Atomic Bomberman

Atomic Bomberman
Developer: Interplay Publisher: Interplay Platform: Windows Released in US: July 31, 1997 Released in EU: 1997 This game has unused modes / minigames. This game has unused graphics. This game has unused music. This game has unused sounds. This game has a prototype article

A Bomberman game brought to you by the team behind Earthworm Jim, Boogerman and ClayFighter. Oh, and Mario Teaches Typing, as if anyone cares.

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Prototype Info

Unused Voice Clips Unused takes! Unused lines! Gratuitous profanity!

Unused Graphics

To do: There is an early trigger bomb graphic called TRIGANIM.ANI in the files.

A surprising amount, in fact.

Bomb

Early	Final

File name: BOMBANIM.ANI
Early file date: March 14th, 1997
Final file date: June 10th, 1997

An early bomb animation with less frames and different shading.

Trigger Bomb

Early	Final

'Early File name: TRIGANIM.ANI
File name: TRIGBOMB.ANI
Early file date: February 22nd, 1997
Final file date: March 25th, 1997

An early trigger bomb design that looks more like a wind up toy rather than a plain bomb with boom text on it

Classic Bomberman

File names: CLASSICS.ANI
File dates: June 16th, 1997

Bomberman's classic sprite from the first two TurboGrafx-16 games (and Bomberman II), cleaned up and ready for use in this game. Unfortunately, it seems the developers ran out of time to properly implement him. Some essential animations, like throwing and punching, haven't been drawn yet. A text from the 2nd alpha demo of the game says "Play in Classic Battle Mode to recapture the original Bomberman experience. " which confirms that there was going to be a mode implemented which would have used these sprites and that it was scrapped far in development due to the leftover sprites in the final game.

This icon set, also incomplete, is in the same file.

Idle Animations

File names: APPLBITE.ANI, HEADWIPE.ANI, NUCKBLOW.ANI, ZEN.ANI
File dates: February 25th, 1997

Four neutral idle animations. Despite having an impressive number of frames, they're not used in the game.

Power-Ups

File names: POWERSO.ANI, POWERZ.ANI, POWERS.ANI
Oldest file date: February 17th, 1997
Early file date: March 4th, 1997
Final file date: June 24th, 1997

Two early power-up sets can be found in the game's files.

This is the oldest set. The graphics have little detail and no borders, and most of the icons haven't been drawn yet. The kick icon is bigger than the rest of the icons. This set of icons seems to have been used in a Bomberman clone the game developer did before.

Early	Final

The blue skull is actually used.

A later set, looking closer to the final graphics, though still unfinished. Among other graphical changes, the skull's background was altered to a more appropriate red, and the shoe was changed to a boot. Also, the later set (Or the icons of it) was used in the 2nd alpha demo of the game. The jelly bomb icon is using a placeholder graphic in the earlier set. Oddly, by opening the "Manual.bm" file in the game, the skull with blue background is used.

These icons come from the final (POWERS.ANI) file, but they're not used. The second icon seems to be some kind of vehicle.

Punch

File name: PUNCH.ANI
Early file date: April 21st, 1997
Final file date: May 21st, 1997

Rougher versions of the bomb punching animations. These were redone for the final version.

Throw

File name: BPICKUP.ANI, BOMBWALK.ANI
Early file date: April 21st, 1997
Final file date: May 19th, 1997

More early, messy variants of existing animations. These look less awkward in the final release.

The bombs shown are part of the animation graphics. The final bomb carrying animations don't include them.

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Campaign Mode

The first stage of "Crouton.cam" campaign.

A single player mode like the original Bomberman games was started, but not finished to any satisfactory form. Instead of being deleted outright, it was locked behind a simple cheat code.

Press the C key five times at the Character Select screen to access the campaign selection window, then choose a campaign file to activate campaign mode.

Messages relating to the unfinished Campaign can be found in MESSAGES.TXT, as shown here.

1206,Campaign Mode
1210,Campaign Mode Activated!

1215,"Campaigns not available! (no CAMP*.RES files)"

1220,Congratulations!
1225,"You made it through the whole campaign!"

1230,"Prepare to begin Campaign!"
1235,"(%s)"

1240,"Oh Well!"
1245,"Campaign unsuccessful!"

1250,Please select a campaign file:

(TheKins: Original TCRF research)

Clog

An unused item named "Clog" is listed in MESSAGES.TXT, but is nowhere to be found in the final game. It most likely that the item is the "Brake" item (with a turtle icon) only found in the "Gold Bomberman" roulette, which works like the wooden sandals (Geta) item that reduces your movement speed in other Bomberman games.

; short description of the powerups
850,Bomb
851,Flame
852,Disease
853,Kick
854,Skate
855,Punch
856,Grab
857,Spooge
858,Goldflame
859,Trigger
860,Jelly
861,Bad Disease
862,Random
863,Clog

(TheKins: Original TCRF research)

More Network Modes Support?

Inside the VALUELST.RES files, there are several commands that are related to values read and used by the game for many things. However, inside this file, there is a text that references something along the lines of the milliseconds left to wait if a packet was declared missing (for network play) and it happens to reference Modem, Serial and TCP/IP in it. You can only use IPX in the final game.

; how many milliseconds to wait before a critical packet is declared overdue
; and needs to be re-sent.
; this can be adjusted based on expected network latency.  if it is set too
; low then you will have many gratuitous retransmits and network performance
; will suffer.  if it is set too high then the potential lag between the
; games (due to missed packets) can become noticeable and affect game
; integrity/synchronization.
1100,200		; cancel - no net play.
1101,200		; IPX
1102,750		; modem
1103,400		; serial
1104,400		; TCP/IP

Unused Music

File name: LOSE.RSS
File date: June 21st, 1997

An unused music track remains in the SOUND folder. It was likely intended for a lose screen.

(Source: Original TCRF research)