Cheerful Ghost: An Awesome Community For Gamers

Fan made Castlevania film... With Worf!?

I was curious if any of you fellow Mirthful Specters out there have seen this fan made Castlevania film that just happens to have a couple Star Trek: TNG alums in it. (Michael Dorn and, in later episodes, Marina Sirtis).

I started watching it primarily because I heard Michael Dorn was in it, but the episodes aren't that bad. I'd say they're better than some fantasy shows that have made it to actual television. *cough*Legend of the Seeker*cough*

What are your thoughts?

New Starcrafts Animations

Two new Starcrafts Animations. Episode 12 "She's The Bomb" above and Episode 13 "Spore Loser" you can watch here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3H7G5v75Dc&list=SP0QrZvg7QIgpoLdNFnEePRrU-YJfr9Be7&index=15&feature=plcp

For Aiur!

User Interview: Panickedthumb Part 2

I now bring you the thrilling part 2 to my interview with the always awesome Panickedthumb.

You can read part one here:
http://cheerfulghost.com/jdodson/posts/738

jdodson: What was the last game you beat?

panickedthumb: This is kinda sad actually. I can't remember. I just took a scan through my Steam library to find out. Does Diablo 3 count? I haven't beaten Inferno with any character yet, but I've beaten Diablo himself quite a few times now. Otherwise, it's Deus Ex: Human Revolution I guess. Perhaps I'm going through a phase, but lately I've been having trouble holding my focus on a game long enough to beat it. This happens from time to time. I usually end up on a gaming... Read All

Initial thoughts on S&S EP

So I just picked up Sword and Sworcery through the recent Humble Bundle for Android. I had been hesitant to try it mostly because of how big my gaming backlog already is, even with jdodson singing its praises earlier this year. Now that homework has leveled out, and I'm spending late nights on duty in the lab, I grabbed the bundle so I could play some games on my MacBook while I waited out my shift. I was more than pleasantly surprised when I booted up the game. Here's a few things I noticed.

First, the game was subtle in how it taught you how to play. It either let you figure it out, or gave a small visual or textual hint on how the controls work. Instead of flat out... Read All

User Interview: Panickedthumb Part 1

As part of my series of Interviews with Cheerful Ghost users I started up a conversation with panickedthumb. He had and idea that we have a Interview but sort of trade ideas back and forth. Its a good format, one I plan continuing with the next few interviews.

It is a bit long so it will be broken up into two parts.

jdodson: Recently you picked up Dishonored. What are your thoughts on this one? Are you interested in seeing more of this game made?

panickedthumb: I love it. It's so incredibly engrossing, and yet... I haven't been able to motivate myself to play much of it. I feel like this is the opposite of pick-up-and-play, and I haven't had a lot of time at a stretch to... Read All

Minecraft World!

This is a quick ~7 minute video showing off my minecraft world. I've only been playing on the world for a few hours so there isn't much to show. I just wanted to document the changes from beginning to end of my minecraft world. Plus, this will help me start my youtube channel off. I've been really wanting to start recording LP's and such for youtube but haven't been able to get it up and running. Mainly because I have been displeased with a lot of the recordings I have done.

My voice is kinda quiet in the video, my apologizes. I forgot to increase my mic before starting. So yeah, listen carefully or just turn the volume up.

Please leave some critique. I would really... Read All

jdodson Admin wrote on 11/15/2012 at 04:54am

I like the random mountain thingy that went far up like a sculpture. Its cool what the random generator can do.

I handnt considered building a house like that, good idea. I am currently building a treehouse and I might takes some of your design ideas and incorporate them.

Oh, wondering, what recording software did you use? Frapps? I am using the Quicktime screen recorder built into my Mac for now. It works well but any of my Windows games are out for recording until I find a solution to work on Windows.

BR Supporter Post Author wrote on 11/15/2012 at 12:40pm

Yeah, I use Fraps. I don't know how large videos are when you record with quicktime, but if you decide to use fraps, make sure you have lots of space. That 7 minute video took up 6.5 gb.

jdodson Admin wrote on 11/15/2012 at 03:48pm

QuickTime videos are very small. My 38 minute video was 1.2 gigs. Perhaps Fraps can encode with less space with a setting tweak?

BR Supporter Post Author wrote on 11/15/2012 at 11:33pm

I really have no clue. I need to mess around with the settings on it. Just haven't yet. I think fraps records in higher quality which is why it takes more space. I also need to figure out the correct dimensions for youtube videos. My current render options on sony vegas make it so I have those black bars on the left and right.

AdamPFarnsworth wrote on 11/16/2012 at 12:50am

Very cool video. Just my second LP I've ever seen (the first being jdodson's Minecraft), and it looks like such a good game! I really like the floor plan of your house and I look forward to seeing progress!

hardeyez wrote on 11/17/2012 at 04:46am

Here's a crazy way to record the screen that works great for my kids (doing minecraft videos). Open up a google hangout, choose to share screen instead of camera, set it to broadcast, record your video that have it archive to youtube... and viola...

hardeyez wrote on 11/17/2012 at 04:50am

Ah, it's now called "Enable Hangouts On Air" and you do it first when starting the hangout. That lets you live broadcast to the world and also auto-archive to youtube...

jdodson Admin wrote on 11/17/2012 at 07:27am

Wow thats a great idea, plus it would work in Linux too :D

BR Supporter Post Author wrote on 11/17/2012 at 05:53pm

Recording live would work for me when i want to do longer videos

jdodson Admin wrote on 11/17/2012 at 08:26pm

Yep. Going to check that out.

