two of my favorite YouTubers there and added Ark to my interests. Other than grabbing the Hearthstone stuff, I haven't done anything else with it. I haven't even watched any Twitch videos.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 11/02/2016 at 06:04am

I'd recommend trying out Pumch Club as it's a really interesting fighting sim.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 11/02/2016 at 06:18am

I might figure this out before you reply, but where do I download the launcher from?

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 11/02/2016 at 06:26am

Ok, I think it's like last time. I look at my channel and on the left is a "FREE WITH PRIME" list. I don't see the new stuff there now, so it might not yet be available. I imagine when it is there it will lead you to download the launcher. That's just an assumption (and hope) though.

Oh and can we get our Twitch usernames on our CheerfulGhost profiles just like we have Steam, PSN, etc.?

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 11/02/2016 at 02:19pm

Yeah good call, I'll add that to our profiles.

AdamPFarnsworth wrote on 11/02/2016 at 03:08pm

Just a random thought about Twitch. I've been watching it lately really late overnight (I am working in a Red Cross disaster shelter in North Carolina and have the 8pm to 8am shift, so I have a lot of free time). I've not found a ton of actual games that I enjoy watching, but some streamers do other things, like karaoke (sometimes they're pretty bad singers, which just makes it more fun lol). I enjoy the players who interact with the viewers and have found it can be a lot of fun :)

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 11/02/2016 at 09:56pm

@Jon heck for that matter, why not add Bethesda.Net and Origin on there, too? LOL

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 11/03/2016 at 02:56am

Oh, I thought Twitch would have a public profile available for users, apparently it doesn't.

Currently we only show other public profile links on someones Cheerful Ghost profile page. For instance, my StarCraft II and Diablo III pages are public, so we link to them.

Our Battle.net tags and stuff aren't public so we don't link them up on the profile page. We need to figure out a good way to share this private account stuff with people you want but so far we haven't built anything for that.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 11/03/2016 at 03:32am

Ah, I see. Well really we don't need to link everything. There's no need to make things more difficult for CheerfulGhost. What we can't or don't link can be asked for or advertised, such as my name on pretty much everything is GregoPeck. :)

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 11/10/2016 at 04:11am

I see the Watch Dogs 2 content, but none of the others.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 11/10/2016 at 04:18am

I found the Twitch Launcher download link here:
https://help.twitch.tv/customer/portal/articles/2574721-twitch-prime-game-code-redemption-and-installation

Which points to this direct link:
https://launcher.twitch.tv/TwitchLauncherInstaller.exe

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 11/10/2016 at 04:40am

Yeah, I don't see the other stuff either. Maybe you need to install the launcher to get the games?

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 11/10/2016 at 05:07am

I did that and it said "no games." So maybe the other stuff will come later, I guess.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 11/10/2016 at 05:56am

Yeah it might be an eventual rollout for the whole month?

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 11/19/2016 at 02:01am

This War of Mine is now available!

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 11/24/2016 at 05:48am

Punch Club is now available!

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Happy Halloween - What's Everyone Playing?

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Just wanted to wish everyone a very Scary Halloween! Since Halloween falls on a Monday this year I imagine most celebration happened over the weekend but i'm still curious what you all are doing this year? We were going to have a small party but instead we all got sick so we cancelled that and are going to watch the new Ghostbusters later tonight. Also wondering what people have been playing lately? As per normal i've been playing ... Hearthstone. Yeah, I know, not a huge surprise there but I have been continuing my Final Fantasy VI advance game as well as really tearing into Mortal Kombat on the Sega Genesis.

Stay safe if you are going to be out celebrating or doing... Read All

Grab Nearly Every Modern Double Fine Game & More In The Humble Day of the Devs Bundle

If you are a fan of old Tim Schaffer & LucasArts adventure games and want to try your hand at some newer Double Fine & iam8bit games you absolutely must look into the Day of the Devs Bundle. Containing such hits as Lumino City, Broken Age, Titan Souls, Massive Chalice, Oxenfree, Grim Fandango Remastered & Day of the Tentacle Remastered. I am picking this up because i've been waiting on picking up Day of the Tentacle and now seems like a good time to do it.

All of the games have Steam keys and are available DRM free and all but two are available for Windows, Mac and Linux.

https://www.humblebundle.com/day-of-the-devs-2016

Rygar - NES Review

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Hey all, I recently sat down and played through Rygar on my NES. My overall review of the game is, that while fun, it is pretty easy. I feel that the lack of save game is the part that makes it most difficult. I had fun revisiting this game from a nostalgia point of view, but there are better games out there.

If you are interested in reading a more in-depth review, here is the link:

https://willballblog.wordpress.com/2016/10/28/rygar-nes-version-1987/

Night In The Woods Haunts Steam & PS4 on January 10th

"College dropout Mae Borowski returns home to the crumbling former mining town of Possum Springs seeking to resume her aimless former life and reconnect with the friends she left behind. But things aren't the same. Home seems different now and her friends have grown and changed. Leaves are falling and the wind is growing colder. Strange things are happening as the light fades.

