What is Ghoul School?
Ghoul School is an obscure NES game that was released by Imagineering in 1992, most known for their work on the NES Simpsons games. You play as Spike O'Hara, a senior at the high school, who unwittingly brings in a skull one day to his anatomy professor, Dr. Femur. However, the head grows, calls forth a horde of demons, and possesses the school. Not only that, the demons snatch up head cheerleader Samantha Pompom. Heroically, Spike goes in to save the day in his first and only adventure!
However, unsurprisingly for this site, Spike is in a hurry, as he needs to go to the store and pick up that new CD he's been waiting for by his favorite band, so he goes to the store to ask them to hold it and goes off to get rid of the demons in a very MacGyver-esque style...and with punk hair replacing the mullet.
Objectives
- Emulator used: FCEU v. 0.98.12
- Aims for fastest time
- Takes damage to save time
- Abuses programming errors in the game
- No death
- Gathers as few items as possible
Notice!
Depending on where you got the ROM, the game may be mislabeled, but have the same checksum. In the goodnes3.1 set, the correct ROM is (U) [!]. Some ROMs, when used, will not display the backgrounds correctly.
Tricks and Glitches
Ghoul School is loaded with a lot of different tricks and glitches. It is not necessarily a bad game by any stretch of the imagination, but probably some more fiddling around would eliminate one or two of the glitches. Some of the things listed below are not necessarily glitches, but are very helpful tricks for a TAS. The tricks and glitches listed here are in no particular order.
Invincibility: One of the more commonly known glitches about this game. If you go into any locker you can enter with the Spring Shoes on, then take them off, the locker will partially open and Spike will be able to roam freely and intangibly. In most cases, Spike will be stuck in the background, but if you pause at the first possible frame and do the trick, Spike will be fully visible. You can null the glitch by dying or exiting any locker by pressing Up inside of it.
Double Hit: The bat and the towel both have a unique property; they can hit twice. The first hit is from behind Spike, and the second hit is in front. However, you have to turn around to make both hits connect properly. The first hit with the bat can only hit if the enemy is either taller than you or is a bit above you. The towel acts just like Simon Belmont's whip, only you can turn around to land a second hit. Kills with the bat were done in WIPs, but not in the final version as evading an enemy (if possible) is much faster.
Zipping: This is vital to the run. Once you get the Spring Shoes, go up to any wall in the game with just your sneakers on. Go into the pause menu and put the Spring Shoes on. Immediately after unpausing, hold the opposite direction that the wall is in (i.e. if the wall is on the right, hold left on the D-Pad.) Depending on the frame of animation, you will perform one of two zips:
- Soft Zip: You go into the wall only one block, and are able to walk back out in the opposite direction like normal. Spike can also climb up walls if Spike is only wearing his sneakers. This is only used once in the run, in the Air Ducts.
- Hard Zip: You are able to zip through a number of blocks. Spike can only zip about seven or eight blocks until he gets stuck for about four frames. This is undesirable in a TAS. For shorter bursts, this isn't a big problem and spike can go for about seven or eight blocks without needing to stop. Longer zips, such as ones in the Crawl Space, need to follow a 6-1 pattern; Six frames of zipping, one of resting. This produces the best results for long-term zipping.
- Additionally, there is a Ceiling Zip glitch that was found to not be as useful as previously thought, so it was not used. Efforts to zip through the floor have yet to be successful.
Warp Zone: There is a test room in the game which the game labels as the "Warp Zone". There are two ways of entry. The first involves the elevator, getting the arrow to be between floors 1 and 2, then exiting. The second is to exit most rooms by performing a hard zip through them. The latter is used twice, once to get near the hallway that ends at the Music Room/Chemistry Lab to get the Embalming Fluid, and once to get right under the door to the Crawl Space. This map (made by myself for a couple reasons) highlights where all the exits lead can be seen here.
The lower-left and center areas were used in this run.
Enemy Damage Boost: One of the irritating things in this run that some enemies cannot be jumped over or run under. This is highly prevalent in the first third of the run. However, the knockback can be controlled somewhat. Being hit by an enemy sends you moving faster for a distance in a jumping fashion, so for the early part of the run, this is desirable.
- Walking-Only Enemies must have a very well-timed jump while moving in your direction in order to boost off of. Walking-only eyeballs can be jumped over by decelerating without jumping for a couple frames, then running forward and jumping to get over them. This offers a large boost.
