Budget Buster

The 80s were a simpler time. Everything was one of four shades of green, and Bill Murray was kicking poltergeist ass on the regular.

That's my understanding, anyway.

Budget Buster is a blast from the past, a Game Boy game about sending lost souls back to hell where they belong. Unfortunately, your equipment isn't exactly top-notch. Lock onto a ghost to make them visible, but be warned: You can only lock onto one ghost at a time, and invisible ghosts are still very much lethal to the touch.

When I say "Game Boy game", I mean it! It's easy to make a game inspired by the Game Boy, with the same restricted colour palette and 160x144 resolution. This isn't that. This is an honest-to-goodness, hand-crafted ROM for the Nintendo Game Boy. It can be played in any sufficiently accurate Game Boy emulator or, if you have a flash cart, on real hardware! (If you try this, let me know how it goes! I don't actually have a Game Boy to test with, but BGB is incredibly accurate and it should work fine.)

Controls

D-Pad - Move
B - Switch to a new ghost, making them visible
A - Shoot

Start - Play again after a Game Over
B+Select+Up - From the Game Over screen, delete your saved high score

Tips

• Ghosts always spawn on the edge of the screen. Try to avoid staying near there for too long!
• Neither you nor your bullets can travel through solid objects. But ghosts can! Don't get too comfy when your back is against a literal wall.
• Hold down A to move around without changing direction. Perfect for the classic Spray n' Pray.
• Switch early, switch often! You want to know where as many ghosts are as you can, but make sure to remember what you saw...
• Ghosts aren't clever! They always move directly towards you. Use this to predict their movement while locked onto another ghost.
• You can't see ghosts you aren't locked onto, but when they die, you can certainly hear them! When you shoot a ghost that isn't visible, it'll play the sound effect all the same. Use this to your advantage to determine when you're safe.

Budget Buster is open source!

If you're using the Itch.io app, the download link for the emulator won't work! Go to this link to download the emulator I recommend: http://bgb.bircd.org/