newly unearthed vids of Hi-Ten Bomberman

[Punch]

At least it had only one game with one game mode in a clunky setup with incompatible video output with our modern tvs. Else everyone would be crying that NHK threw the machine(s?) at the garbage bin.

It's funny how it bears resemblance to Chris Covell's dream Supergrafx addon, well at least to me.

[TheClash603]

I understand that the cost of the actual hardware / setup would be prohibitive, so only one physical example exists.

What I don't understand is why they wouldn't have kept the code for this game someplace else.  This would be the ultimate PSN release.

[SignOfZeta]

I have a feeling that aside from the resolution it's probably not very impressive.

[esteban]

For a trip down memory lane (this isn't gospel, but it's something):

"... The game will only run on Hudson's in-house hardware--a combination of custom PC and stripped down PC Engine technology."

SOURCE: Hi-TEN Bomberman (Next Generation, 1995)

...[Hi-TEN Bomberman] has to use HDTV technology--the first game to do so.

SOURCE: (continued)...


STATUS: I've commented on this before, but I am curious if we can verify the claim that Hi-TEN Bomberman was, indeed, the first HDTV video game.

[SignOfZeta]

That depends on your definition of "HDTV", which is hugely variable, but think it obviously was.

Since they called it "HiTen", and it apears to be running on a pro wide HDTV we can *assume* it ran either in HiVsion or in a custom RGB resolution roughly equivalent to HiVison. HiVision was 16:9. Furthermore, that screen shot of in Next Gen was obviously way more high res than the 1990s industry standard 240p

By the time HiTen was shown Pioneer was selling MUSE laserdisc players which allowed for HiVision LDs. Also, while few people owned HDTVs (they were fabulously expensive) it was really common for people to own set top boxes that could tune HiVision TV and convert it to NTSC because you ended up getting a better picture that way.

So, "Hi" was very much in the mind of Japanese people as an HDTV thing, and while I can't make out the exact make and model of this monitor its almost certainly an HDTV, one that cost tens of thousands of dollars.

[esteban]

That depends on your definition of "HDTV", which is hugely variable, but think it obviously was.

Since they called it "HiTen", and it apears to be running on a pro wide HDTV we can *assume* it ran either in HiVsion or in a custom RGB resolution roughly equivalent to HiVison. HiVision was 16:9. Furthermore, that screen shot of in Next Gen was obviously way more high res than the 1990s industry standard 240p

By the time HiTen was shown Pioneer was selling MUSE laserdisc players which allowed for HiVision LDs. Also, while few people owned HDTVs (they were fabulously expensive) it was really common for people to own set top boxes that could tune HiVision TV and convert it to NTSC because you ended up getting a better picture that way.

So, "Hi" was very much in the mind of Japanese people as an HDTV thing, and while I can't make out the exact make and model of this monitor its almost certainly an HDTV, one that cost tens of thousands of dollars.

Yes, if your knowledge of hardware (and when it was released) is accurate (I have no reason to doubt it), then it certainly corroborates many of the important features of Bomberman Hi-TEN.

BOTTOM LINE: I don't care, I would love to have played this version! DAMN IT.