- Jumping-Only Enemies, which mainly consist of the Jumping Eyeball, jump every set number of frames. It is not possible to manipulate an enemy into jumping sooner or later. I have found that slowing down for about fifteen frames (possibly with a decelerated jump) times it just right to run underneath. Jumping at the right frame will increase the push distance.
- Walking and Jumping Enemies, consisting of the Walking-Jumping Eyeball, can have either method be used, but in most cases, abiding by a variant of the Jumping-Only Enemy strategy is the best bet for boosting. The Walking-Jumping Eyeball likes to park itself in inconvenient locations, but with frame precision (or an extraordinary amount of luck), they can be avoided in these situations too. If they jump and you run other them, jumping at the right time can yield better results than a Jumping Eyeball.
Some enemies are great for boosting, but others are not because of the amount of life that they themselves inflect, such as direct contact with a Weight-Lifting Eyeball in the Weight Room (which per hit, takes off six bars of health). It is possible sometimes to boost off their weights, but sometimes it is not possible as well.
Stairs: Stairs have very bizarre properties. If you have to climb them for any reason, then each step up or down takes about 12 frames. However, if jumped on, there is a one frame window to perform any normal action. There are also two types of stairs. Brick stairs must be climbed, but wooden stairs can be skipped if desired. Jumping is the best method unless a specific trick needs to be done in order to get to where you need to go. The stairs can also "catch" you if they are of the brick variety and get you stuck. You can jump upwards, but not forwards or backwards. This result is undesirable in a TAS.
Room Exits: In any room, there are three possibilities for an exit; Upper, Middle, and Lower. You do not have to climb the stairs in order to access the rooms, simply jumping high enough or falling into the right area will suffice. There is a notable exception however, which will be discussed in the Room-By-Room Breakdown section below.
Lock Picking: In a few areas, a door is "locked" unless you defeat a certain enemy. However, pressing more than one direction at the same time will negate this lock and allow you to pass through it anyway. This is used once to skip Admiral Aorta right before the final boss.
Spring Shoes Jumping: For some odd reason, if you hit your head on the ceiling while jumping with the Spring Shoes, you are able to move a couple extra pixels forward per jump. This is used constantly throughout 2/3 of the run, only breaking whenever it would either be slower (such as getting to a door to open it at the first possible frame) or would put me in a place that would set me up to suboptimal locations. Generally, if it looks like I slow down oddly, it's for a very good reason and has been at least double-checked to make sure it is indeed faster.
Room-By-Room Breakdown
Title/Copyright Screens:
The copyright screen cannot be skipped, and takes about 188 frames to leave. The title screen and the lives screen can both be skipped by precise Start button presses.
Room 001:
Where Spike begins his mission. The damage boosting begins right away, and is host to four enemies: a Walking Eyeball, two Jumping Eyeballs, and a Walking-Jumping Eyeball. This room, along with the next two rooms, were re-done three times due to new tricks arising with each boost.
Room 004:
Three bats are in the room, and all of them are damage boosted off of. At the end of the room, I jump at the last possible frame to "catch" a step (even though it really isn't caught, but it's a mid-air jump due to the bizarre properties of the stairs) so I can jump again and exit the room quickly.
Room 007:
The first Walking-Jumping Eyeball presented a lot of problems with how to kill it fast until a way was found to skip it entirely. This saved about 40 frames in the final version of that section. The other eyeball enemies were skipped in the same way as before. I take the lower exit in a manner to catch the stairs in the next room.
Room 013:
I jump on the first possible frame, then simply fall into the room below.
Room 009:
I had another method of getting into the next room, which was to "catch" myself on the stairs in this room and jump into the next room, as for some odd reason, taking the upper path in this room doesn't lead you back to Room 013, but rather takes you to Room 014 anyway. However, this proved to be a few frames slower for the next room and not used.
Room 014:
Three Walking-Jumping Eyeball enemies are in this room. The first was difficult to avoid, but not as difficult as the first one in Room 007. I damage boost off the last one (having no choice) and immediately enter the Locker Room.
Locker Room:
This was one of the hardest parts of the run. The first Zombie can be skipped and damage boosted off of, but his hit box can still hit you while you're on the lockers. The towel isn't avoidable while on top of the locker and falling or jumping off, but it's a desirable weapon that's just leaps and bounds better (and in some cases, more powerful) than the crappy bat.
