Item ConditionComplete in box: the cartridge, the manual and the box, all original; anything beyond that is included only if you can see it in the photos. The photos are of this exact copy — look them over closely for its condition, packaging and details. Every cartridge's shell, label and board are checked for authenticity when it comes into the store, and it's tested before it's listed. It ships in a collector's bag or a hard plastic case.Item DescriptionBefore Bomberman was a party-game fixture, he was a lonely little robot with a big dream. He spends his days building bombs in an underground compound until he hears a rumor: any robot that escapes to the surface becomes human. Bomberman makes a break for it, using the only tools he has, his own bombs, against the enemies sent after him. The payoff at the end ties him to another Hudson Soft classic, revealing that the human he becomes is the hero of Lode Runner, which turns this Famicom original into a kind of prequel.Each of the 50 stages is a grid of solid pillars and breakable blocks stretching wider than the screen. Drop a bomb, step aside, and its cross-shaped blast clears soft blocks and destroys any enemy in its path. Hidden under the blocks are the exit door and a power-up: extra bombs, bigger flames, roller-skate speed, a remote detonator, and passes that let you walk through soft blocks or bombs and shrug off your own flames. Clear every enemy to open the exit, but catch the door itself in a blast and it spits out a fresh wave of trouble. Let the timer run out and a swarm of fast, coin-faced Pontans arrives to finish the job.The idea goes back to Bomber Man, a 1983 Japanese home computer game that began life as a tech demo for Hudson Soft's BASIC compiler. The 1985 Famicom remake is the version that defined everything that followed: the grid, the cross-shaped blast, the hunt for the exit and the slow build from one fizzling bomb to a screen-clearing arsenal. It's strictly a single-player game, since the battle modes arrived in later entries, which makes it a fascinating look at the series in its purest puzzle-action form, with passwords to carry you deeper.Every Bomberman since, from the Super NES party games to modern releases, is built on the rules laid down here. Playing the NES original is a reminder of how much tension a single bomb, a dead-end corridor and a ticking clock can create.
