How to play Ghostbusters online
This game uses the console’s difficulty switches as extra buttons.
- Start a new game: F12 (Reset)
- Shop for equipment: up and down arrows move the pointer, Space buys
- Finish shopping: F4 (flips the left difficulty switch)
- Drive and move your Ghostbusters: arrow keys
- Enter a building: Space for the one above the street; down arrow + Space for the one below
- Set traps, fire backpacks, vacuum ghosts: Space
- Drop bait for the Marshmallow Man: F9 (flips the right difficulty switch)
- Save / load: Ctrl + 0–9 / Alt + 0–9
Gameplay
You start a Ghostbusters franchise on a bank loan and equip your car: an image intensifier ($800) makes hidden ghosts easier to see, bait ($400) stops the Marshmallow Man, a ghost vacuum ($500) catches ghosts on the street, and traps cost $600 each. You need at least one trap and can carry nine.
On the city map, Zuul’s temple sits at the top. Blocks flashing red have a “slimer” inside. Drive to the street beside one and go in. One Ghostbuster sets a trap, then two men take positions on either side and switch on their backpacks. Close the energy streams in on the ghost without crossing them, and spring the trap when the ghost is over it. Quick catches pay more; each ghost that escapes raises the city’s PK energy by 300.
“Roamer” ghosts drift towards Zuul, adding 100 PK each if they arrive. Touch them on the map to freeze them, or vacuum them up on the street. Sometimes your car freezes and the roamers speed up: the Marshmallow Man is coming. Drop bait in time to earn $2,000, or lose $4,000 when he stomps a block. When you run out of traps, get two men slimed or cross the streams, headquarters flashes yellow and you must go back to restock.
When PK energy hits 9999 the round ends. With at least $10,000 banked, you try to sneak two of three Ghostbusters between the Marshmallow Man’s legs for a $2,000 bonus, then play on with your savings. Each later round asks for another $10,000.
Tips
- Always buy bait. It costs $400 once, and every successful baiting pays $2,000.
- React to a frozen car. Flip F9 the moment your car stops responding; speed decides whether you earn or lose.
- Freeze roamers on the map. It costs nothing and slows the end of the round.
- Close the streams slowly. A crossed stream sends you back to headquarters.
The story behind Ghostbusters
Columbia Pictures gave Activision the licence with no design rules, only a demand for speed while the film was popular. The team had about six weeks instead of the usual nine months. Crane rebuilt an unfinished driving and shopping game of his, Car Wars, around the film’s ghost-catching gear. The game topped the UK charts in early 1985, and over two million copies across all formats had been sold by 1989.
Crane had little to do with the ports. The 2600 version is unusual for Activision, which normally moved games from the 2600 to computers rather than the other way round.
