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Who you gonna call? Ghostbusters. The pop song of the film hums in your mind as the computer game of both loads into your C64.

Now we all know that a good film or a good pop song is no guarantee of a good game - many games players have learned this lesson the hard way. My suspicious nature was quickly put at ease when I read that the ghost offering is the work of David Crane. In case you haven't heard, Crane's the name that keyed Decathlon and Pitfall 1 and 2 for Activision.

The game begins in generous fashion by giving you £10,000. But before you start planning a world cruise this is not holiday money but working capital.

You must use your cash to equip your ghost-catching business. You'll need a vehicle and traps to catch the spooks.

The amount of money you speculate on equipment must be recouped when you set out on your rounds freeing the neighbourhood of its unwanted ghostly inhabitants.

In true American tradition, the idea of the game is to make as much money as possible by trapping the ghosts and reaching the top of the Zuul Tower with at least two of your fellow ghostbusters still alive.

The game still uses the buzz words from the film - ghosts are called "slimers" and the villains "marshmallow men". But are people going to know what these strange words mean, as the game is being launched several weeks before the film? Yes, says an Activision spokesman, "the kids know what marshmallow men are". Who's he calling a kid?

The catchiness of the pop song has not escaped the manufacturer's attention and the player is induced to join in with the Ghostbusters chant at certain points in the game.

The acid test for games based on film and books is would they still be good games if you have never heard of what ever it is they are supposed to be about. In this case, the answer is yes - excellent sound and graphics and a playable game. One gripe though, why should disk owners have to pay twice as much for the game as people buying it on cassette?