It was a lucky 13 years ago this month that Spook Central opened up at Geocities.com/Hollywood/7218. Oddly enough, in a turn of events that I never would have seen coming back in 1996, Spook Central is actually going to outlast Geocities, which is set to close on October 26, 2009.

I thought it would be great to honor the 13th anniversary by taking a look back at where we've all been. This is going to be the first in a small series of From The Vault articles in which I dig through my archives, and those of the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine, to resurrect some memories from years past.

The Ghostbusters Online Community (trademark pending) has a long and rich history, comprised of many individuals who each left their own unique mark on the community, for better or for worse. Digging through a disc of old files, I recently discovered some essays written by three of these individuals. I actually don't need to republish these essays as the Internet Archive did the job for me by saving the original webpages. So not only will you get to read the original text, but you'll get to see it in the manner it was originally presented.

• Ecto-Web One Year Anniversary - by Raffaele Ruffaldi (August 15, 1999)
• Bill Emkow's Farewell Message (January 25, 2000)
• The History Of Ghostheads - by Chad Paulson (January 2000?)

As I look at the past, I must also look towards the future. The future of the Ghostbusters Online Community is actually offline! More specifically, in print. Chris Stewart is working on a fan-collaborated Ghostbusters book project entitled Print Is Dead. Details are sparse at the moment, as he only recently unveiled the project to the community, but it's shaping up to be something well worth reading. Just like I never would have predicted back in 1996 that Spook Central would outlast Geocities, I also never would have predicted that the future of the Ghostbusters Online Community would be in a form of media that dates back almost a millennium ago.

Ghostbusters: The Video Game is fun, but cheats could make it even more fun...or easier in some spots. Thankfully, there are cheats for all versions of the game, except the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions.

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PC

TRAINERS (CHEAT PROGRAMS)
All files and info have been moved to this page.

The game does NOT have in-game cheats. The "cheats" listed in Settings.ini do not work. If you activate them by changing the 0 to a 1, the game will change it back. Red62 also experienced this, so I know that it wasn't a fluke on my system. So if you want to cheat on the PC, you'll have to use a Trainer. I've tested the +8 trainer with the Reloaded crack, and it works!

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PLAYSTATION 2

IN-GAME UNLOCKABLE CHEATS
There are cheats in the game, but you have to unlock them. Unfortunately, the good ones don't become unlocked until you've completed the game (or come close to it), so they're pretty much useless by that point. They are listed below in the order you're likely to unlock them through progression of the game.

• Increased Scanning Speed - Collect 50% of all scans.
• Faster Health Regeneration - Collect 50% of all art pages.
• No Equipment Overheat - Collect 100% of all scans.
• Equipment Strength Upgrade - Collect 100% of all art pages.
• Invulnerability - Achieve 100% completion (can replay levels to achieve this goal).
• Gozerian Rookie Outfit (Immune To Sliming) - Beat the last level on Gozerian (Hard) difficulty (can replay the last level on the increased difficulty to achieve this goal).

CHEAT DEVICE CODES
A cheat device is a device (much like a computer game trainer) that writes to areas in the memory of a system in order to allow for various user-desired actions. Sadly, the three major players in the cheat device scene (Codebreaker, Game Shark, Action Replay) have all quit supporting the PlayStation 2. So now it's up to the cheat device fans to pick up the slack and create the codes. Below are all of the known codes created for this game. In order to use these codes, you will need the CodeBreaker cheat device (I recommend v8 or higher). As the device is no longer in production, you'll probably have to pay some over-inflated prices on Amazon Marketplace (alt listing) and eBay, or do your own searching on the web or in the real world. The codes below are in unencrypted hexidecimal (hex) format (aka "Raw"), so technically they can be used by any PS2 cheat device that accepts unencrypted codes. However, the enable code will undoubtedly only work on the CodeBreaker, so enable codes for other devices would need to be created in order for you to use these codes with them. That's another reason why I recommend tracking down a Codebreaker. I have tested all of these codes using my Codebreaker v8 and confirm that they all work.

