Matt Prov and Brendan Mertens over at the Ghostheads podcast released their 16th episode this past Wednesday, and they briefly mentioned Spook Central with the creative team behind the new IDW Ghostbusters comic book series: Tristan Jones, Erik Burnham, Luis Antonio Delgad, and Dapper Dan Schoening. The discussion was about which car the team favored most, the Ecto-1 or the Delorean time machine from Back To The Future.

Around the 37:10 mark, Dan mentioned that he prefers to draw the Ecto-1 because, "it's got a lot more character to it. Whenever I draw the Ecto, I consider it as a character." This prompts the hosts to mention that, originally in Ghostbusters, the car was going to be a character, it was going to be alive. As an example of that, they mentioned the Ectomobile Rejects A Parking Ticket deleted scene here at Spook Central. And if you listen really carefully, you can hear Tristan mention that he did the graphics for this here website - which is an honor that I will always be truly grateful for. How many webmasters can actually say that they had an honest-to-God famous comic book artist, Ghostbusters or otherwise, create title artwork for their site? Well, other than Stan Lee doing the art for that Spider-Busters site back in 1997 that Sony had taken down due to improper licensing from Marvel, but that's a story for another day.

Anyway, you can listen to the Spook Central excerpt by clicking on the little play arrow/button above, though if you have a desire to hear about the new Ghostbusters monthly comic series, and lots of other interesting topics, head over to the Cross The Streams site to listen to the entire 50-minute episode. Thanks Brendan for the heads-up.

About a month ago Hustler Video's production This Ain't Ghostbusters XXX came out on 3D Blu-Ray/DVD Combo Pack. Below is my Ghostbusters-centric review.

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Last year Proton Charging reported that Slavitza Jovan's Gozer costume from Ghostbusters was "found in a surplus store on an 'unidentified' costume rack", and that being "a very flimsy piece of kit, the costume has held up well, with the various body-bubbles taking the most abuse over the years." Then, two months ago Proton Charging reported that Abacus Costumes and Props manager Steven Kirk decided to have Hollywood memorabilia auction house Profiles in History offer the costume to the highest bidder.

Syfy's reality series Hollywood Treasure chronicles Profiles in History's hunt for items to sell at their auctions. So it should come as no surprise that the Gozer costume was featured in the episode that aired last Wednesday June 15, 2011, which was entitled "The One That Got Away" (Season 1, Ep 18). Embedded below are the Gozer segments, which includes Steven showing the costume to the Profiles in History crew at his warehouse, the Profiles in History authenticating it using footage from the movie, and the costume going up for auction. It's interesting to note that, although the movie footage is seen clear as day in a few shots, it is later blurred on a monitor when paused. Presumably, when they use the footage to do a comparison, it's considered fair use; but when it's just being shown on a monitor in the background, even if it's a paused still frame, it's no longer considered fair use.

Anyway, you can purchase the whole episode #18 for $2.99 at Amazon, if you'd like to see what else was being offered up in this episode.

Los Angeles, CA - June 1, 2011 - As a follow up to the first ever Ghostbusters digital title Ghostbusters: Sanctum of Slime, Atari, one of the world's most recognized publishers and producers of interactive entertainment, is releasing additional downloadable content - Challenge Pack. In conjunction with Sony Pictures Consumer Products, Ghostbusters: Sanctum of Slime Challenge Pack will bring hours of a new single player experience to the successful digital title with two game modes, Lonely Hero and Arcade Challenge, on Xbox LIVE® Arcade for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, and Windows PC on Steampowered.com, June 1.

Ghostbusters: Sanctum of Slime is a four player, ghost-busting adventure that will take players on a brand new paranormal experience. But with Challenge Pack, players will suit up with their proton packs and assume the role of a lone rookie Ghostbuster tasked to save New York City from a disaster of ghoulish proportions, without any help.

