Ten years and two weeks ago today I spotted a pretty cool Ghostbusters reference on the August 9, 1999 episode of the World Wrestling Federation's flagship program Raw Is War. I promptly reported it to Chris at Proton Charging, and he posted the following two days later.

"LISTEN! YOU SMELL WHAT THE ROCK IS COOKIN'?" 08/11/99 Pretty funny stuff. A fan at this weeks WWF RAW telecast was holding up a sign that said "SLIMER 3:16". A Ghostbustin' nod to the famous "AUSTIN 3:16" (as in Steve Austin. Fans often spoof the sign), which is itself a nod to the even more famous "JOHN 3:16" signs made part of popular culture by that guy who used to show up at sporting events with his sign and a rainbow fright wig. He has a name, I just can't remember it. Thanks to Paul at Spook Central for the use of the picture. Click on the picture or link to see Paul's much better and more complete screen grab. Copyright© 1999 Proton Charging

The original post is no longer online, but a new version does appear on the main Proton Charging site. Besides that, the link to the full size image no longer works, so it's a good thing I had a my back-up.

I did a whole bunch of multimedia from the PlayStation 2 version of Ghostbusters: The Video Game. I am going to spotlight two of the galleries because I wanted to add some commentary to them. Sorry the screenshots aren't the best, but there aren't any CodeBreaker codes for "Player Is Invisible" and "Hud/Reticle Off" and maybe Zoom In/Out if possible (all would need to be toggleable on/off), all of which would help to make better screen shots. And I'm limited to 640x480 as that is the maximum resolution I can pull from an analog source (the PlayStation 2's composite outputs were connected directly to my computer's video capture card).

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Here's a side-by-side image comparison of the shots that match up in the opening cinematic between the realistic (PC/PS3/X360) and stylized (PS2/Wii) versions of Ghostbusters: The Video Game. What's interesting is that in the stylized version, the opening cinematic doesn't give the year "1991" like in the realistic version, which means that theoretically the stylized version could take place at any time after Ghostbusters II. Videos of the two openings are up on YouTube: Realistic Version and Stylized Version. The Stylized shots below were pulled from the PS2, which is why they are of such low quality. The Wii gets a nice widescreen image, while the PS2 is stuck with letterboxing. Why? I don't know. The PS2 is capable of outputting in 16:9, but the developer chose to stick it in 4:3. I could go on this whole rant about how PS2 games that preceded Ghostbusters were capable of much more graphically and gameplay-wise with much shorter loading screens, but that's a rant for another day.

Realistic	Stylized

Time Inc., the folks who publish People magazine, have done something really cool. They have made every issue (from issue #1 on March 4, 1974 to about a month ago - with some missing in between) available for free viewing on their website. They're in text and page scans, with even the ad pages scanned in, and searchable to a very limited degree. You can even download each magazine in its entirety in PDF format! All for FREE! They've also done something similar with their flagship publication, Time Magazine, only without the PDF's and page scans. I wish all publishers would do this. You can imagine the vast amounts of information, knowledge, and human history sitting in their vaults never to be seen again.

Below are some of the People and Time articles I found about Ghostbusters and/or cast and crew from the movies or animated series. There are probably more, but this was all I could find. The search engine on the People site is woefully inadequate. It only pulled up the GB2 premiere article. Everything else I found manually by browsing and looking through the pages. If you find something that I didn't, post a comment with the links. Be sure to state what issue and "page" number (the last set of digits in the file name is the "page" number I'm going by, not the actual page numbers in the magazines). FYI: If you have a program that can extract images from PDFs (most are shareware), you're better off extracting the page scans out of the PDFs rather than downloading them from the site (the PDFs are on the main page for each issue). The images in the PDFs are roughly 1680x2200, which is MUCH larger than anything on the site.

• May 28, 1984 - The Hot New Flicks (pages 43 & 44)
  The kings of comedy this season may be Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray and Harold (Stripes) Ramis, soon to be known as Ghostbusters. The trio play three parapsychologists who lose their grant and moonlight, if you will, as eccentric exorcists. Recalls Ramis of the filming, "Danny, Bill and I had to act against characters who weren't there. 'Look scared' was the main direction. Then, 'Look more scared.'"


