DETAILED DESCRIPTION:
Data East was one of the best 3rd party licensees for the NEOGEO. It was certainly
among the most well known. They released a total of 6 games for the NEOGEO system, and
all of them were fun games to play. Ghost Lop would have made a very nice 7th addition
to the software catalog.
Ghost Lop is an excellent Ghostbusters themed puzzle game by Data East from 1996. It
combines the fast action of an Arkanoid style game, with the quick thinking of a Bust-A-Move
type game. The game was re-considered for release in 2001, but SNK's untimely demise
later that same year may have ended that possibility. Data East was well known for its'
Chain Reaction / Magical Drop series of puzzle games, and even later included the
Ghostlop characters in one of the later releases of the series for modern home game systems.
On a personal note, Ghost Lop was the first unreleased prototype NEOGEO cartridge that
I acquired. The complete true story on how and when I obtained the original cartridge is
very interesting and it can be read in both the game's home cart manual, as well as
HERE on this other website.
INFORMATION TIMELINE:
-- September 1996 -- Ghost Lop is shown at the 1996 AMOA show in Dallas, Texas, USA.
-- September 1996 -- Ghost Lop is shown at the 1996 AM show in Japan.
-- October 1996 -- Game Machine Magazine reports on the show and provides a screen shot .
-- November 1996 -- DATA EAST places an advertisement in Game Machine Magazine.
-- 1996 -- Neo News # ?? has an article on Ghost Lop with art.
-- December 1996 -- EGM Magazine publishes a short article on Ghost Lop with screenshots.
-- December 1996 -- DATA EAST places an advertisement in Game Machine Magazine.
-- January 1997 -- NEOGEO FREAK #20 has an article on Ghost Lop with screen shots.
-- February 1997 -- Ghostlop is shown at the 1997 AOU show in Chiba-ken, Japan.
-- March 1997 -- GAMEST #171 has an article on Ghost Lop with screen shots.
-- April 1997 -- Game Machine Magazine reports on the show and provides a screen shot .
-- May 1997 -- CVG Magazine (UK) alludes to Data East's game at the 1997 AOU show.
-- January 2002 -- emulated screen shots are discovered which were provided by Ukichi.
-- February 2003 -- A sample proto cartridge of Ghost Lop is found and acquired. (Ohio, USA)
-- April 2003 -- the NGM / NGH software product number is confirmed to be 228.
-- Summer 2003 -- Ghost Lop is made available through a controlled community release.
CURRENT STATUS: RELEASED
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