Hi-Ten Bomberman (The first HD video game ever created) disc has been acquired by Game Preservation Society

[Krvavi Abadas]

For those of you who don't know, this was a specialized version of Bomberman that was shown off at various events back in 1993. Allowing 10 player Bomberman matches on what were the earliest HDTV sets available at the time. (To give you an idea on how new this tech was back then, one unit running the game costed about 200,000,000 yen to make, or 2 million US Dollars.)


Unfortunately, the actual hardware the game runs on hasn't been acquired yet. Which could cause some issues in terms of making an emulator for this.

 

[RROCKMAN]

Ooooh this is good stuff, hope the hardware is located soon

 

[bloodyroarx]

Wow just fucking wow this is one of those all time finds like the Nintendo Playstation proto.

 

[Lebon30]

Really nice. Preservation FTW!

 

[stersauce]

i've always wanted more footage about this game

 

[Deleted member 3465]

Oh this is really neat!! Love bomberman

 

[Deleted member 8001]

Holy shit! We need more people like this dude who actually wanna preserve shit instead of hording it. Awesome.

 

[RestEerie]

is it 1080p60fps though.....

 

[Dant21]

is it 1080p60fps though.....

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1035i, as it would have had to follow the existing analog "Hi-Vision" HD standard that Japan had at the time. It might have *also* been quad field interlacing instead of dual field interlacing, but there's no way of knowing without having the original hardware and seeing if it output Hi-Vision RF or direct RGB/Component.

 

[Deleted member 721]

i thought bomberman saturn was the first to have 10 players mode

 

[Ardiloso]

So Saturn Bomberman's 10 players high res mode came from this it seems. Amazing.

 

[Remk NG]

Contributed by Master Higgins!?

This is an awesome find

 

[Giga Man]

Who else is thinking about "Bomberman Battle Royale" right now?

 

[DonMigs85]

Amazingly thin bezels for the time

 

[MegaMix]

Didn't the whole setup cost $100,000 or something at the time?

 

[N.Domixis]

2 million for an HDTV? I can get one for like 50 dollars lmao.

 

[RestEerie]

w

1035i, as it would have had to follow the existing analog "Hi-Vision" HD standard that Japan had at the time. It might have *also* been quad field interlacing instead of dual field interlacing, but there's no way of knowing without having the original hardware and seeing if it output Hi-Vision RF or direct RGB/Component.

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so is it still using analog signals?

 

[GART9000]

Amazingly thin bezels for the time

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I wonder how thick the back of this sucker is.

 

[RestEerie]

2 million for an HDTV? I can get one for like 50 dollars lmao.

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context. A computer in the 60s and 70s probably costs in the hundreds of thousands. Your dinky chromebook that cost 150 can probably outrun those old dinosaurs.

 

[hibikase]

w


so is it still using analog signals?

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In 1993? Most definitely. The tech to push that much digital data wasn't there yet.

 

[Distantmantra]

2 million for an HDTV? I can get one for like 50 dollars lmao.

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This was 26 years ago. I'd love to see what kind of TV you, or if you're too young, your relatives had back then.

 

[Brazil]

This is amazing. I've always been completely fascinated by that game ever since I first heard of it.

 

[somethingisme]

AWESOME!

 

[Ardiloso]

Who else is thinking about "Bomberman Battle Royale" right now?

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Years ago, there was a web based Bomberman game before BR was cool. It was capable of 1000 simultaneous players. It was time based with respawning tho.
https://www.destructoid.com/bombermine-is-1000-player-bomberman-247225.phtml

 

[Kapryov]

oh my god, this is huge news

now we just need to know how to run it

 

[SinCityAssassin]

 

[Lithium Flower]

This was 26 years ago. I'd love to see what kind of TV you, or if you're too young, your relatives had back then.

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The fact that they would even post that should tell you that they weren't alive back then.

 

[Dant21]

w


so is it still using analog signals?

