Bubble Bobble FAQ Version 1.0
-----------------------------
Welcome to my first attempt at a FAQ. It's on one of the
best puzzle games ever written. Contact me ghall@gil.com.au
if you have anything to add.
What is Bubble Bobble ?
-----------------------
Bubble Bobble was an arcade game released by Taito in 1986.
You have to guide the two hero's Bub and Bob through 100
levels of adventure to rescue their girlfriends. It was one
of the first two player co-operation games (although all
co-operation goes out the window when a 50,000 pt diamond
goes down the middle of the screen and you race to see who
can get the points first ). It was one of the first games
to have joystick combinations that allow you to power-up
your original characters. It has spawned a couple of sequels
Rainbow Islands ( a much better, but harder to find game )
Bubble Symphony, Parasol Stars, Bust-a-Move (aka Puzzle
Bobble), and Bust-A-Move Again (aka Puzzle Bobble 2).
Bubble Bobble gameplay
----------------------
One of the great things about this game was all of the
different hidden things that were discovered by playing the
game. Basically you had to clear each room of all the enemy
to let you advance to the next room. You did this by trapping
the enemy inside you bubbles and then bursting the bubbles.
Along the way you could pick up power ups and extra weapons
that were only available for that room. As a rule only one
food bonus and one weapon bonus per room.
The basic power-ups are as follows :-
Yellow bubblegum-increase bubble firing speed.
Purple bubblegum- make the bubble travel further.
Blue bubblegum-increase the bubble speed across screen.
Red shoe-faster moving Bub and Bob.
Other special power-ups are :-
Candy canes-when the last enemy is killed all remaining bubbles
turn into fruit aswell as a large bonus from 10,000 to 70,000 pts.
Treasure chest-similar effect to candy canes except diamonds fall.
Clock/Watch-stops level timer and changes screen color.
Red trophy- give you all the basic power-ups.
Purple trophy-smart bomb, kills all enemy and turns them into diamonds.
Blue trophy-gives you extra points when you run along the ground.
Purple bomb-kills all enemy and turns them into diamonds.
Blue cross-fills the screen with water and turns enemy into diamonds.
Red cross-lets you shoot fireballs and turn the enemy into diamonds.
Yellow cross-causes lightning to come down the screen and turns
enemy into diamonds.
Bomb-kills all enemy on screen.
Blue umbrella-advance three rooms.
Yellow umbrella-advance five rooms.
Purple umbrella-advance seven rooms.
Diamond necklace-releases a ball that flies around the screen and
turns enemy into diamonds.
Red Ring-gives you 100 pts forevery bubble blown.
Silver Ring-creates a stream of stars that kill all enemy.
Blue Ring-gets points while running around.
Purple Ring-gives you 500 pts every time you jump.
Bible/Book-smart bomb kills all enemy and turns intodiamonds.
Glowing love heart-enemy freeze and you can run into them.
Potions-fill the screen with various items,collect all of these
for a 100,000 pt bonus usually you share them if there is an equal
number (grin)
Doorways-These appear if you can get to level 20, 30, and 40 without
losing a man.Puts you in a bonus room full of diamonds. Getting to
level 50 without dying advances you to level 70.
Fireball bubble-A very rare occurrence, gives you fireballs instead
of bubbles for five rooms.
Fire Bubble-hop on this to make fire fall to the ground and kill enemy.
Lightning Bubble-Fires lightning across the screen opposite to the way
you are facing.
Bell- Activates alarm that will warn the player that a secret weapon
is about to appear (good for all subsequent levels and the rest of the
game, regardless if the player dies).
Skull-Turns the enemies fast and nasty.
How to make the letters appear
------------------------------
1. EXTEND-bubbles appear only on "open levels" (levels where bubbles fly
in from a "hole" in the ceiling or the bottom)
2. EXTEND-bubbles appear only when you've popped in the previous
non-open-stages
more than 2 (or 3) enemy-trapped-bubbles at once. The more enemies
popped at once, the more DIFFERENT EXTEND-bubbles will come. (I'm
sure this is valid for ALL previous stages up to an "open-level";
I hope I've described that well!)
It goes something like this:
Enemies popped at a time Different EXTEND-bubbles to come
2 none
3 1
4 2
5 3
6 4
7 5
8 ALL! (6)
3. When you're on an "open stage" you may want to try to pop more than
3 enemies at a time because the upper table applies to the CURRENT
stage, too (if it is an "open stage" that is).
Secrets and hidden stuff
------------------------
These codes must be entered on the title screen showing
Bubble Bobble written inside a cloud.
