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My 'Holy Grail' of unreleased gaming: Hi-Ten Bomberman

H

herzogzwei1989

Banned
video


This game supposedly ran in 1035i making it the worlds first high definition videogame.


Hi-Ten Bomberman -- "Hi" for High Definition, "Ten" for ten players. Created in 1993 for Japan's widescreen HDTV format called HD-Vision, came more than a decade before Xbox 360 came out. Hi-Ten Bomberman was the ancestor of Saturn Bomberman, but to me Hi-Ten looks better. Hi-Ten Bomberman ran on a custom NEC PC which ran the game and two PC Engine CoreGrafx consoles for inputs. The HDTV display was probably a plasma set costing more than $10,000.
Click to expand...

http://bonkzonk.com/game.ktn?Game=htbm#ss

Hi-Ten Bomberman was a game that was originally planned to be released on the PC-FX, however due to NEC's publishing guidelines, Hi-Ten would never be released for the unit. The game in its original form would never be for sale, but it did however make an appearance in the Hudson Soft Gaming Caravan back in 1993 as part of a competition. Hi-Ten Bomberman was a 10 player version of the popular PC Engine/TG-16game "Bomberman", and was formatted for play on wide-screen HDTV's - the first game ever for the HDTV standard (at the time, HDTV's have been in Japan for many years). You could play as many different characters like "Bonk" or "Bomberman" (Woman or Man) and many more. It is believed that Hudson Soft later released this version, redone slightly, as "Saturn Bomberman", which includes the PC-FX "widescreen" 10-player mode. Saturn Bomberman is basically what the PC-FX version should have been like.
Click to expand...

http://www.pcenginefx.com/PC-FX/html/pc-fx_world_-_f_r_-_hi-ten_bom.html



facts_rumors_htb_01.jpg

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facts_rumors_htb_03.jpg

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facts_rumors_htb_05.jpg




http://www.randomhoohaas.flyingomelette.com/Bomberman/HiTen/info.htm

Great website with lots of information on Hi-Ten Bomberman, including the EDGE/Next Generation article about it and the PC-FX.

I'm so sad that Hi-Ten Bomberman was never released for PC-FX or a later console. The closest we got was the awesome Saturn Bomberman. I've played the 10-player mode in Saturn Bomberman and while it's really good, the graphics are tiny, plus stages & sprites are not detailed like Hi-Ten Bomerman.

Maybe one day it will be emulated but that seems highly doubtful.
 
stuminus3

stuminus3

Member
I like how the resolution allowed for a ridiculously large playfield (since the sprites were still the same and not scaled by the looks of it)! None of the modern-day HD Bomberman games do this, right?
 
S

steveovig

Member
Why don't they do something like this for newer Bomberman games? Instead of churning out "new" level after new level in the same format, give us something different. They did something like this with Saturn Bomberman and it was awesome. MMO Bomberman!
 
H

herzogzwei1989

Banned
Billychu said:
And current gen systems rarely run in 720P.
Click to expand...


I dunno if that's true. While many current-gen 360/PS3 games do run natively in sub-HD resolutions, I think most are 720p if I'm not mistaken. It's 1080p that's rare.
 
H

herzogzwei1989

Banned
old gaf post that I thought was really cool:

SkinSider said:
I played Hi-ten Bomberman (it was running on a PC) at Hudson HQ in Sapporo about ten years ago. It was fucking amazing. There were like, separate mini-battles going on between groups of two or three players. It was chaos and terror all the way.
There were definitely lots of stages. The game had been properly tested and bug checked. It was very polished, lots of power ups and a couple of things that were (at that time) new to the series.

It would be PERFECT for play on 360 Live Arcade.

I am emailing someone about it right now.


And to reiterate, it was running on a PC, which means somewhere, someone has it. The motherlode.
Click to expand...
 
G

Gilby

Member
So why hasn't this been remade for modern PC/consoles? I would definitely buy it.

Seriously, it's not as if it would be hard to make.
 
J

jooey

The Motorcycle That Wouldn't Slow Down
Gilby said:
So why hasn't this been remade for modern PC/consoles?
Click to expand...
at some point 8P became the designated ceiling for bomberman multiplayer. oh and hudson's busy making sudoku games for konami now
 
metareferential

metareferential

Member
Billychu said:
And current gen systems rarely run in 720P.
Click to expand...

That's bullshit. The vast majority of the games are 720p.

Don't make me quote that beyond3d list again.

ITT: that screenshot is incredibly intriguing. I'd like to see that kind of levels in a hd bomberman (though I haven't played one in a while so maybe there's already something similar and I don't know).
 
H

herzogzwei1989

Banned
In the video, I can tell that Hi-Ten Bomberman looks so much better than the 10-player mode in Saturn Bomeberman.

