The History of the Ghostbusters Game

Ars Technica takes a look at the development of the Ghostbusters game due out later this year. They go through the promising early demonstrations, the subsequent relegation to developmental limbo, and the project's eventual resurrection. Quoting: "Everyone involved with the game was extremely enthusiastic about its progress, as evidenced both by Sierra's heavy promotion of the title, as well as by how genuinely excited a number of the company's PR team were about it. Now, it isn't all that uncommon to talk with PR folk and be fed a line about how great whatever product they're promoting is, but even after several hours of drinking copious amounts of alcohol, the enthusiasm never waned; this definitely wasn't the case when we discussed some of the other titles that had been on display during the day's event. Even the members of the press corps, as we huddled together and compared notes, generally agreed that Ghostbusters had been the most impressive thing we'd gotten to see at the event. All in all, it looked like Sierra was going to deliver a game that finally gave the Ghostbusters franchise the respect it deserved, and none of us could wait to get our hands on it."

Comments

On Resurrections

[michfreak]

Sounds to me like this is the resurfacing of both the franchise and the gaming company. Since when has anything of note come out of Sierra? Wikipedia says that the most notable games in the past five years are Crash Bandicoot, Spyro the Dragon, and 50 Cent: Bulletproof.

I remember the days of yore, when King's Quest, Space Quest, and (shiver) Gobliiins ruled my shelves. Here's hoping that Sierra is redeemed in our eyes by Ghostbusters.

Re:On Resurrections

[EdIII]

If your talking about resurrections I miss MicroProse too.

Of course that is impossible as it was bought out a long time ago and the staff has moved on. They did makes some awesome games though.

MicroProse and Sierra are both responsible for a huge part of my childhood goofing off with video games. I have high hopes for them.

Re:On Resurrections

[Dun Malg]

Lasersquad Nemesis:

http://www.lasersquadnemesis.com/

by the folks who made it possible to save the world from alien invasion in UFO: Enemy Unknown.

William

The LS:N "waypoints/orders...execute!" combat system is interesting (and in some ways more realistic), but I think LS:N is missing what made UFO such a cool game. It really was the story, the RPG element, that made X-Com so good. Your troops had names, and stats that developed, and the overarching UFO invasion story with its ever-increasing urgency gave the whole thing sense of continuity. Dopes like me with overactive imaginations would even invent personalities for the characters, and move them on the combat map accordingly. Laser Squad:Nemesis? You pick your troops like egg rolls from a bad Chinese buffet--- they're all generic: "I'll take four grenadiers, two commanders, two medics, two snipers, and as many grunts as I have points left for". Perhaps it also has something to do with the fact that I don't really care much for online play against other humans, but I found that LS:N ceased to amuse me after playing a half dozen of the canned maps.

Re:... And then a horrid memory came back

[mccalli]

My childhood was ruined because of this game.

Well mine wasn't - I liked this game. Still do to be honest. There's a remake around somewhere, but I still emulate the C64 version for preference.

Don't get me wrong, I don't rush home from work each nice desperate for a game of Ghostbusters. On the other hand, fifteen or twenty minutes every few months or so and I enjoy it - that's more than you can say for a lot of roughly twenty year-old games.

Cheers,
Ian

Sierra?

[Yvan256]

Wow, these guys are still alive?!

Ok then, we want new Space Quest games!!!

Re:Sierra?

[mzs]

Scott Murphy had a difficult relationship with both Sierra and Mark Crowe, he seems to hold grudges, and sort of rambles honestly:

http://www.adventureclassicgaming.com/index.php/site/interviews/234/

How dare they insult the Duke!

[elrous0]

Quoting from the article:

Games like Too Human, Daikatana, and Duke Nukem: Forever have all become legendary in the video game industry because of development delays, but few titles have managed to achieve the notoriety in recent memory that Ghostbusters: The Video Game has

I'm sorry, but Duke Nuke'em Forever is the GOLD STANDARD of developmental delays. It's the Mac Daddy. It's the God and King. It's to developmental delays what Elvis is to rock and roll, what Ozzy is to metal, what Airplane! is to spoof films. Nothing else even deserves to be spoken in the same sentence.