If you have trouble playing any video clips, audio clips, or have any problems with this site, this page should provide you with some information to help you out. There are also some answers to some general frequently asked questions about Ghostbusters listed here too (most of them are located at the bottom of the page).
Q: What are the minimum system requirements for properly viewing this website?
A: 1. A web browser of fairly recently vintage (if it's more than a year old, you should consider upgrading) that is capable of handling JavaScript and Style Sheets. I personally recommend Mozilla's SeaMonkey, which is available for Windows, Macintosh, and Linux. If you don't need the built-in html editor and e-mail/newsgroup client, you can use SeaMonkey's more famous cousin Firefox, also available for the same operating systems. I personally DON'T recommend Internet Explorer, as it's a giant Windows security hole masquerading as a useful program.
2. For the embedded media player you will need to install the Adobe Flash Player plugin for your web browser.
3. If you want to play the multimedia files offline (either mine or ones I've linked to from other sites), it would be very wise to have a player capable of playing all of the major formats. I don't know of any one player to suggest that is available on all operating systems. Windows users can download something from my Windows Software page that should be of use.
Q: How can I bookmark this website?
A: Follow these easy instructions to add Spook Central to your browser's Bookmarks/Favorites list.
* Internet Explorer 5+: Simply click here and follow the prompts.
* Netscape 6+/SeaMonkey & Firefox 1+: Click, hold and drag this link onto the Bookmarks button of your browser and release. You can even drag it into your Bookmarks folders, if you have them organized that way.
Q: How can I have this website as my browser's home/start page?
A: Follow these easy instructions to make Spook Central your default homepage.
* Internet Explorer 5+: Simply click here and then hit "YES" when the confirmation box pops up.
* Netscape 6+/SeaMonkey & Firefox 1+: Click, hold and drag this link onto the Home button of your browser and release.
Q: What url/address should I use when linking to this site?
A: Use http://spookcentral.cjb.net to link to the main page. At the bottom of every page on this site is a url that you can use to link to that specific page. Both of these urls are forwarding, so if I ever have to move the site again, your links won't be broken. Although you can use the direct url (the one that should be listed in your browser's address bar), I would appreciate it if you wouldn't (to prevent broken links should I ever need to move this site again). Also, you may only link to my webpages (.htm files). You are expressly forbidden from linking to any of my other files (images, audio, etc.), except for the banners and buttons in the codes below. There's an issue of linking rights involved if you don't respect my wishes. (By the way, I gave up on the .tk address that I used to use because it doesn't forward, they put a splash page before allowing visitors to access my site, and I've been told that Time Warner's "Roadrunner" ISP blocks access to all .tk sites.)
Q: Do you have any banners or buttons that I can use on my website to link to yours?
A: Yes I do. Take your pick from any of the banners and buttons below. You can place these images on your website ONLY if you use them to link to Spook Central, do not alter them in any way, and do not use them to depict Spook Central or its author Paul Rudoff in a negative way. You can use as many of them as you like. Just copy and paste the code below the banner or button to your webpage for the one that you would like to use.
created by Bill Emkow
created by Andrew Ellis
created by Dan Shannon
created by "El Zorro"
Q: Can I use some of your pictures, audio, etc. on my site?
A: You may take ten pictures of your choice (excluding personal photos and pictures expressly given to me by others for this site only), upload them to your site, and use them in any way you wish. Edit them, create a collage, use them in a layout: I don't care. However, only if you put a link saying where you found them (i.e. This picture is from Spook Central and is used with permission) can you do this.
In regards to the pictures that you take, I do kindly ask that you don't take all or most of the pictures from one particular section. Take a couple and say that more can be found on Spook Central. By the way, notice that I only mentioned pictures. Audio, video, text, and other files are for this site only. Thanks for respecting my wishes. (I don't e-mail pics, so if you can't figure out a way to download the ones on this site, then I can't help you.)
Q: How do I download the multimedia files that are played with the embeddable media player?
A: For single items, there's a little "down arrow" button on the player's control bar. For multiple items, there are little icons to the right of each item on the playlist. Click on these buttons/icons to download that file. If the audio or video file plays in a different media player (local or another plugin) instead of allowing you to download it, then see the next question.
Q: When I click on the download button in the embedded media player, my browser will play the file using another plugin I have installed - or will download the file and hand it off to a media player that's on my computer. How can I get my browser to let me download it?
A: SeaMonkey: From within the browser, go to Edit > Preferences > Navigator > Helper Applications. In the file types list, look for the following two items which are for the audio and video files respectively: audio/mpeg (extension: mp3) and video/x-flv (extension: flv). Select one, click Edit on the right, and in the little window that pops up, check "Save it to Disk" and click OK. Click OK again in the Preferences window to close it. (Firefox should have options similar to this.)
