Ghostbusters

From C64-Wiki

Ghostbusters

Game No.	40
Developer	David Crane, Electronic Speech Systems
Company	Activision
Publisher	Activision, Home Entertainment Suppliers
Musician	Adam Bellin
HVSC-File	MUSICIANS/L/Lieblich_Russell/Ghostbusters.sid
Release	1984
Platform	Amstrad CPC, Apple II/+, Atari 800/2600/XL/XE, C64, NES, Sega Master System, ZX Spectrum (48K und 128K)
Genre	Arcade
Gamemode	Single player
Operation
Media
Language
Information

[edit] Voting

Voting of the C64-Wiki users (10=the best vote):
7.42 points at 52 votes (rank 155). You need to be logged in to cast a vote.
C64Games	7	21st January - "very good" 21.162 downs
Lemon64	7,9	21st January - 198 votes
Kultboy.com	7,88	21st January - 24 votes
Gamebase64	10	"Classic!"

[edit] Description

[edit] Story

Hello! Anybody seen a ghost shortly? The fact is: yes! A whole lot of ghosts, which are on their way to fly to the infamous haunting headquarter. And you are now the only one who can avoid an apocalyptic-sized disaster.

The player becomes chief of a "Ghostbuster commando", which is supposed to clean the town from a horde of cruel ghosts and close the "gate to the other world". The phantoms are attracted by the temple of Zuul. The mayor of this town entrusts you to investigate the paranormal appearances of the recent past and to eliminate the ghost threats for the inhabitants. With this mission and a seed capital of 10.000$ you tackle the task.

[edit] The aim of the game

The primary aim is not to rescue the city, but to make profit, i.e. to have more than 10.000$ capital at the end of the game. Even when the town is taken over by demons, it doesn't matter. But if you clean the city successfully you get a 5.000$ bonus, which can be very helpful if you haven't made any profit until then.

[edit] Equipment

First, the money is invested in nice equipment. You can choose between 4 different emergency cars, which differ in speed, loading capacity and -of course- in price. A VW Beetle is cheap and cute, but also slow and you cannot stuff much into it, a modified hearse has more power and space, but it is more expensive.

Besides the car you also need money for various other junk, which you can buy as e.g. ghost traps (mandatory), ghost vaccuum cleaner or a Marshmallow Sensor. When you have stocked up, you can start.

[edit] Course of the game

You find yourself in the streets of the town and you recognize a flashing house on the map, where a ghost is making trouble. So you get into your car and jet to that place. Arriving at the place where it all happens, you find a funny moving ghost you have to catch now.

Therefore you put up the trap in the middle of the screen and to the left and right each one Ghostbuster switches on his energy beam and tries to lure the ghost into the trap. When you think the ghost is in the right position you activate the trap. But as the ghost doesn't follow any pattern it can also escape, whereupon it slimes onto one of the busters and then buzzes off. The second mistake you can make is crossing the two energy beams, which results in two disabled Ghostbusters. If you catch the ghost, you are rewarded some money.

The whole game mainly goes like this, occasionally you have to go back to the HQ to get some traps or men or when the batteries of the energy beams are empty. You reach the end of the game when the paranormal energy of the town reaches 9999 points. This energy levle starts at 0 and goes up constantly, at the beginning very slowly, then faster and faster.

Towards the end the hazard that the highly popular Marshmallow-Man appears and floors a house grows. As soon as a Marshmallow alert flashes at the lower border of your screen, the strays are about to come together to form a Marshmallow-Man very quickly. Here the "Marshmallow Sensor" pays off. It warns you against the threatening approach of the horrible Marshmallow-Man by showing the building at your position in white. Get there as soon as possible and instantly press "B" to let go a bait, before it batters a building!!

[edit] The great final

If the energy level reaches 9999 points and you have more money than you started with (with a new account this would be more than $10.000), you automatically drive to the skyscraper on whose roof the god of demons Zuul should be freed by the ghost powers (same as in the movie). To avoid this, you have to get to the roof. You reach the skyscraper with 3 men, the entrance is guarded by the Marshmallow-Man which jumps around in front of the door. Two of the men have to make it through the door without getting crushed, then the world is saved.

