Bomberman

Overview

Bomberman, also known as Bakudan Otoko and Bomber Man, is a top-down action maze game developed by Y. Tanaka and T. Sasagawa and published by Hudson Soft for the MSX on July 1983. It also received conversions to multiple Japanese computers at the time, including the Sharp X1, Sharp MZ, NEC PC-88, NEC PC-6000, and FM-7. The MSX and X1 versions, along with a ZX Spectrum version, were also released in Europe in 1984 as Eric and the Floaters.

In the game, players guide their character (a man in work clothes) around a maze and lay bombs so that their blasts destroy balloon creatures scattered throughout without being caught (either by the creatures or by the blasts). They can also destroy certain blocks with the blasts, creating passageways while revealing treasure for bonus score and exit blocks for early completions.

The game later received a conversion for the Family Computer in Japan on December 20, 1985, which received an overseas NES release years later on January 1989. This version is the most well-known and features numerous differences, including the titular hero's robotic design (based on the guards from the Famicom version of Lode Runner), smooth scrolling, upgrade power-ups, multiple enemy types, bomb placements being every full tile (rather than half-tile), and bombs that cannot be stepped over (allowing the player to trap enemies, as well as get trapped themself). These features would be standard throughout the entire series.

The Famicom version was later ported to the MSX in 1986 (as Bomberman Special), to the Famicom Disk System on April 2, 1990, and the Game Boy Advance in 2004 (as part of the Famicom Mini / Classic NES Series / NES Classics series).