| Bomb Sweeper 2002, Snowbro, NES/Famicom/Famiclones |
Now here's something different - BOMB SWEEPER - a homebrew by a guy who went by the alias "Snowbro". It's basically a clone of Nintendo's 1987 Game & Watch game of the same name. I'm utterly surprised to find it on this compilation to be honest.
In Bomb Sweeper, you play as an approximation of "Mr Game and Watch" who is in a maze where a bomb is about to go off. To find the exit, you have to think strategically and push walls over to make it to the exit on time. If you don't, KABOOM! For those kids who don't know what a "Game And Watch" is - well, let Grandpappy CreepingNet spin ya' a yarn or two. Back in mah day, and a little bit before, portable video games of even the GAme Boy's capabilities were out of the question. The smallest you could cram a video game into was something roughly the size of a VHS Tape (Atari 2600 Jr.). So the solution was for manufacturers like Tomy, Taito, Namco, Mattel, Tiger Electronics, Acclaim, and Nintendo, to make portable approximations of their popular games (and even some new ones) based on lattices of individual LED lights, VFD Displays (those found on old VCRs), and LCD Technology - not the later STN type found on Game Boys and Laptops mind you, but the ancient, pre-rendered, type you found in a Solar Calculator (which back then was expensive!) - the wet dream every bored preppy tech student wished their pricey Texas Instruments TI-50 Scientific Calculator could do! And in 1983, Nintendo did it - they created their own LCD series called "Game And Watch", and in 1987, they released THIS game "Bomb Sweeper" - which explains why it plays like a chepa handheld LCD game.My First Thought....Now we're making LCD Games for the NES!?!? - My Experiences Now, I am not that familiar with "Game and Watch" typically. I know Nintendo released it in 1982 with the help of the famous Gunpei Yokoi who also is partially responsible for the birth of the Game Boy - one of the most successful game systems of all time - and the purpose was in the title - "Game And Watch" - it's a portable pocketwatch that doubles as a Video Game. Genius. So when you're on your Bullet Train to the office, you could entertain yourself, and not lose track of the hour. It was for children and fancy businessmen alike (Japan really seems not to have the hangups about video games America has). When I played this, that was my first thought "This looks like an LCD Video game, adapted to a Nintendo O\o!?!?". Then I played it, and despite it's simplicity it's actually pretty fun. I was wondering which Russian/Chinese developer came up with this one. It just said (C) 2002 Snowbro on the screen (which I only remembered by googling this one). I thought "If Hummer Team or Nice Code could keep churning out stuff like this, then maybe there would be a place for notoriety for them in the world". Then I died and got the most dramatic and hilarious death music of all time "dat-dat-dat-dat-dwee-dow.......dat-dat-dat-dat-dat-dat-dwee-dow" - seriously, I should sample this and make a Jazz piece off of it...like some nutty version of The Tick's theme song, LOL. So then I had to look it up when I was making this page, who made this, and it turns out it's a HOMEBREW GAME! It even has an entry here. And what's even crazier is I think I've had an encounter or two with Snowbro in various gaming forums off/on over the years. Not friends or anything, but I'm familiar with that screen name from somewhere.Videos Other Stuff |
