Retro Let's Play: Ghouls 'n Ghosts (Capcom 1988)

Retro Let's Play: Ghouls 'n Ghosts (Capcom 1988)

Ok, here we go... sorry for the delay.

This month @OCAU we have the sequel to Ghosts 'n Goblins (1985), Ghouls 'n Ghosts
(1988)!



Why?

I've picked this as it was one of my favourite arcade games, also the ports on C64. The playability and graphics are much better than Ghosts 'n Goblins, in particular allowing firing up. This is a run and shoot, twitchy masterpiece of a game that also entails an amazing soundtrack.

History;

So this was released by Capcom as an arcade game in December 1988, original cabinet and pcb below;





Some informative links;

https://www.arcade-museum.com/game_detail.php?game_id=7939

https://ghostsngoblins.fandom.com/wiki/Ghouls_'n_Ghosts

TV ad for the Genesis port, which includes Ghouls 'n Ghosts;

https://www.gamesdatabase.org/Media...p4/Formated/Ghouls_n_Ghosts___1989___Sega.mp4

In Japan it was called Daimakaimura (translates to "Great Demon World Village"), which was the initial release (Dec. 1988), then internationally under Ghouls 'n Ghosts;



Awesome game was created by;

Designers:
Tokuro Fujiwara
S. Yoshimoto
H. Yamamoto

Programmers:
Hiroshi Koike
Masatsugu Shinoara
Shinichi Ueyama

Fantastic music was written by;

Tamayo Kawamoto
Tim Follin

There have been numerous ports of this game, minor listing below;

Arcade, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, Commodore Amiga, NECSuperGrafx, Sega Genesis, Sega Master System, Sega Nomad and more listed here.

This site has some excellent info on the Sega versions including covers for all versions etc.;

https://segaretro.org/Ghouls'n_Ghosts

The Genesis version was popular;

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghouls_'n_Ghosts

Some more flyers;



C64 cover;



How;

You can play the original arcade version rom via MAME, RetroArch etc., spin up a port on a emulator or use original hardware if you have it (pics please).

Tips and trick's;

Didn't know about the below, will try it out, arcade version.

Debug features (US VERSION ONLY, it doesn't work on the original Japanese version) :
How to activate the debug features.
1) Set "Game Mode" Dip Switch to "Game".
2) Set both "Coin A" and "Coin B" Dip Switches to 1C_1C.
3) Reset the game.
4) Insert a coin.
5) Set "Game Mode" Dip Switch to "Test".
6) Set the debug Dip Switches to what you want.
7) Start a 1 player game.

Some debug features :
- "Armor on New Life" is effective at the beginning of a new life. Note that even when you start without armor, you need to be hit twice.
- "Starting Weapon" is effective only when you start a new game or when you continue play.
- "Starting Level" is effective only when you start a new game (you must NOT continue play !).
- "Slow Motion" and "Invulnerability" can be changed at any time.

This looks easy... yet so difficult;



Some further history and comparison;



Current;

There is a actually a "resurrection" version based on both games that was just released earlier this year;

https://www.ghostsn-goblins.com/resurrection/

Why?

This requires no explanation, Retro on.



JSmith

 

Great choice! I had been considering this one as a good title for retro replay. This game is one my arcade favourites and I included it in my favourtite games from 1980s in response to Elvis' poll some time ago.

This game is a platformer masterpiece. It has beautiful visuals and sound and perfect gameplay. If it has a flaw, it is the difficulty level. This game is crazy hard. Many players would say the daggers were the only weapon you should use, and I have to agree it was hard to beat them as an all-rounder. There were some situations where the other weapons were better, but I can't think of a situation where daggers weren't good. I used to play the arcade version a fair bit but it was costing too much pocket money for the playing time returned. Even when using the daggers, I would be lucky to clear level 3. Back when this game was new, I once watched a guy - as did everybody around the machine - complete it (and I mean properly complete it - I'm not giving away the spoiler) using only 2 credits. He looked the kind of person who didn't work, didn't shower often and spent a lot of time playing games.

Around the same time, I saved up birthday money and bought a Capcom games pack for the C64 that included this game. Playing the C64 version was much easier and also much cheaper! I could finish it easily after lots of practice. For a C64 port, it was pretty outstanding. They definitely didn't use lazy programmers like the ones who did the Double Dragon port. Of course, once I had a PC that was capable of emulating the arcade game using MAME, there was no going back. I like to try using the different weapons when playing in MAME, but I don't think it helps me progress much. It does add to the enjoyment, but as someone who prefers to play on one credit, I still don't think I've made it past level 4.

Time to get MAME out again and have a bash!

Edit: Got the decade wrong, this game was released late 1980s.

 

Great choice! Given how much I absolutely suck at this game, I'm going to spend the whole month comparing all the ports. Well, level 1 of all the parts, at least.