Does anyone else notice this, or is it just me?
 
S

speedpop

Has problems recognising girls
You would think that a Bomberman 10p online with an excellent server UI would sell like cows to a slaughterhouse.
 
DanteFox

DanteFox

Member
I would pay full price for a bomberman with:

-10 player multiplayer
-online battles
-leaderboard
-on pc or wii
 
D

DECK'ARD

The Amiga Brotherhood
herzogzwei1989 said:
In the video, I can tell that Hi-Ten Bomberman looks so much better than the 10-player mode in Saturn Bomeberman.

Does anyone else notice this, or is it just me?
Click to expand...

The 10-player mode in Saturn Bomberman was very much a cut-down version of Hi-Ten.

I too would love to see a release of this, but Bomberman's glory days are long gone now :( Bomberman '94 and the Saturn version (mainly the 10-player mode) remain the high points. The last ones by the original team.
 
H

herzogzwei1989

Banned
DECK'ARD said:
The 10-player mode in Saturn Bomberman was very much a cut-down version of Hi-Ten.
Click to expand...

Yeah, that's what I thought.

I too would love to see a release of this, but Bomberman's glory days are long gone now :( Bomberman '94 and the Saturn version (mainly the 10-player mode) remain the high points. The last ones by the original team.
Click to expand...

It's so sad really. Hudson is dead, along with some of my favorite console franchises. Irem now too. Sucks.
 
H

herzogzwei1989

Banned
TITLE:
Hi-Ten Bomberman / HI-TEN ボンバーマン

Hi-Ten Chara Bomb / HI-TENキャラBOM

CONSOLE:
PC Engine / unique circuitry

GENRE:
Battle (destroy all Bombermen)

PLAYERS:
1 to 10

DEVELOPER:
Hudson

PUBLISHERS:
Hudson

RELEASES:
Summer 1993 (Hi-Ten)
Summer 1994 (Chara Bomb)




What is Hi-Ten Bomberman?

Hi-Ten Bomberman was made in Summer 1993. A multi-player-only game, it was developed to support up to 10 players at once and utilised a large widescreen/landscape-style screen to display the vast battlefield.

Although technically developed for the PC Engine, it was a joint effort between two PC Engine consoles (for controller input and basic hardware) and brand new, unrelated circuit boards that handled the high-definition video display, allowing a 16:9 video resolution (rather than the PC Engine's typical 4:3 display). Never intended for home consoles, the game was made for usage at Hudson's caravan (contest) sites. Five units were made in total, though due to the cost of memory and components at that time, each unit cost around two hundred million yen (200,000,000¥), or approximately two million dollars (by 1993's transfer rate).

In Summer 1994 an updated version was used - Hi-Ten Chara Bomb, which increased the size of the map a little further and introduced selectable characters, ranging from other Bombermen to characters from other Hudson properties.

It's said that Hi-Ten was eventually reworked into the multi-player mode of Saturn Bomberman. The comparison is understandable - both have widescreen displays with up to 8 or 10 characters, and feature cameos from other Hudson Soft characters, though I've heard nothing official about the matter.



Characters

The original Hi-Ten only used Bombermen of different colours. Interestingly, three of them are tinted with vaguely aquatic hues, giving them blue faces.

Chara Bomb uses characters from other Hudson properties, as well as different Bombermen. The known characters include...

1P: Golden Bomber

2P: White Bomber

3P: Black Bomberman (presented with evil eyes)

4P: Momotaro (from the Momotaro Densetsu series)

5P: Princess Yasha (from the Momotaro Densetsu series)

6P: King Bonbi (from the Momotaro Densetsu series)

7P: Manjimaru (from the Tengai Makyo series)

8P: Kabuki (from the Tengai Makyo series)

9P: Bonk (or PC Genjin from the series of the same name)

10P: Milon (from Milon's Secret Castle)


An unmasked Pretty Bomber can be seen on the title screen (see Super Bomberman 3 for more details on that), though I've no idea if she is playable or not. All of the other Hudson characters (minus Yasha and Momotaro) would later reappear in Saturn Bomberman's multi-player mode
Click to expand...
http://www.randomhoohaas.flyingomelette.com/Bomberman/HiTen/info.htm


EDGE / Next Generation #3 article on Bomberman and the PC-FX:
http://www.randomhoohaas.flyingomelette.com/Bomberman/HiTen/HITEN-mag1.JPG
http://www.randomhoohaas.flyingomelette.com/Bomberman/HiTen/HITEN-mag2.JPG
http://www.randomhoohaas.flyingomelette.com/Bomberman/HiTen/HITEN-mag3.JPG
http://www.randomhoohaas.flyingomelette.com/Bomberman/HiTen/HITEN-mag4.JPG
 
P

Princess Skittles

Prince's's 'Skittle's
Cow Mengde said:
I heard it sucked though. Is it good?
Click to expand...
The Bomberman on XBLA? The basic formula is still good enough, although some things like kick and punch don't have the instantaneous speed from previous versions. Plus, there are a lot of game modes (zombie paint mode is really fun).