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Not anymore, of course. Hi-Vision was a super niche HDTV standard that Japan had in the 90's. It was all analog, and had to be because digital video compression wasn't even feasible for SDTV until 1991 or so when MPEG-1 got introduced, encoding and decoding hardware for MPEG-1 with enough bandwidth and processing for real-time 1080i would have been unobtainable. Being 1993, it was analog or nothing.

 

[Foltzie]

What was the hardware? A arcade prototype board?

 

[Nali]

Oh wow. I had no expectations that this would ever see the light of day again.

 

[Seafoam Gaming]

Master Higgins saves the day once again

 

[BreakAtmo]

Not anymore, of course. Hi-Vision was a super niche HDTV standard that Japan had in the 90's. It was all analog, and had to be because digital video compression wasn't even feasible for SDTV until 1991 or so when MPEG-1 got introduced, encoding and decoding hardware for MPEG-1 with enough bandwidth and processing for real-time 1080i would have been unobtainable. Being 1993, it was analog or nothing.

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What was the very earliest year that it was possible?

 

[night814]

BATTLE ROYAL

Konami should make a Bomberman Vs like this and release it right now.

 

[Giga Man]

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The best version of multiplayer Bomberman. Bomberman 64 is a gem.

Years ago, there was a web based Bomberman game before BR was cool. It was capable of 1000 simultaneous players. It was time based with respawning tho.
https://www.destructoid.com/bombermine-is-1000-player-bomberman-247225.phtml

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Well, damn. Apparently, it's whatever this is now. http://gameofbombs.com/landing

 

[Nuclear Muffin]

What was the hardware? A arcade prototype board?

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Supposedly it was based on the PCFX, but with several prototype boards slapped together IIRC.

 

[The Spoony Hou]

HOLY SHIT! Takahashi-meijin is the GOAT! And I wouldn't use that stupidly over-used term lightly.

THIS IS FUCKING AMAZING! I'm hyped beyond belief!

I'm not even the biggest Bomberman fan out there, lol.

 

[Dant21]

What was the very earliest year that it was possible?

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Not too much later. There were already digital broadcast TV systems being developed, but none of them would broadcast until 1996, and all of them would use MPEG-2 instead of MPEG-1. There's not really any info out there on when what grade of encoder hardware became available when. The best guess I could think of is 1995.

 

[M-PG71C]

One step closer in seeing it get re-released through emulation. It would be insane to play it lol

 

[Goddo Hando]

this game reminds me of playing 12 player bomberman on my saturn (i have no idea how i was able to get ahold of 12 controllers back in the day, let alone 11 people for couch-coop)

 

[Game Fan]

If I watched an HD game in an HDTV in 1993, my mind would be blown away.

 

[mute]

this is super cool.

 

[low-G]

Safe to assume that's a 1080i projection CRT?

Not that it's entirely relevant, but being "the first HD game", being the first game to meet the HD spec is a bit of a technicality, as there were "SVGA" (blanket term for higher res monitors at the time) games at the time... just a different standard.

 

[Red Devil]

I'm more surprised that Takahashi Meijin himself contacted the organization! He was quite a famed celebrity back in '80/90s Japan.

 

[Regiruler]

Who else is thinking about "Bomberman Battle Royale" right now?

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It's technically always been a battle royale.

 

[CopperPuppy]

Amazing. Always cool to see stuff like this.

 

[DrFunk]

2 million for an HDTV? I can get one for like 50 dollars lmao.

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how old are you

Anyway, this is amazing to see

 

[BocoDragon]

I remember when you'd hear rumors of high definition television in Japan in the 90s. One of those things that made you think it was the future over there, back then.

Master Higgins saves the day once again

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Seriously the fact that this came directly from him is such icing on the cake.

 

[Aurongel]

This reminds me of how John Carmack programmed the Quake engine with an insanely rare and expensive 100lb 1080p CRT back in 1994/5:

 

[mclem]

Who else is thinking about "Bomberman Battle Royale" right now?

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I was wondering about that in an earlier Tetris 99 thread; my broad thoughts boiled down to "love it in principle, probably needs to refine the idea a bit to not be overly confusing and hard to follow"

 

[Creation_Scapes]

This is amazing news!