Ghostbusters - different versions :)

[Xyphoe]

Just an interesting find - it appears slightly different versions of Ghostbusters exists

I did a longplay of this the other day using a disk file from CPC-Power site ("Ghostbusters (UK) (1984).dsk"), but turns out this may just be a dump of the full-price cassette version from Activision.

Video in question -




You don't have to watch, but the main thing here is that the ending sequence is missing. Which one YouTuber pointed out who had memories of it having an ending. So off I went to check...

And there's another disk dump of the game on CPC-Power ("Ghostbusters (UK) (1984) [Original].dsk") that when loading up surprised me with a totally different loading screen, and slightly muffled or different music to my ears (could be wrong tho). Later I find lots of big differences (listed below...) but most importantly - the end game sequence!!



Just to throw ANOTHER different version into the mix, the re-release by Mastertronic on their Ricochet budget label I'm fairly sure that too is slightly different with the Ghostbusters logo missing from the music at the start ^_^


Well... some of you may not find it interesting, but being a sad Amstrad nerd I do!  Nice to find different versions existing out there... makes me wonder what other games I've missed out on!

Anyway full difference list for the 'full disk' version in comparison to the tape version -

   
• No text screen on loading with full credits list
  
  Karaoke / intro screen and music -
• Different Ghostbuster 'logo' used - ghost faces the other way, different mouth and face, circle edges jagged.
• Ghostbuster  writing now has pink outline
• Karaoke character is now a down arrow instead of a blob
• Next line of lyrics is not shown
• Music appears to be very slightly different, not as 'full' - slightly muffled.
  
  Selection screen -
• Forklift now makes a noise
  
  In game -
• Ghostbuster icon moves a lot faster!
• No sprite flicker on icon, slimers, floaters, proton pack streamers car, road lines and marshmallow man!
• On driving section car starts from a stop and speeds up, then slows down when reaches destination
• Car drives a LOT faster
• Car has a flashing logo on its roof
• More than 2 buildings to fight ghosts against, quite a few now. Includes car / Ecto1 sprite too.
• Ghost 'trap' is completely different (looks a lot worse) and is faster.
• Once a ghost is captured, the Ghostbuster waiting at the trap for the other to catch up doesn't have a spazz attack!
• Ghosts on the map move a lot faster into Zuul - meaning less time to make money therefore harder game
• Marshmallow Man attack on the game map slightly different - no bad flickering of course, and after destroying him the ghosts zap back into the far corners of the map instead of descending all on mass to Zuul
• Music 'fades out' at the end of it's cycle
  
  And of course....
• New battle against marshmallow man who is a much larger sprite!
• Ending sequence!!!!!

Some additional thoughts....

Why two different versions?
What came first - the tape or the disk?
Why does the 'disk' version I found have so many improvements, but several things WORSE than the other (such as the loading screen and logo? The ghost traps looking crap? Music?)

Constant disk loads are a pain in the ass. This points to it not being a '128k' version - in fact I later loaded it up in a CPC664 profile and it all worked fine, so it's a 64k - but with the disk loads maybe they can clear a bit of memory to use on masking sprites to stop flicker? If they had made a 128k version there wouldn't be any need for all the disk loads, but that's a mute observation now anyway.

So was this the original version designed for the release of the 664 and come out before the tape version?
Or for the 6128 later on so came out after the tape version? So why put in a worse loading screen?
Bizarre.

Note - 664 was released in May/June 1985 and stopped production by August. 6128 came out in August.
Can't find out when each version of the game was released on the Amstrad, done a lot of searching about. Speccy version came out in February, Amstrad Action didn't review it until October but that was it's first ever issue and a massive retrospective look over the year's games. French mags were reviewing at least the tape version in July.
So unless anyone knows otherwise, I can only speculate blindly.

[AMSDOS]

makes me wonder what other games I've missed out on!

Not Ghostbusters related! I read somewhere, possibly in AA though it might have been discussed on the former Forum, that there were copies of Rainbow Islands with an Alternative ending once you completed the game. I think what went with that was some remarks suggesting that version was in limited distribution, perhaps it's the Disc Version of the game?  Of course it might have only been created as a rumor to try and get people to complete the game, which is quite hard going getting through Dragon Island! 

[Axelay]

Why two different versions?
What came first - the tape or the disk?
Why does the 'disk' version I found have so many improvements, but several things WORSE than the other (such as the loading screen and logo? The ghost traps looking crap? Music?)

That early on the 464 would surely have vastly outnumbered the disk systems even if they were out at the time of release for Ghostbusters, so I would not think it that likely they would do the disk version first?  As for the music, the main thing that sounds different to me is the "percussion", which I think sounds better in the disk version personally.  I agree the logo is a mystery! 

