Cheerful Ghost: An Awesome Community For Gamers

Cheerful Ghost Radio Episode 30: Extinction

In this episode, we talk about the new Netflix sci-fi film, Extinction! In Extinction, Michael Peña plays a man who has recurring nightmares about a terrible disaster... and then disaster strikes! Will his dreams help him and his family stay alive?

But first, we talk about what we've been playing and watching over the last month.

We've taken a short break from our classic game reviews, but that ends soon! We'll be back soon with our review of Kid Icarus, and we have a new Cheerful Ghost Games Club event up for our next review, Kirby's Adventure!

https://cheerfulghost.com/Travis/events/163/cheerful-ghost-games-club-kirby-s-adventure

Breath of the Wild's Timeline Placement Is Confirmed, But Does It Matter?

YouTuber AwesomeFaceProd has a new Zelda video discussing the new revelations about the Breath of the Wild timeline. Spoiler alert it doesn't make much sense but then again, neither does the Zelda timeline in general. Some games DO line up such as Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask but some are really alone in the timeline. There was an attempt to make sense of all of it in Hyrule Histora but the video seems to suggest Nintendo changes the timeline making things in that book no longer relevant.

Hop Aboard The SNES Omnibus For A Fun Ride Around Video Game Land!

When I sat down to read The SNES Omnibus Volume 1 by Brett Weiss the massive hardback tome transported me back to the 16-bit glory of the 90’s. Immediately the book feels like a must own for the ever growing retro game community and with the explosion of the NES & SNES Classic this feels like a good companion piece. Which, if you want all my thoughts condensed at the top of this review would be to get your hands on this book any way you can. You know, if you love that sort of thing.

The author of the the SNES Omnibus Brett Weiss set out to create a listing of each of the games on the Super Nintendo as a homage to the Leonard Maltin styled movie books such as... Read All When I sat down to read The SNES Omnibus Volume 1 by Brett Weiss the massive hardback tome transported me back to the 16-bit glory of the 90’s. Immediately the book feels like a must own for the ever growing retro game community and with the explosion of the NES & SNES Classic this feels like a good companion piece. Which, if you want all my thoughts condensed at the top of this review would be to get your hands on this book any way you can. You know, if you love that sort of thing.

The author of the the SNES Omnibus Brett Weiss set out to create a listing of each of the games on the Super Nintendo as a homage to the Leonard Maltin styled movie books such as Leonard Maltin’s Movie and Video Guide and 151 Best Movies You’ve Never Seen. The SNES Omnibus doesn’t shy away from it’s incredible nerdy roots starting with the most geek friendly title of all time to it’s forward by Bill Logudice that goes into SNES technical specs.

The SNES Omnibus Volume 1 covers each of the Super Nintendo game releases in the United States starting with the letters A-M. Brett seems to respect the source material as each game is treated to a one page review and notable quotes from the larger retro game community. The Omnibus starts with 3 Ninjas Kick Back a game made from the 3 Ninjas sequel and even though the game is generally thought to be terrible, Brett gives it a very fair write up. The included notable quotables from the community might not be as kind to the game but the game really isn’t great so that different perspective is useful and often fun to read. Still, I appreciate how each game is given the same attention amazing or not and i’m sure there are a few games in this book you’d be discovering for the first time.

As i’ve said previously, the SNES Omnibus includes quotes and memories from gamers all over the retro scene as well as some very cool game websites. The book doesn’t focus on the perspectives of the most popular retro gaming or video game websites but cast a much wider net. As someone that operates a kick ass video game community review site that isn’t part of the top 50 in the gaming community it’s nice to see other such sites and voices get attention such as http://nintendoage.com, https://defunctgames.com and http://playingwithsuperpower.com.

If you sat down with the SNES Omnibus to read up on 5 SNES games per evening including all the supplemental material you’d have over two months of awesome retro reading. Which, for me, is the best way to come at reading this book with a drink in one hand and my feet kicked up on the couch. One word of warning to people with little children, as I have, I recommend waiting until the little ones are in bed before reading this book. The SNES Omnibus is a large book with amazing content and if you like keeping things in good condition read this when grabby hands are sleeping is the best way to go. The Omnibus and your ability to keep your collection in good condition will thank you!
I decided to take the SNES Omnibus to a friend get together recently to see what other gamers and non gamers thought about the book. Not too surprising it was a hit and seemed to draw the interest of non gamers. The SNES Omnibus didn’t quite make me the hit of the party but it was a nice conversation piece and I was surprised it went over as well as it did.

The SNES Omnibus Volume 1 is meant to be the first in a two-part series and the upcoming Volume 2 should cover SNES titles N-Z. This should be a great way to end the series as many classic games for the SNES such as Super Mario World, Super Metroid, Starfox and Super Punch Out! will be included making it a SUPER conclusion to the series.

