Ghosts ‘n Goblins is a classic game, it is known for its difficulty in arcades and every home port. People either love or hate it, I am personally on the side of hating it but I respect its place in history. I am just not a fan of games that are hard for the sake of being hard. I understand that you can “dial in” the gameplay and do really well but to me, that is not enjoying the game or your time spent playing it. Well, a whole new group of gamers, maybe a smaller one that never moved on from the Commodore Plus/4, can get their chance at Capcom’s classic title.
An Arcade Port with Limitations
I have slacked off a bit with retro gaming news because “ports” that are simply sprite rips are not all that interesting to me. If I wanted to play Double Dragon on the Neo Geo, with arcade/mobile graphics ripped and reused, I would just play the original. I enjoy ports made with the limitations of the hardware in mind. Whether better or worse looking/sounding – push the hardware.
That is exactly what Ghosts ‘n Goblins on the Commodore Plus/4 does. This is the Capcom arcade game reworked to work within the limitations of the hardware. It has that charm these types of ports usually have.
There is a ton of graphical detail in this port. Much more than I ever thought I would see in a Plus/4 game. I remember picking up a Plus/4 years after it was commercially dead and done and never saw anything like this available. That is partly due to the cost savings companies went with, focusing on 16k games instead of 64k, like this fan port of Ghosts ‘n Goblins uses.
Interestingly, there was an official port of Ghosts ‘n Goblins to the Plus/4 –
Original Ghosts 'n Goblins port picture source YouTube
Bringing the Arcade Home
Sure, there are a lot of things missing from the video embedded above. It is also just a small section of the first level too so there is potential for missing things to be added later.
I know the two properties did not share shelf space at the same time but if something like this was available alongside the Plus/4 it would have been mind blowing. Companies just did not develop games like this in mind. Scrolling was a new concept, gaming on a computer was still in its infancy.
Source – Plus4World via Indie Retro News