For news, reviews, videos and general topics about Ghostbusters: The Video Game, and the newer apps on Android and iOS.
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By mrmichaelt
#4871494
Great, informative, intriguing article. Definitely a lot of new BTS stuff and the new concept art was interesting.

Pretty funny there was a zombie Spongebob float at one point, since Spongebob came up again in a different way in the recent Deviations one-shot comic.
By DocLathropBrown
#4871495
Murray is honestly somebody whose work I regret enjoying. Funny though he may be, the guy's a dick. The fact that he basically just quit and decided not to record half his lines for the game--meaning, mind you, that he only did half the work he was paid for--is inexcusable.

For stalling (and single-handedly killing) GB3, for shunning Harold Ramis, and for hardly giving a shit about the video game... I cast a giant "f*** you" to Bill.
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By skankerzero
#4871496
Yup, for instance, remember that Winston was at the opera in the beginning of the game while you were being trained by Peter? That was in case Bill Murray didn't record his lines, then we would just drop in Winston to train you and put Peter in the opera.

Same thing happened on the Lost Island when Egon went missing for a bit. We could have easily dropped Peter in his place.
By DocLathropBrown
#4871498
skankerzero wrote:Yup, for instance, remember that Winston was at the opera in the beginning of the game while you were being trained by Peter? That was in case Bill Murray didn't record his lines, then we would just drop in Winston to train you and put Peter in the opera.

Same thing happened on the Lost Island when Egon went missing for a bit. We could have easily dropped Peter in his place.
To be honest, I understand that Murray is one of the franchise's strongest assets because of how much he's liked. To be even more honest, I have never valued the comedic aspects of the franchise as highly as others do. So imagine my disdain for Murray considering that he has become so integral to the success of the franchise (the article here states that without Murray, the game was considered practically worthless), and that integration with him had allowed the franchise to languish for so many years.

I said it before in the reboot forum, but: Murray is the reason the reboot happened, by refusing to play ball while the studio still wanted to make a sequel. Murray forced the necessity for a reboot simply to shake off his power of veto. Now the franchise is free because of the reboot and that's only good things, to me. Even if the reboot isn't a big success, at least the GB franchise can move forward without Murray there to block its progress (presumably).

I love Ray, Egon and Winston just as much (if not more) than Peter. I would have been just as happy with the game (and a theorized film/game sequel) without Venkman. Murray is more trouble than he's worth, to me. I wish Belushi had lived to star in the film. I'm sure he wouldn't have been such a dick about it.
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By mrmichaelt
#4871523
The article gives us Vivendi's perspective, fills in the timeline of development, and really cleared a lot of things up like:
*Melchior refutes what TR's Drew Haworth blogged and says Weaver was never contacted to reprise Dana but at one point there was internal discussion early on about addressing Peter and Dana's relationship.
*David Margulies was set to reprise Mayor Lenny but his contract got terminated to they could hire Brian Doyle-Murray and use him to convince Bill Murray to come on board.

Also, dang! $80 grand to use Ray Parker Jr.'s song.

A lot of those concept ideas were interesting though the one about the gods sounded too much like "I Am The City"
skankerzero wrote:Brings back some good memories.
I know there's under 70 (a small # we've seen before) of them and I don't mean everyone now, but can you shed some light on the stills in this concept gallery that went with the article? Some look pretty straight-forward concepts of levels, there's a few of a level I don't know of. Same with some of the ghosts.

http://www.playboy.com/galleries/ghostb ... ry/slide-1
By TheDreamMaster
#4871582
As much as I love Marguiles as the Mayor, I liked BDM's Mayor quite a bit. I like to imagine just too much stuff happened during Mayor Lenny's terms, and the people voted for someone new. Then eventually everyone had to realize it wasn't the Mayor's fault these things kept happening.

This was a great article, and its crazy all that happened to get this made. It'll forever be one game I can go back to any time, and have just as much fun as the last.
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By GBPaulRivera
#4871825
mrmichaelt wrote:Great, informative, intriguing article. Definitely a lot of new BTS stuff and the new concept art was interesting.

Pretty funny there was a zombie Spongebob float at one point, since Spongebob came up again in a different way in the recent Deviations one-shot comic.
I honestly loved what they did to get Bill in it.
“[Brian] liked it. He’s in,” Melchior continued. “Brian gets up, and before he leaves, turns around and said, ‘You did this so I would tell my brother that it’s a good game, didn’t you?’ And I said yes. He said, ‘It’s a good game and I’ll tell him.’”