The shower stalls were absolute "hell" to figure out an optimal pattern for. They look random, but they're not. They run on a pattern and also cannot be manipulated. I had to slow down at a couple of points so I would not get knocked backwards. Damage boosting off the showers was not feasible because of their pattern, and neither was dodging the second zombie, as I had no way of getting over it because it's too tall to jump over. It also walks so fast that the double-hit trick could not be used, so I had to run away and hit using the back part of the towel. Despite how it looks, the zombie takes four hits to kill, not three. I turn around and shove Spike into the first Gym.
Gym 1:
This is the only Gym entered in the run. Immediately running at the first possible frame let me damage boost off the basketball. As tempting as it seems to damage boost off the basketballs, testing showed me that slowing down to wait for the right time to boost off of the enemies would negate any gain by boosting off them. Instead, I take a moment to let Spike play on the way to the Weight Room.
Weight Room:
The first Weight-Lifting Eyeball threw its weight at just the right time that I could use that for a boost. The second one just was completely uncooperative. I could not damage boost off the weight to try to get by it because the frame before would knock me back, and the next frame I would just barely miss it, so I take the latter and finally use the double-hit trick to make short work of the Eyeball.
Afterwards, I finally get the Spring Shoes and give a small preview of things to come. I jump a few times to gain frames, then hard zip through the Weight Lifting equipment. I'm also able to damage-boost off the third Weight-Lifting Eyeball to get to the other side, where I hard zip into the Warp Zone.
Warp Zone - Visit 1
This is a brief visit, as I only stay long enough to take the lower-left exit, which conveniently, leads me to where I need to go. I make sure to make sure the stairs "catch" here.
Room 029:
I jump at the first possible frame and take the upper exit. It's as quick as that!
Room 030:
This room was weird. After jumping twice (switching back to the sneakers would cost me a full second if I tried that), I had three different methods to try.
- Method 1 was to jump twice, then damage boost off the Little Eyeball until nearly the end of the room.
- Method 2 was the jump three times, then damage boost to nearly the end of the room.
- Method 3 was to jump until the Little Eyeball could boost me much quicker out of the room.
As it turned out, Method 1 was actually the fastest method, as not only did it lead me to a locker closer to the exit, it was also six frames faster. I activate the Invincibility Glitch here, as I need it for the rest of the game. Damage Boosting has now become null and void.
Room 037:
If you didn't think this game had been bent over and given a swift kick in the hiney before, then you'll think it now. I hard zip through all of the spike traps you normally are supposed to have the Suction Cups for. If I didn't use the Invincibility Glitch here, I would be hit by the spikes and killed.
Room 038:
Just a lot of jumping here until the door. Normally, if you hit the Janitor, the mop and pail insta-kill you. I wanted to hit the Janitor, but my jumping would not let me properly hit him. No matter, the Janitor is a nice guy and wouldn't hurt you anyway.
Music Room:
More consistent jumping. I can't hit either the Music Teacher or the Demonic Note due to height issues, but I do take delight in screwing up their tunes a bit with the sound of the Spring Shoes.
Chemistry:
More jumping. The plants are easily avoided with the Invincibility Glitch active. I grab the Embalming Fluid at the end and hard zip through the wall at the far left, bringing me back to the Warp Zone.
Warp Zone - Visit 2:
Despite how it looks, the double-jump on the stairs was the optimal way. A single jump would have Spike get "caught" and the time stuck and the re-acceleration would take at least a good half-second to do. I take the door in the center this time.
Room 039:
Using the Warp Zone is the only way to get this close to the Crawl Space door. andrewg was able to find a way to access the door at the upper part of the screen without the Suction Cups, saving probably about a minute. I haven't figured out exactly why it lets you in yet, as simply pushing Up at the apex doesn't necessarily mean you'll get in. It seems it involves something about hitting your head on the ceiling that lets you in, but I'm not certain.
Crawl Space
My biggest worry of the run, and also the hardest one to work with since the Locker Room. There's lots of jumping to be had, as well as long-distance hard zipping that was so fast that the camera couldn't even keep up. However, I had a lot of difficulty making sure that Spike would not only get stuck 3/4ths through, but also turn around and get going at the first possible frame. As stated above, a 6 to 1 zip was the most optimal way I found without Spike getting stuck (six frames of zipping, one of rest) with the exception of the very first zip, as that was 7 to 1 instead. I zip right out of the room.
