Kerrie Murphy | December 02, 2008
DEFRAG has just heard some exciting news: Atari is planning to release a video game based on the movie Ghostbusters.
Now at this point some of you may be thinking: hang on a minute, Defrag. Did you wake up thinking it was still 1984 again? I suppose that would explain your decision to wear a fluorescent pink tube skirt and an oversized "Frankie says" T-shirt and tease your hair to a height that would enable you to easily smuggle ferrets in it.To which we say: what? No! We always dress like this.
It's a small sacrifice we make to show the youth of today where it will all tragically end if they keep reviving 1980s fashions with such vigour.
It also helps with our clandestine ferret-smuggling operation.
Anyway, we can assure you we are fully cognisant of the era in which we live, unlike the folks at Atari, who have indeed announced a Ghostbusters game.
It will take up where the movie Ghostbusters II left off, and most of the original cast, including Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis, will supply their voices.
All except Sigourney Weaver and Rick Moranis, who are presumably saving themselves for, respectively, the Gorillas in the Mist and Honey, I Shrunk the Kids video games, which are no doubt just around the corner. It led us to wonder what other movies from the 1980s might be ripe for a video game revival.
How about a Lost Boys game in which you have to be all mopey about the fact that you are a vampire and spend your days listening to the Doors, instead of using your awesome vampire powers to take care of not one, but two, Coreys - Haim and Feldman - and hang out with a spiky mulleted Kiefer Sutherland.
One 1980s movie that Atari will definitely want to steer clear of is ET the Extraterrestrial.
Its 1982 ET game for the Atari 2600 is still considered one of the worst games ever, and partly why the company posted a $US536 million loss the following year.
TOP 10
This week:
National Geographic has announced a games division. Send us the top 10 signs you're playing a game designed by it.
10. The gameplay consists of trying to escape a bright yellow border.
9. It consists of a coffee table cover with graph parameters and highlighters to track positive or negative global warming opinions.
8. The gameplay consists of sitting very quietly waiting for nothing to happen.
7. It's boring and overly US-centric.
6. Most of it is about Hitler.
5. Their teacher is making your children play it.
4. You have to defeat an evil dinosaur: the Discovery Channelsaurus.
3. It includes the breasts and bottoms of naked ladies but isn't R-rated.
2. The game is set on the morning of September 9, 2001, and consists of Dian Fossey being assassinated on the wreck of the Titanic at the top of Mt Everest by Palestinian rebels.
1. It's only available in a doctor's surgery!
Contributors: Matthew Gregory, Iain Kennedy, Keith Cundale, Ray Moloney, Emma Crane, David Savall, Colleen Sheridan.
Next Week: The Wakamaru domestic robot has made its theatre debut, appearing in a play at Japan's Osaka University. Tell us your top 10 tips to tell an actor is really a robot.
Answers by Thursday please to OzDefrag@Gmail.com