Genre: Arcade / Platformer
Publisher: Encore
Year: 1989
System: Amstrad CPC
Ghosts ‘n Goblins is a notoriously punishing arcade platformer, casting players as the knight Arthur on a quest to rescue Princess Prin-Prin from the undead. The game’s high difficulty and limited player control—Arthur dies in one hit, and cannot lose his armor before death—led to criticism for its lack of polish. The Amstrad CPC version uses push-scrolling in Mode 0 graphics, features only three of the six arcade stages before looping, and omits intermission cutscenes and map screens found in other ports.
However, the port showcases clever technical solutions: programmer Nigel Alderton employed a custom Mode 0 nibble-splitting method to maintain smooth sprite movement despite CPC hardware limits. Published by Encore as a budget cassette version around 1989, the edition brought this challenging cult title to value-conscious gamers, though it retained much of the rough presentation and extreme difficulty the series became known for.