Room 042:
The entrance to the Air Ducts. This was probably the third-hardest spot to optimize, as acceleration, invisible platforms, and jumping height was working against me the whole time. I finally found something optimal in the jumping and went inside.
Air Ducts 1:
The Air Ducts, normally, are a maze, and if you take the wrong door, Spike plummets to his doom. I follow the maze for the first third of the solution...
Air Ducts 2:
...Only to screw it up here. I jump to the leftmost wall, and then do a soft zip so that I can get into the wall, climb up to the top tier, then exit. Changing to the Spring Shoes is actually -slower- as I would have to just take them off again in the next room, and I would lose about a second. Before I soft zip, I do hit a ghost for fun. Obviously ghosts don't like getting whipped with towels either.
Basement - Room 108:
The Spring Shoes needed to stay off until I left the platform, or I would be too tall to exit. I put them right back on and jump off to the left, using the pipes to make Spike go quicker.
Basement - Room 127:
More pure jumping. This time, Spike doesn't have to worry about the Weight-Lifting Eyeball. Exit on the left side.
Basement - Room 125:
Same as Room 127, only with a Wrench-Tossing Monkey instead of a Weight-Lifting Eyeball. They're also found in the Auto Shop, where the Suction Cups are. Yes, the term "Grease Monkey" is quite applicable here, a pun worthy of chuckling or groaning at. Exit on the left side.
Basement - Room 124:
No idea what that Green Martian enemy thing is, but there's no need to go over and have tea with it or something. I exit on the right in a manner similar to Room 013, but this was much more difficult to pull off here with the Spring Shoes.
Basement - Room 121:
More jumping, this time, to the right, skipping the vile thing of slime. Instead of taking the stairs, I jump instead, as it would be much quicker. Spike cannot "catch" the wooden steps, so if I were to climb them, I would have to start from the beginning and lose about three seconds or so.
Basement - Room 122:
This was also a pain to get right. The physics again weren't playing nice, so I couldn't just hop Spike up to the lower path easily. I had to jump all the way up the stairs, then move about six frames left, then jump to get to the next room.
Basement - Room 123:
More jumping to the left. This time, however, Admiral Aorta is waiting for us. Supper found the Lock Pick glitch, and so we don't have to bother fighting him. After pressing all four D-Pad buttons at once, we go into the Boiler Room.
Boiler Room:
Probably the creepiest locale in the whole game. Those are some mighty freaky faces on those boilers. Spike isn't fazed, though!
The entrance was tricky. You actually drop -through- the ceiling here. If you hold Right while you fall through it, you get pushed back about 16 pixels. If you don't hold Right going through the brick, then you can't move right. Bogus. About twenty frames of acceleration were needed to get onto the platform the Master Eyeball stands on. andrewg and Supper both found time-savers that helped me finish this off. First, I hit the Master Eyeball with the towel for one hit in mid-jump. I do the double-hit trick with the towel three times. The fourth time, the back of the towel hits, and then I pause. I take off the sneakers (which are vital for jumping farther and saving frames) and switch to the Embalming Fluid. I kill the Master Eye with it, then open the wavy grate with it to free Samantha Pompom (You can't beat the game without doing both things, I've tried). On the first frame after doing a jump at the right time, I stop the movie and let Spike's own momentum go down into the pit with the ungrateful gal to finish the game.
Acknowledgements
As a personal thing, I have been around TASVideos for close to five years now, having first joined it back in the days of NESVideos back in 2004. This place has been very, very awesome and I'm pleased to be a part of it with at the very least, my first-ever TAS submission.. I give everyone a great big thanks that I have talked to for being awesome.
As far as this Ghoul School run is concerned, thank yous go to:
- Tailz, who originally posted this game on YouTube. This game flew under my radar for a -long- time, and this popped up and suddenly I felt I could possibly do a TAS.
- andrewg, who was absolutely instrumental in helping me get this thing as optimized as possible, and for finding half the glitches used in the run.
- Supper, for finding the other half of the run and helping to optimize things, especially in the Master Eyeball fight.
- Cardboard, for making sure I realized the perils of TASing.
- The folks in the IRC chat who didn't mind my quirkiness as I needed my brain to just chill out during this run.
And that is how I roll!
(Suggested Screenshot: Any shot in the Crawl Space where Spike is zipping and is visible.)
adelikat: Accepting for publication.
ShinyDoofy: Will process...