Ghostbusters (1984)

David Crane’s 1984 computer game Ghostbusters is a favorite of mine, but glancing at it today, most people would be hard-pressed to find anything it does that seems particularly extraordinary. In 1984, though, the magic was obvious, thanks to its remarkable “bank account” system. Effectively an early example of the sort of video game password that saves your progress which would become ubiquitous in the NES era a few years later, it was more than the technology that made it so cool. It was the implementation.

The game starts by having you “log on” to your bank account with your name and account number, which lets you carry over the amount of money you’ve earned from one game to the next. Although the game has no online functionality whatsoever, the fact that it pretends to made taking my “account information” over to my friend’s house and accessing my bank balance on his Commodore 64 a thrill, and as the video above explains, the thinking that went into this feature is still impressive today. — CP