• June 4, 1984 - GB1 Ad, page 101


• June 18, 1984 - GB1 Review, page 11


• April 3, 1989 - Kristy McNichol Describes the Breakdown That Nearly Killed Her Career
  (Kristy was the blonde girl in the sub in the EGB ep "Dry Spell", though you probably know her best from the television series "Empty Nest" and "Family".)


• July 3, 1989 - GB2 Review, pages 15 & 16


• July 3, 1989 - GB2 1989 Premiere


• Celebrity GB Fan - Ashley Tisdale (Oct. 27, 2008)
  Does High School Musical's resident diva believe in the supernatural? "No, not really," she says. "I love ghost movies, though. Ghostbusters was a good one."


• Celebrity GB Fan - Michael Cera (June 27, 2009)
  "Ghostbusters is kind of like the reason I wanted to be an actor." - The Year One star Michael Cera, when asked about his favorite Harold Ramis (who played Egon) movie, to E! News

• May 6, 1929 - Science: Ghostbusting
  Yes, about 50 years before Filmation had a television series with the name, and 55 years before the famous movie, the words "Ghostbuster" and "Ghostbusting" appeared in Time Magazine - possibly for the very first time anywhere. If Filmation never copyrighted the name, Columbia Pictures never should have paid up, as this shows precedent that Filmation didn't create the word/name. Anyway, the article isn't about catching ghosts, but rather busting fake mediums.


• Jan. 3, 2005 - The Many Faces of Bill [Murray]


• July 7, 2009 - Radio Host Casey Kasem Retires
  I though he retired a few years ago when Ryan Seacrest took over. Anyway why would he retire on the exact 39th anniversary of his show, when pushing it one more year and retiring on the 40th anniversary makes much more sense. After all, the show is called American/Casey's Top 40.

I recently went through an old CD-R I burned back in 2001 of various things I downloaded and thought (at the time) were worth saving. Rather than repost content, I'm trying my best to find it all online, either on the original websites, or in the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine. Some of the content on that CD-R was a bunch of interviews and online chats. Surprisingly, almost all of them are still online in some form (I only had to upload one text and one audio file). And so, I present to you, links to old interviews that you may not have read, or have long since forgotten that you read :-)

• Alita Holly (LD & DVD Producer) - November 11, 1998, Proton Charging (alt url)
• The Bus Boys - March 13, 2000, Ghostbusters Central
• Dan Aykroyd - August 1998, Playboy magazine
  (originally transcribed by Paul Rudoff and given to Rick Haslewood in late-1990s)
• Dan Aykroyd - November 3, 1998, Online Chat with People Online
• Dave Coulier - November 17, 1999, Ghostbusters Central
• Ernie Hudson - April 21,1998, Online Chat with Gist (I, Paul Rudoff, participated in this chat session)
• Ernie Hudson - April 23, 1998, Online Chat with RealHollywood.com (AUDIO FILE, REAL MEDIA, 2.7 Mb, 53:34)
• Ernie Hudson - July 9, 1998, Online Chat with TV Guide Online (no longer online, archived on Spook Central)
• Ernie Hudson - April 5, 1999, Online Chat with Bigstar & Yahoo
• Fil Barlow - November 29, 1998, Proton Charging
• James Van Hise - September 20, 1999, Ghostbusters Central
• Jean-Marc Lofficier - October 9, 1998, Proton Charging
• Leo Zahn - July 19, 1999, Proton Charging
• Mary Kay Bergman - October 20, 1999, Ghostbusters Fan Forum
• Michael Reaves - July 20, 1999, Proton Charging
• Paul Green (RGB UK Comic Artist) - October 20, 1999, Ghostbusters Central
• Robin Navlyt - December 16, 1998, Ghostbusters Fan Forum
• Scott Haring (GB RPG Designer) - June 6, 1998, Proton Charging (alt url)
• Slavitza Jovan - August 27, 1998, Proton Charging
• Tara Charendoff (now Tara Strong) - August 3, 1998, Ghostbusters Fan Forum
• Tara Charendoff (now Tara Strong) - October 1, 1998, Online Chat with RealHollywood.com
• Tara Charendoff (now Tara Strong) - November 1998, Nickelodeon Magazine
• Tara Strong - April 16, 2001, Online Chat with Yahooligans
• Cast Members of NBC's "Saturday Night" - Playboy magazine, May 1977, by John Blumenthal and Lindsay Maracotta

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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: