ZX SPECTRUM 48
VERSION Goto the Spectrum 128 version

Released in published and developed by Activision.

 

Review
Docs & Cheats
Other Stuff
Downloads

Review

I supposed that GB2 never made it on the Spectrum due to the system's disappearance from the market but this does not seems to be the case as always: Found it got it reviewed it

This unexpected release hide the expected widely ported official GB2 license. The one with the 3 levels: The sewers shaft where you must survive and get the Ecto-scoop to retrieve some Slime sample while pending from a rope.; The Libby ride shoot' em up sequence con sisting of shooting to ghosts while be careful to the slime level and let NYC citizen recover slime from shot ghosts and the final level in the museum where to confront Vigo you will have to act exactly like the movie.

  

Technically speaking the game is impressive , not in the positive meaning of the word. Spectrum , as stated in the GB1 review , has clearly graphics problems. Reduced colors palette and scanlines are among those. The fort clearly show itself by producing weird light blue (magenta) screens ( as the ones shown on the right and above) or , worse, hot red sewer's shaft. ( pic below) Having played in the past in CGA (although I possessed an EGA card) on my old 8086 system I developed an allergy tot the magenta and cyan. I , however, have to notice the nice blue night sky you can see on the left. The second flaw is seen troughtout the game, the scanlines combined with fake-pixel-interpolation ( consisting in adding pixels of different colors to give the illusion of more color and better resolution) simply destroys the GFX. A characteristic of the spectrum I never liked!!

Sound is not great as the Spectrum was not famous for that , therefore the game include standard sound samples to fill weapon use. As for the music is played during the intro screen of each level. To notice a nice little jingle when you loose one life , a variation of the GB Theme of course.

I never liked the ZX Spectrum and never will do, the game has it's original gameplay like other version but the use of the Color palette make this version ( for my eyes at least a real quest to play. Maybe I should try to play with a couple of those Red-blue 3D glasses , in order to filter to colors from the screen...!



ZX SPECTRUM 128 VERSION

Goto the Spectrum 48 version

Released in published and developed by Activision.

 

Since the game is dated this time the 48k and 128K version were out simultaneously. The game ,again, did not evolve. But this time with the WAY enanched music the 128k version features shots from the movies , not included in the 48k game. I dunno why, both the machine can handle them, probably it has been just a marketing choice. Here again I 'd get the 128k instead of the 48k if I'm forced to get one.

For more infos read the ZX Spectrum 48k review.

 

 

 

Docs and Cheats

The AtariST Docs can be applied to the ZX Spectrum version with some adjustment :

SEWER TUNNEL:

Controls:

Direction keys or Joystick Moves the GB
Fire Button (+ direction): Use Selected weapon
Fire Button + Direction: Turn the GB
Space Bar : Choose a alternative weapon


Infos

In the Upper Right of The Screen you can see the Scoop , used to get slime sample once reached the bottom of the tunnel.

Below the Scoop there is the Depth meter. A 120 value means you are on the bottom of the tunnel.

Next to the the Depth Meter there is the Cable status display. Some spooks try to cut the rope you are attached to . we the cable is cut you fall and loose 1 life. This display let you know the damages the rope got from ghosts.

Above the Cable status display. are shown both the active weapon and the ammo for it.

On the bottom right of the screen there's Ray's picture and the Courage meter which act like a Life meter. Everytime you got hit from a ghost you loose some courage. 0 courage means -1 lives.

The Scoop

The scoop has to be composed by getting it's pieces from the border of the tunnel. To get them simply touch them with you feet. The Scoop will be automatically deployed when you reach the bottom of the tunnel and you are near enough the the slime river. You have to wait the it fills completely to complete the level.

The Bonuses

The Proton pack recharge : bring your PPack ammo back to maximum (25)
The Elixir: Increase the Courage level

The Weapons

The Proton Pack : standard weapon Shoot at ghosts to eliminated them. Can be used in all the 8 directions.