Internet Explorer: Since IE is tied to Windows, the preference to change is not located in the browser, but rather in Windows itself. On the Start Menu, go to Settings > Control Panel > Folder Options > File Types. On the list of registered file types, highlight MP3 (for audio files) or FLV (for video files), click on the Advanced button, add a check mark to the "Confirm open after download" box and click OK. Click OK again in the Folder Options window to close it.
After making these changes, when you click on one of the embedded media player's download links, your browser should present you with a box giving you the option to save the file.
Q: What is this special program I need to download some of the files?
A: There are some files on the internet that are not meant to be downloaded. They are placed on special servers and are intended for you to view them streaming via special protocols (MMS and RTSP) that only the major media players are designed to handle. Of course, there are programs that let you download files via these streaming protocols, so that you can save them to your hard drive and view them any time you wish (even after they've long since been taken off the internet). Windows users can download one of these programs from my Windows Software page (I don't know of any Macintosh or Linux programs that are capable of doing the same thing). The program is very easy to use. Just drag and drop the Download links from this site into the program and you're good to go.
Q: How do I download files from RapidShare?
A: After clicking on the RapidShare link, go to the bottom of the page, click "FREE," wait for your "ticket" to count down [this usually takes a minute], then click the download link. It might not work in some browsers - use SeaMonkey, Firefox, or IE if you have problems. As long as someone downloads a file from RapidShare every 30 days, it won't get deleted.
Q: I have a web site. Could you put a link to my site on yours?
A: It depends. All sites that I've linked to on this site are considered by me to be good, original web sites, with original material. They are sites that interest me. If you have a site that you think might be appropriate for one of the areas of this site (Ghostbusters or non-Ghostbusters), you can tell me about it, but there's no guarantee that I'll link to it. I reserve the right to deny a link to any site at my discretion. If you want to put a link to my site on your site, feel free, but you are under no obligation to do so. Just because you put a link to my site on yours, does not mean that you are entitled to have a link to your site on mine.
Q: Do you have ___ [name of request here] ___?
A: Everything I have is available on this site. If you can't find what you're looking for here, use Google to search the web.
Q: Could you send me some files?
A: No. Everything that I want to provide to the public can be found on this site. You either download it here or you don't get it at all.
Q: I'm designing my own web page. Can you help me out with some of the code?
A: I'm sorry, but again I am busy enough working on my own page to be helping other people build theirs.
Q: Do you have Columbia Pictures' address? I want to tell them how I feel about Ghostbusters?
A: E-Mail: feedback@sonypictures.com Home Video Mailing Address: Columbia/Tristar Home Video 10202 W. Washington Blvd. Culver City, CA 90232-3195
Q: Where did you get all those Deleted Scene pics and sounds?
A: They come from a variety of sources, which includes: the GB1 DVD, Criterion's GB1 laserdisc, the GB1 picture storybook, the GB2 picture storybook, the GB1 calendar, the GB1 novel, the GB2 novel, and some GB2 television spots and trailers. Most of these sources can be bought in the store.
Q: Where can I find blueprints so I can make my own GB props?
A: I have no knowledge whatsoever about making props or costumes. So, please do not ask me any questions about this. However, you can check out some of the sites on my Miscellaneous Outside Links page for prop making information.
Q: Where can I buy ____ [name of merchandise] ___?
A: Check out Spook Central's Ghostbusters Store.
Q: How can I do screen shots like you did?
A: For all of my videotape shots, I simply connected my VCR to my Snappy video capture device, and proceeded from there. The company that made Snappy is out of business, but you should be able to find a Snappy (version 4 seems to be the last one made) if you search Google or eBay. They are now very cheap: my original v2 cost over $100 when I bought it while it was new, the v4 I recently bought cost $15 (factory sealed). Snappy works like a dream when dealing with moving images. The quality is phenomenal.
My DVD shots were all done directly, digitally from the DVD, for the best quality possible. WinDVD 2000 ver. 2.1 (aka WinDVD 2000) or higher, has a built-in screen capture option, but it doesn't work unless you first use DVD Genie to turn off the "Display Quality Disabled" option. In WinDVD, go into Properties, click on the Display tab, and uncheck "Hardware Motion Compensation." Now whenever you play a DVD in WinDVD, all you need to do is pause the video (so you get a good, clean image) and press the letter "P" on your keyboard. This will create a bitmap (.bmp) file in your WinDVD directory, in a subdirectory called "capture". Ver. 2.0 of WinDVD has a bug which puts the bitmap in your main WinDVD directory, and overwrites it everytime you do a new capture. FYI: The WinDVD keyboard shortcut for "Step" (Frame Advance) is CTRL+RIGHT-ARROW. This is very useful to know so that you can do a screen capture of the exact frame you want.