If you ended the game with more than 10.000$ on your account, you get a code with which you can start the next game with more money.

[edit] Design

The graphics were very good for that time, later there were of course even on the C64 games which were optically significantly improved. The musical accompaniment is the Ghostbusters song in infinite loop, additonally there are small effects and word samples - ("Ghostbusters", when pressing space in the intro and after catching a ghost, "He slimed me", when you fail trapping a ghost and you lose a man) - that was top at that time!

[edit] Hints

[edit] Menu for choosing the car

Here you are offered different cars. You can view them by pressing Space, then the number (1-4) and the Return. You can purchase each car by pressing the corresponding number and then Return.
1 - for $2.000 the VW Beetle with a top speed of 120km/h and space for 5 pieces of equipment.
2 - for $4.800 the Hearse with a top speed of 145km/h and space for 9 pieces of equipment.
3 - for $6.000 the station waggon with a top speed of 175km/h and space for 11 pieces of equipment.
4 - for $15.000 the High-Performance car with a top speed of 255km/h and space for 7 pieces of equipment.
When you have bought the car you get to the equiment menu.

[edit] Menu for choosing equiment

1. Menu: Monitoring equipment
In this menu you can buy the "PK Energy Detector", the "Image Intensifier" and the "Marshmallow Sensor". The amount of money that is at your disposal is displayed at the upper right on the screen, the price of a gadget is shown at the right of it. As soon as you buy a gadget the money is subtracted from your account.
You operate the fork lift by using the joystick and packing the desired gadgets to your car. To get to the next menu, press "2" and then Return.

2. Menu: Capture equipment
Here you can buy the "Ghost Bait", the "Traps" and the "Ghost Vacuum". Don't forget that you absolutey need the traps. Operation is the same as in the first menu. To get to the next menu press "3" and then Return.

3. Menu: Storage equipment
Here you can buy the portable "Laser Confinement System" for $8.000, if you still have enough money left.

When you have bought all the equipment you need, press "E" and then Return, which gets you to the town map of the game.

[edit] Each equipment and its function

The PK Energy Detector warns you against approaching ghosts named "slimers" by displaying buildings that you pass in violett.

The Image Intensifier makes slimers that you chase more visible.

The Marshmallow Sensor warns you agains the threatening approach of the horrible Marshmallow-Man by showing the building at your position in white.

The Ghost Vacuum sucks straying Ghules named "Strays" which encounter you in the streets.

Ghost Traps serve to catch and keep each one slimer. Without these traps you cannot earn money.

Ghost Bait attracts strays which come together to form a Marshmallow-Man. Without bait it is impossbile to stop him. But you should take notice that the number of Ghost Bait is limited and only use it for the Marshmallow-Man.

The Portable Laser Confinement System keeps slimers trapped in your car and saves you the drives to the GHQ (Ghostbuster Headquarters) to get more traps.

[edit] Catching ghosts

When you arrived at the place of the alarm, you should use the joystick as follows:

Direct the first Ghostbuster to the middle of the building and press fire to place the trap, then move it to the left to the desired place, face it towards the trap and press fire again.
Now the second Ghostbuster appears. Move it to the right, turn it towards the trap and press fire. Both Ghostbusters now activate their portable negative energy beams automatically.
Then move your Ghostbusters towards the middle to catch the slimer in between the beams. But in no case let the beams cross each other.
As soon as you hold the slimer above the trap, press fire. The trap will catch it. But be exact! You know what happens when you miss it.

Every caught slimer raises your balance. The sum of your balance is always shown.

