GHOSTBUSTERS COLLECTION

Join in with all your favourite Real Ghostbusters heroes and save your city from a haunting array of ghouls, ghosts and things that go bump in the night! Zap and trap as many creept ghosts and scary monsters as you can - bust the mad monks or the garish ghouls and head for some real bad craziness! Pick up the keys, dump the ghosts and seek out more spooks - or you'll be history!

•  Smooth 8 way full colour scrolling
•  One or two player mode
•  Thousands of different creepy ghosts and monsters to zap and collect
•  Ghostly sound effects
•  Dynamic introduction screen
•  Fast moving animation
•  10 exciting and challenging levels

~ from the back of The Real Ghostbusters Atari ST box

Ghostbusters is back on the big screen with the entertaining (though still a tad lacking) Frozen Kingdom. I'll rant on about how the otherwise enjoyable film could've been better in my end of year rundown, but until then, let's bust all the ghosts in digital form.  And I mean ALL the ghosts! Including ports and re-releases, that's 42 games spanning 23 systems in this mammoth collection; quite a feat since I expecting it to be something of a modest compilation. So, how many of these make bustin' feel good?

Let's begin with the O.G. Released on the Atari 2600 in 1984, famed designer David Crane's Ghostbusters arrived in a very different market to his last game, Pitfall, just two years earlier. The video gaming market had completely crashed the year prior in the US at least but the many ports that trickled out up until the 90s meant that it would survive that dark period. Perhaps this is why the Commodore 64 version came out first - the same year as the movie - while the earliest port (for Crane's beloved Atari 2600) arrived a year later. In many ways, the super hard difficulty and jankiness burnt onto the cartridge epitomises why the market went the way that it did, but there is more to this particular game than meets the eye. It actually attempts a detailed and in depth gameplay loop.

Sucking up ghosts in Ghostbusters for the Atari 2600 (1985, left) and Commodore 64 (1984, right).

What a difference a year makes!

You start off with $10,000 ready to spend on some nifty ghostbusting tech, including the car. You can afford any one of the four choices at the start, with the famous alarmed hearse costing somewhere in the middle. What's left over can be spent on ghost traps and vacuum cleaners to suck up wayward spirits - the former being necessary to continue. From here, we enter the map screen; a top-town view of New York with a whole load of pixels floating around. This is where the casual gamer might get a little confused, but stick with it and all will become clear.

Both the gatekeeper and the keymaster will wander around aimlessly searching for Zuul at the centre. A number of ghosts are also attracted to the area and once they all converge, the Stay Puff Marshmallow Man will wreak havoc and destroy a block or two. While all this is happening, city buildings will occasionally flash red to signify that they're suffering a haunting. Drive your car over there to play an overly fiddly mini-game and perhaps catch even more ghouls. If the course you plot to this location includes some of those wandering spectres, you'll get the opportunity to suck them up too for more money earned if you have the right equipment. Eventually, you'll head towards Zuul, sneak past the angered sugary mascot and defeat the demon mastermind at the top. If you do so with a surplus of money in your coffers, you've won! Depending on which version you'll play, you'll likely give up way before then.

The Master System port (left) is more like a remake. As is the fanmade remake from 2006 (right).

I imagine this would've been a big release back in 1984. The movie was a massive phenomenon so it only figures that it was ported to many a system, including all of the micro computers that let us Europeans stave off the market crash seen elsewhere. While the Atari 2600 and Atari 8-bit has some nostalgic charm, the Commodore 64 port is perhaps the better contemporary version to play while the surprisingly re-jigged version for SEGA's Master System that came along a few years later it a stellar reimagining. Nowadays, it's undoubtedly the fanmade remake from 2006 that holds up the best. It takes the framework of the Master System game, applies a modern sensibility to its controls and updates the graphics with some nicely rendered computer-generated art. Overall, it's a decent time piece. Just stay well away from the nigh-on unplayable MSX version.

Also escaping the land of the dead is Ghostbusters II which is much more generic in its design. It deploys the multiple gameplay styles that were common for movie tie-ins at the time and not one of them plays well. It starts off in the sewers of New York as Ray dangles towards the pink slime determined to get a sample. Except, he doesn't have the right equipment on him. Not only will he have to dodge the insane amount of ghostly creatures on his way down with only a limited-use proton pack as protection, he'll also have to swing wildly to collect the many pieces of equipment too. It doesn't help that it controls so poorly, many people wouldn't be able to get past it without a cheat.

