Nightbreed is a relatively obscure movie license from Ocean Software, based on the Clive Barker film of the same name (which was based on his 1988 book, Cabal). It was designed and programmed by Chris Kerry and Mark Rogers.
Chris Kerry you might remember from Jack and the Beanstalk and Monty Is Innocent infamy; Mark Rogers had programmed a number of games by this point, including Avenger and Run the Gauntlet.
Rambo: First Blood Part II, by Ocean Software, is a legendary Commodore 64 game without much substance. People revere the music (by Martin Galway), and also like the simple 360 shooter gameplay, but the truth is: this is an example of an early video game without much to do, and what there is is rather simplistic.
Licensed from an Orion Pictures film of the same name, Navy SEALS is a surprisingly decent release from Ocean.
No one remembers the film at all, although quite a few remember this 1990 game, and generally think quite highly of it.
The Untouchables is a classic movie-licensed action game developed and published by Ocean Software in 1989. It mixes a number of different gameplay styles.
The classic comedy horror film, Ghostbusters, was made into a video game by David Crane and published by Activision in 1984. The Commodore 64 version being the first – and arguably the best – version of this simple yet involving game. Many different conversions of Ghostbusters followed, and we’ve covered all of them on this website.
Here’s a list of all the different versions of Ghostbusters on thekingofgrabs.com. Listed in chronological order of release…
Ghostbusters, Apple II (1984)
Ghostbusters, Atari 8-bit (1984)
Ghostbusters, Commodore 64 (1984)
Ghostbusters, ZX Spectrum (1984)
Ghostbusters, Amstrad CPC (1985)
Ghostbusters, Atari 2600 (1985)
Ghostbusters, MSX (1985)
Ghostbusters, NES/Famicom (1986)
Ghostbusters, PC (1986)
Ghostbusters, Sega Master System (1987)
Enjoy,
The King of Grabs
More: Ghostbusters on Wikipedia
The 1987 Sega Master System conversion of David Crane‘s classic Ghostbusters is… Okay. It’s actually got a few enhancements over other versions that make it a bit more of a challenge, although it does have its down sides.
The Nintendo Entertainment System version of David Crane‘s Ghostbusters is known for being a bit of a mess, compared to all the other versions.
It was initially released in Japan in 1986 and later in North America in 1988. Why the two year delay? Probably something to do with the fact that the game is terrible…
This 1986 PC Booter version of Ghostbusters won’t run in MS-DOS, but it is easy enough to get working in DOSBox, by simply adding a “BOOT” line to the config file.
To get the game running in colour (ie. not horrible CGA) I had to use the “pcjr” graphics option and set CPU cycles to 240. Otherwise the game would run too fast.
The Amstrad CPC version of Ghostbusters was only ever released in Europe. Alongside the MSX version it was one of only two Ghostbusters conversions that were never released in North America.
The MSX version of Activision‘s Ghostbusters is the same as all the others… Simple; archaic; and a very early example of a movie-licensed video game.
There’s no digitised speech in this version, although the rendition of Ray Parker Jr.‘s hit single isn’t bad.
The King of Grabs 