Specific highlights from the Challenge Pack include:

• Arcade Challenge: Designed for seasoned gamers, Arcade Challenge gives players a limited number of lives to see how their skills line up on a distinct Global Leaderboard. Players run through 5 of the game's most challenging levels in single player mode and once the lives are up, the game is over. Player scores are automatically posted to a new real-time Leaderboard.
• Lonely Hero: Players can select any level they have unlocked and start from there but this time you are on your own - no co-op, no friendly teammates - just one player to combat the waves of the paranormally possessed.

Developed by Behavior Studios, Ghostbusters: Sanctum of Slime Challenge Pack will be available on June 1, 2011 for $1.99 or 160 Microsoft Points.

For more information, please log onto www.atari.com or www.atari.com/gbsanctumofslime.

About ATARI, SA
Atari group is a global creator, producer and publisher of interactive entertainment. Atari's brands and content are available across all key traditional and digital distribution touch points, including browser-based and social online platforms, PC, consoles from Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony, and advanced smart phones (i.e. iPhone, Android and RIM devices).

Divisions of Atari, SA include Cryptic Studios, Eden Studios, Atari Interactive, Inc. and Atari, Inc. Atari benefits from the strength of its worldwide brand and its extensive catalogue of contemporary classic game franchises (Asteroids, Centipede, Missile Command, Lunar Lander), original owned franchises (Test Drive, Backyard Sports, Deer Hunter), MMO games from Cryptic Studios (Star Trek Online, Champions) and third party franchises (Ghostbusters, Rollercoaster Tycoon, Dungeons and Dragons). Atari also leverages the power of its franchises to deliver movies and merchandise to consumers around the world.

For more information please visit: www.atari.com
© 2011 Atari Europe SASU. All rights reserved.
Atari word mark and logo are trademarks owned by Atari Interactive, Inc.

About Sony Pictures Entertainment
Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) is a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America (SCA), a subsidiary of Tokyo-based Sony Corporation. SPE's global operations encompass motion picture production and distribution; television production and distribution; digital content creation and distribution; worldwide channel investments; home entertainment acquisition and distribution, operation of studio facilities; development of new entertainment products, services and technologies; and distribution of filmed entertainment in more than 130 countries. Sony Pictures Entertainment can be found on the World Wide Web at www.sonypictures.com.

For years we all thought that Wilhelm von Homburg, who appeared on screen as Vigo in Ghostbusters II, also provided the speaking voice for the character. Even though precedent was set in the first film, with an uncredited actress (Paddi Edwards) providing the voice for Gozer, instead of the actress (Slavitza Jovan) who appeared on-screen as the character, we all just always took it for granted that Wilhelm was also the voice of Vigo. I guess it was probably due to Don Shay not writing a behind-the-scenes companion book for the second film as he did for the first. Imagine how much stuff we wouldn't even know about the first film were it not for Don's book Making Ghostbusters.

It wasn't until Ghostbusters: The Video Game came out in 2009 - 20 years after Ghostbusters II - that we would find out the truth. Initially, we all thought that the reason Max von Sydow was voicing Vigo in the game was because Wilhelm died in 2004. But the more we all listened to Max's voice in the game, the more authentic it sounded. Then rumblings were heard here and there stating that Max was the voice of Vigo in the movie.

In June 2009, Crispy Gamer interviewed John Melchior, former Executive Producer on Ghostbusters: The Video Game, about having Max von Sydow in the game.

"Yes," he told me when I asked him to confirm that the casting of von Sydow in the game was a direct result of the actor's involvement in the 1989 sequel to Ghostbusters. "That was our understanding and what we were told." Melchior added, "We were trying to make this game as authentic as possible. This was a promise I made to the talent and to Sony: where we could we would go to the actors that played those roles, the ones that fans grew up with and know."

