Bubble Bobble Amiga 1988 Software Creations David J. Broadhurst

Bubble Bobble Amiga 1988

Software Creations ported Taito's Bubble Bobble coinop of 1986 to the Amiga in 1988. Predecessor to Rainbow Islands of 1990 and prequel to Parasol Stars of 1992, Bubble Bobble is a fixed-screen one-player or two-player simultaneous platformer.

In Bubble Bobble players control one of two dragons (Bub and Bob) that can jump, move left and right and blow bubbles that temporarily box-in monsters. Once a monster is boxed in a bubble it can be vanquished by moving into or jumping into or onto the bubble, bursting it.

The object of Bubble Bobble is to clear all monsters in each of the 100 rounds comprising the Cave of Monsters. The rising bubbles can also be bounced upon; that is, bubbles can be used as makeshift platforms that allow the dragons to jump up through and across the playfield.

A free life or 1-up can be acquired by collecting letters that spell out the word EXTEND. The letters must be collected in order.

The Amiga version of Bubble Bobble was programmed by David J. Broadhurst; its graphics were drawn by Andrew R. Threlfall; its audio composed by David Whittaker.

The Amiga version of Bubble Bobble stands as one of the best early coinop ports of the 16-bit era. And while the controls are good the audiovisuals do not, by any means, take advantage of the Amiga's capacities. ST/Amiga versions of Bubble Bobble are simply more colorful versions of 8-bit Bubble Bobble; that is, there was no push to harness 16-bit power in order to more closely approximate the coinop. Thus, the 16-bit versions of Bubble Bobble are somewhat disappointing in that respect.

Nevertheless, Bubble Bobble is a fun, challenging and addictive platform game to play solo, let alone with a friend in 2-player coop mode. Needless to say, it is a classic.

The original Bubble Bobble coinop was designed by Fukio Mitsuji of Taito and programmed by Ichiro Fujisue of Taito.

Bubble Bobble was distributed on 1x 3.5" 880 kB diskette.

cf. Platform games:

• The New Zealand Story Amiga 1989 Choice Colin Gordon
• Ghosts 'n Goblins Amiga 1990 Elite Systems
• Ghouls 'n Ghosts Amiga 1989 Software Creations
• Commander Keen IBM PC MS-DOS id Software 1990
• Flood Amiga Bullfrog Productions Sean Cooper 1990
• James Pond Amiga Vectordean Chris Sorrell 1990
• Rainbow Islands Amiga 1990 Graftgold Andrew Braybrook
• Gods IBM PC MS-DOS 1991 Bitmap Brothers
• Parasol Stars Amiga 1992 Ocean Software Mick West
• Joe and Mac: Caveman Ninja IBM PC MS-DOS 1992 Elite Systems

Indexes:

• Amiga Games Reviews (Index to all Amiga game reviews)
• Computer Game Reviews (Index to all computer game reviews)
• History of Computer Games (Master Index)