Hi-Ten Bomberman acquired by Game Preservation Society

[ZenithianHero]

The disc for the unreleased and presumed lost 1993 Bomberman game Hi-Ten Bomberman was sent to Game Preservation Society by none other than Takahashi Meijin. This Bomberman game was a historic feat, considered the first HD video game. It was said the game displayed at 1035i (1920 x 1035) and supported 10 players. It was not planned for a particular arcade or console release. The custom hardware it was built on later became known as the Tetsujin Board, the architecture used for the PC-FX the successor to the PC Engine. The game was only shown off as a tournament was held at the 1993 Hudson Caravan event. Despite being unreleased, the 10 player mode idea was reused for Saturn Bomberman.

Here's an extensive collection of information about the game.
www.randomhoohaas.flyingomelette.com/bomb/arc-hiten/

[starscream]

That's cool. According to the info link, it wasn't planned for the PC-FX though. Rather I think this says that the console was something of a derivate of the hardware that Hi-Ten Bomberman ran on.

[ZenithianHero]

Thanks, I fixed the info.

[KGRAMR]

YES!!!!!! At last!!! It was finally recovered after more than 20 years!

[X-pert74]

Oh shit, that's awesome! I'm really happy when things like this can be safely preserved and archived ^_^

[kingmike]

Cool. At first I thought they simply ran two PC-Engines together, possibly using something else (like an NEC PC) to sync the data between the two.

[scroogemcclunk]

I really hope that the dude who got it is MAME friendly because that's the best shot for emulating this.

If this guy ends up hoarding it, oh boy...

[jorpho]

Very cool, without a doubt – but then, like it says, Saturn Bomberman already does everything it can do, no?

[scroogemcclunk]

As I feared, hoarding asshole dipshits got it and it probably won't ever be released.

If they had just dumped the CD and sent it to MAMEdev the entire planet could have been playing it by now.

[Weasel]

Apr 1, 2019 16:57:06 GMT -5 scroogemcclunk said:

As I feared, hoarding asshole dipshits got it and it probably won't ever be released.

If they had just dumped the CD and sent it to MAMEdev the entire planet could have been playing it by now.

Update, actually: the disc Takahashi found doesn't contain the game, only the music.

Via Google Translation:

The other day, I was contacted about the contents of the disc.

As it is an optical disc about 20 years ago, it seems that there was a physically unstable part in some places, took time to read it while using the error checksum. As a result, this disc was an AUDIO-CD. So, HTB runs that the game program was saved on the PC's HDD, and music such as BGM will be played from this disc as CD sound. By knowing this result, unfortunately, the HTB will not be revived completely unless the discarded PC comes out. It's a shame, but it's a pity that the music back then was back.

This music will be released in the night part of the next "Midnight Game Tournament".

[retr0gamer]

That's a bit of a shitter.

[kingmike]

Sadly it'll be about as likely to get as Twelve Tales (apparently never existed outside of Rare's PCs, they only transferred it to RAM carts for testing on console).

[ZenithianHero]

Sad to hear it wasn't the real deal. I wish he is able to talk with Konami and Hudson staff on the whereabouts. If the music is archived maybe the game was too.

[X-pert74]

Apr 2, 2019 0:27:07 GMT -5 Weasel said:

Apr 1, 2019 16:57:06 GMT -5 scroogemcclunk said:

As I feared, hoarding asshole dipshits got it and it probably won't ever be released.

If they had just dumped the CD and sent it to MAMEdev the entire planet could have been playing it by now.

Update, actually: the disc Takahashi found doesn't contain the game, only the music.

Via Google Translation:

The other day, I was contacted about the contents of the disc.

As it is an optical disc about 20 years ago, it seems that there was a physically unstable part in some places, took time to read it while using the error checksum. As a result, this disc was an AUDIO-CD. So, HTB runs that the game program was saved on the PC's HDD, and music such as BGM will be played from this disc as CD sound. By knowing this result, unfortunately, the HTB will not be revived completely unless the discarded PC comes out. It's a shame, but it's a pity that the music back then was back.

This music will be released in the night part of the next "Midnight Game Tournament".

Aww, damnit Oh well. Hopefully the actual game can resurface someday.