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