Först vill jag säga några ord, FAQ:en är på engelska och är skriven av Gareth Hall. Texten är helt likadan som den han skrivit, förutom några layout-ändringar.

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@globec.com.au if you have anything to add. This is for the ARCADE version.

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 :-

Other special power-ups are :-

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

Dip Switches

SWITCH A

SWITCH B

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