In November of the same year, another official confirmation would come out, this time from one of the film's special effects crew members, William Forsche. (brought to everyone's attention in March 2010 by Proton Charging)

And poor Wilhelm von Homburg, it seems noone told him his voice was replaced with Max von Sydow's. He found out first hand at the screening and soon after stormed out of the theater.    : (

Before I continue on, and get to what is really the point of this whole article (since all I've been doing so far is providing backstory), let me take a moment to comment on something that irks me. If the makers of the video game knew that Max was the voice of Vigo in the movie, why did they say in interviews that they would be using a soundalike (because Wilhelm von Homburg died)? Were they misinformed or just towing the company line? Here's a quote from Creative Director Drew Haworth to IGN in December 2007 as an example

During our visit the team did its best to keep the story under wraps, but Drew was happy to tell us that: "Vigo will be making a cameo appearance. Unfortunately that actor had passed away so we'll have a sound-alike."

The reason I've been giving all of this backstory about the voice of Vigo in the movie Ghostbusters II (and consequently, the video game), is because even though the deep, commanding voice we all know and love as Vigo is NOT the voice of Wilhelm von Homburg, we have been afforded the rare opportunity to actually hear Wilhelm deliver Vigo's famous speech!

Ghostbusters II special effects crew member, William Forsche, has been posting behind-the-scenes videos to his various YouTube accounts for years. Recently, he posted a few new videos which Ghostbusters Fans has detailed into a nice list. One of these new videos shows Wilhelm von Homburg standing on the painting set/stage, acting out his role for the shots where he talks to Janosz. The best part is that we get to hear his actual voice delivering Vigo's lines.

The line delivery is a little hard to hear in the original video, so I decided to strip out the video, edit down the audio to just Wilhelm talking, and maximize the volume. I left in the loud droning noise heard in the background, so as to preserve the fidelity of the audio. Under the photo at the top of this article are two embedded audio player bars. The one on the left will play you Wilhelm's delivery of Vigo's speech, while you'll hear Max's delivery from the final film on the right (Janosz's lines have been removed).

Major thanks to William Forsche for making this video available to the fans, and for the photo that appears at the top of this page.

I can't believe that it's been a year since I wrote my last Shot On Site article. Even though I have five Ghostbusters filming locations positively identified, it's taken me a whole 12 months to finally write up an article about just one of them. Hopefully I'll get the other four done in much less time.

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Mrmichaelt from the Ghostbusters Wiki has not only transcribed all of the cinematic and level dialog from Ghostbusters: Sanctum Of Slime, but he also got in touch with the game's writer, Tom Waltz, and snagged a copy of Mr. Waltz's original script for the game. Being the kool kat that he is, Michael gave me the script so that I could share it with all of you through my site.

This script, which is equivalent to a movie script, contains the dialog and action from all of the comic book cinematics in the game. Overall the script is identical to the final game, but since this script contains the scenes as he originally wrote them, there will be differences. The major differences - and there are a few of them, including one level that was completely written out of the game - will be covered in a little detail further down this page. I don't want to spoil it for you just yet. Speaking of spoiling, don't even bother looking at this script until you've played the game, as it WILL spoil the story for you. So without further ado, I present to you...


Although the script was provided to the fans by Tom Waltz, the copyright on it is owned by Columbia Pictures, Sony, and probably Atari. No infringement of rights is intended or implied, and if those parties disapprove of the script being made available for the fans online, it will be taken down upon request - but I don't see any reason why it should ever have to come to that.

If you want some sort of official description of the new characters (besides the one Atari provided), here's what the script says.

The rookie team is made up of four 20-something men and women:
• Alan Crendall - a white male, typical blue-collar kinda guy, he's the Winston of this bunch - practical, hardworking, etc.
• Samuel Hazer - another white male, and the Ray Stantz of this bunch - excitable, optimistic, intelligent.
• Bridget Gibbons - an American-Asian female who is the Peter Venkman of this group - cocky, sarcastic, etc.
• Gabriel Sitter - a black male and the Egon of this bunch - an absolute genius with a dry personality.

The driver of the Ecto-4WD is:
• Geoff - a typical, crusty, New York cabby - short, fat, unlit and well-chewed cigar hanging from his mouth.

Assuming the PC version is the same as the PS3 and Xbox versions (minus the lack of online play, of course), here are the major differences found in the script.

