Bump ‘n’ Jump Memories

The corner store near my house had three arcade games that they rotated every few months. One of the games that survived a few rotations, probably because I pumped so many quarters into it, was Bump ‘n’ Jump.

For those of you who haven’t played it, Bump ‘n’ Jump is a driving game where you need to bump enemies into obstacles while jumping over obstacles yourself. To win, you need to survive/continue and get to the end of the board. If I had to name a game that had similar gameplay, but without jumping, it would be Spyhunter.

Originally released as Burnin’ Rubber in Japan in 1982 by Data East Corporation, it would eventually get a release in the US by Bally Midway. Tech-wise, the game in interesting in that it was released as both a dedicated board and a DECO Cassette System.

DECO was released in 1980 by Data East and was the first system that allowed arcade owners to change up their games. They would buy a cabinet with the DECO Cassette System in it and then they could change up the games by buying a new cassette. It was a brilliant idea, that was slightly ahead of its time. Based on the constant cabinet switching that went on at my local corner store. I am guessing they did not have the DECO System release of the game.

When Bump ‘n’ Jump came out for the Atari 2600, I saved up my quarters until I was able to acquire it, and it became a long time favorite and one cart that I still treasure to this day. I could play the game for a long time, if you could avoid and score 50,000 points for a free guy, it was a game that had some meat.

Below, is an ad that Mattel Electronics ran in 1983 that showed the much more detailed game screens you would get if you owned an Intellivision.