ElectricBlanketFire said:
As an aside...which is the best version of Bomberman currently on the virtual console?
Click to expand...
Bomberman '93 or '94 ('94 is untranslated, but it isn't an issue).
 
I

itxaka

Defeatist
Gilby said:
So why hasn't this been remade for modern PC/consoles? I would definitely buy it.

Seriously, it's not as if it would be hard to make.
Click to expand...


More like why hasn't this piece of software has been leaked already? We need to conserve games, especially when they are like this one. :(
 
H

herzogzwei1989

Banned
itxaka said:
More like why hasn't this piece of software has been leaked already? We need to conserve games, especially when they are like this one. :(
Click to expand...


Well, as DECK'ARD already said, Saturn's 10-player mode was a cut-down version of Hi-Ten.
 
Herbspiceguy

Herbspiceguy

Member
I read about this in Nintendo Magazine System (UK). They would sometimes cover JP only releases like this. But it could've been a different version, because besides bomberman you could play as different Hudsonsoft characters like Bonk and characters from Far East of Eden Zero. Being familiar with Bomberman on the SNES, I thought this was one of the coolest JP only games then.
 
H

herzogzwei1989

Banned
Herbspicesoy said:
I read about this in Nintendo Magazine System (UK). They would sometimes cover JP only releases like this. But it could've been a different version, because besides bomberman you could play as different Hudsonsoft characters like Bonk and characters from Far East of Eden Zero. Being familiar with Bomberman on the SNES, I thought this was one of the coolest JP only games then.
Click to expand...

In the 2nd version of Hi-Ten (Chara Bomb) you could play as Bonk. The only time you could play this game was at these moving Hudson caravan events in Japan in the summer of 93 and 94.
 
P

PokéKong

Member
This definitely seems like something they would port to PSN/XBLA. Bomberman turns 30 in 2013, it would be the perfect thing!
 
S

Sixfortyfive

He who pursues two rabbits gets two rabbits.
DECK'ARD said:
The 10-player mode in Saturn Bomberman was very much a cut-down version of Hi-Ten.
Click to expand...
Other than the reduced screen resolution, how?

Princess Skittles said:
The Bomberman on XBLA? The basic formula is still good enough, although some things like kick and punch don't have the instantaneous speed from previous versions. Plus, there are a lot of game modes (zombie paint mode is really fun).
Click to expand...
Bomberman Live is ass. The crappy Bomb Kick would be enough to leave a bad taste in my mouth by itself, but the netcode was atrocious. All kinds of bad performance and host advantage.
 
G

Gagaman

Member
They should just flat out port/remake this excatly as it is here. I love seeing retro games up-scaled in this fashion: using the big resolution to make a bigger stage. There is a pengo arcade game Sega put out in japan not so long ago with a similar formula: it has the original graphics but has a huge playing field for up to 8 players. Here's some footage of it.
 
M

Mxylptlk

Neo Member
I probably shouldn't be pushing my own wares, but I can't resist(and it could use sales :))

Our game(link->Explosive Gas) on xbox indies comes close to the features you guys are talking about...
Large playfields(not as wide as hi-ten), 8 player local, 8 player online, even a level editor.

It's got it's own rules, powerups and stuff, so it's not the same as classic bomberman, but the core of it is definitely there and it's insanely fun with local friends.
 
H

herzogzwei1989

Banned
Mxylptlk said:
I probably shouldn't be pushing my own wares, but I can't resist(and it could use sales :))

Our game(link->Explosive Gas) on xbox indies comes close to the features you guys are talking about...
Large playfields(not as wide as hi-ten), 8 player local, 8 player online, even a level editor.

It's got it's own rules, powerups and stuff, so it's not the same as classic bomberman, but the core of it is definitely there and it's insanely fun with local friends.
Click to expand...


I'll take a look, thanks ^__^
 
bengraven

bengraven

Member
Kind of sucks that this was one of the first HD games and yet we get off-screen pictures in low resolution to represent it. :/ Did a leaked build ever exist?

Edit; ah, didn't see the actual video but eh.
 
M

Mister Zimbu

Member
Cow Mengde said:
Online multiplayer Bomberman. Think about it.
Click to expand...

I was thinking about it quite frequently when I was playing it on XBLA 4 years ago and on PC 8 years ago.

But yes, the world needs more Bomberman.
 
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