Remember that scene near the beginning of Ghostbusters? Peter Venkman’s eyes lit up at the moneymaking possibilities opening up to him and his friends after their first successful encounter with a ghost. It seems like an oddly prescient comment considering the video game franchise, which is taking a turn away from those original actors toward a whole new four-person crew. In the new Sanctum of Slime video game, a new, inexperienced team takes over for the team from the films.

And yet, the more things change, the more they stay the same. This “new” crew has fresh faces, but their bios sound awfully familiar. You can tell the game’s developers designed these new characters to fill the group’s pre-established roles. (And I assume we’re meant to get to know them because they’ll probably be the “stars” of future Ghostbusters games.) Atari‘s supplied concept art and details for each one, so take a look and let me know what you think.

Alan Crendall is the crew’s level-headed workhorse, steady but fast-thinking, who always has his team members’ backs. Functions as their de facto leader when a plan is needed in a hurry. I always thought of Venkman as the original team’s leader, but this Crendall guy’s description sounds more like the blue-collar Winston Zeddemore.

Samuel Hazer is the happy-go-lucky scientist of the group, aka the new Ray Stantz. Unlike other members of the team, he has some experience as a student of the paranormal — knowledge that comes in handy in the field.

Bridget Gibbons is the token “tough chick,” the wisecracking female who spends most of her time poking fun at others, but becomes all business when it’s go time. Yep, she’s a female Peter Venkman.

Gabriel Sitter is the team’s resident egghead, a technical genius who’s always looking to develop new technologies that the Ghostbusters can use in their work. Might as well be a clone of Egon Spengler.

It was inevitable that future games in the Ghostbusters franchise would have to move away from the original crew — because wrangling those four actors and their schedules for any sort of project probably requires an act of God — but I sure wish the devs had chosen to inject some creativity and new blood into the franchise.

Ghostbusters: Sanctum of Slime will hit Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network, and PCs everywhere on March 23rd.

Sanctum of Slime is a follow-up to the original Ghostbusters video game, which was a 3D shooter. An expensive game to produce, it featured a story by the films’ writers, the likenesses and voices of the original cast, and top-notch production values. Sanctum of Slime was far less costly to produce, with an entirely new perspective and a new team of ‘Busters who take over for the original crew. Just like the original, you’ll play as a rookie alongside your AI teammates (or with three buddies in the co-op mode).

The story finds New York City beset by “a disaster of ghoulish proportions,” with dozens of indoor and outdoor environments where you’ll take on waves of ghostly enemies. Check out the new trailer below that shows off some of these new environments. Weapons players will use this time include the standard Proton Pack as well as the Plasma Inductor and the Fermion Shock. You’ll also get to pilot a new version of the Ghostbuster’s signature ride, which this time is said to be an all-terrain vehicle.

Atari says it is committed to continuing the Ghostbusters franchise with more games to come, but whether they’ll be this sort of top-down game or an entirely different kind of experience. Sanctum of Slime has been created by developer Behavior Studios.

Ghostbusters: Sanctum of Slime is the name of the next entry in the Ghostbusters video game franchise. Ghostbusters: The Video Game (man, I still need to play that one sometime…) was enough of a hit that Atari and Sony are planning a pseudo-sequel.

It’s not a traditional sequel, because where the first game was an off-the-shelf third-person adventure, Sanctum of Slime takes a top-down view (similar to Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light), and it’s not selling in stores. Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network, and Atari.com will be selling the game for consoles and PC.

As developed by creative studio Behavior Studios, this new game finds you taking on the role once again of the “rookie” Ghostbuster that debuted in the first game, and fighting a major new paranormal threat to New York City. The downside: the original four Ghostbusters will not be part of this (or presumably, any future) game. Instead, Sanctum of Slime offers players the chance to team up with local or online co-op for up to four players. Atari also promises big boss battles and even a new Ghostbusters SUV/jeep for players to drive.

Ghostbusters: Sanctum of Slime drops in Spring 2011. Check out the first screenshots for the game below.

What do you think? Are you interested in playing a Ghostbusters game without the original four main characters?

Follow @FGgamer on Twitter for the latest gaming news.

I’m reminiscing about the Atari 400 — my first real computer. As the ad below shows, it was a bit of the poor relation to the Atari 800 – less pricy but less memory.

I’m not sure if that keyboard was supposed to repel spills, but I remember getting quite adept at typing on it.

It certainly had an interesting look to it. Lots of brown colouring and a bit like some sort of console you might find on a spaceship’s flight deck in a cheap movie from the ’70s.

Here’s the manual for the Atari 400/800. Mum has only been given one instruction: “Press the play button”, while the son looks on and wonders when his folks will leave so he can finish that primitive ASCII porn program he started writing yesterday.

Ah, yes, that amazing cassette deck. Unlike the Spectrum, you couldn’t get away with plugging any old player into the computer. No, the Atari 410 was the business.

This poor fellow seems to have a manual for the Disk Operating System II, unaware that it was nigh impossible to use the Atari 400 for that. Time to upgrade to the 800, methinks.

Ahh, Atari 8-bit and 16-bit side by side (well, except for those pesky Commodores sitting in the middle. Who the hell put those there?)

OK here’s one musical use for an old Atari 400 and joystick trigger buttons.

Stick a Dalek on top, we can play Doctor Who on this thing.

Uh, hang on, have you seen the screenshot?

Ahh, I spent many a happy time learning the Atari’s idiosyncratic version of BASIC that missed out some vital bits other 8-bit machines had. INKEY$ anyone? I seem to remember missing that a lot.

Did I tell you about the first program I tried to type in on the Atari 400, without ever pressing Return?

It didn’t work.

Wow, green and orange Chess. You could never put it on the high levels because not only would the computer beat you but it would take about twenty times as long as a human to play each move.

Who says computers have to be fast?

Is it true, or just folklore, that people really bought an Atari computer just to play Star Raiders? I’m doubtful.

Anyhow, there’s a quick nostalgic tour of my beloved Atari 400. Worth all of $20 now I’m sure, but a lot more in memories.

Anyone else have the Atari 400? Are you still running it?

I love this marriage of concepts and materials — parts of an analog clock fused with original Atari 2600 video game cartridges.

Sadly, if you’re after the game itself you’ll be disappointed to hear that the innards have been removed to make way for the clock mechanism.

Plenty of titles on offer including Ms Pac Man, Pole Position, ET, Donkey Kong, Demons to Diamonds, Swordquest Earthworld, Casino and Asteroids. $20 each.

“CantAffordEmCrafts” will also try to help with requests if you have your own cartridge, though not all of them are easy to fit.

Via