Ghostbusters (8 bit)

[Unofficial Who]

I don't think we've had a thread on this old game.

 

I remember loving this back in the day despite it being something David Crane cobbled together in six weeks from his Car Wars prototype.

 

Came across a video tonight that talks about how the account generator worked in such a way to create a "save" system with no onboard saving.

 

 

 

 

[Unofficial Who]

I really wanted the C64 version of this but lacked the C64.

 

So I had to make do with this.

 

 

[RipePlums]

Loved the Master System version of this back in the day.

 

But the C64 will always have the muffled "ghsssbrsssttrrss" voice sample.

[Qazimod]

I had the C64 version but I think it was a magazine covermount? Anyway, the setup for the game was so weird - lots of management of resources and going between locations... meanwhile, the actual busting of ghosts was a five second minigame. I hardly ever saw the Zuul building sequence because the prompt to enter the building was so easy to miss.  

 

Even so, there was something fun about sucking up ghosts between locations, and the theme was nice for the first few minutes, but as I was so inattentive it was a pretty limited experience...  

[earlymodernsteve]

I remember spending hours on this but probably had no clue what I was doing (unlike Zoids which I finished!) Looking back the difference between this and 2 on Amstrad is ridiculous. The sequel looks great (relatively). Seem to remember it wasn't much fun to play though. 

[Swainy]

I loved the original Ghostbusters game. My mate had it on the Speccy and I bought  the Atari 2600 which was a bit of a chore to play compared to the micro versions. Best played on the C64 now days though.

[Nathan Wind]

I had this on the Amstrad and played a lot of it despite the fact it utterly baffled me.

[Lorfarius]

The NES port was fully remastered/fixed recently.

[Unofficial Who]

I think what a lot of people missed was how to use the bait to stop Stay Puft from screwing up your run. (Press "b" when he's forming and then rush back to base to replenish bait.)

 

I think David Crane doesn't get enough credit for two mainstays of console design. Passcodes (used before onboard storage was a thing) and checkpoints (used in Pitfall 2 so you didn't have to reset back at the start.)

 

A year later I got a C64 and got to play the the game how it was meant to be played (the 2600 version would crash if you tried to access an empty block.)

 

It's one of those games that really hasn't stood up to the test of time except for those who played it back in the day. Nostalgia is a pretty strong pull.

 

The box art is unfortunate, it wasn't until many years later I noticed what was missing.

 

[Swainy]

Also the no ghost logo/symbol is reversed on the cover.

[Monkeyspill]

13 hours ago, Unofficial Who said:

I think what a lot of people missed was how to use the bait to stop Stay Puft from screwing up your run. (Press "b" when he's forming and then rush back to base to replenish bait.)

 

I think David Crane doesn't get enough credit for two mainstays of console design. Passcodes (used before onboard storage was a thing) and checkpoints (used in Pitfall 2 so you didn't have to reset back at the start.)

 

A year later I got a C64 and got to play the the game how it was meant to be played (the 2600 version would crash if you tried to access an empty block.)

 

It's one of those games that really hasn't stood up to the test of time except for those who played it back in the day. Nostalgia is a pretty strong pull.

 

The box art is unfortunate, it wasn't until many years later I noticed what was missing.

 

Was That not just copied off the VHS of the time? 

[Unofficial Who]

Just now, Monkeyspill said:

Was That not just copied off the VHS of the time? 

 

I'm pretty sure the game came out before the VHS given the quick turnaround.

 

Online sources have the movie and the game coming out in 1984 and the movie coming out in 1985.

 

But it does seem to have been drawn from the movie bills and Winston was missing from that poster too.

[gone fishin]

That photo and layout was used as a promo poster for the film (with They’re here. To save the world” above it)  I cant upload it because I’m on my phone. I don’t think because it was racist but because it was seen as a Murray/Ackroyd/Ramis vehicle.(and the thought of the three of them saving the world is a bit ridiculous I guess!) Murray and Ramis has been in Meatballs and Stripes together and Ackroyd has just lost John Belishi (Ghostbusters was originally written with Ackroyd and Belisha in the Venkman role). When the film game out there was talk of this being the first in an Abbot and Costello type of series where the three would be in different setting together, but I don’t think Bill Murray was such a fan of that...

[gone fishin]

Ghostbusters was a big turning point in games - it was an officially licensed game that brought some credibility to home computers (which had consisted of knock offs and very iffy licensed games). The C64 was a bit of a system seller - I remember it being demo’ed in our local home computer shop and the music (with Karaoke style lyrics) was the icing on the cake. I didn’t have a C64 at the time, but when it came out on the Speccy I managed to get a copy and loved it! I then managed to get the 128k version when I got a +2 years later, then when I got a C64 I managed to pick up a Ricochet re-release. And when I got a Master System, well I had to get Ghostbusters (which I’d say is the definitive version).I also had it on a few compilations for the Spectrum and Commodore 64, I think I have it about 6 or 7 times in total across different formats and releases!

 

I wonder how many copies it sold across all formats? The original release was in the top ten for a ridiculous amount of time then the ricochet re-release was also in the charts for what seemed like forever (it was Mastertronic s second biggest selling game selling over 340,000 copies ((http://www.guter.org/mastertronic/mastertronic_stats.htm) 

[dumpster]

I remember being startled when running off a copy of the Spectrum version using high speed dubbing, because you can hear the speech in the tape audio. It's right at the end of the data, at normal speed it sounds like spectrum loading noises, but sped up it says "Ghostbusters" and laughs. 