LEFT JUMP LEFT 1P LEFT BUBBLE LEFT 1P- it will say power up
at the bottom of the screen and you will have fast feet,
fast bubbles, etc
BUBBLE JUMP BUBBLE JUMP BUBBLE JUMP RIGHT 1P-the screen will
say original game mode and you will get the bonus doors
whether you die or not.
1P JUMP BUBBLE LEFT RIGHT JUMP 1P RIGHT-this give you super
on the title screen. You play the game with the monsters
from the first 50 screens in the last 50 and visa-versa.
High score table tricks
-----------------------
When you enter your name in the high score table put in SEX
and a sound will be made and the word SEX will change to
H.! . On the following game a pitchfork will appear as the
second item on the first level, get this and fruit will
fall from the sky and kill the enemy. Make sure you don't
bubble them up so they can be hit by the falling fruit, also
the bell sound will happen more often throughout the game.
Entering MTJ as your initials will bring up a coke can as
the second item , this will make flowers fall out of the sky
and change the enemy into diamonds worth 6,000 pts. Other
initials to try are NSO KIM YSH KTU SAK TOP HED RYO SKE SAN
PAN OTO, these are all initials of the people whose names
come up when you finish the game.
Other tricks and tips
---------------------
The tips below were sent to me from the various people
listed at the bottom of this FAQ
This is one of the coolest cheats in Bubble Bobble. You get
this if you lose your last dino in a treasure room.
Normally, you only get treasure rooms if you have reached
levels 20, 30 and 40 without dying, and you exit a treasure
room if you die once, so the only way to do this is if you
are using the "original game" cheat that gives you treasure
rooms anyway. When you lose your last dino in a treasure
room, your level is recorded as 102, and then all the demo
screens turn to treasure rooms and the next game you play
you get a treasure room on level 1!
This tip cones from Star Tech Journal 12/93. Each of the
three Diamond Rooms contains an encrypted message which is a
hint towards properly finishing the game ("Having a TRUE and
HAPPY Ending"). The message can be decrypted by copying
down both the message and the larger block of symbols. The
larger block of symbols is the alphabet, starting with A, B,
C, D... The gateway on level 50 takes you directly to level
80. The code is Bubble, Jump, Bubble, Jump, Bubble, Jump,
Right, 1 Player. When done correctly the game momentarily
will display the words "Original Game" in blue in the bottom
left hand of the screen. Super Bubble Bobble Trick - This
will make the game start on the second 100 rounds. The
second 100 rounds (which must be played as a separate game)
are basically the layouts of the first 100 rounds, with the
bad guys from the second 50 rounds on the first 50 rounds,
and visa-versa. You must play these second 100 rounds in
order to have a "True and Happy Ending". The code is 1
Player, Jump, Bubble, Left, Right, Jump, 1 Player, Right.
When done correctly, the game will now display and
additional graphic, which says "SUPER" on the top left
portion of the graphic that is the "Bubble Bobble Screen".
It will continue to do this every time this screen comes up
in attract mode until someone inserts a coin and plays the
game.
Also, the fruit bonus is *not* random. If the hundreds and
tens digits are the same when you kill the last enemy, all
bubbles on the screen turn into fruit (the higher the level
the higher fruit value). A nice trick here: Have one player
ready to pop the last enemies, and have the other player
shoot bubbles into a wall until the digits match... THEN
have the first player kill them. You see, the game doesn't
care WHOSE digits match - could be either. Bonus fruit on
every round! >:)
Let yourself die on your last man in the treasure room (wait
and a guy will come out to kill you -- one of the strangest
looking creatures in the whole game!). To do this, you'll
need to use the ORIGINAL GAME option of course. Now, the
following will happen: -- The demo screens will be treasure
rooms. The spooky treasure room music will play during
demo sessions. -- The "highest level attained during the
day" demo screen will be off the scale at 102! -- Next
game played will give you a treasure room on level 1.
When time runs out, and the skels come out to get you, if
you die, when you're brought back to life, and STILL
FLASHING (vital!), run over and touch your friend's skel.
POOF! No more skel.
True ending to this game.
-------------------------
I believe the true ending to this game will only be seen
when a game is completed with one player never losing a
life so you get all of the treasure rooms. There is a hint
at the end of the game " Write 8 big words on a paper " I
believe this refers to all 8 treasure rooms. In Rainbow
Islands if get a diamond on all of the island you get a
different ending to the normal one , so I believe Bubble
Bobble to be the same.
