Battle of the Ports Remastered- Ghouls'n Ghosts (大魔界村) Show 434 - 60fps

[@RetroCore]

In this video, I make a mistake by saying the Saturn and PlayStation games are from the Capcom Generations 3 disc. They're actually on the 2nd disc.

[@johnebbs3819]

We forgive you Mark. We are people of tolerance and mercy.

[@Bloodreign1]

That's what happens when you have a lot of games in your collection, I feel your pain.

[@mastersproutgamer9327]

Mistakes happen to you.

[@RetroCore]

Lol, so very true. It becomes a blurred mountain.

[@RetroCore]

Mistakes happen to all who are under a deadline 😉

[@michaelfollin]

Thanks for your kind words on the Spectrum version (I wrote it). I don’t agree with calling all these versions “ports” though. We had absolutely no code, graphics, or music from Capcom or anyone else. We just had an arcade cabinet on freeplay in the office, and wrote our versions from scratch on each platform based only on our experience of playing the arcade game. The only Software Creations one I’d call a “port” here was Amiga to ST (or the other way round).

[@videogamebookreviews]

In the 80s and 90s my friends and I would talk about games that were _conversions._ If games used at least some code they were ports. I still use this terminology but the word 'port' is now so widespread that I think it's a bit like recovering, for example, 'decimate' to mean to reduce by one tenth, and numerous other words that get used wrongly then become widely accepted. After more than 400 episodes of Battle of the Ports, I don't think the series will get a new name. Hmm... how about it, Mark - 'Battle of the Ports and Conversions'?

[@michaelfollin]

Fair comment. We too used to say “arcade conversions”. Hadn’t seen this channel before. Can’t expect Liverpool vs . Felixstowe or Ruby vs. Tawny.

[@RetroCore]

Wow, cool. Thanks for posting a comment. I do like how well the speccy version plays. Sure, it's slightly different in level design but what is important is the playability. I wonder, was it not possible to add music? The title track by Tim was very good. I guess CPU cycles and memory would be an issue. I do agree about not calling these games (in most cases) ports. I only use the term as it's easy to understand for the everyday viewer. They're more conversions I'd say. But yeah, cheers for posting! 👍

[@RetroCore]

Lol, I know just what you mean. Yeah, the true term is conversion but as you said, the word port is now used for all versions of a game. Kind of how every in development build of a game is now a beta even though that's not correct most of the time.

[@nekononiaow]

True, once a word enters the mainstream its meaning gets almost invariably distorted. Beta is a great example, it's actually a very late stage of development when only bug fixes remains to be done but every one (even devs, which is infuriating but it's usually the marketing guys who do (they are probably responsible for the vast majority of meaning distortion moreover)) uses the word to mean in-development. It's actually probably Google who started distorting Beta by associating it with a product (Gmail) which was not feature complete.

[@dreamcastfan]

Those Amiga and ST ports look shocking, did they put arcade screenshots on the back of the box? (I say this as an ST owner back in the day too). The Megadrive port is like a breath of fresh air by comparison, even though it’s hampered by the cartridge size. I remember a few years back someone was working on porting the CPS-1 code to the ST and they made some good progress, but like that new Megadrive port, I don’t think it was ever finished. The Speccy and Amstrad make good showings of themselves. To be honest, when it comes to Daimakaimura you just can’t beat the CPS-1 original, even though it’s often very cheeky at withholding the dagger weapon. The Goddess Bracelet is really powerful, you can basically bulldoze your way through in no time with it. Strangely they made that weapon was a lot less useful in Super Ghouls ‘n’ Ghosts.

[@theblackrabbit1710]

Wow. The aMaru version on the Genesis looks amazing.

[@abcmaya]

Damn.... Finally!!! I've been waiting for someone to do a remake of that game without the 5 meg limitation. That's awesome!!!

[@topofbones]

Amazing remastered! Always loved the Master System version cause it's an easier game and have the shops.

[@RetroCore]

Yep. I would recommend the MASTER System version as a beginners start to the game.

[@MisterWillX]

my favorite version is the Supergrafx port. I'm so glad they included it on the Turbografx Mini. Great video, as always.

[@RetroCore]

It was one of the best ports available for quite a while.

[@mr.y.mysterious.video1]

I posted a slightly negative view of the Amiga’s abilities to portray arcade games of it's time in another retro video recently. Someone replied pointing out what a fool I was and how the amiga’s abilities were vastly,greater than the megadrive and snes and could for the time only be compared to those of the neo geo. I think they were serious.

[@ravagingwolverine]

I can believe it. Whatever its capabilities were on paper, I wish people like that lots of enjoyment playing those hypothetical games that achieve such quality.

[@juststatedtheobvious9633]

@@ravagingwolverine Look at Agony and Shadow of the Beast. Also, No Second Prize. It's a wildly varying standard of quality (Shadow is quite terrible to actually play), but it should give you an idea of why some people might be tricked into thinking the Amiga is more powerful than it is. If you knew what you were doing, and you had the time and resources to actually do it, then you could blow away what consoles were doing at the exact same time... In the same way it would be impossible for the SNES to handle Alien Soldier and the Genesis to pull off Super Mario RPG without a ton of compromises. Or for the Amiga 500 to get a port of Super Street Fighter 2 that can compare to either. Every platform had carefully chosen strengths and weaknesses. Even the Neo Geo library had to fake sprite scaling (It could only reduce them, unlike the Lynx and Sega CD) or background tiles. (they're all made of sprites, which is why it avoids layers of parallax whenever possible.)

[@mr.y.mysterious.video1]

@@juststatedtheobvious9633 i think it's the sprite issue that doomed amiga arcade ports. just 8 hardware sprites compared to so many more on the megadrive and snes. and i owned all 3 machines, used my amiga for octamed etc, i knew where the best games were.

