Cheerful Ghost: An Awesome Community For Gamers

Miitomo Is a Strangely Fun Social Network

Nintendo launched Miitomo last Thursday in the United States and i’ve been using it pretty religiously since then. It’s a strangely addicting social network that focuses on your friends and you answering questions and the conversations that erupt from that. It just might be my friend group, but there have been some really hilarious discussions created with it. Sometimes the discussions get a bit too meta or poop-focused for my taste but I really think Nintendo did a good job with Miitomo. Nintendo has built a very solid base to branch out from and I can’t wait to see how Miitomo changes over time.

What’s The Point of Miitomo?

Nintendo is great at making hardware and... Read All

Travis Admin wrote on 04/09/2016 at 02:13pm

It's addictive and unique, adding new elements to the normal social paradigm to kinda blur social network and game together. I had a lot of fun with it.

But it's needy and overwhelming after the first few days. It wants you to add a ton of friends for achievements and bonuses, so you keep getting friend requests from people who are friends of friends, and you end up with so many answers from your friends that you'd need a decade to get through them all.

I'm kinda glad I don't actually know many people using it, so I can pare down my friends list. If I actually knew 25 people who used it, I wouldn't like it as much.

So basically they have a solid app/game with some really unique elements that needs some serious work. But we're in the first week or two, so there's definitely room for improvement.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 04/09/2016 at 03:50pm

> But it's needy and overwhelming after the first few days.

I agree. I unfriended someone because their feed was strange and I didn't like seeing their stuff pop up. They immediately tried to friend me back.

That said, I do enjoy my interactions with it, but I don't love seeing 50 notifications from it.

> So basically they have a solid app/game with some really unique elements that needs some serious work. But we're in the first week or two, so there's definitely room for improvement.

Since it got so much use, I imagine we will see lots of continued improvement to it.

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Relive the Star Wars Magic With the Force Awakens & Special Features

Star Wars The Force Awakens was finally released on Blu-ray yesterday and like many eager fans I devoured the special features that evening. It was some of the most fun i’ve had watching special features in quite some time but before we get into all that we need to talk about something else first.

Save Yourself The Pain and Just Buy The Normal Blu-ray Version Of This Movie

One way to upset fans is to hype something up and under deliver. The Force Awakens was a well hyped movie but for all of that it completely delivered and was well received by fans as well as myself. So when they mentioned the Blu-ray was coming out with a boatload of special features I was in.... Read All

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 04/07/2016 at 03:49am

Thanks for posting this! I didn't pre-order it, so I'm going over to Amazon now to buy it. Me and Vinny really enjoyed watching it together even though our 3D experience was horrible. I think he really likes BB-8, because when we were in Gamestop last week he said he sees him everywhere (it didn't sound like that was in a bad way, after all he did buy some BB-8 socks around Christmas).

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 04/07/2016 at 01:07pm

Yeah, BB-8 really is everywhere. I remember seeing him show up all over even before I bought the movie. Disney hit paydirt with that droid!

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 04/09/2016 at 05:59am

(Removed previous comment. I thought I sent that in a message, why did I put that in the comment section here?)

Anyway, when I went to order A Force Awakens, it looked like it wouldn't be here until Monday. However, tracking my package now tells me it will be here later today (a technicality seeing as it's about 2am) on Saturday. I don't think it's a special edition at all, but I'm looking forward to watching it again with Vinny.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 04/10/2016 at 12:35am

Ok, mine came with a DVD, Blu-Ray, Blu-Ray "Bonus" disc, and a code to download the digital version of the movie. No code to go online and get those bonus features you mentioned, maybe they're on the "bonus" disc. It does have a sticker on the cover that says "all new bonus deleted scenes revealed plus Secrets of the Force Awakens."

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 04/10/2016 at 02:48am

So if you bought the disc at Target then you can use that code on Disney Anywhere to watch the special stuff I talked about. There is a special Tunnel scene if you redeem the code in iTunes or Google plus not on the disc, but everything else is.