Two days later he's in, that's great manuevers there and the fact Brian KNEW that makes it that more hilarious. XD
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By Sp9543
#4872179
Cool article. I really loved this game and appreciate all the work that went into it. It boggles my mind how GB was looked at as a dead property by many executives. Were that that oblivious? More likely they knew what a hassle it would be to produce a GB related product considering ownership rights.

On a side note, between this article and the one written by his daughter, Harold Ramis seems like the coolest dude.

EGON but not Forgotten.
By JonXCTrack
#4872353
The article confirms what I have always believed: That the Vivendi merger and Activision not wanting to put out GB:TVG hurt the quality of the game. Don't get me wrong, the game was fantastic, but it could have been better if Activision had given the game the attention it deserved.

While I liked the idea about the Mandala, it always bothered me that we never got a real explanation as to why Gozer could reform without the use of the Temple on top of 55 Central Park West. I would have liked to have played the cut parade level, too.

Also, the idea of Gozer and Tiamat fighting in NYC is a great concept. I had read something a while back that Gozer actually approached the Ghostbusters for help, and after Tiamat is defeated, Gozer renegs on the deal. Not sure if that was ever really a thing, but I like the idea. And it just occurred to me that another direction that this game could have gone in would be to choose whether to help Gozer or Tiamat at the outset, which would dictate your in-game experience. Then you could replay the game a second time, and side with whomever you did not side with the first time and get a new experience and new ending.

It's a shame that a sequel to GB:TVG never got made. You could easily do it without Murray or Ramis (RIP). Just have Aykroyd and Hudson reprising their roles as the mentors of a new squad in another location such as Chicago or Los Angeles.
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By Peter Venkman Jr.
#4872358
I never would have guessed all of the hoops that people had to jump through to get the video game made, until now.
Still feel very sad that Terminal Reality closed, I thought that did a great job with the realistic version of the game and I was very impressed with the Infernal engine. Like Dan Akyroyd, I have considered the video game Ghostbusters III since the beginning. The icing on the cake for me is getting to work along side the Ghostbusters, like I imagined myself doing loads of times as child.

I just played the game the game again recently, and I found myself having just as much fun as I did the first time I played it.
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By troy_225
#4872442
This game is great! I'm just as stoaked now as I was 7 years ago about this game. Wish sanctum of slime and the new gb game were as good as this game.
By gold333
#4872448
It is an absolute miracle that in 2009 a Ghostbusters game was released featuring the original cast and set as GB3 in 1991.

The fact it was such a fan service (thanks to people who worked on it like Skankerzero) is beyond miraculous. In the modern business world projects of passion like that just don't happen so many years after the fact. As fans we were very lucky.
By Dr. Spengs
#4872505
Great article, I love continuing to learn more about the development of GB:TVG to this day. And I just wanted to add to the sentiment that it is a miracle this game was even made, not to mention it came out as good as it did. A movie tie-in game, 25 YEARS after the original film, with the same cast, written as a direct sequel, and obviously full of love and respect to the franchise...just phenomenal. Skanker, it's always a pleasure to read about your experiences working on the game, and thank you for all the hard work and devotion to making a great game based on a film that has clearly had an impact on all of our lives. You helped make a game that actually allows us to BE a Ghostbuster and interact with the original team, in a story that (as far as I'm concerned) is canon. You rock.
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By TimTheTerrorDog
#4872588
I wish they'd make it backwards compatible for Xbox One. They made Sanctum of Slime backwards compatible, but this one was obviously way better.

I love this game so much. I think it's amazing. It's the Ghostbusters game I always wanted and arguably, it's the GB3 I always wanted. Between this article and past articles, it really is a miracle it was ever finished and released. It's a miracle they got Murray to record any lines!

I wish they had more time and funding after the merger. I wish the parade level was finished. I wish Murray recorded the rest of his lines. I wish the theme song they had for it was included in the proposed montage. I wish a lot of things, but at the end of the day it really is an awesome game and such a love letter to ghostheads.
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By Kingpin
#4872655
It would've been nice to see Margulies reprise Lenny (though by 1991, I imagine he'd be well into his first year as Governor), Doyle did pretty well as Mulligan, and I'm glad he did his part in bringing Murray into the game.

I actually developed a bit of respect back in the day for Murray getting involved with the game... that sentiment has been blown out of the water at learning how much of a jerk he was during production - and kinda casts a more forgivable light on Sony actually considering suing him to get his involvement with the reboot.