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New Video Game Web Series "Game Shop"

YouTube channel START has a new comedy web series called Game Shop. I have been watching it for a few episodes and thought this episode was worth sharing. The first few episodes delve into some fairly well covered territory but I enjoy that its about people in a Game Store. I like that the episodes are somewhat threaded and over time they revel more about certain characters.

You can go back and watch all 3 previous episodes of Game Shop. They contain people I have seen in other things, like episode 2 had one of the kids from JJ Abrams last film Super 8.

After watching it what did you think?

Nintendo Cereal System: So Awesome It Hurt

To celebrate today's retro Tuesday I won't be talking about a game. The Nintendo Cereal System was a thing released in Nintendo's golden age when they released branded products for everything. The Nintendo Cereal System came with two options, Mario cereal and Zelda cereal. The Zelda Cereal was my personal favourite not because it tasted better but because I liked Zelda more. Oh and being able to eat Octoroks for breakfast is bad-ass.

I never actually convinced my parents to buy it for me(at least that I can remember) but I did get to have a few bowls at my cousins.

Were you lucky enough to have tried this as a kid? What other Nintendo products do you remember loving in... Read All

Timogorgon Member wrote on 11/14/2012 at 01:58am

YES! Oh man, that commercial is such cheese-tastic goodness. I remember the cereals too (I was the aforementioned cousin). Zelda was indeed much better, if for no other reason than it was Zelda. :D

As far as other failed Nintendo products go there was also a Super Mario brand of soda's (http://www.smbhq.com/soda.htm). They were pretty good from what I remember, but the cans were smaller than a typical can of soda, so it was kind of a rip off. Shocking right?

AdamPFarnsworth wrote on 11/14/2012 at 02:06am

Loved the Zelda cereal! For the exact same reasons.

And now I'm in an old Nintendo commercial vortex on youtube...

Travis Admin wrote on 11/14/2012 at 02:44am

I loved the NES cereals. I'm not sure if it was good or I just wanted it to be good because of the branding. TMNT cereal was also goo.

I used to get sticker packs all the time. I had a Mario backpack at one point. Nintendo had me hook, line, and sinker.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 11/14/2012 at 05:09pm

@WhiteboySlim: I sort of remember something about Mario soda. It seems like this time Luigi got the better end of the deal.

@Adym: Any of those old commercials worth sharing? I think I remember one about kids yelling all over the world... For Mario 3?

@panickedthumb: I don't remember having the TMNT cereal. Jealous you had the backpack, I had a Mario lunchbox but lost it over time somehow. Still have my Dukes of Hazzard lunchbox somewhere though. Less awesome than my Mario one.... *sniff*

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 11/14/2012 at 05:10pm

I just realized, the kids have boxes around their heads like they are TV's. Only in the 90's...

AdamPFarnsworth wrote on 11/14/2012 at 08:36pm

@jdodson http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=v02WFh_Kdl0 Here's a compliation of 17 Nintendo commercials from the 80's and 90's.

I think I remember the Dr. Mario Witchdoctor commercial. There's a commercial for Metroid, and the Mike Tyson's Punch Out commercial is cool.

There's a "rad" Legend of Zelda rap. And there's a Zelda II commercial that actually makes me want to go back and play it again!

Travis Admin wrote on 11/15/2012 at 01:02am

Speaking of lunchboxes, I have a hand-me-down Hulk lunchbox from the mid 70's. I remember feeling like a dork for having it in elementary school, but that thing is probably worth a ton of money.

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New Season of Clap Trap's Web Series

You might not have known that during the original run of Borderlands Claptrap had his very own web series. Gearbox recently released a new season and episode. Ill link to the previous episodes at the bottom of this post. Now you can get even more Claptrap!

A few other interesting Borderlands 2 bits. You can now pre-order the new Art of Borderlands 2 book. Sort of thing they should have released in the collectors edition but better late than never I suppose.

Gearbox is also outsourcing the Mac port and it should be released sometime soon. I hope this means Mac/PC Steamplay. The original Borderlands had a Mac port but it wasn't available via Steamplay, it was available on... Read All

Starcraft 2 will Release March 12, 2013

Blizzard just dropped the release date Starcraft 2: Heart of the Swarm! I actually mark game release dates on my calendar and March 12, 2013 will be no different.

This release is a bit different from past Blizzard releases as they are not only releasing a physical collectors edition but also a digital deluxe version to include:

Digital Deluxe:
http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/buy-now/digital-deluxe

Heart of the Swarm for PC and Mac

Torrasque Ultralisk skin, 3 Portraits, and 3 decals in Starcraft II

A Baneling pet in World of Warcraft

Blade Wings & Banner Sigil in Diablo III

Collectors Edition:
http://us.battle.net/sc2/en/buy-now/collectors-edition

Heart of the Swarm for PC... Read All