I recently came across a mystery game that I didn’t know existed. It has been referred to as “Ghostbusters Challenge” since it was discovered. The box and cartridge art both clearly display a couple of Ghostbusters with proton packs on. Is this a real Ghostbusters game? Let’s dive in.
Starting with the box art for the game. It was sold by a Canadian retailer called Zellers for what looks like $6.99. The game was compatible with the Atari 2600. This compatibility is oddly more prominent than the title of the game, which is actually “Challenge.”
And here’s where something is strange in the neighborhood. The artwork. The is no mention of Ghostbusters anywhere (at least on the front of the box, which is all I could find). Their shoulders have what looks like the no-ghost logo patch, and they’re using their proton packs to fight whatever this goblin is.
Looks like it would be a game about busting ghosts, even though it’s called “Challenge” and not “Ghostbusters,” right?
Well, not so fast. Before the Untitled Goose Game, there was “Challenge.”
In this game, you are a duck. As a duck, you must work your way through a maze, from the bottom right corner of the screen to the top left corner. Each time you do that, you’ll progress to the next level.
What happened to the ghosts? What happened to the proton packs? No idea. As soon as I saw this image I started to surface memories from a very long time ago. Somewhere in my memory, I believe, I have seen this image before. I might have had a friend who had this game. But I digress.
Challenge was originally released in 1980 in Europe. It was developed by a company called Funvision. But if it was released in 1980, where did the obvious Ghostbusters art come from? No idea. It must have been done by someone who was packaging the game up for sale by Zellers in Canada who had created the art for the game. It is clear to me that they were trying to capitalize on the popularity of Ghostbusters, so the game obviously must have been released in Canada sometime after 1984.
The original artwork that accompanied the game, as far as I could tell, was this art of a duck and sea monsters:
I wish we could see the back of the box to see if it contained any screenshots of the gameplay. That said, when you see the cartridge artwork, it is easy to see why people would be confused by the artwork. Here’s what the cartridge looked like on the Zellers release of the game:
As you can see, the game looks awesome and looks like it could be awesome Atari 2600 gaming action.
Here’s the top of the cartridge:
Based on those two images you can see why people would call it Ghostbusters Challenge. I would think that a more appropriate name would be “Duck Escape” or “Duck on the Run” or maybe “Running Afowl?”
So in the end the legend of the Atari 2600 Ghostbusters Challenge video game is simply that, a legend based on the odd selection of art to adorn the box and the cartridge for a game… where you’re a duck… on the run. No ghostbusting to be found.
If anyone knows the source of the art, please let us know!