And it's incredible, so enjoy! Curious what your thoughts on it will be.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 04/10/2016 at 05:25am

Yeah, I didn't see anything about a Tunnel scene. But, it was all cool. Obviously me and Vinny enjoyed the movie, so it was good that we could enjoy it again and not with a bad 3D experience. The documentary was good and what I got from it was just how grand of an idea it was to have a new Star Wars movie including the original cast and many others who worked on the first three movies. There's so much involved and they all did a fantastic job and that's the beauty of it all. I enjoy the generational and family themes they mentioned, like giving Star Wars to a new generation. That really fits with me since it's something I got to enjoy with my son. I don't doubt that they could do a fantastic job on another movie (or more).

Travis Admin wrote on 04/10/2016 at 05:48am

No, when you redeem the code to get the digital copy, it comes with special features. There's an extra deleted scene with the digital copy that has the tunnel scene. So if you redeem it on iTunes, the tunnel scene will be available to you with the rest of the movie in iTunes. Same with Amazon or whatever else (although I hear Amazon's is just one big 4+ hour video file)

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 04/10/2016 at 07:46am

Yeah it is a big 4+ hour Amazon video. I see now, thanks for letting me know, Travis.

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Play This Incredible 3D Zelda Tribute In Your Browser!

Zelda is an iconic game that lives on long after it originally came to us in 1986. Since this year marks the 30th anniversary of Zelda an amazing fan tribute has hit the web you can play right now. Someone recreated the original Legend of Zelda in 3D and it's playable right now from your web browser. It's a fun concept i'd argue suffers from some game play issues but is still a very fun and novel take on the original game.

http://zelda30tribute.com/

UPDATE: It appears Nintendo has told the authors to take down the game.

"Nintendo asked us to remove this site for copyright infringement. I guess Zelda30Tribute was a little too pixel perfect :-) We're sad about that, but we... Read All

Cheerful Ghost Patchset 3.11 - What You Need To Know

Greetings Ghosts,

I've been spending the last few weeks working on bug fixes and interesting new core features to Cheerful Ghost and I wanted to wrap up a patchlist for you all. This doesn't quite cover everything and some stuff my be so esoteric as to not be interesting but hopefully going forward I can keep posting changes in this form to keep you all updated as to what's been happening on the tech side of this site.

Patchset 3.11

Upgraded the core Rails framework for the latest security and bug fixes. I do this whenever I need to but a few came recently and we upgraded. http://rubyonrails.org/

Upgraded to the latest jQuery 1.22.2 stable release branch. ... Read All

Greetings Ghosts,

I've been spending the last few weeks working on bug fixes and interesting new core features to Cheerful Ghost and I wanted to wrap up a patchlist for you all. This doesn't quite cover everything and some stuff my be so esoteric as to not be interesting but hopefully going forward I can keep posting changes in this form to keep you all updated as to what's been happening on the tech side of this site.

Patchset 3.11

Upgraded the core Rails framework for the latest security and bug fixes. I do this whenever I need to but a few came recently and we upgraded. http://rubyonrails.org/

Upgraded to the latest jQuery 1.22.2 stable release branch. https://jquery.com

Upgraded to the latest Boostrap 3.3.6 release. Boostrap is a CSS, HTML & JS framework for designing responsive web applications. http://getbootstrap.com/

Replaced the API we use to send email.

Replace the main page post autoload with pagination.

Fixed a bug in the ATOM feed generator where we were generating incorrect URL's in feed readers. The URL pointed to the right content but was formatted incorrectly.

Fixed some bugs in Events exporting to iCalendar and Google Calendar. We also support iCalendar locations and URLs better to point back to the original Cheerful Ghost event.

Retooled the private messages UI. The new UI is a bit more clear and feels much more similar to existing interfaces.

Rebuilt the User profile pages. The new profile pages are much more clean and easier to understand and use! Clicking on your profile posts, trophies and games buttons provides a visual indication where you are and makes it clear on how to return to your base profile. This retooling has an added benefit of profile pages being easier to use on mobile and tablets as well. Profile pages can now link to your public Starcraft II and Diablo III Battle.net profiles. The social and game links sizes have increased making them easier to see and touch on smaller screens. For a live example check Travis's profile page http://cheerfulghost.com/Travis

Because of a hugely popular demand, I rebuilt the post creation system. As part of this new clean and simple design you no longer have to add a game to your personal list to write about it. Clicking the "Create A New Post" button expands the new UI and you can now write about any game in our 24k and counting game database.

