Ghostbusters (Activision)

[Dave_E]

I'm pretty sure I've asked this before but I would really *really* love a BBC/Electron version of the old Activision game Ghostbusters from 1984. Ideally based on the SNES ROM version of the game, which I think is easily the best.

It's not a super-complicated game - you simply cruise around a map waiting for calls, then journey to the 'haunted house' and play a pretty simple 'catch the ghost' game. There's a shop at the beginning where you can choose one of four cars and there's a lot of nice variables like the bank account that allows you to increase how much money you've earned each time you play.

A while ago I converted the map and some of the background screens to Mode 1 on the Electron so if anyone like 0xc0de or snuggsy wanna get started, I can upload them!

[MillieTD83]

There is no Beeb, only ZUUL.

[Arcadian]

Ideally based on the SNES ROM version of the game, which I think is easily the best.

NES version?

[Dave_E]

Sorry, I meant the Sega Master System version. The NES version was crap.

[RobC]

I think it would be a good fit for the Beeb/Elk as it's essentially just a series of mini-games that could be multi-loaded from disk so RAM shouldn't be a problem.

Wasn't a version mooted BITD?

[Dave_E]

Yes, it certainly was... I remember well a little "Activision News" leaflet that Steven Kirk had in my class when I was seven years old. And from memory I quote: "Early next year, we'll be finalising versions for the BBC Acorn." But it never came to pass, leaving me disappointed for the last 40 years.

[Rich Talbot-Watkins]

I'm sure there's already a Beeb rendition of the theme tune out there somewhere!

(Edit: yes, of course there is...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvfu25w4hWg )

[Rob_hawk]

(Edit: yes, of course there is...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvfu25w4hWg )

Very nice indeed. Let’s hope whoever picks up this mantle includes the speech

[MillieTD83]

I've only ever played the C64 version of this. Speech shouldn't be too hard to do. Bonecruncher had it in the loader (even on a B), and Exile I believe had speech but on the Master enhanced version?

[Rob_hawk]

I've only ever played the C64 version of this. Speech shouldn't be too hard to do. Bonecruncher had it in the loader (even on a B), and Exile I believe had speech but on the Master enhanced version?

I’d played the C64 version originally too, loved the speech and the huge car driving between buildings plus of course the Ray Parker Jnr tune with the bouncing ball at the start.

Exile certainly has speech on the enhanced version for the Model B as well.

[RobC]

Speech isn't difficult - it's just a matter of being able to fit the samples into RAM.

Using the speech chip might be a good option if space is an issue on the standard model B.

[fizgog]

I'm probably on my own here, but when it came out I thought the game was boring, just never interested me, thought the music was amazing though on C64 and at a guess this is what sold it.

[lovebug]

to me the sms gameplay looks as bad as the nes version

[Rob_hawk]

I still think the C64 version is fun. The music is certainly a big uptick on the SMS version IMO.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElJNQxgKZPw

[Dave_E]

It really is a game that splits opinion. You just play the same thing over and over again - going out to bust the ghosts, coming back to the fire station, waiting for the key and the lock to go to Zuul. I know some people find it totally boring. I don't know why I like it so much, maybe because I was a big fan of the movie. Back in the day I had the movie on a Betamax cassette recorded from the TV and it was a "TV version" (Remember those?) with lots of alternate takes that didn't include the swearing (mild as it was). The bit where Venkman walked out of the ballroom and said "We came, we saw, we kicked its ASS!" was "What a knockabout of pure fun that was!" Dana said "Oh no!" instead of "Oh shit!" when the terrordog came up through the armchair. I've never seen these alternate takes ever again since those days. I watched it religiously - so many times that I can still quote whole scenes off by heart to this day.

Being such a big fan was why I really *really* wanted it on my Electron. Alas, it never came to be back in the day...

[Arcadian]

The alternate takes for the airline / TV version are magical! Some (but not all) are here Dave if you want to relive them: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gucH9STn6ew

I remember watching the TV premiere on ITV, Boxing Day 1987. I was looking forward to it so much, as though I caught it in the cinema 3 years prior (at the Monico in Cardiff) we didn't have a video recorder until 1988 I think (an Amstrad VCR 4700), so I hadn't seen it since it's original run at the pictures.

Of equal magnificence are the "Edited for TV" versions of Robocop - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-y1PAUtv3k

(Edit - should probably put a swearing/violence warning on those youtube links - especially Robocop! )

[ChrisB]

Been thinking about this. I was aware of this BITD but never played it. As people say it's not necessarily the greatest game - but having Ghostbusters attached to it elevates it's status. There's a comparison of the various versions here: http://frgcb.blogspot.com/2016/10/ghost ... -1984.html
Some thoughts in no particular order.