Watch out for fraying rope as you try desperately to get past level 1 of Ghostbusters II for C64 (left).
At least the original DOS version provides more entertainment value (right).

But cheat I did, and level 2 is a little better. It's a horizontal schmup taking place during the Statue of Liberty scene. You control a ball of energy that can shoot at the approaching ghouls while carefully ordering the Ghostbusters themselves to pick up the ectoplasm left behind before old Lady Liberty slips up on it. It goes on for far too long with little variation but it is the best playing of the three sections. The last area attempts something a little more complex. You control each of the four 'busters individually to save baby son Oscar from the possessed painting. It's a little obtuse as to what you  need to do, and very fiddly in how you do it. So much so that I couldn't reach the end of this particular section as much as I wanted to. This is true of all versions. The unrecognisable Atari 2600 port may baffle, but even the better looking and playing Amiga attempt is shoddy as all hell. 

To redeem itself, there is another Ghostbusters II game. No, not the vastly different Nintendo ones (we'll get to those later) but another multi-genre movie tie-in for PC DOS developed by Dynamix of Rise of the Dragon and The Incredible Machine fame. Even though I said it's another one of those multi-genre games that blighted a lot of movie licenses back then, Ghostbusters II is mostly a gallery shooter. One of your busters stands at the bottom of the screen shooting proton beams at ghosts and ghoulies until they're weak enough to capture in a ghost trap. It's controlled with either the mouse or keyboard (or a joypad thanks to the DOSBox mapper) and while not the best of its type, it plays pretty well. Unfortunately, using the mouse for this stage means you'll have to do so with all others, including an awkward abseiling segment. Not the best thing out there, but OK.

Spraying some real particles in The Real Ghostbusters for Arcades (left) 

and the visual mess that is the ZX Spectrum port (right).

Just before the movie sequel's tie-in, we were graced with a much better experience in the arcades. Called The Real Ghostbusters after the animated show, this top-down action game by Data East offers up quite the game. You play as an unrecognisably drawn Ghostbuster as he zaps and traps the poltergeists infesting a variety of areas. Ten in fact. Throughout each, you will navigate past traps, pick up powerups (including a chaotic Slimer who acts as a kamikaze shield of sorts) and fight inventive bosses which will unlock a portal to exit stage. It's fun gameplay loop that's perfect for the coin-op environment it was designed for. Unfortunately all of the other ports aren't as good. The 8-bit micro-computer iterations are limited in more than just colour, but the reduced levels and poor controls make it a chore. The Amiga and Atari ST fare a little better, but they still feel stiff and unfinished when standing side-by-side with the arcade original.

There is a reason why Egon et al are unrecognisable. The Real Ghostbusters started life as a completely different game. Exclusive to Japanese arcades, Meikyuu Hunter G is basically the same game but with different power ups, a two-player limit and only eight levels with entirely different layouts. Both are good, but the nostalgia of the license makes me prefer that one better.

A pinball magazine freebie, imaginatively titled Ghostbusters Pinball for the Atari 8-bit (left).

This fanmade text adventure is worth playing even if you don't speak Spanish (right).

Let's take a little break from the games you know, and move on to some really obscure stuff. Ghostbusters Pinball for the Atari 8-bit uses a pinball construction set to create a generic ball flipper for a magazine called SLCC Journal. It's nothing special, but I was surprised to find out the system had magazines with cover disks, even if this highly detailed enthusiast rag is aimed squarely at squares. For Spanish speakers, a bedroom programmer by the name of Rafael Vico Costa created a graphic text adventure for the ZX Spectrum. Any dialogue is simple to the point that even a non-native speaker might be able to work things out if they keep at it. Otherwise it's an admirable attempt at such a game.

Now, back to the big stuff; the console games! Let's kick things off with SEGA's console, the Mega Drive (or Genesis of you're that way inclined). Like the SMS port of the original game, this platformer reimagining was developed in-house by SEGA themselves (with a little help from Compile) so you can guess there's quality on display. What we have is a fairly basic run-and-jumper elevated by the license chibi-fied into some nice pixel art. You can play as either Peter, Ray or Egon (sorry Winston), each of whom have differing stats but ultimately it doesn't matter who you choose.