Please note that the effects of the first three codes will not stay on your game save when you save the game. The effects of all of the "unlock cheat" codes WILL save to your game save, thus allowing you to have the cheats permanently unlocked. The "unlock cheat" codes do not affect the collectibles, so you can still find pages and scan ghosts. Also, the "unlock cheat" codes will not turn the cheats on; you'll need to go into the Options: Unlocks menu to turn them on and off. The code for Gozerian Rookie Outfit doesn't show the name of it in the menu (it's the top item with "???" listed as a name) until you turn it on, exit to the previous menu (and save), then go back to the Unlocks menu. All of the "unlock cheat" codes have an alternate code that you can use (use only one for each code), though I tested both regular and alternates, and they all work the same.

CODEBREAKER
Enable Code (Must Be On)
90470640 0C11C138

Weapon Never Overheats
2015C814 00000000

Damages No Cost
201C6FAC E47F0000

Time In Level: 0:00:00
2020B624 E61F0058

Unlock Gozerian Rookie Outfit (Immune To Sliming) Cheat
20231414 ACA20064
(alt code: 00E574B4 00000001)

Unlock Faster Health Regeneration Cheat
20231BAC A2980008
(alt code: 00E574BC 00000001)

Unlock Increased Scanning Speed Cheat
20231C60 A2980004
(alt code: 00E574B8 00000001)

Unlock No Equipment Overheat Cheat
20231D14 A298000C
(alt code: 00E574C0 00000001)

Unlock Equipment Strength Upgrade Cheat
20231DC8 A2980010
(alt code: 00E574C4 00000001)

Unlock Invulnerability Cheat
20231D7C A2980014
(alt code: 00E574C8 00000001)

Credit: Skiller
Key: 40 B2 D8 9C 9C 69 65 C4 7D 48 16 68 A7 1D F3 0A B4 D2 DB F0
ELF: SLUS_218.82

GAME SAVES - CHEATS ALREADY UNLOCKED AT START OF A NEW GAME
The files have been moved here.

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WII

IN-GAME UNLOCKABLE CHEATS
There are cheats in the game, but you have to unlock them. Unfortunately, the good ones don't become unlocked until you've completed the game (or come close to it), so they're pretty much useless by that point. They are listed below in the order you're likely to unlock them through progression of the game.

• Increased Scanning Speed - Collect 50% of all scans.
• Faster Health Regeneration - Collect 50% of all art pages.
• No Equipment Overheat - Collect 100% of all scans.
• Equipment Strength Upgrade - Collect 100% of all art pages.
• Invulnerability - Achieve 100% completion (can replay levels to achieve this goal).
• Gozerian Rookie Outfit (Immune To Sliming) - Beat the last level on Gozerian (Hard) difficulty (can replay the last level on the increased difficulty to achieve this goal).

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PLAYSTATION PORTABLE

IN-GAME UNLOCKABLE CHEATS
There are cheats in the game, but you have to unlock them. Unfortunately, the good ones don't become unlocked until you've completed the game (or come close to it), so they're pretty much useless by that point. They are listed below in the order you're likely to unlock them through progression of the game.

• Increased Scanning Speed - Collect 50% of all scans.
• Faster Health Regeneration - Collect 50% of all art pages.
• No Equipment Overheat - Collect 100% of all scans.
• Equipment Strength Upgrade - Collect 100% of all art pages.
• Invulnerability - Achieve 100% completion (can replay levels to achieve this goal).
• Gozerian Rookie Outfit (Immune To Sliming) - Beat the last level on Gozerian (Hard) difficulty (can replay the last level on the increased difficulty to achieve this goal).

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DS

CHEAT DEVICE CODES
A cheat device is a device (much like a computer game trainer) that writes to areas in the memory of a system in order to allow for various user-desired actions. In order to use these codes, you will need the cheat device that they are for. You can buy the Action Replay DS from the official Action Replay website, Amazon, eBay, or do your own searching on the web or in the real world. I have not tested these codes out as I would need to find a rom and DS emulator with AR code support in order to do so.