I want to thank publisher Shiffer Books for sending me a review copy of The SNES Omnibus. Being able to review stuff like this is part of “the dream” of running a cool video game community and sharing that with everyone here is so much fun. Looking forward to the follow up book and when I do you all will be the first to hear what I think about it!

https://www.schifferbooks.com/the-snes-omnibus-the-super-nintendo-and-its-games-vol-1-am-6439.html

Play Games On The New Cheerful Ghost BBS!

I am beyond excited for the launch of Cheerful Ghost Games through our new BBS. It's a launch that Travis and I have been working for the whole year through a series of little projects that are finally complete.

Cheerful Ghost is A New Wave BBS!

Back in the late 80's and early 90's if you could get the Internet it was expensive and having access to a desktop computer wasn't common. In my family my parents always set aside some money for a family computer even if it wasn't top of the line. Our first desktop computer that had a modem was a Gateway 486 SX/25 with a 2400 baud modem running Windows 3.11 for Workgroups and DOS. At the time that wasn't the fastest modem out... Read All

Travis Admin wrote on 08/06/2018 at 01:56pm

As much fun as I've had over the past few years designing things for the site, this change is up there in my favorites. Designing something to look like you're using an old pre-GUI computer in the browser was a load of fun, and I hope you guys enjoy the retro feel as much as I loved making it. We have a retro feel in a few other aspects of the site, from the regular Classic reviews on Cheerful Ghost Radio, to the 80's/90's feel of the RAD and MUST PLAY ratings on the ghost scale, and now this. I've found a lot of different ways to do scanlines over the past few months and I was surprised that it was pretty easy in CSS :D

Just in case you haven't scrolled down past this post, I posted a review of the Candy Box games. Spoiler alert: they're amazing. https://cheerfulghost.com/Travis/posts/3827/candy-box-and-candy-box-2-double-review-a-real-sugar-high

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 08/07/2018 at 02:59am

I used to play Legend of the Red Dragon and Usurper. I've also run my own BBS for a limited time.

Travis Admin wrote on 08/07/2018 at 03:09am

You ran a bbs? That’s awesome!

vdogmr25 wrote on 08/07/2018 at 07:26pm

Oh boy! Here I go playing candy box again!

Travis Admin wrote on 08/07/2018 at 08:15pm

Hahaha, it’s so fun right? I ended up playing through both for my review but then playing it again the day we launched. It’s strangely deep.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 08/08/2018 at 02:51am

I still can't seem to be able to get the armor on the Castle entrance level. Like I made it through fine but never got the armor. It's kind of strange, i'm not sure how to avoid the projectile except that randomly my character makes it through.

Travis Admin wrote on 08/08/2018 at 03:32am

Yeah that one seems to be that if you kill them fast enough, you'll get past the projectiles. If you linger too long, you get hit.

And I think I got the armor on the first trip through, strange. May be a %chance instead of a guarantee.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 08/08/2018 at 03:33am

Ok so just keep grinding. Makes sense.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 08/10/2018 at 03:36am

So, ah, I'm sorry if I missed it, but how exactly do we access the BBS? Do you we just go to the games list and select them that way?

Is there a chance we can get L.O.R.D. and Usurper? I'd love to see those games again.

Travis Admin wrote on 08/10/2018 at 12:17pm

Yeah just click Games up top.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 08/10/2018 at 03:31pm

Straight up i'm planning to remake LORD next year. Porting it would be cool too but I think that would honestly be more work to port old LORD to Cheerful Ghost than remake it in our style on the web.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 08/10/2018 at 07:26pm

@Travis thanks!
@Jon aww, LORD was good. But, a remake might be good, too.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 08/10/2018 at 07:59pm

LORD is one of the coolest games of all time. I think our version should do it justice.

#crossessfingers

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Candy Box and Candy Box 2 Double Review: a Real Sugar High

Travis gives this an astounding "Must Play" on the Ghost Scale

This achieves something special, and it would be a shame to miss it.

Travis gives this a "Must Play" on the Ghost Scale

This achieves something special, and it would be a shame to miss it.

Candy Box is a tricky game to explain. Jon told me about it. the other day and I tried it out, and I was initially very confused. It's a candy counter that constantly goes up right? And you can either eat or throw the candy? That's all? What's the big deal? But you realize something else is behind the initial facade when a merchant (who looks like the fourth Doctor in ASCII) shows up to sell you things. The game does not tell you what you can do, and the merchant is no different. You don't have the option to buy things until you have the candy for it. But when you buy a wooden sword, you get your first glimpse into this game's surprisingly complex mechanics.

