[AMSTRAD CPC]👻 Spooky Castle - Longplay & Review + Other Versions Comparison! Atari / C64 / Spectrum

#amstrad #amstradcpc #spookycastle #amstradcpc464
Longplay and review for "Spooky Castle" on the Amstrad CPC!
There's ghostly goings-on in this beastly budget title from Atlantis Software! Can 'Gormless Gary' rescue 'Princess Clare' from the bats and ghosts in this extremely difficult, frustrating although very short platformer?! That does have some quite nice graphics, and plays very fast and smooth... but is that enough? Most people reached for the off switch within seconds it was that darn frustrating, but I decided to persevere! We'll also take a look at and compare the other versions of the game on the Atari 800 XL (the original version), Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum after the longplay! I ain't afraid of no ghost... 👻
(c) Atlantis Software 1990
www.cpc-power.com/index.php?p...
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Background music featured - "Actraiser (cover)" by "24:7" - 247retro.bandcamp.com/
Timings -
00:00 Video Intro
00:43 Introduction To Spooky Castle
04:13 Amstrad Longplay
08:13 My Review Summary
10:03 Version Comparison
17:26 Conclusion & Outro

[@craigwilson.2367]

It's definitely a knight lying down, great vid as ever. Credit where credit is due for editing out the save states. :)

[@Xyphoe]

Thanks mate, I couldn't work it out at all - it's definitely more visible in the Speccy version then it clicked - re the knight! And cheeky git!

[@henrimedot]

Happy to have a new video from you my friend! 😄 Nice little but way too short game, even for a budget one. 6/10 too.

[@Xyphoe]

Merci Henri! More to come soon, and glad you liked this and agreed with my assessment!

[@lewiswaddo5045]

Might give this a try. Great video Xy!

[@Xyphoe]

Hehe thanks man! Good luck getting off the first few screens! Need some perseverance!

[@terriblecoughing4767]

Cracking stuff as always, Xy

[@Xyphoe]

Thank you mate! Glad you enjoyed!

[@fandabidozi3191]

Just in time for three months before Halloween. 🎃

[@Xyphoe]

Yea I know, after I had finished this I was like ... 'Damn, maybe I should have saved this for Halloween?!' but then... I NEEDED to get a new vid out for the channel! Oh well, plenty of CPC games out there with ghosts, spooks, ghouls, monsters, etc etc! There's also Hobgoblin from Atlantis which is a crap Ghosts N Goblins rip-off I could look at!

[@mamehaze]

I think it's an alright game anyway, it has more ideas than 'pick up all items on screen and move on' The maze-like structure where you can pick a wrong door, then have to go to the other side of the screen just to get a key to get back out manages to reward repeated playthroughs (avoid pointless doors) without punishing you TOO much the first time over (also suits the relatively small size of the game well as it's not too much to learn) The two basic enemy types, one which drains health and the other outright killing you is a nice touch, and each has a defined behaviour that isn't simply "bounce around like the logo on a DVD screensaver" Overall it avoids the trap of being completely generic, which unfortunately a lot of games fell into back then (as they do today) Nice to see a game running at mostly 50fps on the CPC too, even if there is a bit of slowdown. I'm assuming the 2nd ghost wasn't included because it would have slowed it down too much. If the ladder issue isn't present in the Speccy version I might personally prefer that over the CPC (haven't checked)

[@Xyphoe]

Yea the assumption being the 2nd ghost was included either because (1) it caused slowdown or (2) it made the game even more annoying/frustrating. I'm actually leaning far more towards the latter. And agreed on your other points too pretty much, I didn't want to make too much of a 'song and dance' about it given how short the game was - if it had more screens and longevity then I perhaps I would have spent more time praising some of its mechanics - but it cheaped out on its number of screens on ALL it's conversions and I have no idea why!

[@pacovespa8641]

Great longplay and nice game 👍👍👍👍👍👍

[@Xyphoe]

Thank you Paco! Glad you enjoyed it!!

[@GreenTeaViewer]

17 screens of arcade action was pretty good in 1985...Pac man had just one a few years earlier.

[@Xyphoe]

Indeed.... shame this was 1990 though!!

[@AnthonyFlack]

It wasn't really. Jet Set Willy II (1985) - 131 rooms. Starquake (1985) - 512 rooms. Sabre Wulf (1984) - 256 rooms. Atic Atac (1983) - 200 rooms.

[@carn9507]

Spectrum version is 'squished' because the width of the CPC and C64 versions use their chunky 160 pixel width modes which are equal to 320 square pixels and the Spectrum can only have max width of 256. So all the rooms have to have 8 tiles worth of certain elements in their tile layout removed to fit them into the width but keep the 8x8 colour attributes. Switchblade also has the issue of being 320 pixels wide on CPC and C64 and rather than cutting parts that port ACTUALLY condenses things to fit everything in (16 pixel width tiles become 12 pixel width) though because 12 is not a multiple of 8 it cannot neatly fit the colour attributes and so is monochrome. it's also why the sprites are skinnier on Speccy Switchblade than on CPC.

[@beagsx3]

I'm getting a kinda spellbound vibe here minus the awesome music, of course 😂

[@Xyphoe]

Hi mate! Good to hear from ya! I kinda see what you mean, although Spellbound at least had a LOT more to it!! 😂

[@amjh4lah809]

First comment, 3rd like 👍🏻 and insanely, incredibly, crazy, mega early 😳 😍

[@Xyphoe]

Haha! Thank you man!!

[@amjh4lah809]

@@Xyphoe No problem! Love your content! Nostalgia!!!! 😁😍

[@mamehaze]

I'm going to guess that's "fall damage" in the Atari version, except it kills you at the very moment you've fallen too far, rather than when you hit the ground.

[@Xyphoe]

Ah yea, it's quite possibly fall damage now you mention it... can't be arsed to fire it up to test right now and find another place to jump off! The other (con)versions don't have fall damage.

[@99Alexey99]

This big hitbox

[@mikemckenna6709]

Posted that last comment too quickly, damn my fat thumbs! I was also gona mention that my son has started using Antstream and we went through some Spectrum stuff together yesterday and this game is on it! And it's still as bad as I remember it to be. The Amstrad version does look to play a bit better.

[@Xyphoe]

Yea in the latter 3rd of the video I looked at the other versions of the game, and the Speccy one - weirdly it's in a different aspect ratio and it's squished! And less wide. I don't know why they did that, because it changes the game play and timing - probably makes it harder. Certainly made it feel more claustrophobic!

[@gamingtherapy7587]

I prefer the amstrad version as well

[@Xyphoe]

Yup. As someone else perfectly put in the comments elsewhere here... it's the least worst!

[@vimster]

They got your £2.99, job done.

[@Xyphoe]

Yep pretty much there thanks to the box art! Tbh Atlantis always had great box art, whoever their artist was - he/she was great!

[@mikemckenna6709]

Oh what irony! I had the Speecy version and hated it. Easily one of my worst purchases.

[@Xyphoe]

At least it was only a couple of quid!

[@Boyer316]

Amstrad version is the least worst.

[@Xyphoe]

Ha!! Yes.... perfectly put. I should have said/used that.