this game is still very playable today, and a nice contrast to big, complex 3D adventures.
this is the most frantic game for the 2600!. a terrorist ('mad bomber') sits quite neatly at the top of the screen, and slides bombs toward you, as if you're some kind of customer, ordering them and putting them in your shopping trolley.
in reality, you control a 'bomb diffuser', that snubs out the bombs before they can explode. there is a certain order to observe, as each bomb drops slowly down the screen, the player needing to catch them in order, due to each one being slightly higher than the other.
each time you are successful in capturing the outlay of bombs, the bomber throws them faster, and then faster still, and then even faster! until your reactions need to be bang on. it's a wonderfully hypnotic game, as your eyes are forced to flick from side to side, faster and faster, until you're almost dizzy.
cleverly, your lives are represented by the three 'bomb diffusers'. the nuance of the game comes from the same abstract rule as breakout. the sides of the diffuser are also able to 'catch' the bombs in the same way that the paddle in breakout is able to smack the ball back. but if you lose a life, you lose one of the diffusers, meaning it gets harder to collect the bombs, and impossible to collect from the side if you only have one. this is especially troublesome when it's really fast!
it's nice that when you lose a life, the bomber has some compassion and slowly sends you the bombs, before going back to the normal speed.
along with breakout, this game is still very playable today and is a nice party game, or contrast to big, complex 3D games. and it's still an original game, even if it borrows the mechanical framework of breakout, and space invaders.