Ghouls And Ghosts on Amstrad CPC 6128 vintage home computer.

[paulpetroleum]

Never understood the green screen monitor....why green?? Why?? WHY???

[SteveBenway]

@paulpetroleum Supposedly green is easier on your eyes than black and white, and definitely cheaper than colour.

[RetroGamerVX]

Yes, 'dying' is a word I associate with this game a lot ;o) Yes, I bet it looks lovely on the monitor, they are very clear monitors :o)

Woo hoo, somebody else who is as bad at this as me :o)

[pundewhee]

This game is much better on c64, imho. The pixels, scrolling and everything else.

Very nice reviewy-kinda-thing, good job, well done.

[neojake999gamer]

This whole series is hard as hell. OMG!! I think I can do just as well as you did here!

[JakalairVG]

The bad guys look like American Hobos. I have a deep hatred for this game just because it was ate so much of my arcade money while trying to play it.

[EgoShredder]

There are some good side scrollers on the CPC, such as the magnificent Savage by Firebird. ht_p://w_w.youtube.com/watch?v­=QEC5T10nqtA

[mathowlett]

I bought this for the Speccy and played it a lot, but still never got past the part where it's all on fire and stuff (Level 4, I think). Too bloody hard for me.

[DeviouslyDevious]

At 2:21 I was thinking, "Oh yeah, he'll give you something alright..." and then a few minutes later he duckified you. Made me laugh, good video.

[cmdfarsight]

I found this game far too difficult on any platform I've played it on. I've toyed with the idea of getting it for the snes but whether I'll take the plunge is yet to be seen. It's one of those games that you gravitate towards but dislike.

[LarryBundyJr]

You probably like the home versions og GnG because you've got more time to breathe it all in, you're kinda rushed in arcades.

[TheInfinitea]

When I watched this, I realised that THIS is the game that kicks my ass but I still love it. Ultimate G&G on the PSP is well worth a look.

[lakepalmer]

Back in the day, this would have been described as "blecky" by my mates and me. I did like the duck though. Stupidly difficult on any system

[andyukmonkey]

One of the Amstrad cpc's strengths is the big palette.

This is an improvement on the Ghosts 'n' goblins conversion though. You just have to check out the music in Ghosts 'n' goblins though.

There are various tricks to get smooth scrolling on the Amstrad but if often uses up too much memory.

[electricadventures]

It is nice to see some Amstrad graphics, very similar in look to ZX Spectrum, but with more possible colours. We got increased screen flickering once more objects where on the screen, so potentially so interrupt driven screen trickery happening there. It looks like it plays fairly fast.. Scrolling would be 8 pixel jerky due to the CPC using 8x8 block graphics with colour tables, instead of true pixel based output - done to lower the amount of video ram needed, & not overload the Z80.

[pocketmego]

Not to bad. I first played this on the Genesis vs the Arcade, so I never played it anywhere BUT at home. Much like the first one on the C64. But, I can see it doesn't look bad and certainly outshines the NES version of the first one. Although, I think it doesn't look quite as good as the original on the C64. All in all though, I'd play it.

[Trusteft]

I thought the graphics look horrible and not near as good as I remembered. Not only that but the gameplay seems a bit slow and unresponsive. Then I remembered that this is not Ghosts 'N Goblins. OOPS.

How did they ruin this so much?

And while I heard that in your eyes it looks good and this is a monitor to camera thing, I still think the game looks like it has a liver disease. :p

Ghosts 'N Goblins FTW! 

I think you did ok, the series is among the most hard games of its time.

[TeamRocketReviews]

Nice to see some good Amstrad game reviews. Could you review the actual system? I haven't actually seen any reviews of the hardware on YouTube.

[jboypacman]

Love these games but they are so freaking hard!

[saberblock]

Hehe, nice to see it up and running after all the fixy-do's you did on it! Was a shame that some coders didn't spend the time to get the Amstrad scrolling properly - plenty of platform games out there for the CPC which scroll perfectly smooth!

[Starxxon]

@Stevebenway Maybe it's hard to have smooth scrolling on the CPC, but still:

When you "switch" screens, this game engine seems to be able to achieve smooth scrolling while it continues to animate everything on the screen without a hitch, you can even shoot and jump while it scrolls.

Why not use that same scrolling code all the time while the character moves instead of using it as a transition between screens?

[AtsumaKarin]

This game often gets named as one of the hardest games ever made.

I have to agree from the numerous videos I've seen. I wish I'd had a chance to play it for myself, would've been a fun challenge. :)

It's a pity there was so much flicker in this video. :(

Nevertheless: I still enjoyed watching you try to do well in this game but alas, no: "WOOF!" this time. ;)

Good SWILL! :D

[musicmaniac1965]

I love this game series. It was fun on the Commodore64, but on the megadrive it was even more fun, and close enough to the arcade, especially gameplay wise. Thanks for sharing one of my most favorite games from yesteryear! Have a nice day.

kind regards, Ronald.