Constant disk loads are a pain in the ass. This points to it not being a '128k' version - in fact I later loaded it up in a CPC664 profile and it all worked fine, so it's a 64k - but with the disk loads maybe they can clear a bit of memory to use on masking sprites to stop flicker? If they had made a 128k version there wouldn't be any need for all the disk loads, but that's a mute observation now anyway.

Dad bought us a disk drive for the 464 after about 6 months I think.  We got a couple of Amsoft Gold games with it.  Sorcery+ and Tank Command.  Both access the disk almost constantly.  Like they were designed to show off just how fast the drive was and how it could make for much bigger more ambitious games... (or so the plan went, perhaps)  Sorcery+ was an expanded tape game, so maybe this Ghostbusters disk version was similar in nature to that, as it's from the same period.  The way it even loads between relatively simple text screens feels a bit like a 'retro fit' to me.


As far as stopping flicker goes, generally to do that you either draw to the screen when that part of the screen is not being refreshed, or by using two screens and flipping between them.  I suspect some timing might have been used in the menu screen, for example the disk version forklift is slower (waiting for the "right time") but does not flicker like the tape version.  But using Winape's graphics finder I can see that the disk version has some of it's arcade sequences using 2 screens (&c000 and &4000), where the tape version just uses the one screen (&c000).

[Xyphoe]

Hi Axelay - I figured that with disk loading each time, it could clear some memory and use it somehow to stop the sprite flicker. I don't see how double screens would stop sprites flickering - whats the technical explanation here? I thought double buffering of screens was only used to help scrolling?

[Axelay]

Hi Axelay - I figured that with disk loading each time, it could clear some memory and use it somehow to stop the sprite flicker. I don't see how double screens would stop sprites flickering - whats the technical explanation here? I thought double buffering of screens was only used to help scrolling?

I'll try, but I'm not that technical! 


Flicker occurs when the CPU is 'caught at it', modifying the same screen memory as is currently being refreshed on screen.  So if you use two physical screens and swap between them, you can clear and write to the currently unused screen as much as you like, when ever you like during a screen refresh and it wont disturb the displayed image.  Just wait until a new screen refresh begins, swap the display memory to the screen that has just been written to, and now begin modifying the alternate screen for the next frame.  This applies as much to software sprites as it does with software scrolling, but it would be almost essential if you are software scrolling a significant amount of the screen as it would take multiple screen refreshes to move and repaint the screen for a single frame, so it would become a complete mess to look at if done to the visible screen.

I've thrown together a quick 'visualisation' using the sprite demo I posted at easter, and saved some examples to the attached disk.  It's a single sprite drawn to the visible screen.  The area where the border turns blue is when the cpu begins clearing the sprite, the different blues are the different steps (restore background, find new addresses, save background, mask in sprite) and only when the border turns black again has it finished redisplaying the sprite in it's new position.  Ex1 shows the 50hz sprite when the cpu does the sprite handling before the visible screen area is reached, it looks fine.  Ex2 shows what happens if the sprite drawing is handled during a visible part of the screen.  It completely disappears within that blue section, because at the time of the screen refresh it is not actually there.  Ex3 tries to 'simulate' a game engine by having the sprite not update every frame as if for a 25hz frame rate, and not always at the exact same time because either there are different things going on from one frame to the next, or perhaps the game isnt synced to screen refresh.  The end result is sprite flicker when the sprite is 'occasionally' caught being redrawn.

[MacDeath]

I had this game in a they sold a million cumpilation...

And I guess it was the 64k/tape version...

no logo on the Karaoke, and no better ending sequence which is quite a shame.

Anyway I think despite being awfully produced it managed to be a decent game actually...

[Devilmarkus]

When you run it, you see an arrow instead of a ghost jumping over the karaoke text!
(in the other version you see a ball)
So I fixed the original game 
Here's my fix:

[Cholo]

There might be even more versions out there. When i was dumping the tape version of Ghostbusters i noticed at first that the outer white clamshells was slightly different (i have like 7 copies) and im guessing its due to multiple batches being made (they probably didnt think it would be that popular).
Anyways the real surprice was when i noticed that some tapes was recorded using the normal "block" system and others was recorded with Speedlock (v1 i think). Sadly i dont have a working speedlock version (they both had heavy read errors) so i coundnt compare them sadly. But simply based on the extreme shortness of the speedlock tape i think there is no additional stuff compared to the "block" version.

[remax]

I can swear that i have seen versions with no logo during the karaoké (one with arrow and one with the ball)

[Devilmarkus]

I can swear that i have seen versions with no logo during the karaoké (one with arrow and one with the ball)

The arrow appears, when you directly run the binary. It turns to a ball when you load it from BASIC and manually CALL the start address...
Perhaps because a bad HIMEM check to find the font?

[DPG]

I had ghostbusters on tape, the one you review Xypheo, at the end you just ran into the building under Stay puft, no bit on the roof in my version.