ZX Computing
1st October 1986
Ghostbusters
Who you gonna call? Ghostbusters...! Not exactly a haunting tune but rather one more likely to give you nightmares as you find that you can't get it out of your brain. Now, the game of the film has been released in an enhanced version for the Spectrum 128. The added features include better music and graphics but the game remains the same.
For anyone who has been away for the last couple of years and doesn't know the storyline, New York is suffering from an invasion of ghosties, ghoulies and things that go bump in the night. You are setting up a franchise to make as much money as you can by catching ghosts and stopping them reaching the Temple of Zuul where the climax of the game takes place. First, you must buy and equip your car.
There are four basic models to choose from with speed and amount of equipment that can be carried increasing with price. The bits and pieces that you can buy include ghost vacuums and traps, image intensifiers and marshmallow sensors.
Having equipped your vehicle, you must then drive round the streets catching "roamers" and stopping in front of buildings where a slimer is present. By careful positioning of your men, you must manoeuvre the slimer using your negative ioniser backpacks above the trap you have laid and then bingo! Your credit rating starts to increase. Failure to accomplish the task results in the immortal phrase, "He slimed me!" (Some dodgy voice synthesis here!) as your man gets covered in ectoplasm.Despite the vast amount of hype that preceded this game on its initial release and despite the fact that it is one of the best selling computer titles ever, Ghostbusters is not a particularly good game and is certainly beginning to show its age now.
Even with the added extra bits on the 128, it is still not very good value for just under ten pounds.