[Camel]

1 hour ago, gone fishin' said:

Ghostbusters was a big turning point in games - it was an officially licensed game that brought some credibility to home computers (which had consisted of knock offs and very iffy licensed games). 

 

If you ignore all the officially licensed games that came before it, sure.

[gone fishin]

3 hours ago, Camel said:

 

If you ignore all the officially licensed games that came before it, sure.

Erm, OK name all the good, officially licenced Film based home computer games before Ghostbusters then.

[Peter St John]

5 hours ago, Peb Kacharach said:

I also enjoyed The Real Ghostbusters - which was a re-skin of another game.

(I did not win an Egon Fright Features toy and I still want one)

 

I *did* win an Egon Fright Features toy from that release! Except in the meantime, my birthday came around and I ended up with two.

 

I'm so sorry.

[Camel]

Sorry, I somehow misread that and see now you mentioned licensed games. Not sure Ghostbusters was a big turning point though. I mean there was a Star Wars game released the year before. Then there's Atarisoft stuff bringing official arcade ports.

 

edit: also - brought credibility in whose eyes? Considering the timeline for most in this country went from 2600 to micros, who didn't see home computers as credible? 1984 was also the year of Jet Set Willy and Knight Lore. Jetpac and Atic Atac and Manic Miner the year before. Why would a good film licence suddenly make micro computers credible?

[Unofficial Who]

It was one of the biggest film tie ins, I remember department stores back in the day having actual high score competitions to promote the game. I think the speech at the time added loads to the game despite it only having three phrases (and a scream at the end that freaked the hell out of me the first time I finished the game on the C64.)

 

The in game graphics were amazing at the time. I mean being able to control a car this big on the screen?

 

 

And also an end game boss that was this big?

 

 

I remember it being one of the few 8 bit games with a decent end sequence and a way of carrying over your old progress. In a single tape load.

[PaB]

I bought ghostbusters on c64 with a £10 note I found in the street . 

[gone fishin]

2 hours ago, Camel said:

Sorry, I somehow misread that and see now you mentioned licensed games. Not sure Ghostbusters was a big turning point though. I mean there was a Star Wars game released the year before. Then there's Atarisoft stuff bringing official arcade ports.

 

edit: also - brought credibility in whose eyes? Considering the timeline for most in this country went from 2600 to micros, who didn't see home computers as credible? 1984 was also the year of Jet Set Willy and Knight Lore. Jetpac and Atic Atac and Manic Miner the year before. Why would a good film licence suddenly make micro computers credible?

Sure, there had been a couple of licensed film games for home computers (Indiana Jones in the Lost Kingdom and Buckaroo Banzai spring to mind) but they weren’t very good. Yes there had been good games released for home computers like Jet Set Willy, but Ghostbusters felt like it was a big moment for the legitimacy of games on home computers - it felt like it was the first time you could get a “game of the film” for your Spectrum or Commodore 64 that was actually good and used a licence really well. It was also the first time you could get a big licenced  game only for home computers (the 2600 version came out in 1985 iirc and it was crap in comparison!) 

 

Plus it sold gangbusters and it clearly started the flood gates for the likes of Ocean to start looking at how to turn films into computer games. 

[Lorfarius]

Ghostbusters was the first game I ever played on my Spectrum +2. Can still remember loading it on Xmas morning in the kitchen and finding a pile of games with that sat on top. I started playing all day long on a black and white TV, and only got booted out of there because tea needed cooking  It was a few days trying to finish before I even messed with any other games, it was ssooo good to my 8 year old mind. Would stare at the cover for hours when I couldn't play.

[Camel]

Yeah I disagree, sorry. It was a big game and it was popular. I don't think it had any impact beyond that. Film licences existed before and would have happened after. 

[Rex Grossman]

Wasn’t there a Saturday mornings kids show in the 80s where they got people playing it each week in a competition?

[Stoppy2000]

6 hours ago, Camel said:

Yeah I disagree, sorry. It was a big game and it was popular. I don't think it had any impact beyond that. Film licences existed before and would have happened after. 

Totally agree. If we are going to go for licensed games that had a real impact it's surely RoboCop then Batman The Movie. 

[SeanR]

I’ve never played a ghostbusters game.

 

If you don’t count star wars, my first movie licence home computer game might have been Rambo.

[gizmo1990]

On 01/08/2020 at 17:59, Nathan Wind said:

I had this on the Amstrad and played a lot of it despite the fact it utterly baffled me.

 

Haha, I was just about to post exactly this sentiment! I don't know if it was specific to the Amstrad version (let's face it, we did get a lot of duffers) but I had absolutely no idea wtf was going on. And I definitely would have read the instructions, or had them read to me, as back then that was all part of the mystic and fun of playing games!

[robotattack]

I'm glad it wasn't just me confused by the Amstrad version. 

[Stoppy2000]

Bizarrely it's one of only a handful of c64 games I managed to complete back in the day. I used to find the marshmallow man bit really hard. Maybe I'll go back to it...