That respect was much more deserving to all of the folks who went to bat for the game, not to mention Dan, Harold and Ernie for recording extra dialogue pro bono, and for their efforts I'm eternally thankful as the end result is something so very special.
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By mrmichaelt
#4872724
Kingpin wrote:It would've been nice to see Margulies reprise Lenny (though by 1991, I imagine he'd be well into his first year as Governor), Doyle did pretty well as Mulligan, and I'm glad he did his part in bringing Murray into the game.
I thought about that, too. Maybe they were thinking Lenny decided not to run after all and I think at that time in the 90s there wasn't a cap how many times you could be the NYC mayor?

Would have been nice for him to be the Governor in the IDW comics but who knows, he could be a Senator by then.
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By TimTheTerrorDog
#4872797
Forgive me if this has been mentioned before, but if you haven't already, please go vote for Ghostbusters: The Video Game to be made backwards compatible on Xbox One.

I doubt it will help at this point, but you never know. How Sanctum of Slime was made backwards compatible before this is beyond me. Someone made a comment on there that Atari support responded to them and said that they don't control the game anymore..

https://xbox.uservoice.com/forums/29850 ... ostbusters
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By Wafflerobot
#4872902
Great article, interesting to hear what went on during the production of the game. Reading through it made me play through it on Steam again. Part of me wishes that they had kept David Margulies as the mayor but then it sounds as if we wouldn't have had Bill Murray in the game if they hadn't replaced him with Bills brother.

Also, off the back of this article, some of the producers and directors that worked on the game did an AMA on reddit late last week:

https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/ ... sters_the/

Some interesting information in there too. This caught my eye about the Wii/PS2 version of the game:
Melchior on the Wii/PS2/PSP versions: "Everybody at that time in the industry had a 360 and Wii at that time for some reason. Those were the winners. I was thinking for a collector of Ghostbusters, if I made this one look more like the Real Ghostbusters, or a kid-focused version, would they buy both? I presented that to marketing and I got kicked out of the room. They thought it was the worst idea.
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By mrmichaelt
#4872996
That AMA was freakin' awesome. Even more new info. I wish I knew they were doing an AMA...

That Trap idea sounded rad.

Glad they confirmed the TVG script was original and had nothing to do with GB3 drafts.
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By JA Slow
#4878189
I've never understood Bill Murray's behavior. He's not a savant but he pretends to be one strictly to amuse himself and mystify others. To the business, he's a headache that is tolerated because he brings in the money. Why does he have to be so difficult? Just because he can I suppose and I find people like that very aggravating. I wonder if he's ever thought where he'd be in his career if Ghostbusters didn't happen. He did so much for the franchise but after 1989, he was one of its biggest enemies. Years of trolling any and all progress and then he does a 180 and jumps on the reboot band wagon. Aykroyd did an interview where he said GB2 doesn't deserve most of the flak Murray gives it; I agree. Many Murray Worshippers probably join him in doing that just because of the cool factor he's cultivated by being weird.
Last edited by Kingpin on August 23rd, 2016, 1:16 am, edited 1 time in total.Reason: Removed Robin Williams remark
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By GBPaulRivera
#4878198
JA Slow wrote:I've never understood Bill Murray's behavior. He's not a savant but he pretends to be one strictly to amuse himself and mystify others. To the business, he's a headache that is tolerated because he brings in the money. Why does he have to be so difficult? Just because he can I suppose and I find people like that very aggravating. I wonder if he's ever thought where he'd be in his career if Ghostbusters didn't happen. He did so much for the franchise but after 1989, he was one of its biggest enemies. Years of trolling any and all progress and then he does a 180 and jumps on the reboot band wagon. Aykroyd did an interview where he said GB2 doesn't deserve most of the flak Murray gives it; I agree. Many Murray Worshippers probably join him in doing that just because of the cool factor he's cultivated by being weird. Fingers crossed he isn't found dead in a hotel room hanging from the ceiling because all along he was secretly miserable a la Robin Williams.
I think you have to look at it like this ... maybe he could of been going into the original film thinking "here I am making a big movie with my old friends and make some new friends as well where we're just having fun and giving people a reason to laugh in the theater." Bill felt the magic this film made and believed it to be a once-in-a-lifetime scenario where they had an original, funny, cool, and modern idea about people catching ghosts. When he made Ghostbusters, Bill Murray knew it was going to be successful, but he didn't want to see it get turned into a cash-cow tool by Columbia which ... *looks at everyone here* ... I think they successfully did that. Bill's views of Ghostbusters isn't that he hates it as he's met fans who he doesn't hate for being fans of his work because why would he? But he KNOWS that Ghostbusters is no longer the original film that it was intended to be with no sequels, toys, games, and other merchandising. Ghostbusters 2 proved his view that making the original 1984 film again with the same magic going into it and big reaction out of it wasn't possible, and he only did the sequel because it was a chance to work with the people who are his friends.