ACTION REPLAY DS
Game ID: YGQE-9FCBA938

ON FOOT CODES:
Max Cash
5207CE5C 00000001
0207C3C0 05F5E0FF
D2000000 00000000

Max Slime
5207CE5C 00000001
0207C4C4 05F5E0FF
D2000000 00000000

DRIVING CODES:
Hold L+R+Pause Game For More Time
5207CE58 00000000
94000130 FCF70000
220A5540 0000000A
D2000000 00000000

(originally posted on the official Action Replay website)

This will serve as an addendum of sorts to my review of Ghostbusters: The Video Game for the PlayStation 2. Just recently I finally completed playing the game, having stopped back in June after the first three levels (the Sedgewick Hotel). According to my stats, it took me 16 hours in total (I didn't rush) to play through all 30 levels on the PS2. Playing through the remaining levels of the game, I wrote up lots of notes about what I experienced, which I have organized into the following...

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Back on June 18, 2009 Grim Santo posted a video of himself opening up (aka "unboxing") the Wii Slimer edition of Ghostbusters: The Video Game that he purchased exclusively from Amazon. It's a short video, a little over seven minutes long, and a very good look at exactly what comes in the box. After all, you can only see so much in stock photos.

I've decided to showcase Grim Santo's unboxing video by doing screen caps, and sort of walking you through the unboxing. So if you don't have seven minutes to spare, have an aversion to online videos, or you're on a dial-up connection, you might enjoy this. All of the comments are mine, except for any with quotation marks around them, which are Grim Santo's comments from the video. Click on thumbnails to view the full size 1280x720 images.

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I was watching the movie last month and noticed a few things that I didn't notice before. There are a few "cameos" that may have gone unnoticed by many. The list below doesn't include credited cameos, such as Bobby Brown, Jason Reitman, Catherine Reitman, Cheech Marin, or Judy Ovitz (wife of former CAA talent agency boss Mike Ovitz, who was the agent for Murray, Aykroyd, Ramis and Reitman at the time). Screen caps have been cut down, DVD time codes in parenthesis.


The guy on the left in the foreground, dining with the woman (Judy Ovitz) who will eventually get slimed moments later, is Peter Mosen. He's an old school Ghosthead, who was profiled in The Real Ghostbusters magazine, and represented the Ghostbusters for NOW Comics at Comic-Con in August 1988.


I bet you never noticed this one before! I've been watching the movie for 20 years and noticed it for the first time this year! The guy on the far right in the blue jacket is none other than director Ivan Reitman. He had a voice cameo in Ghostbusters (as Zuul and Slimer), but decided to put in an "in the flesh" appearance in the second film - which is only fitting seeing as how he had his kids do the same. Oh, and how do I know that that is Mr. Reitman? Well, it's pretty much an exact match for a shot of him on the set of the movie as seen in the Electronic Press Kit:

I just made a HUGE multimedia update to the site. I have added every single still image/frame from the Ghostbusters Criterion Collection laserdisc and the Ghostbusters 1999 DVD. You can view them on the site (though a fast connection may be required since I have several hundred thumbnails on some pages), or download the original 720x480 images in a zip file.

What prompted me to put up all of the still frames from the Criterion laserdisc and both 1999 DVDs, and make the original 720x480 images available in zip files, is that the new Ghostbusters Blu-Ray doesn't include any of the still image galleries from the 1999 DVD. I can understand why they couldn't or wouldn't use them "as is". Those galleries are the only blemish on the 1999 DVD, and it's primarily because the images are displayed within a very large frame instead of being shown full screen, and the drawings are even shown at an angle instead of being flat-on with the screen; though I also take off major points for the images not being shown in any sort of context (the laserdisc gave LOTS more insight into just what you're looking at). Plus all but one of the drawings listed as "Early NYC Concepts" are actually from The Real Ghostbusters, not the movie. The Blu-Ray would have given Sony the chance to correct these problems. They could have gone back to the original photographic sources, rescanned them in at higher resolutions, and shown everything full screen and flat-on, taking full advantage of the widescreen aspect ratio and higher resolution that Blu-Ray provides. Instead, they just dropped them altogether. Very sad. Two steps forward, ten steps back, Sony. If you have the 1999 DVD (the one with the guys on the cover), I highly suggest that you keep it - whether you decide to buy the Blu-Ray or not.