[edit] Solution

Tips

When you plan your route to a haunted house well, you can catch the ghosts which go towards ZUUL on the street with the Ghost Vacuum (drive towards the ghost and press fire). This way you slow the building up of the ghost energy or the appearance of the Marshmallow-Man down.
- It is useless to go after the ghosts anytime before the meter hits 4000 as they are still too slow and you can catch around 3 or 4 ghosts at this time. When the meter starts going beyond 4000, hang right around ZUULs block and catch the ghosts at that point. Then wait for your next point of call. If you catch the ghosts while driving to the location, the ghosts will return to their starting point, and you didn't have to drive all over town.
The most important appliance in the car: Ghost Bait. It must be activated by pressing B to stop Marshi every time it appears.
Without the Marshmallow Sensor the game is very hard. If you don't have the sensor, you normally cannot lay out the Ghost Bait in time - i.e. the Marshmallow-Man will destroy a house. In the first case you get $2.000 reward, in the latter $4.000 penalty...
- But you can do without sensor; you only have to press fulgurously on "B" when the "Marshmallow Alert" appears. And I (Klaws) mean fulgurously! At that time I had additionally marked the key "B" on my C64 flashy, as there is no time to realize the regular inscription on the keys...
  - The Marshmallow Man starts his role in the game when the PK meter hits 5000, and only shows once between 5000 and 5999, 6000 and 6999, etc. When you hit the button to catch the ghost, hover your finger over the B and then keep your eyes on the ghosts when returned to the map screen. Once they start moving off their usual course, and start moving quickly to form Mr Staypuffed, press the B. So long you hit B before the 4 ghosts turn into Marshmallow Man, you'll successfully bait the ghosts and earn your $2,000. Mr Staypuffed *CAN* show up if you stay on the map screen for long enough without catching a ghost.
In front of the entrance to Zuul's temple a Marshmallow-Man jumps around. You need to place your Ghostbuster with the head in the middle, the backpack needs to be on the left. As soon as the Marshmallow-Man stamps on its left foot, walk into the door.
During the game you can get a status report anytime you press space.
When trying to catch a ghost, place the trap as far up as you can, and somewhere near the center of the screen. Move your first Ghostbuster to the far left of the screen. I point his gun to the right, but this shouldn't be necessary. Move your second Ghostbuster to the far right of the screen, aim the gun towards the left, and WAIT patiently. When the ghost goes low and to the left so it ends up being below the laser, turn on your guns, and move the joystick to the right. Once the ghost is somewhere near the trap, hit the button. 9 times out of 10 you'll catch if you hit the trap right. The speed of the trap is faster on its way up, than on its way down. I also have noticed that the ghosts tend to stay to the right of the screen more than to the left. (Personal note, I can sometimes catch a ghost in 3 seconds time from the point of entry, to when I hit the button to start the trap. It just takes a bit of luck on where the ghost is, and how quick you are to setup)

[edit] Cheats

Start with more money

A online Ghostbusters bankaccount generator for c64 & MSX to make your personal bankaccount.
Enter no name and account number 458 to get $1,000,000 (c64 only).
Quote by Lemon64: For infinte money, enter ANDY as your name, then 777 as your account number.
Shakermaker303: Type "TRON" or "HERBIE" when typing your name. Acccount number escapes me at the moment, but I will hand it in later :-)
It also works with "Ingo" as a name and "Ingo" as account - gets you a snappy million Dollar :)

Pokes
POKE 22014,9

[edit] Critics

Guybrush: "Ghostbusters was really fun for a long time, especially when I didn't really have the hang of it. But if you do it unfortunately gets very dreary, because then it is too simple as you have to do without different levels of difficulty or multiplayer versions. Anyway, a diverting fun and therefore 7 out of 10 points from me."

Shakermaker303: "It was not bad, although I never really had caught on everything in this game. I also never got to the end, but it was very entertaining anyway, rather diversified and you could hear nice speech output. Furthermore, the intro screen with music and superimposed lyrics was great, including pressing space bar to hear the classic "Ghostbusters". I also give here 7 out of 10 points."

Blubarju: "A very successful and entertaining conversion of the movie. But by and by it gets a bit dreary. Until then fun is guaranteed. 8 points."

Ragnarok: "One of the best software conversions of a movie, "Ghostbusters" transfers the flair of the movie through the speech output and fluent graphics. Crazy karaoke intro!"

[edit] Miscellaneous

The intro alone is up until now unique. You see the Ghostbusters logo and the music of the megahit by Ray Parker Jr.is played (in the C64 format SID) and then the funny part starts: The lyrics are shown and over the text a small ball jumps which invites you to sing along. Which computer game has ever had an intro with karaoke? An ageless cool feature!!!
If you press the "SPACE" key in the intro you get the speech output: "Ghostbusters!"