Man Takes 17 Years To Beat Ghosts 'N Goblins

Toque ^

[Sir Gawain]

NOT FAR AWAY-- David Spears has had a burden lifted from him as heavy as a suit of armor. The 36-year-old game enthusiast had spent almost half of his life dealing with an unforgivable shame: he had never defeated the arcade game "Ghosts 'N Goblins." But thanks to some hard work, and some luck, he recently beat the game that had been haunting him for seventeen years.

Ghouls 'N Ghosts was the spooky sequel to Ghosts 'N Goblins.

Ghosts 'N Goblins was developed in 1985, as one of many popular new side-view scrolling platformer games. The player controlled the "knight in shining armor", and with a variety of weapons at his disposal fought against legions of evil creatures on the standard quest to save the princess.

"It was freakin' hard," admitted David. "You started out with a throwing lance--yah, a lance--and you had to use it to fight off these ceaseless waves of undead hordes. There was no save-game feature either, so it was all-or-nothing each time you played."

David began playing arcade games when he was a teenager, during the dawn of video games. He was instantly hooked on Ghosts 'N Goblins when it was introduced by Capcom in the mid 80's. David easily spent half of his Burger King paycheques at the arcade, feeding quarter after quarter into the hungry machine.

Unfortunately, David's lack of skill, combined with the often slow reaction time of the game, made it impossible for him to get past the third level. His frustration mounted when his local arcade closed in 1988, forcing him to travel eight miles to a 7-Eleven on the other side of town. That was the closest place to find the game.

David looks at the machine that took hundreds (maybe thousands) of hours of his life away from him.

Over the years, David continued to invest time and silver into the taunting game. David was like a ghost himself, often disappearing from parties and other social functions, just so that he could try one more time. Eventually he gave up, and went on to finish college.

The game was forgotten for a while, but in 1998, a friend introduced David to MAME (Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator). Soon after that, there was a copy of Ghosts 'N Goblins running on his Pentium II computer.

"I still sucked at the game," said David, "but at least it wasn't 'goblin' up any more of my money. Oh sure, I burned up all my sick days from work, and I lost some friends, but it was a small price to pay for my obsession. But I still couldn't beat that *#&$ game!"

David's fortune changed when he was recently dismissed from his job due to excessive absenteeism.

"I got canned from the food processing plant, and I used my final paycheque to buy a HotRod game controller," said David. "After I installed that, I discovered a Ghosts 'N Goblins walk-thru page, with all sorts of hints and other useful tips."

David used the advantage of being unemployed, and the lucky coincidence of becoming single (he didn't spend enough time with his girlfriend) to lock himself in his apartment and focus on completing the game that had been a curse to his existence.

"I spent 37 hours straight, fighting that game for every inch of grass, ice, and lava," sighed David. "But it finally paid off!"

David defeated the game on August 23rd, 2002, at 5:32 A.M. There was no fanfare, no celebration--just a quiet nod to the game that had been his nemesis for two decades.

David pondered his proud victory for a moment before he announced: "Now I'm ready for Ghouls 'N Ghosts!"

[Sir Gawain]

-

[billbears]

LOLOL!! What's truly sad for me is I've got about 1600 ROMs of old games that I know I wasted my allowance on as well.

[Cyber Liberty]

"I got canned from the food processing plant..."

{snicker}

[dead]

LOL! I’m still trying to beat Root Beer Tapper.

[weikel]

Well I never got the "good" ending.

[weikel]

When I 1st started on Nintendo I was really bad I couldn't even beat the 2nd guy in punchout it took me a f***** year but after that I got really good. I beat Tyson in a decision and won Punch Out eventually. I could never beat Castlevania I or III or Ninja Gaiden without game genie or save state and could never beat "Contra" without the 99 lives trick. I would have beaten Super Mario III without warping but my father accidently stepped on the plug when I was up to "Ludwig von Koopa"( that takes hours).

[Happygal]

OMG!!!! I thought I was the only person who knew that old game. Thanks for bringing back a great memory :-)

[dead]

You want to play it again? For free?:

Shockwave Root Beer Tapper

Warning: Mildly addictive.

[Happygal]

Hell yes!!! :-)
Thanks...(or should I say, cheers!)

[weikel]

Unless you climbed castle ironspire in wizards and warriors your nothing.

[Texaggie79]

I think I got it in a day after I got it for NES

[weikel]

NES had ghouls n ghost this is ghost n goblins( which I kinda beat but never got the "good" ending).

[weikel]

Opps nevermind it did have ghost and goblins.

[FreeTally]

and could never beat "Contra" without the 99 lives trick.

I don't think anyone could. One of my favorite games from back in the day.

[weikel]

Ive heard that there were people who actually could do that I think I once got to level 4 or maybe it was to the 3rd boss without using it.

[rmlew]

Sweet memories of hours lost in front of the idiot box.

[Bella_Bru]

LOL! I play that game on Shockwave sometimes.

[CounterCounterCulture]

TAPPER! One of the few games I was able to master!
(Gauntlet and Q*bert being a few of the others)

[Severa]

Oh hell no you're not the only one *L* I remember my older brother seriously bitching out that game back in the day in the arcades. He also had an Atari console and we'd play stuff like Pitfall (which if you get the Pitfall for Playstation there's an option to play the old school Atari version *L* It kicks ass!)

I still can't play most console games out now worth a damn. My husband's the video game expert on the household now (we own a PS2). Most recent gaming purchase was Final Fantasy X. (and a strategy guide of course...)

On a somewhat related note, the major gaming companies got together recently and donated video game consoles and games to all US Navy submarines. The sub my husband serves on got an Xbox and a bunch of games but he'd rather play his PS2 and gets picked on by a few of his shipmates for 'living in the Stone Age'.

[xrp]

I was able to beat Contra on the NES without losing a life. The best weapon on the game was the Spreader gun, especially when used with a controller that has rapid fire option (NES Advantage)

[Technocrat]

Yeah, I still remember with fondness the day I just walked away from the Gauntlet machine after level 100, way too many health - it probably took an hour to eat itself! Can't do it with Gauntlet II, though!

[youaculpa]

I beat Contra right before the 99 lives trick; up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, b, a, start came out. ;))

I even had my name in Nintendo Power for a Contra high score. That was a great game. When I saw it at my best friend's house, I was hooked. lol

[Citizen of the Savage Nation]

Unfortunately, David's lack of skill, combined with the often slow reaction time of the game, made it impossible for him to get past the third level. His frustration mounted when his local arcade closed in 1988, forcing him to travel eight miles to a 7-Eleven on the other side of town. That was the closest place to find the game.

This reads like something straight out of The Onion. At least it only took me a few weekends and less than $50 to beat Robocop and Double Dragon. Feh.

[Citizen of the Savage Nation]

Memories.

[knighthawk]

A friend of mine also invested a fotune playing the arcade.

And Robocop and Double Dragon I used to play a lot on my old Amiga. Those were the days!

[texas booster]

CANADA'S SOURCE FOR HUMOUR AND SATIRE

From the Home page of The Toque!

[Citizen of the Savage Nation]

Yep, and with the knowledge that the Reverse Elbow could take down *any* enemy, even the ones with the baseball bats, I learned to complete the game on one try. Every once in a while you can still see these games, although the days of arcades are long gone.

[Soulcleaver]

This guy is in for a treat. Super Ghouls 'N Ghosts (The SNES version) is far easier than Ghosts 'N Goblins. I can beat SG&G twice through with my eyes closed, but G&G is nearly impossible. I didn't even try to beat it.

[knighthawk]

I must confess I used to do some gaming om fancy new computers, with a C64 emulator!