[@RetroCore]

Lol, that's Amiga fanboys for you. They always have an excuse for a shitty port. It really amuses me as Atari ST fans never try to defend shitty ports. Of course, the Amiga has a lot of good games that aren't arcade ports but the truth is that most arcade ports suck on the Amiga and ST. There are a few impressive ones though such as the Titles Ocean France ported.

[@Abyssal_Mayura]

Here's an error. Ghouls n' Ghost is part of the Capcom Generations Dai 2 Shuu - Makai to Kishi (Capcom Generations Vol.2 - The Demonic Kingdom and The Warrior), which includes all 3 Makaimura series of games. Along with the first Makaimura and the SFC exclusive "Chou Makaimura".

[@naswinger]

5 mbit on the mega drive is such a weird size for a rom chip

[@RetroCore]

It sure is.

[@WMARUoriginal]

I had always thought the PS and Saturn versions were straight up emulation, but interesting that they were actually ports. That Java version looks very impressive!

[@RetroCore]

Yep, pure ports. I don't think either of those consoles were powerful enough to emulate CPS1 games.

[@AgentCodyBankz]

Genesis' unlimited continues are a blessing

[@RetroCore]

Indeed,!

[@jasonlee7816]

i would choose better audio, graphics, music, sound, visuals instead of unlimited continues

[@piccolo1976]

Loved this game, such intricate level design, great graphics and quality music. Played the MD version to death at the time, but was really impressed with the slick Super Grafx version. Thanks for giving us the correct Japanese pronunciation!

[@RetroCore]

You're very welcome on the Japanese pronunciation 👍

[@thefurthestmanfromhome1148]

Chris Butler nearly landed the rrole of converting o Ghouls 'n' Ghosts to the C64, but the software manager for US Gold, Charles Cecil, suddenly left to join Activision, poaching him in the process.

[@johnebbs3819]

Chris Butler was great.

[@RetroCore]

I wonder how his port would have turned out. I think it would have been much better than what was released.

[@nekononiaow]

Damn, talk about tough luck for C64 owners. This said, anyone leaving the trash pit that is US Gold needs to be applauded and thanked so I am happy Chris Butler left for hopefully better pastures. If only all competent devs had refused to work for US Gold where their skills and efforts were squandered the gaming world would have been a much better place. 😉

[@johns6265]

What a great example of how Capcom's technology and developers improved drastically in a short space of time, compared to Ghosts n' Goblins released just three years previously the improvements in sprites and animation are a massive leap. By the 90s Capcom seemed to have some of the best sprite and background artists in the business working on their games, standouts are Strider of course, the Dungeons and Dragons games and even later games like Breath of Fire IV feature some of the best art and sprites you'd see on the PS1.

[@solarflare9078]

The first Ghosts n Goblins game was made in Capcom's second year they first made games. It was bound to be a little rough, but what impressed me was how good it turned out despite inexperience. I've seen worse arcade games like it.

[@zanegandini5350]

While the arcade and X68000 versions certainly look the best, I have to say the changes made to the Sega Master System version make it my favorite. It really is much more forgiving than the other versions, and the music doesn't sound half-bad.

[@RetroCore]

Yeah, it's a nice entry level version of the game I think.

[@Steve_UK77]

I grew up only knowing the Amiga version and to be honest, I really enjoyed it, especially the amazing soundtrack.

[@RetroCore]

As long as you enjoyed it, that's all that matters. Especially when you didn't have another option. I loved plenty of crappy Saturn ports for example.

[@thefurthestmanfromhome1148]

@@RetroCore at the time, I really enjoyed the Atari 2600 versions of Defender, Kanagro and Battlezoone, having never played the Arcade versions, Atari 800 Thrust (the worst version going), having never seen the C64 version. Sometimes i miss the innocence of just being able to play a game because I didn't know any different.

[@jordidemaio]

I never played it on Amiga, but on emulator years after. I enjoyed the near arcade perfect Ghost'n'Goblins, but when I finally played this port I only saw U.S.Gold bullshit so bad as 8bit computers versions. A very awful port for a most capable system, a usual eith most arcade ports, specialy the ones managed by U.S.Gold

[@SomeOrangeCat]

@@RetroCore That's why I fondly remember the 2600 port of Pac-Man. that was literally the only way I could play the game.

[@RamuneRabbit]

@@SomeOrangeCat I had the Apple II port of Pac-Man (on a green monochrome monitor, no less). No way was I having an arcade at home, so, as a kid, I was pretty content with it.

[@ayth81]

The Atari ST music is engraved in my mind. I loved this game. It was super hard. I mostly played the first level but at my peak I remember getting past it and even to the part with lava. Never completed it though.

[@RetroCore]

I commend you on getting that far.

[@JorgeAraujo97]

The Mega Drive was the version I grew up with. Had tons of fun with it back in 1992. Also, I'm pretty sure Ghouls And Ghosts was the first Battle of the Ports I've ever watched around 2015, when I first discovered your channel. ;)

[@RetroCore]

Nice, that was quite some time ago.

[@Dark.Shingo]

Excellent video as usual. I didn't know about the X68000 trivia bit about Capcom.

[@shotgunl]

Great remaster video for a great game, Mark. This was what sold my uncle on a Genesis, and GnG, Altered Beast, and Tommy Lasorda baseball were the first games I got to play on the system. And, having played a ton of the NES Ghosts 'n Goblins, the Genesis version of Ghouls 'n Ghosts was amazing to us at the time. And, watching aMaru's updates on his amazing hack at sega-16 has been cool as well. Plus, the Supergrafx version is great too, even though it was many years before I got a chance to try that one out.

[@kuro68000]

Apparently the Spectrum version redraws the entire screen every frame, which allows for much better scrolling and overall presentation than most other Speccy games. That's also why the levels had to be simplified, to allow for full screen redraws at a high frame rate.

[@juststatedtheobvious9633]

That's both genius and bloody masochistic insanity....kind of like the game itself.

[@RetroCore]

That really paid off too. The Speccy version is quite good.

[@Mamiya645]

I have serious respect of speccy ports that are playable.