As with any new set of features you may find bugs present. If that is the case you can report those in the comments thread below or private message me directly.

AdamPFarnsworth wrote on 04/05/2016 at 03:49pm

Will_Ball Game Mod Super Member wrote on 04/05/2016 at 06:41pm

Does it run on Windows 3.11?

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 04/06/2016 at 03:46am

#unmasked

Travis Admin wrote on 04/07/2016 at 02:37am

You can get VNC clients for Windows 3.11.

So yes, it works with Windows 3.11 when you VNC to a computer that can handle modern web browsers :D

Travis Admin wrote on 04/08/2016 at 01:55pm

I noticed that you removed the auto-load from the end of the page, so it's back to paginating now rather than grabbing a new set of posts. Was that something that stopped working or a choice?

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 04/08/2016 at 04:12pm

> I noticed that you removed the auto-load from the end of the page, so it's back to paginating now rather than grabbing a new set of posts. Was that something that stopped working or a choice?

I flipped that back a couple months ago, but i'll add it to the patch notes. The main reason is the implementation was OK but when it interacted with other JavaScript it created strange bugs that were hard to solve. Not that I couldn't fix those bugs, but I also like pagination more and I think it's better for the user to be able to easily skip over a ton, go to the first post than scroll infinitely.

Travis Admin wrote on 04/08/2016 at 06:54pm

Yeah there are pros and cons to the pager vs infinite, I don't have a clear opinion either way. I just noticed it :D

AdamPFarnsworth wrote on 04/08/2016 at 07:49pm

I think it should switch daily.

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Did The Oregon Trail Lie To Us All?

In the latest episode of Game/Show Jamin talks about the Apple classic game The Oregon Trail. He starts things off with a seemingly ridiculous premise that everyones favorite squirrel shooting simulator lied to us. I recommend you watch the video to experience a really interesting and light history of the The Oregon Trail but also educational games as a genre. Apparently educational games are not very good at educating people and if they are it's generally not for what they set out to do. In the end Oregon Trail does a good job teaching us about simulation and economic basics but doesn't do a great job teaching us what it's like to have actually been on the trail.... Read All

scrypt Supporter wrote on 04/05/2016 at 06:54pm

I could see that there may be an issue regarding the scholastic merit of some "educational games," but using The Oregon Trail as a test seems misconstrued when it sounds like the original creators were simply looking for a catalyst to stir young minds to inquiry, rather than to build an actual lesson plan in game form. The original Oregon Trail started as a board game, later made into a computer game (in two weeks, mind you), for teletype game play (hardly like the game we know, despite Jamin's claim, unless you think tabletop D&D and Icewind Dale for PC are practically the same experience), and existed as such for about the first decade of it's life. It wasn't made into the game we recognize until the early 80's, with very little input from it's original creators.

I'm curious to know who heralds The Oregon Trail as "one of the most important educational games, ever to exist." The closest I could find was from this old PC Gamer article, which seems more poignant in it's understanding of the scope of the game: http://www.pcgamer.com/most-important-pc-games/2/

Once again, I feel Jamin abuses hyperbole to make a point, this time to the extent of inappropriately disparaging a game for not being more than it was ever intended to be, or could have feasibly been, at it's inception. I'm confused by some of his analogies (e.g. [4:42] Rawitsch's adjusting of event probabilities, which somehow results in alternative historical experiences in the game, or [5:44] the misrepresented association between intuitive interfaces and Lusory Attitude, and the weird implication that this made the game fun, in contrast with it's earliest concept as a teletype game.), and obviously a little disappointed in the way he went about presenting what could have been a more interesting topic, without all of the typical Game/Show platitudes.