[DARKJURNEY]

I went on a mission to play every version of gouls and ghosts (there are alot , and this was one of if not maybe the worst ,no fun at all also no joy from the DOS version . arcade version would be my favorite if it wasn't so hard , genesis version is fave fun easy

[Xyphoe]

Yay! Amstrad vids! And their monitors are cracking aren't they? I have three here and all still work and look great :)

[murrayefc78]

ghouls and ghosts is fantastic and an arsehole in the same breath. Enemies that form from directly underneath you is just unfair. If you stick with it and put the time in and die over and over again slowly you progress. Like my misses its a cruel cruel misstress

[CholoCPC]

This is one of the few Overscan (hight here) games on the amstrad so its probably why you cant get it to show properly using a MP1 or scart cable.

Pretty tough indeed and quite well coverted from the arcade as well (the magician turning you into a duck is normal) :)

[CoolDudeClem]

The only thing I didnt like about this game was that ememies always come out of the ground no matter how many I killed so I just try to avoid them and only kill them if they're in the way. I think the game is ok, but the only really good thing in this game has to be Tim Folliin's music.

[dalquen]

Hmmm Steve giving is up is for quitters.We'll miss you in the smokers club :<. Good review of a game i'll never play...too damn hard.

[TheBladeJunker]

Throwing the lance seems difficult at first , I hear you clicking away like mad. Congrats on quitting, useless habit smoking. Color seems a little dull for CPC as from what I've seen of the system color palette it should be as vibrant as the SNES G&G, TMNT & Final Fight were much more saturated than this. I thought you played quite well, tough game series. :)

[SPINNYFUCK]

I like the part where you're character loses his clothes and is hanging around wearing diapers. Damn tough game!

[kingstonlj]

I think the Amstrad could do better - and it has no music, which spoils things. I think I've played Ghosts 'n Goblins on the CPC - and it possibly had music. ... The GG series has everything I like, except for the ridiculous difficulty level... Why the hell couldn't Capcom just put an easy option in all the games.. to make them fun for everyone. :(

[HiroGaems]

I imagine some at least somebody named some port of this in their response to The SMS's "games that kick your arse" video. It certainly kicks mine, but only for about 10 minutes at a time, lest I break a controller.

I can forgive scrolling like this on vintage computers. What's really annoying is when it happens on a "third generation" or later console, where the hardware was specifically designed to allow smooth scrolling.

[madcapoperator]

You're not the only one bad at this game in all forms, its absolutely balls hard! I've never gotten past the second stage and even getting there took my hours...

[davidhass3lh0ff]

this brings back memories :D not the best verson of this game but they did a good job porting this to the amstrad

[TheMathius78]

You were right to kill the magician that pops out of the chest. As you seen he turns you into a duck or maybe even an old man. =)

[ImperialProductions]

I know that tune, but I've never played or even seen the game before...

[sandmanxo]

It looks like this version lives up to the legendary difficulty of Ghouls n Ghosts. I was never a big fan of the game, but this looks like a good version of it, other than the annoying screen movement. I guess they couldn't get this machine to scroll.

[SteveBenway]

@sandmanxo Definitely very difficult. Aparrently scrolling was tricky to achieve on the Amstrad.

[yuriythebest]

I had an Amstrad with a monochrome greed display

[SteveBenway]

@yuriythebest My wife had one back in the day too.

[ninjastare]

really flickery!!

[SteveBenway]

@ninjastare Yeah, very. I set the camera to minimise the flicker at the start of the game, but as the scenery changes, the flicker gets worse. Damned shame my MP1 modulator doesn't work with the 6128, as videoing from my LCD TV cures all the flickering.

[CustardGanet]

i spent so many hours on this game on my Amstrad.

[SteveBenway]

@CustardGanet I can believe it. It feels like a game that would reward practice :)

[CustardGanet]

@SteveBenway Oh yah i was young,had infinite patience then haha,doubt i could spend more than an hour with it now for my sanity's sake.

[PSI236]

Looks better on the monitor. I'd want a TV connector though if I was getting an Amstrad.

[SteveBenway]

@PSI236 I was a bit gutted (and surprised) that my MP1 modulator for the CPC464 didn't work with this.

[Polaventris]

It might look good for a 8bit computer but it is no C64 game, thats for sure. Funny how it scrolls one screen at a time. That can't make it any easier when you cant see whats coming ahead.

[SteveBenway]

@Polaventris Not sure if I've seen the C64 version to compare it with, but this beats the Acorn Electron clone that I played a while back called Hobgoblin :)

[Polaventris]

@SteveBenway RetrogamerVX did a video of it some times ago : watch?v=SYGpbsJz9IQ

[SteveBenway]

@Polaventris Thanks :)

*goes to watch it*

[TheHillel1000]

hello

[SteveBenway]

@TheHillel1000 Hello :)