[@daishi5571]

On a technical level I have never liked the Spectrum, just too many compromises and Z80 processor nope. However I can overlook any system when I see a good game, and there were many great games that came out on the Speccy. I bought one, played what I wanted then sold it. It was a brief but good time.

[@PhoticSneezeOne]

Check out aMaru´s Ghouls'n Ghosts ARCADE EDITION Hack for the Sega Genesis! kzbin.info/www/bejne/b5_TgGOZjJaKbZI

[@luckyluke95]

Supergrafx is my favorite version 😍😍😍

[@RetroCore]

It sure was an impressive port at the time. It made the Mega Drive version look quite lame.

[@MRSAUltraviolet]

Must of been torture playing the amiga and atari versions lol. Awesome video Mark.

[@RetroCore]

The ST version was bad but the Amiga version was the worst. You'll notice that all the footage is from stage 1. The lag is so bad that I couldn't get past stage 1. I should have played the Amiga version first so my brain wasn't expecting sharp controls. Of course, the Amiga version is so laggy simply because its a ST port.

[@alaggan]

5Mbit is an odd size for an MD cartridge, usually games weighed in as 4 or 8Mbit back then. I had the Sinclair Spectrum version back in the day, very good considering the limitations of the hardware :)

[@solarflare9078]

Phantasy Star 2 & 3 and Kirby's Adventure also used 6Mbits as well

[@RetroCore]

It is a very odd size but not totally uncommon. You are right though. Games at that time were 2, 4, 8, 12 and 16mbit. Then came 24 and 32. I think Super Street Fighter 2 on the Mega Drive was the largest official game at 64mbit.

[@magdcs]

Who ever created that blasted game and its predecessor, should be shunned and condemned. Those blasted games are hard as hell. Blast it all. 😢😢

[@MaidenHell1977]

One of the greatest games of all time. One of the best videos about it of all time. Have a super weekend, Mark!

[@RetroCore]

Thanks Kevin. Glad you enjoyed the video.

[@thepirategamerboy12]

2013 somehow feels to me like it shouldn't seriously have been 9 years ago. A shame that the Amiga port is this poor considering the original Ghosts'n Goblins port was quite good.

[@jeremygregorio7472]

I beat this game back in the day on the Sega Genesis and I went back to it thinking I was a bad ass gamer... Turns out it defaults to easy and let's you press diagonals unlike the arcade game making it much easier Short answer I have the training wheels on the whole time

[@RetroCore]

Nothing wrong with that. It's a tough one. You'll see I was also playing in practice mode for parts of the game.

[@GotMoreCakes]

Owned the arcade board for this that I'd bought NOS with decals for just $70(!?), and even back then when I was a lot younger I just didn't have the patience to finish it, I felt it played worse the more you progressed. That said I regret selling it but it was a business so I couldn't be particular about what I had on the shelf. Stunning looking game back then, and still does, especially early on.

[@RetroCore]

The first stage is indeed beautiful. As is the second section to stage 2.

[@DeskoDev]

Ghouls 'n Ghosts is one of my favorite video game sequels. Nice to see your video get the Remastered treatment :)

[@RetroCore]

Thanks for watching.

[@chrislaustin]

One of my all time favorite retro series and I can't wait to try out the latest game once I finally get a Steam Deck. So many great memories of this series, and I actually finished the NES Ghost & Goblins back in the day, so you know I'm hardcore. LOL

[@RetroCore]

Yep, you can wear that hardcore badge with pride. The NES Ghost'n Goblins is a tough one.

[@ΠαναγιώτηςΣανακίδης]

When you showcase the PlayStation and Sega Saturn versions, you said the wrong Capcom Generation disc. It's not the third disc, it's the second disc, Capcom Generation Dai ni Shuu: Makai to Kishi.

[@RetroCore]

Oh yes, you are right 😅. I mentioned the set with all the old games such as SonSon and Vulgus. Man, how did I make that mistake 😞

[@fulgenzio1973]

One of my all-time favorite arcades, so much so that I have played it on at least half of the platforms mentioned. I also really loved Super Ghouls'n Ghost on the Super Famicom, despite the slowdowns. Of course, I never managed to finish it....

[@jimkrom]

For me it is the opposite. The super g'n'g is the only version I ever managed to finish without cheats.

[@apollosungod2819]

Yeah you should try the SNES version again... with the slowdowns you can actually beat the game completely without cheating per se... however there is a rom hack that removed the slowdowns in Gradius III and Super Ghosts n Ghouls for Super Nintendo which you can try out with a SD2SNES SD Card Cartridge instead of the rip off ever drive by the Russian dude.

[@MaidenHell1977]

I find that one to be the easiest of the first 3 games.

[@cessnaace]

I have the Master System and Genesis ports. I hope that that homebrew remake for the Genesis/MD gets a physical release.

[@RetroCore]

Same here. The remake looks amazing.

[@16bitfightclub34]

I’m glad you’re doing remastered episodes :)

[@Charlie-Cat.]

Aaaah, nothing like watching a remaster timeless classic on your channel Mark. Always loved this video from you bro. 8^) Anthony...

[@mightyfilm]

I always get confused because of the bizarre naming choices the Western localization team picked. Ghosts N' Goblins and Ghouls N' Ghosts are very similar and I always have to remind myself which one is the sequel. Plus, quite honestly, they aren't impressive sounding titles, especially the "'N" instead of and. I get the feeling they tried to go with a more juvenile sounding title so the villains are wacky sounding monsters instead of something more demonic and pertaining to Satan so it doesn't rouse the ire of religious activists who'd otherwise ban it.

[@RetroCore]

I know just what you mean. As a kid I'd also often get them mixed up.

[@VirajKathwadia]

Saturn version looks the best, I own the MS, MD, PCE and Arcade versions. The arcade is the Arcade but the MD version is my next fav, for my PCE version is alright but meh to me it doesn't have the X factor as the MD version.

