Rare Ghostbusters Lost Media Discovered
With the release of the teaser trailer for Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, more and more fans of the franchise have been remembering the glorious, Ecto Cooler-filled days of their childhood. Now, it looks like Ghostbusters fans can relive an unexpected part of their childhoods in the most unexpected way. According to Ghostbusters News, YouTuber Ginger Happy Gaming has uploaded a never-before-seen video detailing the “internal marketing for Activision’s video game adaptation of 1989’s Ghostbusters II.”
Given how many Ghostbusters games have come out over the years (some much better than others), you may need a refresher for this game. In short, Activision’s Ghostbusters II came out on various platforms such as DOS, Amiga, and ZX Spectrum, but most fans ended up playing it on the original Nintendo Entertainment System.
As opposed to the downright confusing earlier Ghostbusters game on NES, Ghostbusters II was more of a sidescrolling action game…if you imagine a much crappier version of Contra that has been reskinned as a Ghostbusters game, then you’ll have the right idea.
What is included in this Activision marketing video for Ghostbusters II? In the true spirit of marketing, we get a little bit of everything: most of the content hypes up the general success of the franchise, and the video includes clips from the first two Ghostbusters films as well as The Real Ghostbusters animated series. There are also some unexpected gems in the video, including footage from the Amiga release of the game that is included in a special music video edit for Bobby Brown’s song “On Our Own.”
If you haven’t already clicked the link above, we should warn you that the video quality for this Ghostbusters II promotional video is bad…like, so bad that Egon Spengler might need to use a Twinkie to explain it. Of course, it’s not hard to understand why the video quality is so poor: the YouTuber found this promotional tape in an abandoned storage unit, meaning that it has been exposed to the elements and Gozer knows what else for potentially decades. We’re honestly lucky that the tape still works at all, and eager fans are already hard at work on a digital remaster that should make this video look much better.
This promotional video might whet your appetite for more Ghostbusters content, and if so, you’re in luck. Earlier this week, Ghostbusters News uploaded a different video featuring lost footage from the fan-favorite 2009 title Ghostbusters: The Video Game. That video features lost levels and iconic locations cut from the final release of the game, and it even provides an earlier female design for the Rookie character that players control throughout the game.
Since the original Ghostbusters movie came out in 1984, it has led to an enduring franchise that spans films, cartoons, comics, games, and so much more. With the release of a new movie right around the corner and Hasbro successfully crowdfunding a Ghost Trap and PKE meter on HasLabs, it’s a good time to be a fan, and it’s clear that busting still feels good all these decades later. If anyone needs us, we’re going to be whipping up some custom Ecto Cooler to sip on while we dive back into Activision’s flawed but ambitious Ghostbusters II on Nintendo.