Winston is a beast of a character by jumping highest and attacking hardest (left).

Louis, on the other hand, is the weakest. Prepare to die often (right).

That's because you'll want to play one of the fanmade patches instead! Created in 2003 by BillyTime Games, Ghostbusters: Special Edition (dubbed Pure Edition) is a complete overhaul of the 1990 game. It includes new costumes, secrets and cheat codes reimplemented from the Japanese version. Not only that, but there's a new nightmare difficulty, the ability to save your game and entirely new levels! And, Winston Zeddemore is not longer left out of the fun! Along with Louis Tully, you can select the new characters by tapping to the left or right outside the usually selectable characters. The Ectoplasm Edition goes even further than the Pure one by stuffing in more unlockables and brand new cheats that switch up the game no end. You'll have to read the readme text file for a full rundown, but needless to say it's the definitive way to play an already great game.

One of the best games in the whole series came from Japanese developers HAL Laboratories. Yes, the Kirby guys made a Ghostbusters game. Called New Ghostbusters II to differentiate it from that crappy NES port of the crappy 1989 game, it allows you to play not just as the three white guys you always get to play as, but also Winston and Louis Tully too! We'd have to wait for a fanmade patch for the SEGA game to do that! You get to choose two characters before starting the game. The first guy will wield the proton pack, while the second will keep hold of the ghost traps. You have to navigate through an entertaining maze of a multi-floored high rise building zapping the ghosts before sucking them up. It's great fun, even if it didn't see a US release. Well, only the NES version didn't. Everyone got the slightly different but still very good GameBoy version. Both are must plays for their systems.

Arrows tell you where to go in The New Ghostbusters II for the NES (left).

You ghost-trap carrying companion will always follow you unless he gets stuck in the GB version (right).

By the time the 90s were creeping towards its end, Ghostbusters was in a lull. The franchise would be almost fifteen years old when a brief but awesome resurgence appeared on television at the tail end of 1997. Sold as a direct sequel to the animated show, Extreme Ghostbusters recast the original gang as mentors in various bit parts with only Egon and Janine having significant supporting roles. The youthful new lot were uber-cool and diverse, with the fashion forward goth chick called Kylie being the most memorable new addition. We also had Garrett, the wheelchair-bound hot-head, Eduardo, the slacker with soul patch, and Roland, the forgettable leader of the group.

There were a few games based on the show, and none of them took advantage of the hip new (and genuinely scary at times) approach. The show merged X-Files and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, while the games were basic clones of others that came out years after the single-season finished airing. First out was a 2001 GameBoy Color platformer where you only play as Eduardo. He has to navigate through levels dispatching all things spooky in a poorly implemented fashion. Your main weapon is the proton pack but you cannot move and shoot at the same time. Instead, holding the fire button will stick Eduardo to the spot allowing the d-pad to be used for aiming. It is imprecise and awkward, and with a gameplay loop that requires you to hunt the open stages to bag every single ghoulie, it get old fast.

Extreme Ghostbusters on the GameBoy Color (left) and GameBoy Advance (right).

Both handle their platforming very differently.

A year later, the handheld's successor got another platformer based on the license. Subtitled Code Ecto-1 in some places, this GameBoy Advance game is far superior. Levels begin with you traveling to your destination in your screaming hearse as you rush to get there on time without crashing. If you manage it, you enter some platform sections where you have control of not just Eduardo, but Kylie as well. Both have different move-sets that require you to swap them out whenever you need to make a higher jump or attack more accurately.  While the levels are a little open, they play more like a traditional get-to-the-end platformer though there are differing routes to take. Not worth it for a system that has multiple Metroid and Mario games, but if your granny got it for you one Christmas, it's not a total waste. Quite entertaining actually.

The last of the Extreme console games came out on the PlayStation and it plays much differently. Now subtitled Ultimate Invasion, this is a pure-blooded light-gun shooter. For a budget title, it gets a lot of things right. You can take cover to avoid incoming projectiles and recharge your proton pack like Time Crisis, then the camera takes control as you travel by foot to the next fully 3D section of the levels like Virtua Cop. The budget shows up in the limited sprite-work used to create the targets. Not just in their animation, but their complete lack of variety. The same old slimers just keep on coming! Other than the licence, it's like every other gun game, but if you have the peripheral, another option in an otherwise small sub-category is always welcome.

