Bomb Jack (1984) - Restoring the cab that never was - Arcade Icons (2024)

Bomb Jack (1984) - Restoring the cab that never was - Arcade Icons

Growing up I used to play Bomb Jack a lot on my ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64 home computers. The game holds a lot of great memories for me, although I can't remember if I ever played it in the arcades or not.

It seems that the game was much more popular in Europe, Asia and Australia than the US, although it was certainly around here and there.

As far as I know Bomb Jack never shipped in dedicated cabinets, I am 90% sure it was simply a conversion kit. For me this is one game that I think warrants a dedicated cab, or at least a cabaret so I thought I'd take a stab at 'restoring' a game from my childhood that seemed just as common as Paperboy or Gauntlet in my memory.

Initial Mockup Idea

My original idea was to use something like a Centipede cabaret cab as the base for the project, but I may just scratch build a cab to my own design. I really want this project to look period correct.

Artwork

I scavenged various bits of artwork together from around the web, but was only able to find the CPO in vector format, the rest I had to recreate in Adobe Illustrator.

CPO

Side art (Redrawn in Vectors)

Marquee (Redrawn in Vectors)

Instruction Card

Bezel??? I still need to get a scan of the original bezel art

Hardware

Big thanks to Kalan for contacting me and letting me know he found a Bomb Jack PCB in his recent monster haul. Untested but has paperwork and looks in good shape.

NOS Tehkan Wiring & Edge connector from eBay

Wow! Awesome!

How much for a centipede cabaret conversion kit??

I'd love a copy of all the art

Good luck. I'm sure you've been here
http://www.bombjack.org/games/bombjack/index.htm

Seems like a good person to get in touch with.

If I decide to scratch build a cab, I want it to sit at the corner of my bar and follow the exact height of the bar surface.

Here's my first go at making a very utilitarian and simple design that comes up to the exact bar height in my arcade room. The cab would be no wider than 18"

Robotron Jon said:

Never heard much about this game but I noticed that the second level plays the song "Lady Madonna" by the Beatles. Might be the only arcade game that ever used Beatles music.

Click to expand...

Mikie by Konami also plays "A Hard Day's Night."

OldTymeToys said:

Wow, this looks sweet! Once it's finished, do you have any plans to trade it for a laser printer or a motor scooter?

Click to expand...

Maybe a lift or a brolly

V2. A more refined profile and the inclusion of an optional top piece of glass for a counter surface.

Also I really want to try and include some modular aspects to this design so that someone could make multiples and arrange them in different ways to create various usable bartop surfaces. This is kind of an 'IKEA' version of my Barrel of Kong design from a few years back.

A little more art progress...

Vector redraw of the marquee complete

Also found this generic Tehkan Bezel which I will go with if I can't get my hands on reference for a dedicated one...

Got a line on a gutted Pac Cabaret so I think I'm going to go in that direction with this. The open layout, small size and top mounted marquee with the small screen should fit the 'cutesy' nature of this game pretty well.

(pic for reference not actual cab)