Here are two ridiculous LCD games ripping off Ghostbusters, Ghostblaster and Ghosthunter! No company info on Ghosthunter but Ghostblaster is from Triotoys and has Tiger Electronics stamped on the back!
Ghostbusters LCD Rip Off Games – Bootleg Zones
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Phelous…
Singing the technically original, yet still totally a knock-off Filmation Ghostbusters animated theme is never more legit than when you are playing with shitty Real Ghostbusters knock off merchandise.
Still, that’s “Let’s go Ghostbusters!” theme was pretty catchy even if the show wasn’t good.
Filmation’s Ghostbusters was still better than the Q5 Real Ghostusters episodes and the Slimer Show.
Anyway, I’ve always hated those cheap handheld games where it’s impossible to control properly or even see what it is that you’re supposed to do in them.
I’d like to visit the alternate universe where the 1985 movie had been titled “Ghostblasters”. Then the animated series based on that movie wouldn’t have had to get “Real”.
When the two weekday Ghostbusters aired, my grade school friends and I had pre-judged the non-movie based Ghostbusters as a stupid rip-off that we were too cool to watch. So I never really gave it a chance.
On the other hand, by the time the Q5 stuff was airing I wasn’t able to watch a lot of Satuday Morning cartoons, so I was also spared that although I caught the odd episode and a Slimer episode here and there which I thought were for babies. Thus I was pretty lucky and almost all my animated Ghostbuster memories are the weekday syndicated DIC episodes with Lorenzo Music.
Agreed, Filmation’s Ghoshtbusters was pretty darn goofy, but it wasn’t without its’ charm. 2 dudes and a gorilla fighting ghoulish super-villains with wacky ghost-busting gear has a certain campy appeal to it. Plus, like you said, that theme song is a total earworm.
While intentional or not, the designs and animation for the 80s Filmation Ghostbusters had a very 70s look to it which I kind of dig, and it makes me smile now as an adult to know the heavy guy is modeled after comic actor Larry Storch.
I’m probably one of the few on this planet who prefers Filmation’s over The Real, tho these days both shows are only mid-rank on my 80s cartoon totem pole. Really tho I’d love to see a crossover with like Egon and co fighting Prime Evil, who was an awesome villain no matter what you think of the show he’s in. Filmation’s GB also indirectly led to Bravestarr which is another plus (the character Tex Hex was originally meant to be a GB villain).
….. By the way, since I’m here…
@Phelous I have a theory about one of the TMNT Edits, the one where they changed all the Japan references to Korea references.
Okay, Japan is notorious for editing movies that make Japan look bad (their version of Pearl Harbor for example edits out all mention of what country did the bombing). You gotta admit the first TMNT kinda just says Japan was full of crime.
Now as it happens Japanese people are often racist against Koreans to the point of stereotyping them all as criminals. So…. you see where this is going. In this case tho it was probably just one company having cold feet or something.
Interestingly, there was a never aired TV pilot called Ghostbreakers, which starred Margaret Hamilton (aka the Wicked Witch of the West from The Wizard of Oz) as a hypnotist who battles the supernatural. There was also a short-lived ABC mid-season replacement show called Shadow Chasers, once described as an “obvious yet unacknowledged ripoff of the hit movie Ghost Busters”. I never actually saw Shadow Chasers, but I caught the beginning and end of one episode; IIRC, the show had a pretty kick-ass opening theme song. Now if someone can come dig up knockoff Ghostbusters handheld games titled Ghostbreakers and Shadow Chasers, then the circle will be complete.
I remember the Ghost Hunter game from my childhood. Quite a fun little game.
In fact, today I found the LCD game in a box with old toys. I also have the cardboard from the packaging, as well as the instruction booklet.
Phealous, in case you some day will do a follow-up episode, I can provide you with some additional information about the obscure Ghost Hunter game.
On the packaging, the only thing that resembles a company name is “ELECTRONIC”.
On the back there’re screenshots for all “6 models available,” namely: Soccer, City Fighter, Space War, Ice Hockey, Ghost Hunter, Desert War.
The instruction booklet is in English, French, German, and Spanish.
It keeps referring to the LCD game as “Model K-753” or simply “K-753”. And the instructions are so general that they fit every one of the 6 games, without matching a specific one.
That’s a hint about playing this game:
The Ghost Hunter game is played, I think, in exactly the same way as the soccer or the city fighter games.
You have to defend the middle vertical section of the screen.
Phelous kept getting hit and dying in the game because he’d let the ghosts attack that section.
You’ll have to catch the projectiles from the ghost, and catch the ghost themselves in the bottom position.
Only in certain positions are you able to catch specific projectiles or ghosts. I guess that’s somewhat standard for LCD games.
Phew, that ended up a lengthy first post on my behalf. I just wanted to share some info about a fun Ghostbusters LCD Rip Off Game.
Best wishes from a Ghostbusters and a Phelous fan,
Ghost Hunter
Oh, the WYSIWYG Editor appears to be haunted. So much for the text formatting that were supposed to make my debut post easier to read. Sorry about that.
Interesting stuff, thanks me letting me know. It might make a little more sense trying to play the same like that. I wouldn’t immediately think I’m suppose to catch the projectiles when it’s not a sports game. The instructions would help a lot in Ghost Hunter’s case, heh.