Capcom's inaugural game for the Ghosts 'n Goblins franchise, starring Sir Arthur as he battles demons in his underwear! The series is known for its insane difficulty requiring precise jumps, very mobile enemies attacking a less than mobile player character, and a bottomless supply of thrown weaponry, and the first is no slouch.

The original arcade version is less well known than the awful NES port, but is substantially better. From smoother animation to controls that aren't so stiff and unresponsive, I'm amazed this isn't more popular.

Several traditions were started here. Not only being real hard to complete, but also red demons being the single most annoying thing in the game, a variety of weapons being staples, and requiring a special weapon before being able to fight the final boss. Later games would force you to run through the game twice to do so, but this game lets you waltz on in on the first cycle; however, you'll get the bad ending and be forced to go through it again to obtain the good ending. I went with the bad ending because running through the game twice would've been boring.

Tricks (note that A is jump, B is attack, and _ is no input)

Note that jumping is slower in this game than walking, unlike later entries in the series.

Level 1

Level 2

Level 3

Level 4

Level 5

Level 6

Level 7

Thank you for watching!

feos: HD encode.

Mukki: Judging...

Mukki: This is clearly a great run and the audience seems to agree, however, the obvious controversy is whether or not this should obsolete the NES run or be published alongside it. We have had a similar problem with this series before as it was decided that the Genesis and Arcade versions of Ghouls 'n Ghosts would co-exist. However, adelikat stated clearly that it was not intended to set a precedent and that an obsoletion of the Genesis version could be added later. In other words, no decision was made on the point of cross-platform obsoletion, perhaps due to lack of feedback in the thread, or perhaps 2009 was the wrong time to make such a decision, when so many of our newer emulators were still young. In accordance with adelikat's wishes I will not consider the Ghouls 'n Ghosts example as persuasive in reaching a decision on this submission.

In my decision for submission #3271, after establishing the publishable quality of both runs, I asked myself two questions: whether there were sufficient differences in the substance of each run to warrant seperate publications; and which version should be prefered if this was not the case.

There are some differences in gameplay substance between these two runs. The arcade version allows for rapid fire, allowing the bosses to be defeated faster. This, coupled with use of the lance in earlier levels, allowed for some very fast fighting indeed. In the second level the bird used for damage boosting through the building appears on a lower floor than the NES version (and so is faster). Enemy placement in the arcade version also allowed for better damage boosting in levels 5 and 6. It also appears that Arthur runs slightly faster in the Arcade version (though it is difficult to tell between different platforms).

With this in mind perhaps I should clarify what I mean by a sufficient difference. We will not publish two similar TASes of the same game and, regardless of the differences that I outlined above, the NES title is the same game as the Arcade title (as would have been the developers' intention). We will, however, publish TASes of the same game that are very different (we have countless examples of this on the site e.g, Glitched v. Any% v. 100%). There will, of course, be some differences between versions of a game and in some cases these differences will appear to the viewer as if watching a faster (or slower) version of the same run, whereas a sufficient difference will make the viewer feel as if they are watching a different TAS entirely. Examples of the latter may be a unique glitch, exploit or goal that completely changes how the game is played, or the route and management decisions that the player makes, in a visible and meaningful way (perhaps in a similar way to how we distinguish between Glitched and Any% runs, or how we distinguished between Super Metroid In-game vs. Real Time). Sometimes hardware limitations may make the game very different, despite similar goals (Example). The gameplay differences between the NES and Arcade versions of Ghosts n' Goblins do not fall into the above categories as subtle differences in speed and enemy placement are relatively minor. As a viewer I felt as though I was watching a faster version of the same run, as opposed to a different TAS altogether. For these reasons, I don't believe that these runs are sufficiently different to warrant separate publiscations.

The second question is comparatively simple; which version is to be preferred? I doubt that anyone would argue with the fact that the Arcade version is a superior version in every concievable way. The sound is cleaner and graphically there is no contest. The gameplay differences outlined above also make this version faster and far more entertaining from a TAS perspective. Perhaps the only thing that the NES version has in its favour is that more people are familiar with it, however, this has nothing to do with the ports or TASes themselves and TASvideos, with the importance that it places upon aesthetics, should not distinguish between games and runs on this basis. Therefore, it is clear that the Arcade version of Ghosts 'n Goblins is to be preferred.

Accepting as an obsoletion of the currently published NES run.

sgrunt: Going ahead dauntlessly and making rapid progress.