[@thrillington2008]

Coin op is peak performance Capcom and pure hell to go through everything twice. Amiga is abysmal. ST is a bigger headache than Amiga. C64 isn't playable. ZX Spectrum is surprisingly competent. CPC is halfway decent. Genesis is one of the most faithful translations I ever seen. Master System is best of the 8 bit ports and a huge middle finger to Nintendo. SuperGrafx is the best of the ports. X68K is a 1:1 match to the coin op. PS1 is near identical to the coin op. Saturn has a tighter performance than PS1. Pocket phone is decent.

[@Bloodreign1]

Saturn version surprisingly has longer load times than the PS1 version, you even get a nice Now Loading screen between levels not present on the PS1 version.

[@GlenLehane]

I had a lot of fun with the Megadrive version, though I never got to face Lucifer. It's literally 30 years ago since I played that version! I noticed in this video that the Western 8 bit versions have Irem credited on the title screen. I didn't know they were involved with this game? I wouldn't quite describe the C64 version as "a broken mess" like you did, though I agree it's not a patch on the Arcade and Megadrive versions. And the different music, Tim Follin did a great job with what's there, but I have to agree with you, I would have liked it more if he took on the entire arcade soundtrack proper

[@videogamebookreviews]

I think the Irem name is just a licensing thing. For example, Nintendo got a licence to distribute R-Type arcade cabinets, so some R-Type machines have the Nintendo logo, Data East got a licence for Commando, etc, so you sometimes saw other companies' names mentioned even if there was no direct involvement.

[@GlenLehane]

@@videogamebookreviews OK cool. I just don't remember seeing the Irem name when I played the C64 version back in the day

[@RedRanger2001]

Fact: The Sega Saturn's pixel resolution is 320x224 to 704x224 depending on the games. The Saturn port doesn't need pillarboxing since CPS-1 and CPS--2 games pixel resolution is 384x224...

[@104d_3rr0r_vince]

Amiga fan here. Yeap, it's a piece of shit. As for the jump, you have to accept that this is what we had back then, and with a joystick worked better than a joypad 😀 The funny story is that almost all home computers had 2 button support by default.

[@RetroCore]

Yep, it is really dumb that the 2nd button was never really made use of. Only a very select few games actually used it. Such a shame.

[@jimkrom]

The western computer versions are inexcusable, with the exception of the spectrum. It is a shame because if you look at the amazing almost pixel perfect Amiga version of Ghosts and Goblins, you know that they could do so much better

[@apollosungod2819]

It's crazy that the Sinclair and Amstrad have WEAKER hardware yet the programmer extracted a REAL playable videogame that at least conveyed the spirit of the arcade version (even though it could pass for Ghosts n Goblins) and in all seriousness makes those previous ports on Atari and Amiga look incredibly bad. Back then however a magazine screenshot could really fool you and that was always the impression I got from the Amiga and Atari computers. Then we finally get at the 12:20 time stamp and despite ace programmer being limited by having to learn brand new hardware and a 5 Megabit ROM Cartridge size, Naka San has single handedly held the undisputed championship trophy for most efficient use of limited experience and limited 5 Megabit power. Even that fan hobbyist dev's amazing version cannot take the crown in the MegaDrive because it was only apparently possible in 2022 and hasn't even been released. I do always wonder if Sega had instead gotten the Ghosts n Goblins license and the Ghosts n Ghouls license so Yuji Naka would have handled each game... he definitely would have made the former arcade perfect but the latter might have gotten either a 6 Megabit or by 1990 a 8 Megabit ROM size which could have really been scary. Still the shock of seeing the MegaDrive Genesis version was truly mind blowing for many years during the 90s especially when the Super FamiCom Nintendo Super Ghosts n Ghouls was really great at slow down and censorship as a pre-MK II (1994) SNES game. NEC's Super GraFX is what NEC should have used for launching in North America and the PAL regions instead of the whole mess of the Turbo GraFX 16 but at least their DaiMakaimura version looks great even though in terms of cost the MegaDrive version just makes you question why invest despite NEC using 8 Megabit size.

[@msh6610]

Think i played it for 10 seconds back on my Amiga.. man what a bummer. Great vid!

[@Shoometsu]

I refer to this game as the Dark Souls of my childhood. I also have the dagger as my preferred weapon during the game (unless for the second part, when the secret weapon accelerates ou arrival to the final boss). I remember when during the second loop an anemy dropped another weapon just before the Beelzebub boss in a way I couldn't avoid it, making me getting back for a 3rd run before beating the game.

[@RetroCore]

Ooh, I hate it when thag happens. I normally just kill myself to avoid getting the other weapon. But at times that isn't possible as well.

[@SimianScience]

2 fond memories of this game. one was seeing this for the genesis in a store showing off the console's power. this was at launch. playing the arcade version of this game to drown out an ex that was tyring to bother me after yelling at me

[@RetroCore]

Oh man, I know what that is like. Nagging none stop.

[@ravagingwolverine]

The MD version was very impressive for its time and with that size restriction. Five is such a strange number that they must have been targeting four and just couldn't do it without cutting something super important. This one and Golden Axe are two games that really could have approached arcade quality with more space. As we see with the Supergrafx, eight megabits goes a long way. As much of a disaster as the Supergrafx was, it's cool that it got such a good port. With such a small library of unique games, a lot of people don't realize those games didn't come out all at once, and based on info available, it looks like Daimakaimura came out seven months after the system did. Terrible marketing. I guess if you didn't have either system, it might have seemed like a decent idea to get the Supergrafx, but the system had to be more expensive, and I recall the games having a price premium as well. Luckily, we no longer have to worry about that aspect. Of course, the arcade version is also easy to play now too, but it's cool to see how well they did with the old home systems and the Supergrafx version was fun to try just to see what they did with it.

[@juststatedtheobvious9633]

Anyone who thinks the 32x was bad, should really look into the Supergrafx and 64DD. Sega went above and beyond to reward loyal Genesis fans, by comparison.