Also, its possible that he did a 180 on the reboot for a number of reasons with the email that was leaked about being sued or something else since he never got sued. Look, at the end of the day he has to make money like anybody else and he probably just did it for that too. We won't know 100% why until some time later, but leave it be dude because in the end NO ONE IS ENTITLED TO MAKE OR DO WHAT YOU WANT. I'm not saying this is your view, but what you stated about Bill being a troll and enemy to the fandom for refusing to do as much as Dan and Ivan did for it isn't up to you. I mean why should it matter to you? You do enough to the fandom keeping it alive, sharing in this discussion, buying the merchandise, and so on. The actors and writers and directors don't have to do a lot since ALL FRANCHISES work out as a success thanks to the fans efforts.

Also ... what the f*** dude? "Fingers crossed he isn't found dead in a hotel room hanging from the ceiling because all along he was secretly miserable a la Robin Williams." I don't know if that's a joke or not, but that's horrible to suggest that. I mean, come on dude, Robin suffered from clinical depression that only got worse and worse and that is just a pointless comment to make with such an ugly taste to it.
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By Fritz
#4878202
Also, its possible that he did a 180 on the reboot for a number of reasons with the email that was leaked about being sued or something else since he never got sued.
My own personal hunch is that Murray felt a lot less pressure when it came to a reboot. Any continuation (ie a "real" GB3) he would have either felt pressured to contribute because of his importance to the first two movies, or everybody would complain about him not being in it. (And I don't think he's wrong about that--look how many people bitched and moaned that Rick Moranis and his far more minor character weren't in the video game) With a reboot, it's not about him--he could have not shown up and it wouldn't have mattered much either way. Ironically, without that pressure...he did show up.
By Scuba Steve
#4878215
Damn, I had forgotten about the Zootfly demo. Skankerz... I can't begin to imagine the "WTF!?!" and panic at that moment in development. From the outside, none of us had any idea an actual licensed Ghostbusters game was being developed and the C&D letter just seemed like SONY squandering an IP that looked like it would make a great game.
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By RichardLess
#4878233
Wow that was really interesting. Man I wonder why Murray is so difficult on the GB franchise. He goes and makes terrible movies like Rock the Kasbah but will barely give these guys the time of day. You'd think his loyalty and friendship with Danny would mean something. The reason we don't have a GB3 is because of him. Everyone has said they had some really good scripts(I can't wait for them to leak out someday). I really thought I'd see a GB3 in my life time. I remember doing a show and tell presentation in grade 3 or 4 that a new Ghostbusters movie was apparently in the works. I had seen a report on the news that it was in development. That was in 1997-98. Almost 20 years ago. I've consumed every tiny morsel of GB3 news in the years since then, all the false starts and close calls. Man. I wonder how close we got. Such a shame, I'd kill to see those remaining guys suit up one last time. If only..

Still very cool article. Interesting read. That was a great game. Very underrated.
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By JA Slow
#4878322
GBPaulRivera wrote:
JA Slow wrote:I've never understood Bill Murray's behavior. He's not a savant but he pretends to be one strictly to amuse himself and mystify others. To the business, he's a headache that is tolerated because he brings in the money. Why does he have to be so difficult? Just because he can I suppose and I find people like that very aggravating. I wonder if he's ever thought where he'd be in his career if Ghostbusters didn't happen. He did so much for the franchise but after 1989, he was one of its biggest enemies. Years of trolling any and all progress and then he does a 180 and jumps on the reboot band wagon. Aykroyd did an interview where he said GB2 doesn't deserve most of the flak Murray gives it; I agree. Many Murray Worshippers probably join him in doing that just because of the cool factor he's cultivated by being weird. Fingers crossed he isn't found dead in a hotel room hanging from the ceiling because all along he was secretly miserable a la Robin Williams.
I think you have to look at it like this ... maybe he could of been going into the original film thinking "here I am making a big movie with my old friends and make some new friends as well where we're just having fun and giving people a reason to laugh in the theater." Bill felt the magic this film made and believed it to be a once-in-a-lifetime scenario where they had an original, funny, cool, and modern idea about people catching ghosts. When he made Ghostbusters, Bill Murray knew it was going to be successful, but he didn't want to see it get turned into a cash-cow tool by Columbia which ... *looks at everyone here* ... I think they successfully did that. Bill's views of Ghostbusters isn't that he hates it as he's met fans who he doesn't hate for being fans of his work because why would he? But he KNOWS that Ghostbusters is no longer the original film that it was intended to be with no sequels, toys, games, and other merchandising. Ghostbusters 2 proved his view that making the original 1984 film again with the same magic going into it and big reaction out of it wasn't possible, and he only did the sequel because it was a chance to work with the people who are his friends.

