The big hit at these events was Bomberman 94 for the PC Engine.  Anthony my best friend always brought a diverse cast of characters together and many people turned up for these Bomberman sessions at one point or another but it was mostly his family.  Brothers Kyle and Gage and cousin Richie.  The beauty of the Bomberman series is its simplicity.  Within minutes anyone can pick it up and play well enough to have an amazing time.

Kyle the second oldest brother was working at a Lee’s Chicken at the time and was an expert in eating well as all members of his family are.  At the end of his shift he’d have tons of unsold chicken to contribute to the Bomberman parties.  Being the enterprising youth that he was though he would use the chicken as a bartering tool with other restaurants and made deals with other fast food establishments in the area trading chicken for other delights.  This would fuel the Bomberman parties well into the night.  There were many memorable events at these Bomberman parties.  The youngest brother Gage was traumatized by the screening of Legend of the Overfiend, go ahead google it, I dare ya.  He was a regular at the Bomberman parties.  As well as cousin Richie.  I don’t have much to say about cousin Richie but he was there a lot of the time.  Then there would be other friends swinging by for a Bomberman session or two randomly.

For a few months the Bomberman parties would be a regular feature at Anthony’s house.  I’d come over set up the soft modded Xbox and we’d load up some Bomberman.  Before long there were house rules.  One of the Xbox emulator features is speeding up the emulator by holding down the left trigger.  HIGH SPEED Bomberman was especially popular.  After a while of playing the game at this frantic speed playing the game at its intended pace was a breeze.  This brought up Anthony and Kyle’s proficiency with bomberman incredibly fast.  I myself being a long time fan of the series started out with a pretty solid advantage but it wasn’t long before they were picking up and mastering the game.  Especially Anthony, my biggest competition, but I suspect he may have just been lucky.  One can never truly tell with Bomberman.  One of the multiplayer levels in Bomberman 94 has a gimmick of increased speed playing this level with the sped up emulator was an absolute joy.

Bomberman 94 wasn’t the only game featured there was a rotation of Bomberman and Bomberman 93 for the PC Engine as well. Occasionally we loaded up Bomberman 2 for the NES when there were just three of us playing. Using the series as a gateway I introduced Anthony to Game Center CX with the Bomberman episode. It was well received.

Of course other games were featured at these gaming sessions.  With cousin Richie I played and beat Contra, Kyle and myself networked a pair of Xboxes and played through Halo 2’s co-op story mode.  Lots of cheap alcohol was consumed and more fried chicken than mere mortal men should have had access to was devoured.  It was Bomberman however that drove these get togethers and really made an impact on all of us.

While still in that dark depression my other friend Arthur, a tattoo artist, asked me if I wanted a free tattoo as he had done many times over the five or so years leading up to that point as he was apprenticing and starting his career.  This day however was just the right day and I said “sure.”  In memoriam of the exciting Bomberman parties I got a tattoo of the Black Bomberman.  It was a reminder of a time when I needed people to be there and they were.  About five months ago I lost my best friend Anthony.  He was consumed by a heroin addiction and was found overdosed by his mother.  I’m very much a part of his family and was deeply impacted.  I performed his brother Kyle’s wedding ceremony and I was given the honor of delivering the eulogy.  

Not a day goes by that I don’t think about the good old days of our youth when we were always up to something, hatching a scheme or trying to get some free chicken, seeing if we could trick someone into taking us to the zoo, exploring an abandoned building or some other nonsensical plot.  But the brightest memory is the months long period where Bomberman parties brought us all together to laugh, eat and be merry.