Aim your gun at the many ghost clones in Extreme Ghostbusters: Ultimate Invasion on PlayStation (left).

Create your own levels in the PC shovelware game Extreme Ghostbusters: Zap the Ghosts! (right).

All of these Extreme games only saw a release in Europe. Perhaps the highly underrated show did better over here to warrant it being snapped up four years overdue by a budget publisher. In this instance, that publisher was LSP or Light and Shadow Productions who outsourced the creation of the four games to tiny development houses. This French company was often seen as a purveyor of shovelware - and many of the developer they hired have worked on many a piece of crap - but I have been pleasantly surprised at some of their offerings (see the CT Special Forces series for a great example). And these past three games do just that too. But there is a fourth...

Ironically, the one developer they hired that still makes decent stuff to this day (that is Digital Reality Software Kft of Sine Mora and SkyDrift fame) created the one Extreme Ghostbusters game that is shovelware through and through. Zap The Ghosts is a pieced of software that has as little thought put into it as its banal title. This rushed timewaster for Windows PCs basically ripped off the gameplay of Puzzle Bobble (or Bust-A-Move to some folks). You have to shoot primary coloured ghosts to their matching kin to pop them from an ever-decreasing playfield. Once all are gone, do it again on the next level with a playfield of a slightly different size. There's little added to the core gameplay that makes it worth it, with even its inspiration at its earliest providing more variety with power ups and animated backgrounds. What Zap The Ghosts does have is a level editor which you can play with to your hearts content. At least that's pretty nifty.

Powerful next-gen systems like a Windows PC got realistic graphics (left),

while underpowered systems like the Wii saw a cartoony art style (right).

To round the whole package off is the most recent game to arrive, and by far the best. Ghostbusters: The Video Game might as well be the third movie in the franchise as it apparently takes a lot from the unproduced script Dan Aykroyd was trying to get made for many years. I won't get into too much detail as it's still sold in a much improved remastered edition, making the downgraded cartoon visuals of the PS2, PSP and Wii ports obsolete (the game itself is near identical though). However, there was another "port" that wasn't exactly a port but a wholly original game. Wheel in the Nintendo DS...

By nature of its dual screen, the action-adventure shenanigans of The Video Game wouldn't work on this handheld system. What developers at Zen Stúdió Kft did was to create a top-down adventure that sprinkles in  some real-time-strategy and open-world driving. We begin in a fully realised (yet obviously fictional) map of New York where we can control Ecto-1. The streets may be dark and the draw distance low, but overall it's quite remarkable for the DS. It's more than just an overworld to cart you from level to level as, in a hark back to the very first game, you can fully equip the vehicle with all sorts of ghostbusting tech. Spooks also haunt the streets as well as buildings so a fully equipped ride is incredibly desirable. 

Drive around New York to catch errant ghosts and head to each level (left).

The DS version has a top-down more strategic approach than its bigger brothers (right).

Head inside and we control our team of paranormal investigators with the d-pad, yet the majority of actions must be implemented by using the touch screen making it a complete bastard to control. Tapping on an enemy to attack won't always do it leaving you open and vulnerable, and sliding a spook over to a trap will test your mouse skill. I guess it was okay enough on real hardware, but an imprecise as the mouse can be when in a pickle, I can imagine a chunky finger obscuring the on-screen action wasn't much better. It's a shame as the levels and gameplay loop are actually nicely designed, and maybe with a bit more practice and a less grumpy mindset will unlock some hidden sparks of genies. A minor classic perhaps. Instead, we're left with something that has some obvious thought behind it, but not enough skill to stick the landing. Still, they chose to go down an original route instead of yet another mascot platformer, so you have to give them that.

Despite the odd blip here and there, the Ghostbusters video games have been surprisingly consistent in quality. The worst of the worst have been bad ports of better games for systems that in no way could do them justice. Even those that I would've scoffed at back in the day had more than a few things to like about them. My faves were The Video Game variants and The New Ghostbusters II, not to be confused with Ghostbusters II (but not that one) which can get slimed for all I care. Even the aging original, which I'd heard had E.T.-levels of awfulness, has some impressive things going for it. Bustin' sure made this guy feel good! 

