GHOSTBUSTERS II

 There's a maxim in Hollywood that says lousy books make great movies and great
books make lousy movies. GHOSTBUSTERS II, from the folks at Activision, suggests
that we can add a saying of our own: Lousy movies make terrific computer games.
(This review is based on the IBM-PC version.)

 Following the plot of the movie, you begin the game in court. The judge is
about to throw the book at you when two ghosts appear. Zap the ghosts
(destroying the courtroom in the meantime) and get $10,000. This is not as easy
as it sounds. The ghosts move about like crazy, and it requires a lot of zaps to
capture them. Meanwhile, the two of them are firing back at you -- get hit three
times and it's the end of the sequence. There are gauges in the upper-right
corner of the screen that tell you the energy level of the ghosts. More
importantly, there's a thermometer on the upper left to tell you how hot your
proton pack is. When it overheats, all you can do is duck fireballs until it
cools down.

 Finishing this sequence -- either successfully or otherwise -- puts you in the
Ghostbusters lab. There are now two missions that must be carried out; you'll
need $55,000 to build the proper equipment to go against chief bad guy Vigo, and
you're also going to need to find three songs that slime "likes." To raise
money, answer the phone ("We got one!" yells the digitized voice of Annie
Potts). Then, it's off to battle more ghosts in sequences similar to the
courtroom sequence: Central Park, the docks, and a clothing store. Note that the
havoc you can wreak in these sequences includes blasting the door off the
changing rooms in the store. Behind the door is a woman clad only in panties.
She spends the rest of the scene wriggling around, an effective distraction for
older players, but something that parents of younger players may not appreciate.
(Similarly, in the park sequence, you can destroy the top half of the
Port-O-San, revealing a man quite upset to be interrupted.)

 To gather slime, you'll descend to the sewers. Ghosts and bats whiz around,
/+arms reach up from the slime to try and pull you in. Hang onto the rope
too long and you run the risk of losing your grip from fatigue. If you're
successful in gathering some slime, bring it back to the lab and crank up the CD
player to try to find some songs the gunk might like. The gunk will either
bubble along happily or explode.

 If you're unsuccessful in battling ghosts or gathering slime, you wind up a
prisoner in Parkview Hospital. You can use another Ghostbuster to climb down the
wall, smash through a window and rescue the inmate, but beware of orderlies
eager to make you a prisoner as well. If all four Ghostbusters end up in the
hospital, the game is over.

 If you get all the money and the right three songs, head off to the museum in
the Statue of Liberty to do battle with the evil Vigo. Well, you get the idea.
There's a lot to do in this game; plenty to keep anyone occupied for a long
time.

 Fortunately, the little "extras" make spending the time worthwhile. Terrific
EGA graphics, lots of music (including Ray Parker, Jr.'s "Ghostbusters Theme"),
and digitized photos and voices from the film all add up to a winner. If only
they had put as much thought and energy into the movie! The only drawback that I
could find is there's no way to save a game in progress.

 The IBM version of GHOSTBUSTERS II is supplied on four 5-1/4" and two 3-1/2"
diskettes. The game can be installed on your hard disk. Although the install
procedure only offers the option of installing to drives "C" or "D," I found I
could copy the files to another partition and the game ran fine. 512K RAM is
required. Activision notes in the accompanying documentation that if you're
playing GHOSTBUSTERS II on a 4.77 MHz machine, it can take up to two minutes
after one sequence ends to load the next.

 Graphics support is provided for CGA, EGA, Tandy 16 color, and monochrome. The
AdLib and Roland MT-32 music cards are supported. The game can be played from
the keyboard, with a joystick, or a mouse. Mouse users will be frustrated to
find that some sequences require use of the joystick or keyboard. Those without
a joystick or mouse will probably find the ghost-busting sequences practically
impossible to complete; they're hard enough as it is.

 One helpful tip (which for many will not be as obvious as it sounds) is to
thoroughly read the documentation before playing the game. Some of these
sequences are just too involved to completely figure out on your own.

 I spent two hours watching GHOSTBUSTERS II, the motion picture, and came away
feeling as if I'd wasted my time and money. I'll spend many more hours playing
GHOSTBUSTERS II, the computer game, and having a heckuva good time.

 GHOSTBUSTERS II is published by Activision and distributed by Mediagenic.

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