I think the challenge BITD would have been making a version that could have been loaded from tape as a single program. With the multiple screens fitting this in a standard Beeb would have been a challenge. Multi-load was a thing for certain titles but I think these simply progressed one to the other (winter sports springs to mind). Personally a conversion that relies on rapidly pulling data of an SD card doesn't seem quite right. YMMV but I'd rather go the SWRAM route than multi-load.

Shop Screen.
This is a candidate for multi load because it only happens at the start of the game. You could also load all 4 cars then save only the chosen one for the main game.

Map screen.
Most of the map is only Black/Green/Yellow but the flashing red and pink building and the Marshmallow man (white) add another 3 colours.

Capture screen/GHB HQ
Most of the "detail" here is the building backgrounds. There isn't much moving on the screen.

Driving screen
The Car in most versions is very large but I think you might be able to get away with some hardware scrolling. It's the storage of the car data that's probably the hardest part - although they do seem to be symmetrical and might compress well.

Most of the screens from the C64 version and the larger sprites appear to be wide pixeled versions (Map,Car etc.) with a few sprites and text seeming to have square pixels so it might be possible to use mode 5 with restricted colours. In any case the screen sizes are smaller than standard beeb modes (I think we're looking at 152x186 - rounds down to 184) which is just under 7 or 14K for the screen (but then that makes hardware scrolling harder and might need to go to the 8K/16K boundary)

As you can tell I've not concluded either way but I am tempted to mock up some stuff to see how it looks.

[Rob_hawk]

As you can tell I've not concluded either way but I am tempted to mock up some stuff to see how it looks.

A big thumbs up for this from me. Would love to see this on the Beeb and I think as comments went on another game post recently more than 50% of people with a Model B had SWRAM installed so that could be the way to go. (Also great to learn from once it’s completed and the disassembly on GitHub )

[Dave_E]

I'll upload the images I mocked up tonight...

[Dave_E]

Pics of the 'action' sequences.

[Dave_E]

Pics of the cars and the little truck and collectable objects/sprites.

[Dave_E]

These are Mode 1 pics based on the Sega Master System version.

[Dave_E]

Here are the images in zip format so you can download them as it seems you can't view them properly via the forum?

[RobC]

Those images look great.

I would be tempted to go with the multi-load if using mode 1 though. I know it doesn't feel 100% authentic but I bet BITD there were more Beebs with disk drives than there were with cassette and SWRAM.

[Rob_hawk]

Crikey that’s looking superb.

[tricky]

Fizgog, your not alone

[ChrisB]

They are nicely done screens - although I'm a little concerned that all 4 colours are used throughout - that's probably most an issue on the "capture" screen where you need to have the ghost distinguishable from the background.

In general there are considerable differences between the various versions with the consoles most different. The driving section particularly on the SMS has lots of background which could be tricky. Looking at the graphics again on the C64 and they way some of the screens are made up I'm wondering if this might be possible on an unexpanded Model B in Mode 5.

[tricky]

Could you get away with just
EORing the ghost, making it sort of transparent?
For way scrolling on the beeb is hard to do nicely at 50fps.
I didn't enjoy the c64 version bitd, so don't remember what is required.

[Cybershark]

Don't we already have a perfectly acceptable Ghostbusters conversion on here? (Master only)

[ChrisB]

I've been doing some more investigation on this. As I noted above each version is different in it's own way so I think I'm justified in taking from any version as inspiration. Having said that I am leaning heavily towards the C64/CPC version rather than the console versions. Some more notes:

• The capture screen backgrounds are made up of 8x8 tiles. This may mean that they can probably be "built" from a relatively small set of building blocks.
• From what I can see most of the tiles/sprites are 4 colours at most and they are not speed dependent so this may help in storage requirements.
• The map screen actually has quite a lot of colours required as the buildings can flash red, or be magenta/white when ghosts are detected - it would be simpler to code in mode 2 and do palette switching for flashing otherwise there is a significant re-plot going on for each flash. There are other options (such as an icon on the building or similar) - some more to think about and some calculations required for space.

.

Having said that attached is a small proof of concept for the driving section to understand how it might feel. This is Mode 5 and hardware scrolling - hence the 4 pixel movement. Mode 2 would halve this. There is no real optimisation here - for example the CRTC registers are all done with VDU 23. Z/X to move left right.

gbcar.ssd

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