To download the game, follow the link below. This custom installer exclusive to The Collection Chamber uses the DOSBox Daum build of DOSBox 0.74 to bring the PC-DOS games to modern systems, FS-UAE with WHDload to emulate the Amiga versions, PCSX2 to emulate the PlayStation 2 and Retroarch with the Caprice32, Stella, Atari800, Hatari, Vice x64, fMSX, DeSmuME, Gambatte, gbSP, Mesen, Mesen-S, Genesis Plus GX, SNES9X, Fuse, Mednafen Beetle PSX, MAME 2003, Dolphin & PPSSPP to emulate the remaining micro computer, console and handheld games. X-input controllers supported for most games. Manuals for most games included. Some games in the package are still sold and will instead link to a store page. To play these within the custom menu, the game files must be sourced and implemented yourself. Read the ChamberNotes.txt for more detailed information. Tested on Windows 10.
  24.11.2024 - Version 2 -  Fixed DOSBox visuals and controls.

                                         Remapped Ghostbusters Text Adventure keys and added brief translation notes in the ChamberNotes.txt

                                         Wii game now uses Dolphin instead of Retroarch

                                         Fixed the non-functioning micro-computer games

                                         

File Size: 1.27 Gb.  Install Size: 1.84 Gb.  Need help? Consult the Collection Chamber FAQ

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AMIGA

AMSTRAD CPC

ARCADE

ATARI 2600

ATARI 8-BIT

ATARI ST

COMMODORE 64

GAMEBOY

SUPER GAMEBOY

GAMEBOY ADVANCE

GAMEBOY COLOR

MICROSOFT MSX

NINTENDO DS

NINTENDO NES

NINTENDO WII

PC-DOS

PLAYSTATION

PLAYSTATION 2

PLAYSTATION PORTABLE

SEGA GENESIS

SEGA MASTER SYSTEM

WINDOWS

ZX SPECTRUM

THE REAL GHOSTBUSTERS

GHOSTBUSTERS II

GHOSTBUSTERS

GHOSTBUSTERS II

REAL GHOSTBUSTERS

REAL GHOSTBUSTERS

GHOSTBUSTERS

GHOSTBUSTERS II

GHOSTBUSTERS

GHOSTBUSTERS PINBALL

REAL GHOSTBUSTERS

GHOSTBUSTERS II

GHOSTBUSTERS

GHOSTBUSTERS II

REAL GHOSTBUSTERS

GHOSTBUSTERS II

REAL GHOSTBUSTERS

GHOSTBUSTERS II

REAL GHOSTBUSTERS

EXTREME GHOSTBUSTERS: CODE ECTO-1

EXTREME GHOSTBUSTERS

GHOSTBUSTERS

GHOSTBUSTERS II

GHOSTBUSTERS: THE VIDEO GAME - HANDHELD

GHOSTBUSTERS

GHOSTBUSTERS II

NEW GHOSTBUSTERS II

GHOSTBUSTERS: THE VIDEO GAME - STYLIZED

GHOSTBUSTERS

GHOSTBUSTERS II

EXTREME GHOSTBUSTERS: ULTIMATE INVASION

GHOSTBUSTERS: THE VIDEO GAME - STYLIZED

GHOSTBUSTERS: THE VIDEO GAME - STYLIZED

GHOSTBUSTERS

GHOSTBUSTERS

EXTREME GHOSTBUSTERS: ZAP THE GHOSTS!

GHOSTBUSTERS: REMAKE

GHOSTBUSTERS: THE VIDEO GAME - REALISTIC

GHOSTBUSTERS

GHOSTBUSTERS: THE ADVENTURE

GHOSTBUSTERS II

REAL GHOSTBUSTERS

Ghostbusters & Ghostbusters II (the movies) are © Colombia Pictures

Ghostbusters, Ghostbusters II & The Real Ghostbusters (the games) are © Activision
Ghostbusters Pinball is © Sergeant Slaughter
Ghostbusters: The Text Adventure is © Rafael Vico Costa
Ghostbusters (on the SEGA systems) are © SEGA of America
The Real Ghostbusters (the arcade game) is © Data East
New Ghostbusters II is © HAL Laboratory
Extreme Ghostbusters (the games) are © Light and Shadow Production (LSP)
Ghostbusters Remake is © Trevor (Smila) Storey & Scottige
Ghostbusters: The Video Game is © Atari

Review, Cover Design and Installer created by me

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