• In the game we are never told that the Parkview Mental Hospital is being built on what was Dumazu's tomb. We see one panel of construction workers finding a shard, but it's never made clear where they were digging or why. (page 2)


• In the game it is never made clear that Janosz got a job as a museum employee so he could steal the shard. (page 5)


• After the Subway Smasher fight, the team was originally going to meet Janosz at the museum, not at headquarters. The rookies don't go into the cemetery en route to headquarters, as in the final game, but rather make a pitstop there while en route to the museum. Also, the cemetery originally had a name (the Saint Joseph Cemetery). (pages 20-21)


• After fighting through the cemetery, the gang arrives at the museum. That's where the conversation with Janosz takes place, instead of at headquarters. Also, we learn that Janosz kidnapped his nephew Alan when he was younger. (page 21-22)


• The end of the conversation with Janosz at the museum is not only different - no talk about the shards being drawn to each other, and pre-emptive striking against global annihilation, or going back to the Sedgewick - but it leads into A BATTLE AT THE MUSEUM!!! This museum level was eliminated from the game and the return to the Sedgewick was moved up. (pages 23-24)


• The cinematic that plays after the return to the Sedgewick level in the game was originally used after the museum level. Bridget's "boring" comment makes much more sense when talking about a museum than it does a hotel. The comments about family squabbles and domestic disputes makes much MUCH more sense when it comes right after talking with Janosz, rather than a level later. (pages 24)


• Originally, after the museum level, the rookies came back to headquarters. They chatted with the senior team about Dumazu, learned his story and the relevance of the shards, and decided to then go back to the Sedgewick. The original ending for this scene - the rookies leaving headquarters with the senior team standing at the desk behind them, then the rookies entering the Sedgewick with Gabriel holding the PKE meter out in front - was actually drawn and appears at the bottom of data/art/cinematics/gb_cin_page08.dds (inside data_common.pak).
  
  With the removal of the museum level, the Janosz and headquarters cinematics were joined together and reworked a bit. The dialog from when they left the museum was inserted into the scene after they leave the Sedgewick (noted above). After their return trip to the Sedgewick, they go into the sewers of their own accord in an effort to prevent ghosts from following them due to their attraction to the shards that they're carrying. They didn't crash in there in the Ecto-4WD, as the game tells us. (pages 25-29)


• After coming out of the sewer for the second time, the team makes a return visit to the museum. Another fight/level follows. (pages 30-31)


• After the second museum level, the team then goes to the cemetery for the second level there. (page 31)


• After leaving the cemetery the second time, Bridget hails a taxi, and instead of cutting right to the firehouse, Geoff pulls up in the Ecto-4WD. (page 33)


• An odd description of Geoff, perhaps hinting that he's not one of the living: "The only one capable of speech is Geoff, the Zombie Driver." (page 35)


• After the reveal of Dr. Tesmon as Ismael, in the middle of his speech, there's some dialog from the rookies that tells us why he chose the Tesmon name, and that the ghosts we've been fighting were actually the good guys! (pages 36-37)

A few months ago I wrote about how GBMax from Ghostbusters Mania decorated his Christmas tree and his cute little Ghostbusters Mania Ectomobile with home-made Ghostbusters community decorations. Now he's taken that devotion to the community one step further by decorating his proton pack with Ghostbusters fansite decals! Below are a few images. To see them all, and the cool Ghostbusters franchise buttons he made, head on over to Ghostbusters Mania and Facebook.

Ghostbusters: Sanctum of Slime is available now for all systems worldwide, except for the Playstation 3 in Europe, where it will come out on March 30th (as per Atari's Twitter post). If you're on the Xbox or PlayStation 3, you can buy the game through the marketplace interface of your console. You can buy and download the PC version from Amazon or Steam. I recommend that you purchase it from Amazon, as Spook Central gets a small commission for sales made there - and chances are you already have an an Amazon account, so you're already good to go.