What might be more interesting to emphasize, is that the original board game, and teletype game, played in Rawitsch's classroom was an exercise in group play, which, according to an article from New York University (http://bit.ly/1Xf7vPx), is one of the most effective ways of implementing games into education, promoting mastery goal orientation, rather than individual performance goal orientation which seems to inhibit potential learning opportunities.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 04/06/2016 at 03:46am

> but using The Oregon Trail as a test seems misconstrued when it sounds like the original creators were simply looking for a catalyst to stir young minds to inquiry, rather than to build an actual lesson plan in game form.

I think the whole notion of Oregon Trail lying to us is also kind of silly. That said, those kinds of headlines get clicks and it seems a bit dodgy because to make it payoff in the video you have to do things that maybe don't make sense?

> I'm curious to know who heralds The Oregon Trail as "one of the most important educational games, ever to exist.

I would. I think the original Oregon Trail is heralded as a great game because it was impactful to so many. It may not have been the pinnacle of educational gaming but it was so deep and rich for me and I loved playing it on the Apple II and Commodore. Lots of kids grew up in the 90's having played it as it was a staple in tons of schools. You might not find a ton of thought pieces about it, but seeing games like Organ Trail and the like existing now kind of nod to it's influence.

> Once again, I feel Jamin abuses hyperbole to make a point, this time to the extent of inappropriately disparaging a game for not being more than it was ever intended to be, or could have feasibly been, at it's inception.

The video title is clickbait for sure, but I don't think the historical significance of the Oregon Trail was overblown. At least to me.

> What might be more interesting to emphasize, is that the original board game, and teletype game, played in Rawitsch's classroom was an exercise in group play, which, according to an article from New York University (http://bit.ly/1Xf7vPx), is one of the most effective ways of implementing games into education, promoting mastery goal orientation, rather than individual performance goal orientation which seems to inhibit potential learning opportunities.

Absolutely, but for whatever reason the method they chose might work for the large gaming audience? I'm not sure, I love a good deep dive into that sort of thing you mention so it wouldn't bother me

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Space Rangers HD: A War Apart

http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/214730/header.jpg?t=1447356053

One of the best RPGS I've ever played is on sale over at Good Old Games. Space Rangers HD: A War Apart is the remaster of Space Rangers 2. Space Rangers is a Space trader, RPG with some roguelike elements, packed with super sweet text based adventures, arcade style battles, and RTS battles (that are widely considered pretty lame, but are completely optional, and not the worst thing ever).

For anyone who isn't aware, Space Rangers offers hours and hours of gameplay. The galaxy has come under attack by The Dominators, a group of powerful AI that threatened the galaxy once before. The space rangers are a group of soldiers who operate under almost complete autonomy to do... Read All

A Warning for 3DS Owners About Hyrule Warriors Legends

I was at my local Gamestop recently and I noticed that Hyrule Warriors Legends has already been released for the 3DS. Since I absolutely love Hyrule Warriors on the Wii U, I thought about picking up this game. However, the associate gave me a warning that I thought I'd share. She said people who have bought the game have stated issues with playing it on their older 3DS models. The game is more suited for the "New 3DS." While I found that to be disappointing, it always wasn't incredibly unexpected.

When I found out that Terraria was coming to the 3DS, I decided to look into it. I read some things on the web and I watched some videos about it. One of the main points I... Read All

jdodson Admin wrote on 04/04/2016 at 09:02pm

This __REALLY__ stinks for 3DS owners as if a game lists 3DS as supported, you expect it to work pretty well.

With that, I might get a new 3DS this year. There are a couple modern Nintendo handheld games I want to get and it seems like a good time. The New 3DS or 2DS but that wouldn't play some games well according to what you've said here.

Azurephile Super Member Post Author wrote on 04/04/2016 at 11:50pm

Yeah well, because of this, and what I read about Terraria, I'm very tempted to get a "New 3DSXL", maybe even this year. There's a few things about it, though. They cost about $200 and I think I'd like to get two of them, one for me and one for Vinny. Another thing is that I don't play it that often. Yeah, when Pokemon Alpha Sapphire and Omega Ruby came out, I played one of them and so did Vinny. When I got my 3DSXL, I got the Zelda one that came with a download code for A Link Between Worlds, which I played when I got it. I also played and got Luigi's Mansion for the 3DS, which I finished. I also got Animal Crossing, which I haven't played that much. I've played a few different versions of Animal Crossing, though. So, I mean, I can upgrade for this game, but other than that, I'm not sure what else I'd want it for. However, there are new Pokemon games coming out at the end of the year, which I assume now will likely be better on the New 3DS.

