This movie is my 9th attempt at Ghosts 'n Goblins. It is 15.083 seconds (905 frames) faster than the first quest of GuanoBowl's movie.
Level 1 - "The wise and courageour knight"
31 frames faster, mostly at the boss.
Picked up the torch, because it's needed on level 2.
Level 2 - "A trap devisut by Satan"
162 frames faster.
Took the low route instead of high at the Ice Palace.
Sneaked into the house by using the torch on the big guy who's guarding the first ladder.
The bird at the top of the house is semi-manipulatable.
Manipulated all of the lifts.
This innocent-looking boss battle caused me to go temporarily insane. I took a long break from playing because of it.
Level 3 - "You feel strongth welling. In your body."
204 frames faster.
The cavern part is slightly faster because of the torch.
At blue mountain, some shots might look like they miss, but they don't.
Saved a lot of time by manipulating the boss to move in a different pattern.
Level 4 - "Make rapid progres!"
9 frames faster.
Slightly improved the moving-platform part and the boss battle.
Absurdly easy level.
Level 5 - "This room is an illusion"
150 frames faster.
New route.
This level is all about the moving platform that the knight has to get on. It's semi-manipulatable. There is no point to getting there as fast as possible if he has to wait a long time for the platform. So, note that the minor slowdown at second ladder does not lose time; it ultimately saves time.
Level 6 - "Go ahead dauntlessly!"
309 frames faster.
As you might guess from the previous sentence, I'm very happy about the improvements on this level.
New route.
Unlike the level 2 double-boss nightmare, this one was fun, because I kept finding ways to improve it.
Level 7 - "Congraturation"
NOTE: If the knight doesn't have the cross/shield weapon at this point, he can't enter the throne room.
40 frames faster.
Yes, 40 frames faster.
Guff
Suggested screenshot frame: 22517.
Thanks: GuanoBowl, AngerFist, Maximus, Bisqwit.
Bisqwit: Accepting and processing for publication.
Ghosts 'n Goblins even manages to look sadistically hard when watching, making it look very impressive. Especially the double boss fights look great.
I'm not a huge fan of the second quest, so it didn't really bother me that this movie doesn't complete it like Guano's movie does. In any case, finding 15 seconds worth of improvement in a movie which has had gazillion versions already is already impressive enough to yes this.
Congraturation.
"Kids! Bringing about Armageddon can be dangerous. Do not attempt it in your home."
( Pratchett & Gaiman: Good Omens )
What Tombad said. The movie is of incredible quality and I'm voting yes.
One question, though: that… goblin-thing you fight at 7600 and then just jump over, I assume it was done so that he wouldn't knock you off the ladder?
Also, mad props for naming stages that way. Have strongth welling in your body, wise and courageour Arc. :D
This movie has been published.
The posts before this message apply to the submission, and posts after this message apply to the published movie.
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[853] NES Ghosts 'n Goblins by Arc in 08:23.13
ehh I'm really disappointed at the lack of second "round"... given that
1. the enemies behave differently and move faster, which would result in different TA-running strategy than Round 1, and
2. the real ending is at the conclusion of the second round, so I've always considered the second round to be the second half of the game, not a bonus round a la SMB1, LoZ, etc
So as good a first round TAS as this is, it should NOT be considered in obsoleting the previous two-round TAS, but as either a second category or an incomplete TAS.
Don't forget that all the previous runs except GuanoBowl's completed only the first round, so if anything, it should have been the otherwise: the second quest movie shouldn't have obsoleted the first.
Great run, new tricks and shortcuts are cool, manipulation on the things you have to wait on saves tons of time, and boss fights look so much faster than any other version. This is a great run on a legendary game, very nice.
I would still like to see the second quest because that just epitomizes this game. I’d also love to see this game beaten as many times as possible. The 4th time around is just crazy, I’ve never heard anyone beating the 5th time, even with a TAS it would still be very hard, I think at some point game will become impossible, this would be fun to see.
"Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocrities. The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence."
Because Arthur doesn't really rescue the princess without going through the second round of levels- this victory merely an illusion. *briefly looks at the end of both movies* The other one has "congraturation / this story is happy end. thank you." and actually yields a game over screen after this sequence, rather than showing the go-back-to-level 1 that this does.
There's even a subtitle in this movie (which would appear to be inserted by you) saying it is not the "real" (which I interpret as "best") ending.
The tag was not present in the earlier runs similar to this (one time through levels) prior to Guano's which did go through the second, harder mode as well to get the best ending.
I think that's all the lines of reasoning I can marshal for it.
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I unobsoleted this movie and sent it to the Vault tier. The Arcade version is preferred and has a (slightly) greater entertainment value (according to the voters and raters). However, this is a TAS record in its own right, and fits in with the Vault rules