Lights, Camera, Action... Play Continuing the retro theme, and with CPC games and films being two of his favourite subjects, Neil Reive looks at the film licences that have graced the CPC.
n Ghostbusters, one of the first film
licences to appear on the CPC. If the past has taught us anything it’s not to trust hyped up computer games, especially film licences. Virtually every big hit film has been given the home computer treatment from the old console generations, through to home computers and beyond with varying results. With a hit film behind the licence, games publishers thought that the free movie publicity
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would guarantee a good return for their games and they did for a while. One of the major turning points in film licences was the E.T. debacle: the game was rushed and played so bad that it was reported that the majority of the cartridges were returned. The E.T. incident has been attributed as a main factor of the video game crash of 1983 in America. The industry quickly learnt that a rushed and decidedly dodgy game did not guarantee a good sale, no matter what amount of hype and advertisement it gets. In some ways film licences had improved, but there was always the dreadful ones, either by poor design or something that just didn't work out the way it was intended. One of the earliest film licences to appear on the Amstrad CPC was Ghostbusters back in 1985. Designed and programmed by David Crane and published by Activision. The game’s plot is loosely based on events from the film. As one of the Ghostbusters, you have to rid the city of all ghosts and keep the psychokinetic levels as low as possible.
You begin with a set amount of money and have to set up the business. With transport, traps, bait, proton packs all to buy, it’s then onto the main map of New York where the most of the gameplay takes place. The map details the buildings in the surrounding area and the Spook Central apartments where Zuul is. If one of the buildings begin to flash then that’s your cue to go and do some ghostbusting and earn money. Once you reach the haunted building it’s time to start laying the trap and guiding the ghost into it with your proton pack lasers. Catch the ghost and you get paid, if it gets away then you lose a life. The graphics aren't too bad and the film’s theme tune plays throughout the game, but the problem lay with the gameplay. The scrolling of the car and the lastability were the factors that critics cited when criticising the game. Although the game received a mixed response from the gaming press (AA gave the game 52% back in issue one's Amsyclopdeia), it went on to become one of the best sellers of