Or this,
The above paragraph mentions the secret message "Write 8 big
words on a paper" -- if you are referring to the message
after the first 100 levels (i.e. not the Super Bubble
Bobble), then this message does not refer to 8 treasure
rooms -- it is referring to the code that is being
displayed along with this message. You'll notice that the
code is in the same "language" as the special language
found in the treasure room walls. When translated, they
come out to $JBLRJ$R -- which means: Start, Jump, Bubble,
Left, Right, Jump, Start, Right -- which is the code for
the Super Bubble Bobble game -- the message is kind of
cryptic -- I guess they were telling you to expand the 8
letters into (bigger) words.
Bubble Bobble or Bobble Bobble
------------------------------
Bubble Bobble is the original version of the game and Bobble
Bobble is the pirate copy, if you look at the cloud in the
background you can see the bad job they did of hacking the
graphics. There is also some variation in game play. On my
board you can choose a Japanese version of the game that
comes up with a copyright notice at the beginning or an
English version of the game. There is no difference in the
gameplay. On the original board you can switch between BB
and Super BB. I have played a version where you could pick
original on the board and on level 6 , and subsequent
levels, the guys in the white robes will roll rocks at you.
There seems to be many variations of this game.
Other platforms
---------------
Bubble Bobble is available on the Apple II, IBM, Atari ST,
C64/128, Amiga, Gameboy, Game Gear, Playstation, Saturn,
MSX and NES.
Rainbow Islands is available on C64/128, Playstation,
Saturn, NES and Amiga.
Parasol Stars is available on C64/128, Turbo Grafx16/Turbo Express
Gameboy and Amiga.
Bust-a-Move (aka Puzzle Bobble) is available on Game Gear,SNES
and Neo-Geo.
Anyone wishing to play the above games on a PC, get yourself
any of the good C64 emulators that are about and use a decent
search engine to find a site to point you in the right direction
of a source of software.
Pinouts
-------
SOLDER SIDE PARTS SIDE
GND 01 GND
VIDEO RED 02 VIDEO GND
VIDEO GREEN 03 VIDEO BLUE
VIDEO SYNC 04 -5V
SOUND + 05 SOUND -
POST 06 POST
+12V 07 +12V
COIN SWITCH A 08 COIN SWITCH B
COIN METER A 09 COIN METER B
COIN LOCKOUT A 10 COIN LOCKOUT B
SERVICE SWITCH 11 TITLE SWITCH
START PLAYER 1 12 START PLAYER 2
SPARE 13 SPARE
SPARE 14 SPARE
1P RIGHT 15 2P RIGHT
1P LEFT 16 2P LEFT
GND 17 GND
GND 18 GND
+ 5V 19 + 5V
+ 5V 20 + 5V
1P BUBBLE 21 2P BUBBLE
1P JUMP 22 2P JUMP
Dip Switches
------------
SWITCH A
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
GAME TYPE
BUBBLE BOBBLE OFF
SUPER BUBBLE BOBBLE ON
SCREEN
NORMAL OFF
REVERSE ON
MODE
PLAY OFF
TEST ON
ATTRACT SOUND
YES OFF
NO ON
COIN A
1 COIN 1 PLAY OFF OFF
1 COIN 2 PLAY ON OFF
2 COIN 1 PLAY OFF ON
2 COIN 3 PLAY ON ON
COIN B
1 COIN 1 PLAY OFF OFF
1 COIN 2 PLAY ON OFF
2 COIN 1 PLAY OFF ON
2 COIN 3 PLAY ON ON
SWITCH B
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
DIFFICULTY
NORMAL OFF OFF
EASY ON OFF
HARD OFF ON
VERY HARD ON ON
BONUS 1ST/2ND
30000/100000 OFF OFF
20000/80000 ON OFF
40000/200000 OFF ON
50000/250000 ON ON
LIVES
3 OFF OFF
5 (FREE PLAY) ON OFF
1 OFF ON
2 ON ON
SPARE (ALWAYS OFF) OFF OFF
Thanks to the following people
------------------------------
benic@netinfo.ubc.ca
fnargle@primenet.com
forego19@nwlink.com
cch@cs.stir.ac.uk
woodcock@nortel.com
mgkkwok@acs.ucalgary.ca
bryan.roth@cho.ge.com
vecoven@montefiore.ulg.ac.be
devo@UDel.Edu
dbmayf@netcom.com
wenzke@erinet.com
WBNR80A@prodigy.com
db@cho004.cho.ge.com
dey@nevada.edu
gkam@ca.newbridge.com
davids@wolfenet.com
ribbit@netcom.com
sjaak@euronet.nl
jond@videologic.com
102404.2065@CompuServe.COM
richard.clark@welcom.gen.nz
ashaw@gil.com.au
jdokter@unlgrad1.unl.edu
anastos@informatik.tu-muenchen.de
rope@eskimo.com