 

J, Thanks for taking us back on a shotgun ride though the Demon Realm once more.

Awesome!! ive completed a long long time ago, GhostnG on the C64.. Ill give the mame cab a spin with this sequal. Ive had a dabble in it before and its bloody hard.. really hard.. I also remeber the Amiga version of Ghouls'n'g was pretty darn good, though never got very far in it. Yeah ill be arcade-ing it for this one..

I wonder if old mate Arthuro is thinking that maybe Prin Prin is just too much trouble, i mean this is the bloody second time shes gone and got her self kidnapped, most probably while getting her highlights or nails done... oh wait...

 

Also, paging nimmers , resident game completionist god of OCAU. I know he's 1CCed this and has video proof. Share your exploits with us!

 

Oh nice, Ghouls n Ghosts!

So yeah, I had this game on my 1CC bucket list for years and this year I sat down and figured out how to beat it. Even managed to no death clear both loops of the USA version and cleared the Japanese version with 1 death

Great game, tight controls, awesome sound and visuals. Super nostalgic! Love it to bits.

I will say for anyone wanting to get into it, it's really important to note that this game has no diagonals! It feels awful to play this on an 8-way joystick, so those with arcade sticks, change your gates to 4-way and this game will be far less frustrating

 

Agree on both points, the DD port was a bit of a mess with the game slowing down when the C64 couldn't handle the multiple enemy movement.

I'm glad everyone likes this choice, this game has legendary status IMO.



JSmith

 

Joe from Gamesack is pretty good at this game also. I am pretty crap at it and die a lot. never finished it.

Anyone played any of the newer modern version of this game (more sequels than enything) like the PSP and Switch game?

Mrs just gave me a new stick for my Amiga I might give it a go on that.

Side note, due to the popularity of this community edition we've opened up the rest of the year for nominations - so get in there and dob yourself in or I'll make elvis do the rest of the year and that might make him cranky, save us all from cranky elvis .

https://forums.overclockers.com.au/...nominate-and-contribute-your-choices.1291312/

 

Looks like a solid version, although all ports were different in some way to the arcade I believe. I recall reading somewhere there is no music on the Amiga port unless you have a 1MB memory expansion... can't find that info now though, unless I was reading that about Ghosts 'n Goblins instead.



JSmith

 

Lol just after reading this figured out you can shoot upwards.... thanks J , Makes a huge difference.. I still suck at it though..

There's an issue with my rom, the high score is in hex. And scores aren't reported. Might need to hunt for another rom version.

 

Such a good game - and one of the most unforgiving ones I've ever played. Its one of those arcade cabinets that I'd always head straight to when walking into an arcade (after checking if they had an Operation Wolf cabinet lol)

 

Played a bit of the SMS port because I had it set up for World Grand Prix.

As someone who grew up on home consoles, the arcade platformer was always hard for me to get into, because they were designed to eat coins. The SMS port seems to have infinite continues and no penalty for continuing, so that's not so bad. Still, I got up to the sand platform things in level 2, and was frustrated by what the game wanted me to do: die a lot in order to memorise which sections of platform would send you to instant death.

I guess the answer today is save states if you're okay with not getting the"authentic" experience.

 

I have the SMS port and got a long way through that, but love all versions of
this game. The arcade version is very tough. I’ve never got particularly far in it, but it still looks cool 33 years on!

 

Yeah, this section of the game is a pain in the arse and probably the most frustrating section, particularly if you have bad memory like me. It also doesn't help that there are enemies flying past you at the same time. Still, if you fall straight down whilst walking into one of the traps, it isn't always instant death; I have managed to jump my way out of the pit quite a few times. You can then try again using trial and error for varying success, but yes the best way is to memorise the traps which I think sucks. If however you miss a jump, then you could well be falling straight on to the ant lion thing.

I'm glad to read that everybody else found this game seriously hard. I always considered myself pretty at good at arcade games, being able to complete quite a few with a single credit, but this game always beat me hard. The game designers must have been thinking, "This is surely one of our best games so far. We need to set the difficulty to match its greatness so it gains the respect of players. Let's make it Irem hard!". At least it's easier than some of the other platformers *cough* Rygar *cough*.

 

This run broke my heart, was hoping to no death clear the game and Lucifer wasn't having it I think I was in the groove through the run itself, was on Discord chatting to some mates and not really paying attention:

 

Nimmers, i just watched you finish that game.. holy crap, looks like you gotta go through the thing twice... and then some more at the end....

Man, astounded at your skillzzzz.....

had a bit of a laugh at the credits.. princess prin prin with her measure-ments... lolol

thanks, theres no way in hell i could do that, but ill keep at it..

 

Caveat emptor: I suck at this game. All opinions are from the point of view of a complete numpty.