I don't... Read All Candy Box is a tricky game to explain. Jon told me about it. the other day and I tried it out, and I was initially very confused. It's a candy counter that constantly goes up right? And you can either eat or throw the candy? That's all? What's the big deal? But you realize something else is behind the initial facade when a merchant (who looks like the fourth Doctor in ASCII) shows up to sell you things. The game does not tell you what you can do, and the merchant is no different. You don't have the option to buy things until you have the candy for it. But when you buy a wooden sword, you get your first glimpse into this game's surprisingly complex mechanics.

I don't want to give too much away, because the discovery of what the game is all about is part of the fun. But in brief, Candy Box is an RPG/Adventure style game. Candies and lollipops are your currency, which you use to buy things for quests. But on top of that you're managing your income of candies and lollipops like you might in a Cookie Clicker style game, only in Candy Box you don't have to keep clicking. Part of the game is idling, especially at first, so it's a good game to kinda keep open and flip back to every hour or so.

Candy Box 2 is more of the same, but things are balanced better, and the gameplay has way more depth. Definitely play the first one before you play the second one. Again, I don't want to say much about the changes in the sequel because so much of the fun is in discovering what you can do.

I found myself wholly engrossed by these games. They aren't super long, you can complete both in the span of a couple of days, but a significant chunk of that is idling while waiting for your candy/lollipops to build up. But there are multiple wikis, walkthroughs, and Youtube let's-plays of it. There are arguments over the best strategies for accomplishing certain tasks. The game is written in javascript, and there are a few instances where it really seems like the developer expects you to cheat by using your browsers developer console to find the right values for something (but you don't have to).

There's so much depth here that a review can't, and shouldn't, show. This review is short, intentionally, because going into too many specifics would ruin it (I may have already said too much), and it's an ASCII based game so a lot of things reviews normally talk about (environment, graphics, sound, controls) don't really apply here. It's stick figures and buttons and a strange, compelling, satisfying gameplay loop.

If you haven't played these games, you need to play them right now!

And you can play them right here:
https://cheerfulghost.com/games/candybox
https://cheerfulghost.com/games/candybox2

Valve's Artifact Card Game Coming November 28th!

Since Valve talked about launching a new card game and that it wouldn't be free to play i've wondered how much it would be? Not only has Valve dropped the Artifact launch date of November 28th but also more information on how much Artifact will cost. You can buy two starting decks of 54 cards + 10 boosters for $20. Looks like each booster contains 12 cards and each booster costs $2. The base Artifact set will have about 280 cards so it would take a bit to get each card by opening packs but the good news is you can buy the rest of the cards straight up on the Steam store from other players selling them. Looks like Valve is implementing the same model you can use to... Read All

Hearthstone Boomsday Project Launches August 7th!

Hearthstones new expansion The Boomsday Project launches August 7th and if you sign on around that time you can grab three free packs and a expansion Legendary. The Boomsday Project is also launching single player puzzle content later in the month and if you check that out you will get 3 more free packs. I like the idea of splitting up the release in two chunks over the month and it's always cool to get a few free packs.

You playing The Boomsday Project when it launches?

"For a limited time after The Boomsday Project starts on August 7, log in to claim 3 card packs and a random Class Legendary minion (or Hero card)—both from the new expansion—for free!

Get 3 more The... Read All

Metal Jesus reviews a new Composite/Component/SVideo to HDMI converter

Metal Jesus posted a review of the RetroTINK 2x today on his youtube channel. This little device will take Composite/Component/SVideo input along with audio and convert it to 480p and output it over HDMI. All for $100. Compared to the framemeister and OSSC, this seems like it is a good affordable solution to get your old consoles up and running on modern TVs. To me it also seems easier to use, which is a bonus. I ended up pre-ordering one of these after watching Metal Jesus's review of it. What do you all think?

You Are Wrong About Skyrim Ports!

This might be the best episode of Ports Center i've seen. Ben starts things off talking about Skyrim and the ports to various systems and how the gaming community has looked at that. It's becoming a kind of meme that Skyrim will be eventually be ported to anything and that joke hit peak hilarity when Bethesda ported Skyrim to the Amazon Echo.

I don't want to spoil the video but it's a much watch and Ben brings it around for a solid conclusion while drawing parallels to fan reactions to The Last Jedi, a topic we've talked about quite a bit.

SuperHyperCube Behind The Scenes - I Still <3 FEZ

SuperHyperCube is a retro VR game that mixes up Tetris with a stylized sort of "tron-like" vibe. Created as a collaboration between Kokoromi & Polytron SuperHyperCube was initially released on Playstation VR and then later Steam VR. At the moment I don't own any VR gear nor am part of the overall VR movement. I think it's an interesting space to be in and I was able to play SuperHyperCube in a Sony store and thought it was one of the most fun VR experiences i've had. All that to say, the behind the scenes doc included above features one of the game developers Phil Fish who has a long and complicated career in gaming. He was the designer of FEZ, which I find to be... Read All