3D Bomberman

Managed to get a hold of the Sharp X1's entire library of games... I think. There's no doubt that it was a terrible system, but it did get a few strange obscurities in its several year run. Obscurities such as...

3D BOMBERMAN. Yep, back before Hudson had even given their character the classic "robot" look they were toying with the idea of bringing the series into the third dimension. Obviously attempting to pull it off on systems like the Sharp X1 meant the end result is pretty horrible, but the series hasn't done anything like this since so it must count for something.

In the early 1980s the rules of Bomberman were fairly simple. Bomberman is literally a man working in a bomb factory who spends his time trying to defeat evil balloons, hence the MSX title "Eric & the Floaters". In these early days items were virtually non-existant, and of course there were no multi-player modes which would later define the series. 3D Bomberman is essentially the same as a regular Bomberman game from that era, apart from the fact you navigate the maze via a pseudo-3D screen on the left. Extremely awkward when every wall is red and the keyboard keys are often unresponsive.

It's certainly an interesting concept but as with everything on Sharp X1, it's let down by graphics and processor limitations. Regular Bomberman on the X1 is fairly laggy and dull - this is the same thing except you can't see what you're doing properly. Later on when more colours were available, RPGs like Phantasy Star would put this concept into good use.

But even though I can barely stand Sharp's machine, it still somehow manages to look like a god when compared to the NEC-PC8801 or the earlier generation of computers such as the PC-8001, PC-6001 and the Sharp MZ series. Coincidentally neither of those have been well documented in the west either.