Bombjack
BOMB JACK

 

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"The Change Machine"
Bombjack Page

Manufacturer: Tehkan
Year: 1984
Personal hiscore - 973,350. Highest level - 25.

You control Bombjack, with his magic cape which lets him fly! Your objective is to defuse all the bombs to move on to the next level. Loosely it could be described as a pacman derivative.

You have to collect the firebombs in a pre-defined order (which is fixed for each level) for maximum points bonuses, so it's simply(!) a case of learning the pattern for each level. Each bomb ignites in sequence and collecting all 23 firebombs gives you the maximum bonus. Sounds easy? Well, all the while you have to avoid the monsters and birds which are out to kill you.

Collect the firebombs, collect the (B) Bonus multiplier to increase your scoring up to a maximum of x5, and grab the (P) Power to turn the tables and kill the pursuing hordes!

Collect the (E) for an extra life and the (S) for a free credit!

Use the jump button to take off, and press jump repeatedly to flap your arms and hover around the screen from one bomb to another. Hold up when jumping to jump higher - from the bottom of the screen all the way to the top!

You start the game with three lives.
Scoring
Jumping, hitting a wall or falling from a platform: 10 points x bonus multiplier value.
Normal bomb - 100 points x bonus multiplier value.
Firebomb - 200 points x bonus multiplier value.

(P) Power - 100 when blue, 200 when red, 300 when purple, 500 when green, 800 when cyan, 1,200 when yellow and 2,000 points when grey x bonus multiplier value.

(B) Bonus Multiplier - 1,000 points x bonus multiplier value.
(E) Extra Life - 1,000 points x bonus multiplier value plus an extra life.
(S) Special - 1,000 points x bonus multiplier value plus a free credit.

Killing monsters while (P) is active: 100, 200, 300, 500, 800, 1,200 and 2,000 points. These are all multiplied by the current bonus multiplier value.

End of level bonus: 23 firebombs defused - 50,000 points. 22 firebombs - 30,000 points.
21 firebombs - 20,000 points. 20 firebombs - 10,000 points.
Playing hints/tips

o Learn the firebomb pattern for each level (seems a bit obvious I know).

o The Bonus multiplier appears every 5,000 points. If you are close to one appearing, jump a few times to get the necessary score.

o The powerup appears after every 9 firebombs are collected. You can tell when it will appear as on the Bonus Multiplier indicator at the top of the screen, bars colour in towards the centre of it.

o The powerup will still appear even if you do not collect any firebombs. You get twice as many for collecting only firebombs.

o The longer you wait on each level, the faster the monsters become.

o Try to group the monsters together before collecting a (P) to allow you to kill as many monsters as possible.

o Always try to collect the (B) whenever it is available as this is the key to big points. e.g. A 2,000 point monster on a bonus multiplier of 5 is 10,000 points!

o The special coin is not worth collecting as it takes you on to the next screen and you lose any potential firebomb bonus.

o While a (P) is floating around, you don't get credited with 'bomb tokens' towards your next (P), so it's not worth collecting more bombs until it runs out. [Chris Moore]

o I believe the extra life coin appears for every 10 or so bonus multiplier coins. [Chris Moore]

o The (P) is worth different amounts depending on what colour it is - get it when it's grey for the most points. Every time you jump, bang into any walls or platforms or fall off the end of a platform, the (P) (if it's floating around) will change to its next colour. Do what is necessary to ensure it is grey when you collect it. [Chris Moore]

o Try to complete a stage with the power pill bonus only a couple of bombs away. This gives you the opportunity to pickup the power pill early in the next stage, cleanup the screen ready to quickly finish off the level quickly when the power pill runs out again. It's more important when the power pill is operational to tidy up the screen than to kill all the enemies (although preferably you should do both). [BeeJay]

o After the first 10 levels or so it's not worth trying to get the fire-bomb bonus on most stages as it just gets too dangerous. [BeeJay]

o Learn how to walk through monsters. When monsters change form upon reaching the bottom of the screen or when the power pill runs out you have around 0.5 seconds during which you can safely pass through them or vice versa. This can be useful when you're trapped and one of the spacemen is about to hit the bottom of the screen and mutate into it's alternative form as you can walk into the explosion and on through or jump out of it before the "monster" becomes fatal to the touch again. [BeeJay](new)