If you own v2.0, you can download the update patch here. Otherwise you can buy the latest version of WinDVD, which has many more features than v2, from the official site.
If you really like your computer's DVD player, and don't want to (or possibly can't) use a different one, then there's one other solution. Get yourself a copy of HyperSnapDX. This is an incredible screen capture program, which can do screen caps from SOME computer DVD players and Direct-X games.
When you do your screen caps, they will be in the DVD base size of 720x480. This is the size of the image as it resides on the DVD. I know that it looks distorted. Your DVD player takes this image and stretches it to the correctly displayed aspect ratio.
What you should do with the caps, to get them in the right aspect ratio, is resize them using Paint Shop Pro. Resize them BEFORE you crop out the black bars (if you so desire). The reason I say to do this, is so you only have to remember one way to do it for *ALL* DVD captures. Ok, when you see the resize options in PSP, you'll note a box near the bottom that says "maintain aspect ratio." UNCHECK this box. Now for the image size, set it to 640 width and 480 height. You could resize it bigger, to 800 width and 600 height, but I find that images lose quality when you resize them bigger. Then crop out the back bars. If you want to resize it further, go back into Resize, but this time keep the "maintain aspect ratio" box CHECKED (otherwise your image will be distorted).
In PSP, when resizing DVD screen captures, these are the rules: If the DVD has been "enhanced" for widescreen TVs (Anamorphic Widescreen), you must resize the image to an aspect ratio of "1.8" to 1. If the DVD has not been "enhanced," resize the image to an aspect ratio of "1.333" to 1. (Some DVDs have films that have been "enchanced" but the menus are regular size, while other DVDs have "enhanced" films AND "enhanced" widescreen menus.) When resizing a bunch of images from the same DVD, it would be best to just uncheck the "maintain aspect ratio" box and just resize them based upon the exact dimension of one of the images (such as 640x480, 800x600, etc.).
How to tell if a DVD has been "enhanced" for widescreen TVs, in WinDVD: If WinDVD's regular sized window is square-ish, then it has NOT been "enhanced." If the window is wide and takes up practically the whole width of your screen, then it HAS been "enhanced."
Q: Where can I find the script to Arcade, Men In Black, and The Wizard Of Oz?
A: In addition to all of the Ghostbusters-related movie and tv scripts you currently see on this site, I transcribed the scripts for those three movies. I gave copies of them to one site and one site only - and that site is no longer online. However, other people have taken the three scripts and placed them all over the internet. The good ones kept my transcribers intact. The bad ones removed it. You should have no trouble finding any of the scripts using the Google search engine.
Q: Why weren't all of the deleted scenes from Ghostbusters on the DVD, especially the ones from the laserdisc?
A: Since I had no part in the making of the DVD (I wish I did), I can only speculate on the subject. After seeing the deleted scenes and the before & after special effects footage on the DVD, I believe that the DVD crew had an entire workprint (or rough cut, pre-effects) of the film at their disposal. There is undoubtly a lot more deleted footage in that workprint than the 10 scenes they showed us. Perhaps they decided to just include 10 scenes, 10 being a nice even number, and opted for what they believed to be the 10 best deleted scenes in the workprint. The laserdisc contains 2 deleted scenes, one of which is on the DVD (it's part of the City Hall loading dock scene). The other is a scene of the three guys walking down the stairs to their university lab discussing their prospects of winning the Nobel Prize. This was probably in the aforementioned workprint, but the DVD crew probably didn't think that it was as good as the other 10 scenes.
Q: Do you know why the Ghostbusters music video was not included on the Ghostbusters DVD?
A: From what I hear, the DVD crew couldn't get the rights to it.
Q: Do you know when Ghostbusters 3 is coming out? Do you have any more information on Ghostbusters 3?
A: All I know about Ghostbusters 3 is listed in Spook Central's Ghostbusters 3 section.
Q: Do you have the background music from The Real Ghostbusters? Not the Tahiti songs, but the score music that was used?
A: Unfortunately, no. It was never released to the public and is probably sitting in a music vault somewhere. Most of it was reused (I believe) in other DIC productions, so it's probably in their stock library, if not that of composers Haim Saban and Shuki Levy.
Ghostbusters copyright © 1984 Columbia Pictures Industries Inc. All rights reserved.