Ghost Hunters Amstrad CPC

HUNK STUDBUCKLE's brother is trapped in Nightmare Mansion. He must destroy the spirits of evil if they are to meet this side of hell! Does he fail or suceed? His fate is up to you... —back of box

Ghost Hunters is an platform/action video game written by the Oliver twins for the Amstrad CPC and ZX Spectrum platforms and published by Codemasters in February 1987. The game combined platform-style action with shooting gameplay similar to that found in the game Operation Wolf.

The game is the second release by the Oliver twins, published when they were just seventeen years old and still going to school. It was conceived as a sequel to their first commercially successful game, Super Robin Hood, although it has little to do with this game other than using a modified version of its engine. The game is arguably an early example of the survival horror genre of computer games.

The twins have credited the film Ghostbusters and the cartoon series Scooby Doo for influencing the game.

Gameplay

Like their previous game, Super Robin Hood, the player controls a character (named Hunk Studbuckle) around the platform style screen using the keyboard or joystick. Uniquely, to attack the enemy, the player must temporarily use the cursor keys to move targeting cross-hairs to shoot ghosts and demons (in a similar manner to Operation Wolf), causing the character to stand still. This results in the player requiring to shoot the targets quickly and operate their character to move around the screen before more would appear. In addition to being able to walk, the character can also jump and climb ladders. In addition to enemies to be killed, the environment contains items that can be collected, including 'macho energy' top-ups and 'key' items that unlock further areas. The game is one of few available on the CPC and ZX Spectrum platforms to feature low resolution clips of human speech, although playing them was so CPU-intensive that the game was required to freeze for their duration. Source:Wikipedia