In the process of doing all of the still images, I decided that it was a great opportunity to find out if something that I had heard about was true. When the 2005 DVD first came out, I had heard that there were new still images on it. So in addition to capturing every still on the 1999 DVD, I did them all on the 2005 DVD as well - then compared them to each other. There were indeed some new still images on the 2005 DVD: three new Terror Dog photos. There was also one less logo drawing. Gain three, lose one. But what I never heard anyone talk about four years ago, and maybe no one ever knew because they never compared the two sets of DVD images to each other, is that a Photoshop "oil painting" filter was applied to the images on the 2005 DVD, thus making them look horrible and ruining all of the details in them. You can see this for yourself on the new Ghostbusters 2005 DVD Still Image Comparison page. I'd love to know why Sony would do such a stupid and unnecessary thing like that.

I can now say, without a doubt in my mind, that the Ghostbusters DVD released by Sony in 2005 for Region 1 is the worst piece of shit I have ever seen put onto the DVD medium by a major studio! They remove perfectly good bonus features present in the previous DVD release from 1999; they screw up the menu design just so they can have widescreen menus (though all still images are left in 4:3 ratio); they alter the colors and brightness in the movie; and they apply a Photoshop "oil painting" filter over the still image galleries thus ruining them. Avoid the 2005 DVD like the plague. Get the 1999 DVD (alt link) and the Blu-Ray, which eliminates half of the bonus content from the 1999 DVD but has some new extras plus the higher quality copy of the movie (hopefully not using the 2005 transfer). I have officially removed the Ghostbusters 2005 DVD from my store page because I will not support substandard products.

To help celebrate the 25th anniversary of one of the greatest ghost movies ever made - GHOSTBUSTERS - the long-running website, Spook Central: The Ghostbusters Companion, held a prize giveaway from June 8th (the 25th anniversary of Ghostbusters' U.S. theatrical release) to June 22nd 2009 to honor the momentous occasion. Spook Central teamed up with the leading producers of Ghostbusters merchandise to offer up a bevy of giveaways, which included copies of Ghostbusters: The Video Game from Atari, print and digital guides for the video game from Prima Games, Ghostbusters: The Other Side trade paperbacks from IDW Publishing, "There Is No Dana, Only Zuul" T-shirts from Fright Rags, The Real Ghostbusters Volume 1 DVD sets from Time-Life, wall graphics and game skins from Gamer Graffix, and lots of items that Spook Central webmaster Paul Rudoff pulled from his personal collection and For Sale site.

The contest was a greater success than I could have ever imagined. There were 648 eligible entries for the main U.S. & Canada contest (plus 30 ineligible entries), and 26 eligible entries for the side International contest (plus 7 ineligible entries). Below is the full list of winners, along with a brief description of what prize package they won. For more information on the individual prizes, check out the prize image gallery. For legal and reference purposes, a copy of the original official rules can be found at the end.

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(An addendum to this review was posted on 8/6/2009. It picks up where this review leaves off.)

I just got the PlayStation 2 version of Ghostbusters: The Video Game yesterday, played a little of it, and LOVED it! This is my quasi-review of the game taken from all of my hand-written notes. Apologies if it's a little rough or a bit disjointed as I pretty much took it from my notes. In this review, I will be using "PS2" as shorthand for the PS2/Wii version (stylized), and "PC" as shorthand for the PC/PS3/X360 version (realistic).

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Below are the main credits that I think would be of interest to everyone, but if you'd like to read the entire credits list in its original order, that's available too. Click on the voice talent and writers names to go to their pages here on Spook Central.

VOICE TALENT Bill Murray Dan Aykroyd Harold Ramis Ernie Hudson Annie Potts William Atherton Alyssa Milano Brian Doyle-Murray Joel Murray Max von Sydow Erin Gray Andre Sogliuzzo (realistic version only) Fred Tatasciore Keith Fergusen Vanessa Marshall Troy Baker Travis Willingham Colleen Clinkenbeard R. Bruce Elliot Christopher Sabat Yuri Lowenthal (realistic version only) Jason Liebrecht

MOTION CAPTURE PERFORMERS Donovan Stinson Peter Benson Julian Paul Santo Lombardo Debbie Timuss Cailin Stadnyk WRITERS Dan Aykroyd Harold Ramis John Zuur Platten Flint Dille Patrick Hegarty John Melchior (stylized version only)

