BombermanBoard

Parallax Scroll · #1 Posted: Wed Oct 09, 2013 3:51 pm

There was Hi-Ten Bomberman (1993) and Hi-Ten Chara-Bom (1994). The later version featured Bonk as a playable character.

These HD Bomberman games were designed for Japan's analog HDTV standard called Hi-Vision which used a resolution of 1035i with a 16:9 widescreen format. Yes, HDTV existed in Japan in the early 1990s even though it was super expensive and there was not much programming. NHK developed Japan's analog HDTV standard during the 1960s, 70s and 80s. By 1991 or so, everything was in place. HDTV sets and test/trial HD broadcasts via satellite.

Hi-Ten Bomberman's controller input was handled by two NEC PC-Engine CoreGrafx consoles (TurboGrafx-16 in the U.S.), each handling 5 players via multi-taps.

The actual game running in the HD resolution of 1035i and 16:9 widescreen format was handled by some custom high-end PC / workstation / custom boards, which later became Hudson's 32-Bit 'Project Tatsujin' (aka Iron Man) prototype which was later stripped down & modified into the PC-FX console that released in 1994. The PC-FX was not capable of running games in HD.

Only a total of 5 Hi-Ten Bomberman units were built, each costing a small fortune, the equivalent of.around 2 million U.S. dollars back then, and I thought high-end 3D arcade games were expensive!

Footage from the first version at an actual Summer Caravan event in 1993

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KVoPogwVts

That video has been upscaled to 1080p but the native resolution of the recording itself is obviously very low res--so it is impossible to fully appreciate the HD resolution of the game, but you can still see what it looked like and the plasma display.

More videos of the two versions of the game (Hi-Ten Bomberman & Hi-Ten Chara-Bom) running on various HD sets and computer monitors. This is recently uploaded footage.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5bZz5Xofi8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ryRP26QNtk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGVJTJSz9Xg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MvS0OH3_tw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtH8wZSKSkA

Hudson article from Next Generation magazine, number 3
http://archives.tg-16.com/NG/NG_1995_03_078.jpg
http://archives.tg-16.com/NG/NG_1995_03_080.jpg
http://randomhoohaas.flyingomelette.com/bomb/arc-hiten/img/edge17d.JPG

Probably the most comprehensive web page about Hi-Ten anywhere
http://randomhoohaas.flyingomelette.com/bomb/arc-hiten/

It is important that those videos stay online, as they are precious.

The Hi-Ten Bomberman units were sold and/or destroyed. At least some of them were supposedly thrown in the trash. It is very unlikely that the game(s) will ever be leaked to the internet so that we might be able to play them via some sort of emulator. That will never happen. It's very much a sad state of affairs but at least the footage can be preserved.