Mucked around with a few versions of this today. Will talk about the ones I managed to get screenshots of. Please excuse the reflection in my screen, I had my arcade room lights on behind me and didn't realise.

These were played on my MiSTer setup.

Arcade:

Original and the best. I consider this the "reference", and everything will compare to it.

Sega Megadrive / Genesis:

Awesome port. Graphics are scaled back a little (fewer sprites, less detail in the backgrounds), and the music sounds a little harsher, but this is an incredible home port. Really impressive, and the difficulty is there too.

Sega Master System:

Massively scaled down, but no surprises given the puny 8bit Z80. Music attempts to be as faithful as it can on the harsh SMS PSG sound chip (no FM sound here). Graphics are pretty impressive for an SMS game, but I think that harms it a little when things get busy and the slowdown kicks in. If they could have sorted that, the port would have been amazing. Like most SMS games, the difficulty is scaled way back on this one. Nowhere near as difficult as the arcade or Megadrive versions.

Amiga:

Terrible. Considering that, for the most part, Amiga games can easily keep up with Megadrive/Genesis games thanks to the similar M68K chip, this port is positively awful. The music is interesting - not at all like the arcade version (totally different songs), but spooky. Almost feels like the Super Metroid soundtrack here on the first level. But if the arcade version is your benchmark, then this is miles off. Also "up as jump" hurts this game a lot, because you want to be able to shoot upwards and not jump A LOT.

In an emulator, I tried:

X68000:

I'd like to get this on my CRT to compare (couldn't get the X68000 cores working in MiSTer due to the dual SD card requirement, and all my stuff sitting on my NAS), but this appears arcade perfect visually. Unsurprising given the X68K's M68K grunt, "huge" storage, and many arcade perfect ports. I didn't get audio working, but I'd love to hear how that sounds on the M68K's odd midi setup (not to mention through an MT-32).

Amstrad CPC:

Vomit.

Still a few more ports to test later in the week.

 

Hah yeah, the old 2 loops but to be honest once you can do 1 loop, loop 2 isn't more difficult or anything. I played for like 6 weeks to get to this level. There are some seriously good Aussies who play this game.

Check out Marc Bell from Sydney who has the fastest speedrun on a real PCB: https://www.speedrun.com/ghouls_n_ghosts

 

More comparisons, more shitty photos (click for bigger). All of these are played on MiSTer FPGA on my 30" consumer CRT.

PC Engine Super Grafx:

Slightly different palette to the Sega Megadrive, and the sound is a little tinnier, but easily on par for gameplay. Smooth and near arcade perfect.

AtariST:

Almost identical to the Amiga version, minus some graphical details (no clouds in the opening shot here). Equally as poor to control. The music isn't anything like the arcade original nor the Amiga version, and worse than both.


Amstrad CPC:

I showed this in an emulator last time, but on MiSTer it was a lot smoother. Music is interesting, although nothing like the arcade (better than the ST). Gameplay is pretty terrible, and the screen doesn't smooth scroll, rather jerking along in screens at a time. Dunno if it was the copy I had, but I couldn't finish the first level - got to the end and it just scrolled forever.

Commodore 64:

Easily the worst of the 8bit titles. Slowdown and terrible collision detection make it awful to play. Music is OK, but you can't have effects either, so it's better to turn the music off, effects on, and get a heads up on enemy movements and attacks instead. Still awful though.

ZX Spectrum

OK hear me out. No in game music (cute title music, but nothing like the arcade), and the classic "one colour per sprite" ZX palette that looks awful. BUT, smooth as butter scrolling, perfect collision detection, and zero slowdown. This looks terrible, but plays WAY better than the Amiga, AtariST, C64, CPC or SMS versions. Mind blowing.

So for western home releases, Sega Megadrive wins 16bit, ZX Spectrum wins 8 bit for me. x68000 is best non-arcade port, but that platform is so ridiculously expensive that most people would emulate it, and at that point you may as well emulate the arcade version. PCEngine SuperGrafx is excellent, but again is an expensive system to own. Sega Master System is by far the prettiest 8 bit port, but poor collision detection and slowdown make it difficult to play.

Considering how excellent many Amiga and C64 games were, these were terrible ports, and the people responsible for butchering them (US Gold mostly, by the looks of the title screens) should be ashamed.

All other "ports" of the game to later model home consoles are just emulated/ported versions of the arcade (this was on various Capcom and GnG collections on PS1, PS2, Saturn, etc), and are arcade perfect.

Of note, no Nintendo version of this exists. The prequel, "Ghosts n Goblins" hit NES and GameBoy Colour. The Sequel, "Super Ghouls n Ghosts" made the SNES and a weird port to PlayStation. But this title saw zero Nintendo releases outside of the Wii Virtual Console (which was just an emulated Sega Megadrive title). Weird. I think this was when Capcom and Nintendo were having one of their little spats.