However, please be aware that THE PC VERSION HAS NO ONLINE CO-OP PLAY; local co-op only - as per reports at the Atari and Steam forums. I have not seen this for myself yet, because I've been too busy writing coverage for the game to actually download and install it, but multiple reports can't be wrong. So, AGAIN, PC gamers get screwed! We had no online play in Ghostbusters: The Video Game, while the consoles had it; and now again we lose it while the consoles get the glory. Now I *KNOW* that Atari hates PC gamers. Adding insult to injury, the PC version is the same price as the console versions, so we get LESS GAME FOR THE SAME PRICE! (From what I've been told, when you convert Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network currency to dollars, the game is selling for $10 on the consoles.) Here are the co-op stats reported by Co-Optimus:


And if that's not enough, here's a snippet from IGN's review, which makes it quite clear that PC gamers are getting the short end of the stick... and you DON'T want to know where that stick is being shoved:

Ghostbusters: Sanctum of Slime is all about multiplayer, but the PC version is gimped when compared to the PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360 downloads. Over on the consoles, players have online multiplayer. On the PC, you can only play locally. That sucks, but the mouse aiming is far more precise than a controller's joystick so I guess the PC gets that. Even the local multiplayer is far from perfect in Ghostbusters: Sanctum of Slime. When I was playing with a group of IGN editors and someone finally had enough of Chapter 10's garbage and put down the controller, the remaining players either had to find a replacement or restart the level. We couldn't just turn off the controller and have the computer jump in.

Would you like to see the game bootup and some online play in action on the PS3? Then check out this video uploaded by YouTube user SmartPerson2011. PC gamers, it's okay to cry.

If you still want to play the PC version - and for me, that's my only choice, unfortunately - here's what you need to run it (info from Atari's PC mini-site). You'll notice that it only says that an internet connection is required for online activation, but nothing about it being needed for gameplay - as there is no online play on the PC.

PC MINIMUM SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

• OS: Windows XP SP2, Vista SP2, 7
• CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E4300 or AMD Athlon X2 4400+
• RAM: 1 GB
• Video: ATI Radeon HD 2600 or NVIDIA GeForce 8600 or faster*
• Sound: DirectX 9.0c-compatible
• HD: 500MB free
• Peripherals: Keyboard + 3 button mouse, Microsoft Xbox 360 Controller for PC, Microsoft Xbox 360 Wireless Controller for Windows, Logitech Gamepad F310/F510/F710**
• Other: Internet Connection required for online activation

* Video cards that do not meet or exceed the performance of these cards, such as the Intel G43/G45 Integrated, are not supported.
** DirectInput Gamepads, such as the Logitech Rumblepad 2, are not supported.

The version of the game sold on Steam includes 12 "Steam Achievements". The version of the game sold on the Atari website (and presumably every place else) does NOT include Achievements (that area on the main menu is blank). Almost all of the Steam Achievements, noted with the icons and titles below (provided by the Steam site), are the same as those on the Xbox, so they unlock the same as well. One achievement is different: "Full House" on the Xbox was replaced with "Driver's License" on the PC, the goal of which is to "finish a vehicle level". The reason for the change is because "Full House" is an online achievement, and the PC version doesn't have any online play. Also, some of the achievement icons are different. I think Steam has the correct icons since the Xbox icons were put up a month or so ago.


When Ghostbusters: The Video Game came out almost two years ago, PlayStation 3 owners were also given various goodies to buy for their avatars. Xbox 360 owners who felt left out in the cold can rejoice as some Ghostbusters: Sanctum of Slime items are now available for your Xbox avatar. There's an Ecto-4WD remote toy (320 points), a GB Trucker hat (80 points), a Stay-Puft pet (320 points), a Slimer pet (320 points), and a GB Jumpsuit (240 points). More information and pictures can be found at Proton Charging and Ghostbusters News. Proton Charging also posted a video to Facebook showing the PS3 demo booting up and then showing the Xbox goodies in the marketplace.

If you'd like to read a little more about the game, check out David Williams's Dev Diary on the story over on the PlayStation Blog, Ghostbusters Wiki's interview with writer Tom Waltz, and Goozer Nation's interview with producer Jonathan Moses.