About
Ghostbusters: The Video Game is a 2009 action-adventure shooter based on the Ghostbusters franchise, with the original film cast (Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis, Bill Murray and Ernie Hudson) reprising and voicing their roles. Aykroyd and Ramis wrote the story, which is set after Ghostbusters II and is widely regarded as an unofficial third film; players join as a new recruit using the proton pack and other gadgets to capture ghosts. Built on Terminal Reality's Infernal engine, it was well received for its faithful tone, humor and destructible environments. The 2009 original (appid 9870) was delisted from Steam in early 2017 when the license lapsed, and is distinct from the still-for-sale 2019 Remastered edition.
Identity
Launch
- Binary
- Ghostbusters.exe
- Needs files
- none beyond the binary
Proton
- Version
- GE-Proton
- Winetricks
- —
- ProtonDB
- ProtonDB Gold runs perfectly after tweaks
⚙ Setup notes
Version: 2009 original (Steam appid 9870), delisted from Steam Feb 2017 after the license lapsed — distinct from the still-for-sale Remastered (appid 1449280).
GFWL: The original uses Games for Windows Live (GFWL/xlive) which is dead and can hang launch or block save/profile creation.
Fix: Best path on Deck: run under GE-Proton and apply an xlive bypass (drop a stub xlive.dll / use an XLiveLess-style fix in the prefix) so the GFWL login is skipped; the game then boots straight into single-player.
Controller: Native Xbox 360 (XInput) controller support, so the Deck gamepad works without a Steam Input layout. Known quirk: the game may boot with keyboard/mouse prompts — nudge the left stick (or open Controls in the options menu) once to switch to gamepad prompts; some setups also prefer the pad connected before launch.
Install: deckport only configures the prefix; it never bundles or links the game files.
The one thing to know
Supply your own copy: deckport links nothing.
Version: This is the 2009 ORIGINAL (appid 9870), delisted from Steam in Feb 2017 — not the Remastered (appid 1449280), which is still on sale and out of scope.
GFWL: Main caveat is Games for Windows Live: the dead GFWL/xlive layer can hang the launcher or refuse to create a save profile, so an xlive bypass (stub xlive.dll / XLiveLess-style fix) in the prefix is effectively required; with that in place it runs well under GE-Proton.
Multiplayer: Multiplayer/online features are gone but the campaign is fully single-player.
Controller: Controller works natively (XInput/Xbox layout), no Steam Input remap needed — but on first launch nudge the left stick (or visit the Controls option screen) to flip from keyboard to gamepad prompts.
Binary: Binary set to Ghostbusters.exe — confirm against your install.
Community guides
Write-ups and threads from people who got this (or a similar) game running. deckport links to them — it doesn't reproduce them.
Get the artwork
deckport never hosts game images. Open this game on SteamGridDB, pick
the cover / hero / logo / icon you like, and drop them into the
game folder under .deckport-art/ before you push it to the
Deck. The importer files them under the right names automatically.
Run it on your Deck
Two files: the one-time importer (deckport.py) in your
Deck's home folder, and this game's install helper. Copy the game
into ~/Games and run the helper with Steam closed — it
writes the recipe (binary, launch options, Proton version)
and registers the shortcut with artwork.