[@juststatedtheobvious9633]

@Benjamin Jagun Virtua Fighter, Virtua Racing, Space Harrier, and Afterburner, sure. But which one's your fifth? Because apparently, people get really passionate about which of the remaining games they also consider good. NBA Jam: TE fans especially, insist that a super zoomed in camera improves the game by making it harder to see your team mates and plan an effective route. I ward them off with a copy of Sensible Soccer wrapped around my neck.

[@juststatedtheobvious9633]

@Benjamin Jagun There's a homebrew restoration that fixes all of these and improves the frame rate. I'm not sure why you'd want it, considering how easy it is to find a good version of Doom, but I can't really talk when I consider every version of Virtua Fighter and Samurai Shodown a must own.

[@quajay187]

what i find most amazing of ALL the ports... Is, not one dev took the time to change "take the key for coming in" into 'take the key to enter' lol

[@AmbersKnight]

Odd one this for me. I never played the arcade original nor any of the console versions, although they do look good, so I can only talk about the versions I have played. First version I ever played was the Atari ST version. I liked the spooky music (bear in mind I didn't have the arcade original to compare it with) and I liked the look of it. Played well for what it was and whilst I was a little surprised at no sound effects given I was at that time a 48K Spectrum owner it looked a major step forward. Next version was the one I owned which was the Amiga version. Unlike yourself I really like the music. It has a folk-rock style to it that reminds me a lot of Jethro Tull. Does it suit the game? Yes and no. Whilst it did seem odd at the start I have over the years gotten used to it and as pieces of music in themselves I like it. I am used to the game and its mechanics enough that it doesn't bother me how it plays although I do find it tough at times. My only real negative is the lack of any sound effects. WHilst a lot of publishers tried to wow people by using all 4 channels for the music and then having the sound effects as an option, something this game doesn;t do, games such as Rainbow Islands and the Turrican series showed that you can have solid, atmospheric music and sound effects within a game so I see this as lazy programming. Last version I played was the Spectrum. I hated Ghosts and Goblins on the Speccy so my hopes weren;t high for this. My friend had a 128K Spectrum and the music at the start is great but I do wish there had been music in game as well. Yes the Speccy only has 3 channels but again there could have been a compromise with sound and music. I get why people don't like these versions as much, especially compared to others versions that had more time and effort spend on them. Truth is the AMiga was more than capable of something close to the Mega Drive and SNES versions easily but I put down the failure not on the hardware but the programmers. But personally, I have a soft spot for the Amiga version of for no other reason than the music.

[@iXien]

I finished it on my beloved CPC. Spent so much time on this version 🥰. GFX were average but gameplay was very nice. It was just a shame this version didn't include the music of the Spectrum as they share the same sound chip. I can understand with only 64k on CPC 464, but it would have been a nice surprise for CPC 6128 owners. Some CPC games offered this kind of nice feature when 128k RAM was detected. At least we can save the music on Amiga, particularly the title theme. PAULA was so impressive when correctly used. I suppose that Tim Follin didn't have access to the entire OST so he seized the opportunity to let his creativity speak. And that, there was no shortage 🤩 My memories are with these musics, so for me it's the original soundtrack that sounds a bit wrong 😋

[@spacefractal]

No, not extractly the same ay. pitch is quite different between Amstrad and Spectrum. Tunes and SFX would sound wrong if do not modificed it, etc the mhz speed. Amstrad has a much lower pitch when compared to Spectrum example.

[@iXien]

@@spacefractal Yes of course, it's not exactly the same frequency. But it's a detail clearly as with just some adjustments, Spectrum musics can be played on CPC and vice versa. So what I'm saying here is that when you have AY music on Spectrum, it's a shame you don't have the same on CPC as it was really easy to convert it.

[@ceticobr]

I love that you are remastering old episodes. I like to rewatch episodes from time to time.

[@RetroCore]

Thanks. I plan to eventually remaster all the old episodes that have no voiceover.

[@spectrumbots4268]

The Amiga and the Atari ST ports look like a shovelware Mobile game. Yikes! 💀

[@SoftBank47]

I'd love to 1cc this game, but I don't think I ever will.

[@RetroCore]

I sure couldn't.

[@nomadjock]

Loved this game on the arcades and the megadrive and still do and I loved the dig at the Amiga fanboys. The Amiga did have some good games, but once the next generation of arcades had come along like the CPS-1 it just couldn't keep up (but try telling Amiga owners that), and in my opinion the Amiga was usurped by the megadrive which was also about £200 cheaper at that time in the UK.

[@RetroCore]

Well said.

[@RetroCore]

Well said.

[@RetroCore]

I don't. I was playing the Mega Drive version in 1988, before the Amiga and ST version was released.

[@turrican4d599]

Mega Drive has ugly colors and a far too narrow color palette

[@nomadjock]

@@turrican4d599 None of which affected the gameplay, graphics do not make a game, gameplay is what makes a game and GnG on the megadrive was a better game to play than the Amiga version

[@thefurthestmanfromhome1148]

Fantastic to see this remastered. Bought the game on the C64, Atari ST, MD, PlayStation (via Capcom Generations) and misc Retro compilations on multiple formats since.. So much of my gaming life went on it at times. I bought the C64 version for the music and did feel Zzap64 were far too easy on the game itself, it wasn't Gold Medal Material. The collision detection alone caused issues, level one graphics are scruffy..

[@amerigocosta7452]

Sad to see the Amiga port developers didn't even try.. Shoddy graphics, a lot of detail missing, 25/30 fps at best, parallax scrolling gone. Not only it is an ST port but a glitchy rushed job. The C64 version has its fan but I agree with Mark, it's best avoided. At least they did the right thing with the Spectrum, as they couldn't possibly port the arcade game they made a smaller and different game. It should have been the base for all other Western micro ports. But anyways, I'm probably in the minority saying that I like Midnight Wanderers a lot more than Ghouls'n Ghosts.

