Over in the General GB Discussion forum, Peter Venkmen posted a video of a “condensed” Ghostbusters Spooktacular show. It probably came from a souvenir tape, and it revealed three more ghosts I didn't know about before:

–The Horned Beast, a dragon-like creature, which I'll probably stick in the Haunted Castle level as a miniboss right before the Three-Headed Monster.

–The Deranged Hag, a crazy old lady with nasty, serrated teeth. She can go in the Creepy Circus level as one of the freaks…could Killer Jack use an assistant in the boss level? (EDIT: I think UltimateGBFan already made a vague reference to her becoming the “fake ghost” Louis uses to scare away Walter Peck…actually that was the Hobo, but I was under the impression that the Hobo turned into the Hag for a while)

–The Convict, a deformed prisoner in striped uniform. I think I'll put him in the Runaway Train level as the ghost who keeps trying to change tracks on the Ecto-Tram.

AJ had my scans of the 1988 USF GB: Spooktacular Binder I have, up on GBFans…All sorts of BTS goodness, including the ghosts , the only thing that I never scanned was the diagrams and blueprints to the ride itself…And yes the binder is LEGIT, and at one time was property of USF…

I just wish I knew where that link was(*egon)(*egon)(*egon)…

Was…THIS it?

http://www.gbfans.com/ghostbusters/books/usf-handbook/

Thank you for that, Ectofiend. You've given me enough–more than enough, really–ghosts to work with, but the “boss levels” will remain the same. Instead, you'll have to work your way through ALL of these guys as the smaller ghosts that the beam can destroy, or as secondary bosses/assistants to the main boss.

By the way, one of the rewards you'd be able to get from the game's Password system would be a recreation of the original show, with Woody Woodpecker filling “Jennifer's” role.

Yes, that would be it , and welcome :-)…

Maybe one day when I can afford a new scanner, and have the time I'll re-scan everything pertenant…

I know Crimson will be overjoyed when that happens lol…

The current Ecto-Tram dynamic worries me a little, in that it might make for too long of a game. Still, there's nothing else I can really think of, except for the Player participating in a recreation of the actual show, zapping-and-trapping alongside the four Ghostbusters and protecting WW from Gozer. I think the Backdraft game already covered that dynamic, so on the one hand you can reuse a graphic, but on the other hand, you've got an “it's-been-done” style of gameplay.

Even so, it's the most attraction-accurate thing I can think of. It would eliminate the pregame-cutscene I've devised, but…life's bitter pills and all that.

For the new idea, the Red Stamp challenge would be not losing too much of your Courage–that is, not letting the ghosts scare you.
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EDIT: New idea–this time you're helping WW save Winnie (his girlfriend and the show's hostess) from the ghosts. This will allow us to just barely get around royalties; the USTPA game gave us the rides without the “characters” involved; Back to the Future most notably has nary a mention of Doc Brown or the 8-seater DeLorean.

NEW GAMEPLAY CONCEPT, ADDED 1/26/10

CONTROLS:

Left trigger = lock on

Right trigger = fire

Y button = use Ecto Goggles

Control stick = move

C stick = turn around

Z button = drop Trap

Okay…I think I've got it down now.

The GB uniform costs $2000, and you need it to get into the Five and Dime (aka 55 Central Park West). Once inside, you get to watch a cutscene of Winnie Woodpecker on the Gozer's Temple set giving a lecture about Ghostbusters, as if this is a museum tour She doesn't exactly know what she's talking about, ‘cause you can see her reading off either her “script” or “index cards”. When Slimer appears, she’s kinda spooked, but once she sees him, she's all too happy to play along with his antics. This changes when the other ghosts–Killer Jack, the Bag Lady, the Three-Headed Demon, the Deranged Hag, the Horned Beast, the Drunkard, the Horny Devil, the Convict, and others–appear, and prove themselves far more menacing than Slimer.