The Proton Bombs. Creates a Powerful Horizontal Proton stream which exist for a few seconds below or ... you which eliminate instantly the ghost in its range. Use Fire + Up or Down to activate it.

Ecto Shield : Protects you from everything for a short period of time. Also neutralize whatever got in contact with it. This weapon is not given as default but must be recovered from the borders of the tunnel like other bonuses.

THE LIBBY RIDE:

Controls

Directions Move the Fireball
Joy Fire Button Shoot
Space: order people to advance or coming back

Infos

Libby move itself so you only need to control the fireball.
Slime is the key. You need slime to move Libby. Shooting or being touched by a ghost means a loose of slime.
However eliminated ghosts will drop slimes which can be collect by peoples following you. This let you have a constant quantity of slime in reserve.


On the bottom right the available quantity of Mood Slime is shown. When the jar is empty you loose 1 life.

On the center there are 2 arrows ( <= & =>) . They indicates the directions of the people following you.

Below the arrows there is a long bar with red squares. This indicates the distance from the Museum of Art. When t is full you have completed your journey.

Below the long bar there is a smaller one. This indicate the charge of the fireball. When you shoot the charge decrease ( the bars empties). When you finish one Fireball charge it will be automatically refilled but you total slime amount ( in the jar) will decrease.

On the right of the small bar there is the clock. You should complete the level before the clock reaches midnight (12:00:00)

THE MUSEUM OF ART:

Part 1 : Getting in...

Controls

Down Fall from the rope / open hands
Up Slowdown you fall or stop it / close your hands

Infos

As in the movie you enter the museum using ropes. Controls each GB and have a nice landing.
ATTENTION: Slow down when near the ground . If you fall to quickly your GB may be stunned ( in that case it will be usable after a short period of time) or dead!

Part 2: Save Oscar, the world and have a happy new year.

Controls:

Directional Keys : move the Ghostbusters
Fire: Shoot proton Streams / Positive slime
Space : Change GB
Enter : Access to the weapons screen
.

Infos

Here you have to act exactly as in the movie so take your VCR and enjoy!

In this level you have to move the GB indipentntly so use the Space Bar to choose which one to move.
As you may know Egon & Peter wear Proton Pack whereas Ray & Winston have Slime Blowers , if you wish to change it access the Weapon screen where you decided who wear what , this is useful when one or more GBs dies.
Remember the particularity and the purpose of each weapon.

 

On the Top left a pic of the GB identifies which one you are controlling.

Near the pic there is a green-red bar , this is your life . Life decreased when hit by Jonosz Vigo or GB shots.

Near to it there is a blur bar , this is your weapon energy. Both bars regenerates but be careful Vigo shots are very power ful so 2 consequent shot will kill the GB.

On the Top right there is Vigo pic.

On its right a bar indicates the progress of metamorphosis in Oscar's body
.

On the left there is Vigo's life

On the far left Janosz life. Later Ray-Vigo life will appear.

 

 

[......]

 


Other Stuff


Click on the pic for larger version
The Front Side cover of the Box of the GB2 for ZX Spectrum quite poor in design. Notice the "Spectrum" Label in the lower-left corner
The Back Side , I think is not ZX Spectrum specific in the sense that the box features pics fro, the AtariST &/or Amiga game. Probably the same box art has been used for all version, this was a normal habit back in the days where there lot of systems. The bar code read "Spec" at the top I suppose refers to "Spectrum"

Click on the pic for larger version

 

Download

Get the
Spectrum ZX 48k Ghostbusters 2 game
or
Spectrum ZX 128k Ghostbusters 2 game

plus its emulator to run it on your computer. Win9x emulator. Requires Direct-X 3.0 , should work on WinNT 4.0 + Service Pack 3 .

Instructions and infos on how to launch and use the emulator are here.


For other platform (MacOS, Unix, Dos...) emulator check Zophar Domain.

Note: the game file itself (the .zxs,tap,z80,txz file) is common to all the platforms.