The 1989 Commodore Amiga port of Capcom’s arcade classic Ghouls 'n Ghosts looks to be getting a face-lift courtesy of Modern Vintage Gamer. While the original Software Creations port—published by U.S. Gold—was a respectable attempt for its time, it famously suffered from a common issue among era-specific ports by failing to utilise any of the Amiga’s powerful custom hardware. The new enhancement directly addresses these shortcomings by injecting vibrant copper skies, an optimised, faster renderer, and a much-needed splash of colour into this classic game. Visually, the upgrade completely transforms the experience to introduce silky-smooth 50 Hz scrolling, fluid object motion, and a hardware-sprite-based Arthur.
Beyond the graphical overhaul, the project’s development process also uncovered long-hidden secrets buried deep within the game's original code. However, Amiga purists will be glad to know that the core game logic remains entirely untouched, running at its exact native speed. Retro gamers should still expect some performance dips when the screen becomes cluttered with multiple large enemies, but the combination of hardware-driven fluidity and faithful gameplay makes this latest update a definitive love letter to Amiga enthusiasts.
Links: 1) GNG Enhanced BPS Patch 2) Online BPS Patcher
I was messing around a while ago with converting Ghouls ’n Ghosts to the Amiga’s 32-colour palette. The Atari ST port only uses 16 colours, but even if someone stuck with that limitation for performance reasons, I still think there’s plenty of room to improve the graphics. https://x.com/jonnysevern/status/1863243272736354545/photo/1?s=46
ReplyDeleteLooks good man! :)
DeleteWell, that looks pretty much arcade-perfect. The trick would be to get it to run smoothly.
DeleteThat's a great achievement! The game runs much more smoothly with the patch, and the copper bar is a nice touch!
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, as another user mentioned here, the pixel art in this port is really poor. It uses 32 colors, yet it looks more like a 16-color game! There are plenty of 16-color games on the Amiga that look so much better than this port. Just take the main character sprite, for example: it uses only five distinct colors and looks more like something you'd expect to see on the NES than on the Amiga!
I hope someone remakes it from scratch, because even this improved version isn't great.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, a good conversion could be released for the Amiga—let's keep our fingers crossed—and let's hope someone feels like converting it.