Travis Admin wrote on 04/05/2016 at 01:39am

This is an odd choice on their part, to release an upgraded handheld with higher specs that games can target, basically making a poor experience for the old version.

It seems better for everyone to call it something else and have backwards compatibility.

jdodson Admin wrote on 04/05/2016 at 04:30am

> It seems better for everyone to call it something else and have backwards compatibility.

Nintendo has kept the DS moniker for sometime and like you i'd have expected something different. Maybe with the NX we will see that? So many DS revisions!

Azurephile Super Member Post Author wrote on 04/06/2016 at 08:11pm

Even the review from Game Informer addresses the performance issue on the game and states that it does work much better on the "New 3DS."
http://www.gameinformer.com/games/hyrule_warriors_legends/b/3ds/archive/2016/03/22/hyrule-warriors-legends-3ds-game-informer-review.aspx

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Just Be Sure To Add A Crack In A Wall

http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--ocDPV3MA--/rjjo08kp8upaud5agrds.jpg

You heard it here first folks, Gannon isn't too bright. Apparently there is a reason Link always wins.

Innocent Until Proven Guilty - Is Superman 64 One Of the Worst Games Of All Time?

YouTube super-star CygnusDestroyer is at it again in this latest episode of Innocent Until Proven Guilty covering the retro title Superman 64. I like this series as he gives each game a fair shake and explains why games are not as bad as we thought or in some cases, why they are just as bad as they get credit for. By the end I found his verdict fair but I was hoping it would turn out a bit differently.

Does anyone have experience playing this game? If so i'd love to hear what you think of it.

Travis Admin wrote on 04/04/2016 at 02:25am

Yep. Yep, it is totally one of the worst games of all time. It's practically broken.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 04/04/2016 at 02:42am

Yeah, he covers that in the video. I've heard stories but not seen much first hand. Matt does a good job outlining it.

I still want to try it sometime, just to see how bad it really is I've played Action 52 and wow, yeah that is pretty bad.

Travis Admin wrote on 04/04/2016 at 03:27am

Is it just me or does Cygnus always look wet?

But yeah, I've played it a few times on an emulator and it's really truly bad. It's in the so-bad-it's-kinda-fun category though, like playing Big Rigs Over the Road Racing or watching D-list movies.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 04/05/2016 at 04:28am

> Is it just me or does Cygnus always look wet?

I think it's nerves or a very bright system of lights on him.

> But yeah, I've played it a few times on an emulator and it's really truly bad. It's in the so-bad-it's-kinda-fun category though, like playing Big Rigs Over the Road Racing or watching D-list movies.

I love bad movies, I haven't found a similar love for bad games myself.

Will_Ball Game Mod Super Member wrote on 04/06/2016 at 05:10am

I haven't thought about this game since it was released! I remember all the bad press it got.

Travis Admin wrote on 04/07/2016 at 02:38am

Oh yeah I meant to mention-- it looks like lighting. I don't think he's *actually* wet :D

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Moira Is A New Retro Indie Platformer On Kickstarter - My Let's Play Of This Zelda/Kirby Inspired Title

"Möira is an action platformer inspired by the early days of Nintendo’s iconic handheld. Influenced by games such as Kirby’s Dream Land, Kid Dracula, Megaman and Wonder Boy, Möira takes the good, memorable things from these titles and brings them to the XXI century in a new way — as it draws insights from recent games too."

After seeing Moira on Kickstarter and that it included a demo I decided to do a Let's Play of it. The above video is me playing the game for the first time and i'd say it went really well. The intro text scrolled by a bit fast for me to read it well and I didn't get how to do some stuff on the first try but Moria makes up for any of that being a fun... Read All