Recognition Of An Uncredited Artist - One person who was NOT credited in the game, but should have been, is "Dapper" Dan Schoening. Ghostbusters on the Wii and PlayStation 2 (and later PlayStation Portable) uses a stylized take on the famed characters instead of trying to replicate the look of the realistic versions of the game. That style was inspired by the work of an independent artist by the name of "Dapper" Dan Schoening. Dan Borth, the CEO of Red Fly Studio, has stated that when his team was first approached to do Ghostbusters, Vivendi/Sierra (the game's publisher at the time) gave them a large group of concept and fan art to go through, which included Dan Schoening's work. Later Mr. Borth was contacted by Mr. Schoening, and being an artist himself, understood his position and also wanted to make things right - since no one informed Red Fly who created the concept pieces. An agreement was reached that included money and an on-screen credit. Although he was 100% guaranteed an on-screen credit, the game was released with Dan Schoening's name nowhere to be found - not even as a Special Thanks. This infuriated him enough to post a message to his blog about the matter, which was then picked up by several of the top gaming sites. In response, Red Fly put up an apology to Dan on their blog. Then Mr. Borth felt the ill-advised need to "defend" himself in a written response to gaming site Kombo. Luckily for all involved, that didn't escalate things any further. (additional sources: True Game Headz, Proton Charging, Destructoid)

Now looking back over the list of people who WERE credited in the game, who do you NOT see on that list? Gene Wilder. Now that long-forgotten rumor can finally be put to rest.

It has been said that Max von Sydow (best known as Father Merrin in The Exorcist) is the voice of Vigo in the game. The extra Vigo quote on the PS2 version ("This isn't Ghostbusters. This is The Exorcist!") lends credence to this. Chris from Proton Charging theorized that he might actually be the voice of Vigo in Ghostbusters II, as well. We've all assumed that Wilhelm von Homburg, who played Vigo on-screen, was also his voice. However, if you remember your Ghostbusters history, you'd know that in the first film we saw Slavitza Jovan on-screen as Gozer, but the voice we heard belonged to an uncredited Paddi Edwards (reminiscent of Mercedes McCambridge's vocal performance in The Exorcist, coincidentally). So it's entirely possible that Wilhelm was Vigo on-screen, and Max was uncredited as Vigo's voice. The only ones who'd know for sure would be Ivan Reitman, Max, and Wilhelm. Ivan and Max are still alive, but sadly Wilhelm passed away a few years ago. So if anyone ever meets Ivan or Max, be sure to ask them who provided Vigo's voice in Ghostbusters II.

Besides Bill and Brian, we also have a third Murray brother in the cast, Joel Murray. The same one who was in the audience and asked Sigourney Weaver a question on the Ghostbusters II episode of Oprah back in 1989. According to IMDB, this is the third time the three have worked together. They previously paired up in Scrooged (1988) and the short-lived Murray Brothers golf series The Sweet Spot (2002).

The other big names in the voice cast include Erin Gray (Silver Spoons, Buck Rogers) and Keith Fergusen (Bloo from Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends). Most of the additional voice cast are Texas-based voice artists who've done lots of Anime dubs for Funimation. Both Funimation and Terminal Reality are headquartered in Texas. Oh, yeah, Flint Dille, who was a writer and story editor for the original G.I. Joe and Transformers series back in the 1980s, had a hand in writing the game. Cool!

The latest issue of Toyfare Magazine (August 2009, Issue #144) has several articles on the Ghostbusters toys and video game, and even an interview with Harold Ramis. This is all part of the issue's theme of 1984 (the year, not the Orwell book).

The magazine is currently in stores. If you'd like to know if it's worth buying - and with such an awesome cover, that thought really shouldn't have crossed your mind - you can preview the magazine by viewing scans below or in this gallery. Big thanks to Randy Henderson for the scans.

You can read the unedited Harold Ramis interview on the Toyfare/Wizard Universe website (the one in the magazine is edited). Don't miss the second page - it's a very subtle link at the end of the first page.

The first scan below (the Venkman brick poster) is from the "Coming Next Issue" page of the previous issue, July 2009, Issue #143. Also note the photo caption on the "Incoming!" page - who's Peter Vakeman?