[@stevenuss1482]

Back in the day, Amiga developers often had to recreate arcade games from scratch by literally buying a cabinet, sticking it in the office, and eyeballing it and remaking it by hand/ear. Japanese publishers would give them the rights to do it, but they would refuse to offer any other help - which meant no assets, no source code, no music charts etc. The british teams would also often only get a couple of months to do it, and the teams were pathetically small, and then the publisher would ship the game in time for xmas if it was ready or not.

[@amerigocosta7452]

@@stevenuss1482 I understand, but that's hardly an excuse for games that control bad or move choppily like this one. They would have been bad games even if they weren't ports. Sure many UK devs worked on crunch conditions on these games and don't have to be blamed 100% but still these ports will go down in history as embarassing to say the least. Also, while the Amiga/ST and other micros were plagued by piracy these licensed titles would still sell well and make a lot of money due to name recognition. E. g. there is a disproportionate amount of copies of Amiga Street Fighters II around (compared to other better games and what it should have actually deserved to sell). Big UK publishers were still making millions until the end of the 16-bit era, so I don't really think these lazy cash grab jobs should get a free pass. And this is coming from someone who likes a lot of Amiga games and doesn't have any problem with the European style of action games, like euro-shmups or euro-platformers. So it's not like I inherently despise European developers.

[@RetroCore]

Building a game from scratch does not excuse crappy graphics, frame rate, laggy controls or half sized gameplay window. Sure, having the source code is very helpful in speeding up development time and graphic ripping (maybe). This is just a shoddily made game on the Amiga and ST. Be that the fault of poorly skilled developers, tight development window or small team. That's just how arcade game ports in the West were made at the time. The publisher didn't care for quality.

[@BJWanlund]

Wow, great BOTP Remastered episode Mark

[@RetroCore]

Thanks.

[@chrisb4350]

one of my favourite games ever

[@JeremyLeePotocki]

It is quite rare to hear "ZX Spectrum port", and good in the same sentence let alone the better western made micro ports. A lot of people I know ragged on the Master System port as awful, but in it's defense it was decent for a 8-Bit port though at first I had mixed feelings of the "Capcom NES port" treatment (either adding all sorts of extras or remaking it outright), but after playing it a bit I've grown to like it. For the Mega Drive due to chip shortages/pricing as well as SEGA not even knowing how their system was going to do well in the markets other than Europe I totally understanding why they cut it down like they did. To be frank they did alright with cramming it all on a a 5Mb Cart due to the reasoning above. Heck It took a year for SEGA to jump up to 8Mb carts. after they realize that the system was doing well in NA & Europe.

[@RetroCore]

Yeah, surprisingly the ZX Spectrum version plays really well. After the poor C64 and not so great CPC version, I expected the worst but no, it is a good game. Controls very well.

[@mr_snowy14]

I got this for Sega Saturn and the controls are so responsive, it feels lag free playing on a CRT TV. Emulating on Mame is not as responsive as playing it on the Saturn.

[@RetroCore]

The Saturn is king!

[@videogamebookreviews]

I played the arcade then bought the Japanese Megadrive game when it first came out. Pity about the compromises caused by the lack of Megabits, but it was still good. The C64 version: one of the extra pieces of music - the track that had screaming on it - was cool, but the game was largely unplayable.

[@RetroCore]

It is a shame that the MD version suffered due to a lack of memory.

[@Nolasco.]

I do remember there was a version on a compilation for the ps1 or ps2 that was way to dark, never got to know why that was the case but I do remember it was very off-putting, maybe it was the ps1 version you showed but I think it was the ps2 Capcom Classic collection, not sure. Thanks Mark 😁👍

[@RetroCore]

Yep, it would be the PlayStation version. Makes sense since PlayStation games run natively on the PS2.

[@WWammyy]

About the Amiga and C64 conversions I'm glad someone said it lol they are bad ports

[@RetroCore]

Thank you. Even back in the day they were bad.

[@thekenixkil]

Great, even the bad ports;excelent vídeo 🖖

[@RetroCore]

Thanks!

[@flink1231]

Love the remastered episodes! Thanks!!

[@RetroCore]

Thank you for watching.

[@kenwheeler3637]

I really enjoy these remaster episodes. So many interesting ports of this classic. Maybe one day I'll manage to have the patience to actually beat one of them. 😖

[@RetroCore]

Ooh, that would take a lot of dedication.

[@bhirawamaylana466]

Man even Ghost and Ghouls video get remastered version.

[@RetroCore]

Will do in the future 👍

[@sobesons]

Spectrum version is very funny.

[@karlwalker1771]

I Demand a SNEZ SHOWDOWN FFS :)

[@MagisterHamid]

Suggestion on BOTP: Command & Conquer. It was released on a lot of home consoles. Released on s) Apple Macintosh, Nintendo 64, PlayStation, PC (MS-DOS, Windows), Sega Saturn, PlayStation Portable,Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Android, iOS. Also a brand new remaster was released two years ago!

[@RetroCore]

Sadly I have no idea how to play that game. Maybe n the future. I'll add it to the to do list.

[@MagisterHamid]

@@RetroCore it’s very simple even for someone who has never played a strategy game.

[@Yukatoshi]

The SuperGrafx was a weird idea overall.

[@RetroCore]

It sure was. All this extra hardware and then they only go and release 5 games. Crazy! NEC lost the plot after the PC Engine was released.

[@Yukatoshi]

@@RetroCore Effectively they just added 1 parallax layer. Woot?

[@gloriab702]

@13:30 the project is still going on. He uploaded the video of stage 2 back in July. There is even more recent news as of 10/12/22 on the sega-16 forums. So far so good with the hack and hopefully it will be finished when it's finished. Thank you for such an awesome video Mark. :) BTW The Saturn version has different instruments than the arcade version. Probably due to the Saturn's sound chip. The music in the sound test is not the same as in game. The music in the sound test sounds like the YM2151 in the arcade so maybe the music in the soundtest is cd audio and the music in game is from the chip. IDK but yeah it's a thing. One more thing, only the arcade original has Arthur walking through the grass where as every other version including the emulated compilations for PS2, Xbox and PSP shows Arthur walking on top of the grass.