And there's something in the woods."

Night in the Woods is launching January 10th after a successful Kickstarter project. As a run up to the game the project developers released the side game Lost Constellation and Longest Night. Both are set in the Night in the Woods universe and are available to... Read All

The Angry Video Game Nerd Discovers Something You All Need To See About The Berenstein Bears

Today’s Freshmen in High School will be learning aboutThe Berenstein Bears as an book title that happened before they were born.

Yet, the relevance of The Berenstein Bears is felt through our lives to this day. It is impossible to avoid the places we as a nation have gone. Scars and open wounds stain our stars and stripes.

We must understand that what we were told about this book title is a lie.

How many more people need to die until we realize a revaluation of The Berenstein Bears?

Don't let people try to tell it is Berenstain we all remember Berenstein.

The Angry Video Game Nerd video was created as a voice for the victims of Berenstain, to ask the questions they were... Read All

Earth VS. The Spider - Because If You're Going To Be Up Late You Should Watch MST3K

When Joel Hodgson created the Kickstarter project to bring back Mystery Science Theater 3000 I was in a blissful nerdvana. Before that I didn't think the show would even come back and then it was funded. Recently they just wrapped up filming the new season of the show and are talking about releasing the new episodes early next year. We are so close to a new movie sign I can almost taste the satellite of love.

Shout Factory is the company that has released the old classic MST3K seasons on DVD a bit at a time and recently they have been dropping free episodes on YouTube. If you haven't seen Mystery Science Theater or want to revist it you should hit play on Earth VS. The... Read All

A New Queer Adventure Game Hits Kickstarter!

Back this on Kickstarter!

Queer Quest: All in a Gay's Work is a new Indie adventure game on Kickstarter fresh out of the Portland Indie Game scene. Designer Mo Cohen is the force behind this really fun take on the adventure game genre while giving it a unique focus.

"Queer Quest is a queer-as-fuck point-and-clit adventure game. Inspired by classic gems like Monkey Island, Kings Quest, and Leisure Suit Larry, but set in a queer community in the pacific northwest. You play as Lupe, a long haired butch with a heart of gold. She lives with her babely girlfriend, Alexis, that is until one day when Alexis gets kidnapped! You gotta help Lupe by deciphering clues, talking to lovable weirdos, and... Read All

Skyrim Special Edition Collector's Strategy Guide Hits Shelves October 28th

Some people are on a quest to rid themselves of all physical media and go to a completely digital life. I get the thought but I still like owning certain things. I still enjoy leafing through a strategy guide or putting a retro game cart in a system to play because something about that it is just fun. Even when I was a kid part of the fun of reading Nintendo's Super Mario Brothers 3 strategy guide was just reading again and again. Which, honestly, is part of the fun of having a strategy guide for even a modern game. Can you look up something game related faster by doing an Internet search? Sure. But is it also incredible to open up a huge tome of Skyrim art and... Read All

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 10/25/2016 at 03:53am

Do you notice that the image you used says it's only available to view at their site?

I don't really disagree with having a hard copy of a strategy guide. Searching the Internet may be faster, but it's not always 100% available. Like, what if you're playing and your network goes down for who knows what reason, maybe your ISP is experiencing temporary issues, then what are you going to do? Having a stack of gaming magazines or strategy guides feels impressive (and I think looks that way, too). However, these hard copies are also vulnerable to spills, fire (as you mentioned), etc. Oh and the Internet can not only provide written text, but you can also watch videos of someone doing what you're trying to do. I think it's pretty much a matter of personal preference. I like both, but since Steam has an in-game web browser, I pretty much stick to the Internet as my source.

Aside, why are they releasing a new guide for the Special Edition? Did they not already have a Skyrim guide? I thought the game (for PC at least) was only getting a graphical upgrade. I don't know that they've added anything else to it.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 10/25/2016 at 03:56am

> Do you notice that the image you used says it's only available to view at their site?

ZOIKS! Thanks Greg, I just linked to an imgur image. And the answer is no, that didn't seem to show up for me. Must have been some Internet caching involved or something. Fixed now.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 10/25/2016 at 03:59am

This is a premium hardcover book and comes with a special Dragonborn bookmark but it does look like it has much the same content as the paperback release.

Would be fun if they upscaled the art in the book to be more HD for the upcoming release too

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 10/25/2016 at 04:15am

I see the fixed image now, looks good! A hard copy with a sweet bookmark is an added bonus! That's awesome!

That is an interesting idea you have for HD art. :)

Travis Admin wrote on 10/25/2016 at 01:20pm

> Aside, why are they releasing a new guide for the Special Edition?

Money! :D

Seriously though, if they were ever going to re-release something, this is the time. One of the biggest games ever getting a new release for new people? Time to print more money.

This is the only Bethesda game that I don't have a strategy guide for (since I started playing them, that is), so I might grab it.

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