Also, its possible that he did a 180 on the reboot for a number of reasons with the email that was leaked about being sued or something else since he never got sued. Look, at the end of the day he has to make money like anybody else and he probably just did it for that too. We won't know 100% why until some time later, but leave it be dude because in the end NO ONE IS ENTITLED TO MAKE OR DO WHAT YOU WANT. I'm not saying this is your view, but what you stated about Bill being a troll and enemy to the fandom for refusing to do as much as Dan and Ivan did for it isn't up to you. I mean why should it matter to you? You do enough to the fandom keeping it alive, sharing in this discussion, buying the merchandise, and so on. The actors and writers and directors don't have to do a lot since ALL FRANCHISES work out as a success thanks to the fans efforts.

Also ... what the f*** dude? "Fingers crossed he isn't found dead in a hotel room hanging from the ceiling because all along he was secretly miserable a la Robin Williams." I don't know if that's a joke or not, but that's horrible to suggest that. I mean, come on dude, Robin suffered from clinical depression that only got worse and worse and that is just a pointless comment to make with such an ugly taste to it.
I stand corrected, and Edited I see. My sense of sarcasm can become quite dark at times.
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By GBPaulRivera
#4878402
JA Slow wrote:
GBPaulRivera wrote:
I think you have to look at it like this ... maybe he could of been going into the original film thinking "here I am making a big movie with my old friends and make some new friends as well where we're just having fun and giving people a reason to laugh in the theater." Bill felt the magic this film made and believed it to be a once-in-a-lifetime scenario where they had an original, funny, cool, and modern idea about people catching ghosts. When he made Ghostbusters, Bill Murray knew it was going to be successful, but he didn't want to see it get turned into a cash-cow tool by Columbia which ... *looks at everyone here* ... I think they successfully did that. Bill's views of Ghostbusters isn't that he hates it as he's met fans who he doesn't hate for being fans of his work because why would he? But he KNOWS that Ghostbusters is no longer the original film that it was intended to be with no sequels, toys, games, and other merchandising. Ghostbusters 2 proved his view that making the original 1984 film again with the same magic going into it and big reaction out of it wasn't possible, and he only did the sequel because it was a chance to work with the people who are his friends.

Also, its possible that he did a 180 on the reboot for a number of reasons with the email that was leaked about being sued or something else since he never got sued. Look, at the end of the day he has to make money like anybody else and he probably just did it for that too. We won't know 100% why until some time later, but leave it be dude because in the end NO ONE IS ENTITLED TO MAKE OR DO WHAT YOU WANT. I'm not saying this is your view, but what you stated about Bill being a troll and enemy to the fandom for refusing to do as much as Dan and Ivan did for it isn't up to you. I mean why should it matter to you? You do enough to the fandom keeping it alive, sharing in this discussion, buying the merchandise, and so on. The actors and writers and directors don't have to do a lot since ALL FRANCHISES work out as a success thanks to the fans efforts.

Also ... what the f*** dude? "Fingers crossed he isn't found dead in a hotel room hanging from the ceiling because all along he was secretly miserable a la Robin Williams." I don't know if that's a joke or not, but that's horrible to suggest that. I mean, come on dude, Robin suffered from clinical depression that only got worse and worse and that is just a pointless comment to make with such an ugly taste to it.
I stand corrected, and Edited I see. My sense of sarcasm can become quite dark at times.
I didn't edit anything you say, but I got offended by the joke because I've dealt with depression and once attempted suicide myself so to even sarcastically joke about it, especially Robin Williams who I've felt great sympathy for, it just touched my buttons dude.
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By pferreira1983
#4879173
The main problem with Bill Murray is that the unpredictability he brings to his work is present away from it as well, which isn't what you need when you have a crew of how many waiting for you and money being spent every day.
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By skankerzero
#4879342
Scuba Steve wrote:Damn, I had forgotten about the Zootfly demo. Skankerz... I can't begin to imagine the "WTF!?!" and panic at that moment in development. From the outside, none of us had any idea an actual licensed Ghostbusters game was being developed and the C&D letter just seemed like SONY squandering an IP that looked like it would make a great game.
Yeah, I remember that day.

We were sent a mandate from Activision telling us to NOT say anything publicly. Just keep our heads down and keep developing while they sent a cease and desist order to Zootfly and sick their lawyers on them.
pferreira1983 liked this

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