[@RetroCore]

Wow, interesting trivia about the Saturn's music. I need to go back and check that out.

[@gloriab702]

@@RetroCore you will notice in stage 3, 4, 5 and the ending after defeating Lucifer.

[@Nathan-rb3qp]

It seems like the only 4 good games Software Creations ever made were Solstice, Equinox, Plok, and Spiderman: Maximum Carnage. I'm pretty sure those 4 games are just flukes at this point due to the appalling quality of every other one of their titles.

[@RetroCore]

Even then I think most of those games as good because of the soundtracks.

[@Nathan-rb3qp]

@@RetroCore Yep. Tim Follin is a pure gigachad.

[@LucosPlays]

This entire month i was actually thinking about a remastered version of the original battle of the ports for this one or the original and you surprised me for the better Mark. As someone who really hated these games at first i actually came to respect and even love the games (except the first one the NES version tainted my love although i like the arcade one and the C64 soundtrack). The Arcade is obviously the best version by far, and is really interesting that somehow they almost always screw the Amiga version for many arcade games. The ST version is just as bad as the Amiga version but still i like the second stage theme for what is worth. How did they craped on the C64 version...at least music is still groovy so we're 80/20. Seeing the Speccy version being better than the competition...is just both sad and amazing, also the CPC isn't too shabby either. Now the Mega Drive/Genesis man i love this version but holy crap if that reworked version is phenomenal and i really wanna play it...hopefully is finished, also maybe the space had something to do with how Naka couldn't put the cutscenes. Now the Master System was a really pleasant surprise the new features are great really love it how they make this version being it's own thing instead of a watered down port. The SuperGrafx16 version was a real surprised almost arcade perfect also i didn't found the professional mode on the MD that hard well that could be because they give you a checkpoint before every boss. SharpX68000 like always arcade perfect no surprise there also the music never found any difference but huh. PS1 almost arcade perfect and that sound is weird also it was Volume 2 not 3 same with Saturn although that's an arcade beast it's the best of both. Never knew that a Java version existed and is a good curiosity. Really liked the video Mark

[@RetroCore]

Thanks for watching. That was a nice coincidence that you were thinking of a remastered video then it shows up :)

[@RetroCore]

Thanks for watching. That was a nice coincidence that you were thinking of a remastered video then it shows up :)

[@beekv]

So Saturn wins?

[@RetroCore]

Yep or the X68000.

[@jamesburchill7522]

The Amaru hack looks nice, though I'm willing to wager that the memory constraint Yuji had to deal with isn't an issue.

[@RetroCore]

Very true but I wonder how the original would have turned out had there been no memory issues. The port of Strider shows us that the MD could compete with the CPS1.

[@cloudskipa]

Music in C64 isn't emulating properly. Shame about the awful Amiga version, I thought the original Ghosts 'n Goblins was a solid port (for Amiga)

[@AzrialAlaria]

24:21 That definitely sounds like if Weird Al played the stage transition music.

[@Nathan-rb3qp]

The thing that confuses me about the X68000 release is why would they wait 6 whole years to release it there despite the fact that they used said computer as a devkit for the game. If anything it would've made more sense to release it in the same year as the arcade release since they're basically the exact same thing.

[@juststatedtheobvious9633]

Considering Final Fight isn't arcade perfect, I'm going to guess there was still some work to be done adapting the game for consumers using the base level system without further purchases? Also, how large was the potential audience vs. the major consoles?

[@NotaPizzaGRL]

@@juststatedtheobvious9633 From what I've heard the x68000 was like the Rolls-Royce of computers in its day. Even the base model cost several thousand yen so unless you made a lot a money or had rich parents it wasn't likely you'd run into one in person. Not sure which kind of computer was most common in Japan at the time though. I kinda miss having unique computer architecture.

[@juststatedtheobvious9633]

@@NotaPizzaGRL It's fair to compare the situation to the Neo Geo, from the analysis I've seen. The software wasn't as expensive, but it was still given the prestige treatment and you were expected to pay more than you would for a cartridge ROM. But technology didn't wait for anyone, and roughly 7 years after it launched, consoles had passed what it could offer. Could this have then been a situation similar to the Vita, where a high cost of entry (those memory sticks were insane) and a high level of quality, compared to the competition when it entered the market, filters for a loyal niche' audience that eagerly awaits anything they can get? Perhaps Capcom's delay in creating these seemingly easy ports was just a quick cash grab? A "We know there's not a lot of competition for your money right now. Check this out!" Or perhaps, setting cynicism aside for a few moments, this was just a thank you to the community? From x68000 fans for x68000 fans. Maybe it didn't matter whether it made them much of a return, since it probably didn't cost them much to create in the first place...?

[@videogamebookreviews]

Having the player play the game twice to get to the end is not making the game more difficult as such, just making it cheap. :-( Actually, a while ago I had an idea about that (I don't think I would have been the first to think of this, by any means!) and it was that the game could have been improved by making you start at the wasp/beelzebub boss then go backwards through the levels to go to the start of the first level and get the special weapon. Then, you progress back to the final stage. That way, although you would still be playing twice through it wouldn't feel cheap. A few bits would have had to be redesigned, such as near the end of level 4 when those plant lifts drop, they would have to rise instead, but it would easily have been within the abilities of the programmers, I believe. Ah well. Even so, it was one of my favourite games.

[@RetroCore]

That's an interesting idea.

[@astrades2601]

So many years of battling ports, congrats :D And my favorite long episode type, so i'm happy, despite i never play this series. It looks and sound nice in good ports.

[@MEGAMIGA]

And once again, the Amiga version was probably an ST port... Compared to the Megadrive version, it is a shame!

[@darkfalzx]

The Amiga port is just shockingly bad, especially after the near-arcade-perfect Ghosts'n'Goblins. I so wish someone could do a modern re-conversion.

