Bomb Jack
A 1984 arcade platformer with floating jumps and bomb collection.
Bomb Jack is a 1984 platform arcade game developed and published by Tehkan. It was released in North America by Kitkorp as that company's first arcade title. The game was a commercial success and spawned several sequels, including Mighty Bomb Jack, Bomb Jack Twin, and Bomb Jack II.
Quick Facts
- Developer
- Tehkan
- Designer
- Michitaka Tsuruta; Kazutoshi Ueda
- Genre
- Platform
- Modes
- Single-player, multiplayer
Facts from the source article.
Gameplay
The player controls Bomb Jack, a hero who can perform high jumps and float in the air. The objective is to collect all 24 red bombs on the screen. Enemies include birds and mummies; when they reach the bottom of the screen, they can morph into flying saucers or orbs that float around, causing Jack to lose a life on contact. Collecting one bomb causes bombs to light up in sequence; collecting a lit bomb lights another. Collecting bombs fills a bonus meter at the top of the screen, and when full, a bouncing "P" appears. Collecting it turns all enemies into bonus coins for a short time. Other bonuses include B (increases score multiplier up to 5x), E (extra life), and rare S (free game). There are five screens with distinct backgrounds and platforms; the fifth has no platforms. A special bonus is awarded for collecting 20, 21, 22, or 23 lit bombs at round's end.
Reception
In May 1984, Japanese publication Game Machine ranked Bomb Jack as the third most popular table arcade cabinet. The game later reached number one on the UK's all-formats software sales chart in April 1986. On platform-specific lists, the Commodore 64 version hit the top spot, while the ZX Spectrum version was held off the summit by Green Beret. A budget re-release on the Encore label two years later pushed Bomb Jack back to the top of the UK all-formats chart. Crash magazine awarded the ZX Spectrum version 92%, calling it a great arcade conversion not to be missed. Zzap!64 was less impressed, giving the Commodore 64 version just 47%. Commodore User rated the Amiga version 6 out of 10, arguing the system should handle a four-year-old arcade game much better.
Legacy
Bomb Jack II, a licensed follow-up for 8-bit home computers by Elite Systems, reached number one on the UK sales charts before being replaced by Feud. Mighty Bomb Jack (1986) is largely identical to the original but links the same screen layouts in a map-like continuous form via scrolling passages; it received less favorable reviews. Bomb Jack Twin (1993) by NMK allowed two players to play simultaneously. The game was first re-released in 2004 via Tecmo Hit Parade for the PlayStation 2, then in 2005 for the Xbox as part of Tecmo Classic Arcade. Hamster Corporation released it for the PlayStation 4 in 2014 and Nintendo Switch in 2019 as part of their Arcade Archives series.
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