Reviews

Gameplay: Fly around the screen collecting bombs and avoiding monsters, get power-ups, and go through the bombs in the order they are lit to receive a bonus score.

This and the Gameboy mono version of Bomb Jack are arguably the finest versions around of this Capcom classic. The game is colourful, plays smoothly, is fast, and has the gradually increasing difficulty tuned just right.

I think this is one of the few Spectrum games that still stands up strong today and could be introduced to a child today who would enjoy it as much as I did back in the 80's.

1986 Elite (UK)
by Paul Holmes, Andy Williams and Karen Trueman

How do you reinvent Pac-Man? Have you noticed that almost every game has the old dot eating man as their inspiration? From the simple collect objects/avoid baddies routine found in games like Manic Miner to the complex missions of recent games such as 'Medal of Honor', where each mission, or a part of it, could represent a dot, Pac-man is always present (I'm stretching it, I know!).

But isn't life like a Pac-man game? Aren't we always searching for something or trying to solve our daily life problems? Aren't we all eating dots after dots and avoiding life's obstacles ?

Bomb Jack, another reinvented Pac-Man game, is one of the most playable, addictive games ever. It wouldn't be fair to call it original, but who cares! BJ is still a treat to play. If it wasn't so easy it would get a full 5 stars from me.

Great version of the arcade classic, it retains the same gameplay from the arcade and has the wonderful backgrounds in tact, yes the sounds get iritating after a while but that's what volume control is for after all! All in all this is brilliant, very playable and utterly addicting!

One of the best arcade conversions I've seen on the speccy. Playability and atmosphere of the arcade original completely intact. I don't see how the port could be any better.

Plus of course, it's a great, fun game to begin with.

Bomb Jack is a classic among classics !

An evolution of JetPac ... with new and exciting features .

The sceneries are varied and exotic .

The main character is unforgettable and it looks like some Mighty Mouse´s relative .

An unforgettable game !! A superb conversion !

Alongside enduro racer , commando and hyper sports - bomb jack stands head and shoulders above the usual bog standard arcade conversions on the spectrum.

You must realise that back in 1986 arcade games were rarely converted this well to the home computers , the graphics are obviously less colourful to avoid clash , but they are slick and well animated , it plays almost to a tee as well as the arcade game.

A huge hit in its day , deserved a crash smash and still plays well today.

Bomb Jack by Elite - the perfect arcade conversion .

Brilliant acrade conversion of an excellent game. As good as you get on any 8 bit.

Bomb Jack looks great and plays even better. And it's not often you can say that about an arcade conversion.

Eminently playable conversion of the arcade platformer.

Hands down one of my favourite spectrum games ever, and I think the reason I asked for a spectrum in the first place after playing this at a mates house! This is just a perfect game and still has me playing away, I can play a lot better now on a PC keyboard (and I was a 128k can't imagine what this was like on the rubber keys!!!!) Its still a tricky game at times, you'll still get trapped in a corner when everyone gangs up on you!! Another thing about this, I think the graphics are great, having seen the originals now and other versions like C64, they all just look weird to me now, the monochrome graphics on the spectrum suit this game, less distracting. And the sound, its classic, no Beatles rubbish here :)

For a twelve month period, from Xmas 1985 to Xmas 1986, Elite were probably the best arcade conversion software house around - most of them down to the talents of Keith Burkhill - although he wasn't involved in the Bomb Jack conversion.

Bomb Jack is an absolute masterclass of a conversion - in fact I would rather play the Speccy version than the Tehkan/Tecmo coin-op - it's that good!

Overall it's a ridiculously playable game, with lovely colurful backgrounds, decent sound and although the graphics can become a bit of a mess when too many enemies congregate at the bottom of the screen it doesn't detract from a supremely playable game.

Mag Reviews: http://zxspectrumreviews.co.uk/Search.aspx?wosid=0000617

A very accurate conversion of a brilliant arcade game. While the sound is inadequate and quite irritating, the graphics are beautiful, especially the backgrounds and the gameplay is perfect, exactly as you'd expect Bomb Jack to be. I will go on record and say this is probably one of the finest arcade conversions on the Spectrum and one of the best Bomb Jack conversions on any system, probably only bested by the brilliant Game Boy version. A lot of 5s for this game, and rightly so.

There are great arcade conversions for the Spectrum, as good as their original game: Hypersports, Green Beret,... and Bomb Jack is one of them.

But it's not the only good conversion Elite did, as Ghosts n' Goblins, Commando, 1942 or Paper Boy are also great, playable works. But this is definitely its best production.

Released in 1986 from the Tehkan/Tecmo classic, features amazing playability, graphics, nice backgrounds, sounds, movement,... everything is good in this addictive game. Only the cool original tune is missing.

Pure arcade experience.

A must play game. Yes the sound is irritating but there is no denying the beauty and brilliance of this game.