Thunder rolls and lightning strikes, and the Temple doors open. Gozer does her thing and tries to drag Winnie into the temple as a sacrifice, but you and Woody Woodpecker appear from opposite sides of the stage, dressed in GB uniforms and equipment. She tries to flee in terror by running around the stage like a greased chicken, but the ghosts follow her. It's important not to take too much time on each ghost.

The object of the game is to prevent Winnie from being scared to death/attacked by the ghosts. You and Woody take turns setting the Proximity Traps–after trapping a ghost, either character must go back to his/her side of the stage and “dispose” of the offending spectre, getting a fresh trap in the process. Beware, for the ghosts will fight back. Obtain the Red Stamp by capturing 5 to 10 ghosts.

After you've captured all the ghosts, you and Woody do battle with Gozer herself. She uses her acrobatics and lightning attacks. It's important to dodge these. After you've drained her of most of her health, she admits defeat and disappears, only to unleash her avatar of destruction…the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man, or at least his Big Fat Head.

Excuse the blatant necroposting, but I like to revisit things every once in a while.

GAME MECHANICS:

I'd like to consciously avoid anything too similar to Ghostbusters: The Video Game here, and the best way to do that is to simplify the ghost-catching concept. Instead of “draining their PKE,” your goal is more to herd them ever closer to the trap. In other words, it's a capture stream throughout. I can safely say that GB:TVG would probably have benefited from a lock-on feature, in that you could keep your sights locked on to a ghost and then follow him around with the stream, as opposed to just firing the nutrona wand blindly.

The idea of the Proximity Trap is nothing new, and it translates well to gameplay in a way that a manually-controlled trap wouldn't, so I'll leave it in.

“Wrapping” a ghost involves turning the C-stick (this is a Gamecube controller) once you have the stream trained on the ghost and have made a few seconds' contact. Once you've wrapped the stream around him, you then have to wrap a few more layers, which makes the stream ever shorter. Don't get too close or the ghost will try to slug you and escape the stream!

Oh, by the way, if we include a Wii version, you'd have to pretend you're a cowboy roping a crazed bull with the Wiimote. There's a lot of “pulling” involved…

GHOSTS–AI TYPES, PERSONALITIES, ETC.

SLIMER/ONIONHEAD: General nuisance; mostly harmless.
PERSONALITY: Mildly aggressive, though he's more fun-loving than anything.
MOVEMENT: Flits about in a figure-8 pattern, randomly appearing and disappearing, until he homes in on you and slimes you. He's hard to catch, but that's part of the point: sliming is a grand tradition.

BAG LADY: An elderly homeless lady, dressed in rags. She rides a shopping cart steered by two strings.
PERSONALITY: Giddy.
MOVEMENT: Zigzags wildly through the air, disappearing when she reaches the back/front/wings of the stage.
ATTACK: It's almost as if she isn't directly attacking you. It seems more as if you're just in her way.
SPECIAL NOTES: The Bag Lady requires a bit of strategy. You have to knock her “off her trolley,” so to speak.

KILLER JACK-IN-THE-BOX: A jack-in-the-box clown with a mean streak a mile wide.
PERSONALITY: Malicious, but humorously so. He finds attacking you jolly good fun.
MOVEMENT: First, his box appears, then he springs out. You have about 3 seconds to get out of the way or dodge the attack.
ATTACK: Jumps out and tries to slam you with his Piko-Piko Hammer (apologies to Amy Rose). He disappears quickly after that. He's also one of the few ghosts to directly attack Winnie. (You have a few of them that do just this, to up her Fear Gauge a bit.)

THREE-HEADED DEMON: Um…exactly what it says on the tin, really!
PERSONALITY: He's a mean SOB. What more needs to be said?
MOVEMENT: He appears and disappears at will. He's mostly stationary, allowing his heads to do the work.
ATTACK: First he appears, and then he strikes with his three heads. He directly attacks Winnie.
SPECIAL NOTES: You actually need a little bit of strategy here! The only way to get him in the Capture Stream is to give him a one-two-three to his heads–first the smaller two, followed by the bigger one.