ZX Speccy Stories Episode 4 – Ghostbusters | Who You Gonna Call?

Welcome back to ZX Speccy Stories!I’m Andy Godoy, and in this episode I’m sharing my memories of one of the biggest movies and video games of the 1980s — Ghostbusters.Before we get to the ZX Spectrum game, I’m going back to the beginning and talking about the film that started it all. Directed by Ivan Reitman and starring Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis and the often-underappreciated Ernie Hudson, Ghostbusters was absolutely huge when it arrived in 1984.I’ll talk about discovering the film as a kid, the ghosts, the proton packs, the Ecto-1, the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man and, of course, that unforgettable Ray Parker Jr. theme tune.Then we get to the game.I remember my cousins Alex and Mario having different versions of Ghostbusters on their home computers, and one particular weekend when Mario loaded up the Commodore 64 version.That famous “Ghostbusters!” sampled speech.The laugh.The theme tune with the bouncing karaoke ball.And then the game itself…Running your own Ghostbusters business, buying equipment, loading up the Ecto-1 and heading out into a top-down version of New York to deal with paranormal activity.As a kid, it felt huge.I’ll talk about the different versions I experienced, including the Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64 and Atari 2600, before eventually getting my hands on the ZX Spectrum version.And I’ll be honest…I wasn’t completely blown away by the Spectrum version at first.But coming back to the game years later changed the way I looked at it — and I’ll explain why.I’ll also talk about the famous Angry Video Game Nerd episode and how his hatred of the NES version actually made me appreciate Ghostbusters and the Spectrum version even more.This isn’t a technical review or a complete history of the game.It’s my Ghostbusters story.And I’d love to hear yours.Did you play Ghostbusters on the ZX Spectrum, C64, Amstrad, Atari or another computer? Did you love it, hate it, or somewhere in between?8-Bit Memories • Classic Games • Honest Stories