Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!gem.mps.ohio-state.edu!wuarchive!texbell!bigtex!mybest!occrsh!uokmax!norlin From: norlin@uokmax.UUCP (Norman Lin) Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.8bit Subject: Help with Ghostbusters Message-ID: <3804@uokmax.UUCP> Date: 18 Sep 89 16:28:28 GMT Reply-To: norlin@uokmax.UUCP (Norman Lin) Organization: University of Oklahoma, ECN Lines: 75 Ghostbusters is VERY easy to beat. Our bank account is now in the $900,000 range. First thing you've got to know is all that extra equipment is NOT needed. All you need are two traps, ghost bait, and the cheapest car. Then, there are many ways to catch the ghosts, but the most reliable is the "smash the suckers against the wall" technique. To do this, position your first man at the VERY right of the screen. Press FIRE to make him drop the trap. Then, move your man to about 1/4 of the way from the LEFT of the screen and press FIRE to make him take position. Screen should look as follows: GHOST (anywhere) MAN #1 TRAP Then, move in man #2 to the left of man #1; it doesn't matter which way he faces; he is unimportant. WAIT until the ghost is well to the right of man #1; then, press FIRE. Screen should look as follows: / / / / GHOST / / / / MAN #1 TRAP Then, edge the joystick right (DON'T rush it) so that the ghost eventually is sandwiched between the right-hand side of the screen and your beam. He's now stuck and can't move but vertically. Wait until he is low and right above the trap, then press FIRE, catching him quickly. Now, since you only have two traps, head back to GHQ to "deposit" the ghost. If absolutely necessary, you can use the 2nd trap before heading back to GHQ. Later on, you'll have more ghosts than you can handle. Eventually, the Marshmellow Man will come. You'll have about 3 seconds to react. You'll suddenly see all the ghosts converging on ONE spot on the map screen, and "---MARSHMELLOW ALERT---" will scroll on the bottom of the screen. Now, QUICKLY, press the "B" key to drop your bait. Then, the ghosts will all head to the BAIT instead of the point where they were converging. This averts the marshmellow attack and gives you $2000 (I think). If you fail and DON'T avert the marshmellow attack, you lose $5000 (I think, but I KNOW it's more than you gain if you averted the attack). Anyway, enough of those $2000 bonuses, and your bank balance will be ABOVE its initial balance. And whenever the game ends with your bank balance ABOVE the initial balance, you get a new account number. Now, you see the reason for NOT buying all those fancy gizmos and the fast sports car; if you spend more money, you still MUST, I repeat, MUST *make* more money; the game is pointless UNLESS your ending balance is above your starting balance. As I said, this tactic got us $900,000. But, you see, that money is quite useless, since the more you spend, the more you must earn. Once you get an account, you get an account number that you will enter next time you play, and you will start with the money that you ended up with last time. Sorry, but I have no hints for getting past the Marshmellow Man at the end. I had to modify the program to get past him; my manual dexterity was lacking. If you know how to do this, go to it. The way I did it was as follows: since I have an 800XL, the O.S. can be put in RAM. I did this, then wrote a little NMI to take care of getting me past the Marshmellow Man. This NMI technique is quite versatile and generally applicable; if I'm lucky (and Antic ever publishes my game program "Invasion" that they said they would [see an earlier posting to learn more about "Invasion"]), I might be able to sell this technique to Antic, and you'll be able to get all the details there.