[@solarflare9078]

Retro Core, sorry to ask but are you able to see my comment? It apparently got shadowbanned by KZbin, as it doesn't show up on my alt.

[@Bloodreign1]

Welcome to 2022 KZbin, where if you even sneeze wrong, KZbin shadowbans you.

[@RetroCore]

Err, not sure but I can say it isn't in the waiting room. If it was I'd give it the green light to be published. This video has had so many comments, I can't keep up.

[@JustinCherriman]

The Amiga versions music was very memorable, but gameplay not so good. It does remind me of the Playstation's version of Doom music, very atmospheric.

[@RetroCore]

I don't think the music is bad on the Amiga but just wrong. Maybe I'm odd but I expect to hear the same music as well as see the same (or equivalent) graphics when it comes to arcade ports.

[@iXien]

@@RetroCore Back in the days, lot of western computer players never played Ghouls'n Ghosts on arcade or any other japanese system. So the music wasn't shocking and we just loved Tim Follin's work. Clearly difficult to understand for someone that was already playing the game on arcade or on console at the time. Personally, Ghouls'n Ghosts on Capcom Generation on Playstation correspond to the first time I played this game on something other than my CPC, my ST then my Amiga. Nice music too, but a bit weird for me 🤣

[@Jac2Mac]

Yet ANOTHER Amiga port ruined because of that evil computer they call the Atari ST as the Amiga version is just the lousy Atari ST version denying Amiga fans what could have been an awesome port.

[@dava00007]

How do we get the amaru ghouls n ghost for the md?

[@RetroCore]

We can't. There's no public rom as of yet. The video I showed was form aMaru's KZbin channel.

[@Holammer]

The Amiga port is fk'n dire. Especially if you compare it with the decent arcade ports for Ghost and Goblins and Toki. But it's not as bad the Super Contra port, that's a turd port legend.

[@ats2099]

I'm a little shocked by the Amiga version, most of all. I really would have expected something more impressive. This was one of the games kids used on the playground to argue the power of their flashy new Genesis consoles when they got them for Christmas. It was hard to argue, as most of us still playing on NES at the time (in the states at least) had little to compare with.

[@Fularu]

I'm surprised you missed the hit detection issues with the MD port compared to the arcade version making the game near unplayable if you have arcade honed reflexes

[@0morgulis]

Given how good the Spectrum version seems to be, there's no legitimate reason why the C64 version is so bad. I have a C64 and I love it, but man, the amount of shovelware on the system is really disappointing. So many games on it are just unplayable. I haven't bought an Amiga or ST because it seems like they're even worse in that regard.

[@TheKayliedGamerChannel-YouTube]

Love Daimakaimura 🤠👍

[@mastersproutgamer9327]

Mark Smith: All the home computer ports were ported by Software Creations. Me: Don't tell me Irem made that.

[@cjr118]

I hope the guys who remade ghost n goblins for the C64 have a crack at this one day.

[@RetroCore]

I'd like to see that. The C64 version is the worst of the bunch.

[@lurkerrekrul]

Software Creations = Something I'll never understand is why a software company would keep giving development jobs to unproven developers, or even developers who have turned out crap in the past. Elite made pretty respectable versions of Ghosts 'n' Goblins for most systems, so why not give them the job of porting the sequel? Also, any game that uses up to jump, and also lets you fire up, should be designed so that if the fire button is already pressed, you can shoot up without jumping at the same time.

[@juststatedtheobvious9633]

Back in the day, arcade ports were usually considered one of the least desirable jobs you could get - it's not like you'd get the source code or be given access to artists who could match the level of presentation when adapting to a lesser platform. Elite were an exception to the rule, and when they ported Ghosts N' Goblins, they went the extra mile to even hire additional freelance talent to make them the best games they could be. Someone as greedy and unreasonable as US Gold was never going to cut a check for that kind of budget, assuming they could persuade Elite to forgive them for stealing away the rights to the sequel. With that said, Software Creations were one of the best when it came to quality arcade ports. Bubble Bobble on C64 made them famous. If they'd been given the time to give every port the same love and ambition they gave the Spectrum title? (Where the levels were simplified so the engine could redraw the entire screen at high speeds for every single frame?) Who knows what might have happened?

[@RetroCore]

Ocean France were the best but sadly a lot of their games went unreleased thanks to Ocean UK not getting the licenses. Their port of Snow Brothers and GREAT water Adventure are very impreefor an Amiga arcade port.

[@nekononiaow]

The Sales Curve (UK) were pretty good as well, most of their arcade ports vary from good to excellent. The funny thing being that the CEO had acquired those arcade licenses by pure accident but she was smart and competent enough to hire the right team to make excellent use of them. The sad ending of the story being that they were eventually bought by US Gold. How a crap company can end up bigger than and buy a better one will forever baffle me.

[@juststatedtheobvious9633]

@@nekononiaow It was a time before most people had access to reviews, and US Gold bought reviews even if they did. They didn't call it "buying reviews", of course. No, they'd simply pay for a lot of advertising space, and then threaten to take away their ads if a critic pointed out that Outrun was a slide show. They bragged about that tactic in an interview with Retro Gamer, because they're totally immune to shame and conscience. It also helped that US Gold originally had a good reputation, thanks to their import business. It's how they got their name in the first place. But why limit themselves to the best in American software, when that costs money to bid for? Why not instead, behave like an American company? Like, Atari or LJN? Or even Activision, at that point in time. Who cares about LucasArts? There were plenty of horrible role models to emulate instead, and Geoff Brown, a former Walsall math teacher/musician, must have been excited to become one himself.

[@spacefractal]

Its a game im newer played any port of this game, dispite im did liked the OST of it, include the home computer ports. Its does not matter, its might have used wrong tunes.

[@realfamiliarfez]

i really dont mind the fact the ST and C64 versions had different music, they're (in my opinion) much better than the original and some of the best music ive ever heard on the C64

[@RetroCore]

Sure. I don't think the tunes are bad, just not suitable for the game.