ADG Episode 100 - Bubble Bobble

Channel:

Pixelmusement

Subscribers:

24,000

Published on April 1, 2015 4:32:30 PM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykXWFml0oEM

Game:

Bubble Bobble (1986)

Category:

Show

Duration: 24:23

6,408 views

141

Originally Released: September 8th, 2012

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Who knew they made super-large, perfectly clear beachballs? ;D

Bubble Bobble is my all-time most favourite game. I had first played it in arcades when I was very young and got this DOS version back when I was about 7 years old. The overall design has stood the test of time extremely well, although not just because of the bubble-based mechanics. The massive number of items and levels, as well as the surprisingly non-random nature of the powerups, all add to the game's fun factor and removing any one of these aspects completely derails the experience.

Mind you, this DOS version has some curious omissions... as well as unusual effects caused by improperly breaking the copy protection, which John Butrovich himself confirmed via eMail not too long after this episode first went live. Whoops. :B

Also, bonus points if, without looking ahead at Filler #20, you know what I'm parodying in the live action at the end of the episode . ;)

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Additional Information and Corrections:

* Sorry for the blurriness of the live footage. Apparently my old camera didn't auto-focus long-range stuff properly. Same goes for that strange tinkling sound in the audio. My new camera is so much better! :B

* The "bubble" in the live action is actually just a beachball from www.beachballs.com and they actually have them in MUCH larger sizes, which I think is pretty awesome, though the prices skyrocket once you get into the unusually large sizes. :o

* I actually did have footage recorded of the fireball bubble I encountered, but accidentally deleted it at some point. I also somehow managed to capture no footage at all of the shoe powerup or the necklace that emits the flying death orb, again, possibly related to how the copy protection was broken. :/

* Bubble Bobble is an incredibly difficult game for the most part and while the DOS version is easier than most ports, the easiest versions have to be the NES and Gameboy versions, though be careful if you go for the original Gameboy version because it's a very different experience and has no two-player mode. (Still a fun game though!)

* Clever viewers and fans of Bubble Bobble will have noticed that when time expired in the secret level, it simply automatically moved on to the next level. In the arcade version, a strange green creature known as Rascal shows up and chases you just like Baron von Blubba.

* A little after getting this video uploaded I did some major testing, adjusting numerous DOSBox settings, graphics settings, sound settings, etc., and discovered that the method used for breaking the copy protection only worked properly with the Tandy graphics mode, as every oddity I experienced went away upon making that switch. The other graphics modes are all bugged up. :P

* Part of the reason why the sequels Bubble Symphony and Bubble Memories are largely unknown is because of Rainbow Islands and Parasol Stars, two games which billed themselves in North America as being the second and third games in the series, even though they were totally different games, just staring the same characters. From what I understand, Bubble Symphony has four different characters you can play as, each with some sort of special ability, and Bubble Memories allows you to charge up your bubble blowing powers on command to blow MASSIVE bubbles that can trap entire groups of enemies all at once! :O

* I find it interesting that, based on the ending of the DOS version, it looks like Bubble Bobble knew friendship was magic long before any ponies did. ;D

* It also turns out that if you run the game with a slow enough cycles setting, or on a slow enough computer, it drops the maximum enemy count from 6 to 4 to keep the game from turning into a slideshow! There seems to be a lot of clever coding here! :o

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