Be Excellent To Each Other

Do you want me to enter that onto the scoreboard?

Yes. I insist.

To be honest, it's been less than 10 months since I last played BB so competing in this one is a bit dubious from me due to the 10 year thing. I shall doff my gentleman's hat and duck out to let others fight over the glory hole.

No, you are fine!

The rule is to prevent the winner from picking a game they know they are excellent at. Otherwise they could win week after week always ensuring that they picked a game they could win at.

You didn't pick the game, I did. Ergo you are quite entitled to partake and beat us all into the ground.

1

96,800 for me.

490590



My first real go at the speccy version of this - my observations :

1) Your in air movement is very slow and unwieldy (even more so than other versions)
2) Items do not appear in the correct places on all levels so you may have to run around to get them , and are not 'limited' in the same way as the arcade (i just got a potion on first playthrough on level 1)
3) No 'multi drops' at the end of levels if you match your score correctly (or for the screens that should do it)
4) Shooting the walls doesn't get you points the bubbles need to appear and then pop

I assume the bonus doors at 20 / 30 / 40 are still in place ?

3) No. Limited hardware. Quite a few features you'd expect are missing
4) Stand a bit futher away,

(5)) They never appeared for me in all the years I played it - and I could complete the game* (although to be fair, it was only 80 levels rather than 100, and the final boss was easy to do with no risk due to size and lack of shooting) in as much as you could considering it looped back after going to the bonus room (as seen through the bonus doors in the arcade version)

* I'd guess I stand a good chance of winning this challenge, even though it offends me quite how inferior it is to the arcade version.

Further to my previous post, I just thought I'd say that Bubble Bobble was certainly my most played game on the Spectrum (and the Amiga, for that matter, as well as the only game I ever played more than once in an arcade)

Some of my earliest memorys invoilve it. I remember going to Smiths about 8 times, because every time we got/replaced it, the tape wouldn't load.
Then on the 8th time, it eventually loaded. played it, died on the first level due to cluelessness, and the game crashed and wouldn't load again.
Next return worked... sort of.
For some reason, the game either worked with music or graphics, but not both. If you got music, then the sprites would be corrupted. If you got just sound effects, the graphics were fine.
Now I can look at that and guess that it was something to do with the 48k/128k versions* - but the results of loading it were varied. I don't think it ever occured to load it in 48k mode, but I do remember that holding down the s key on the keyboard while loading ensured that we got the no music version.

* - I think we got the +2 at some point during this process, I certainly remember trying to load it on the 48k spectrum, but also remember the music issue as being present from buying the tape - partly as we didn't want to return it again, and were willing to put up with that issue. Although it did predate the +2's problem whereby we had to carefully stuff a bit of paper behind the play key while loading to get it to read the tape properly, and then go nowhere near the spectrum until it loaded.

Then we got the +3, and the disk version, and had no problems (besides the duff +3 sound chip) and much quicker loading. That loader is awful.

The sound chip isn't duff, it's just the output circuitry over modulates the audio so it distorts.

Despite having not played the speccy version this was one of my favourites in the arcade and on the c64 / amiga (I seem to remember the amiga version only working correctly on a specific kickstart rom?)

In the arcade it was one of the games i could complete in a single credit although that was more due originally to a faulty machine in my local arcade that every so often would start giving 9 credits for 10p :-)

This gave me a lot of time for practice - then when i found out about the 'special codes' (was this the first arcade game to have almost "cheat codes" built in?) it would mean playing for the special doors and if both players lost a life you would play around for a while or just kill yourself to start your next game to go for the doors again.

Later when the machine was fixed (it was 'unstable' for credits for a very long time) we were all experts.

Last time i really tried to play this was in the retroleague in May 2006

http://s11.zetaboards.com/RetroLeague/topic/474351/1/ where i got 3'rd place.

A lot of the 'strategy' for the game seems to be in the speccy version and the methods for clearing screens work so i dont see any reason why i shouldnt get a fair bit in (although its very like a shoot em up in that when you lose your fully powered up character its a pain going back to the basics)

so what tips can you give to someone thats never played bubble bobble, for bonuses and such, I'm preparing for some gobsmacked faces and some remarks have you even played mario?! remarks.

Note that I am now away. If I get a net connection I will try and update the scores. Otherwise whoever wins, please pick a game on Wednesday for play the following week!

Cheers.

10944 (I think) may be 10* higher or 10* lower as it disapeared before I could see it properly.

Malc

I had that problem - as long as you've the higest score simply start another game and you're score will be the 'high score' position

If you've never played it before this isnt a good place to start - go for the MAME version and play it right.

General info :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bubble_bobble
and
http://www.adamdawes.com/retrogaming/rg ... obble.html

For the arcade game this is a really good FAQ :

http://www.arcadeheaven.com/bbfaqv22.htm

However here are some basics that do match up with the speccy version.

You can complete the levels really quickly by putting the baddies in bubbles and popping them however the more you do together the higher your points and the higher the fruit dropped.
Each level has 2 items which will appear , one is just points the other is a special item they always appear in the same place on the level
The special items you want are :
Yellow sweetie - faster bubble
Purple sweetie - longer bubble reach
Shoes - faster movement
To complete the level you need to either get a level completing item , kill all the baddies , or get enough letters to spell 'extend'
You can jump on any bubbles on the screen to get into inaccessible places
Some bubbles have water in them , when you pop those the water flows to the bottom of the screen and can kill enemies , you can ride the water down (and cannot be killed by normal enemies while in the water).
Some bubbles have fire symbols in them , when you pop these the fire will drop to the floor and set it on fire (killing enemies)
After a certain time in each level a baddie will appear and slowly close in on you - he cannot be killed (Baron Von Blubba) - avoid him and clear the screen quickly

I've just had the same problem. You need to be above 200,000 to be able to get a screen cap. My fault, but I suppose we'll still be able to verify the top scores and we're all trustworthy anyway.

I just did a score just shy of 50,000 so I'm posting it as 49,000. I'll put Malcs score in as 10944 unless he tells me otherwise.

16,020. This really is an abominable version.

173,590.

> Bump <

Last day for entries in this weeks event ....

2

Congratulations on *doubling* your previous score - that must have taken some doing

My slight improvement on my previous score :

593700

i think i played almost every version of bubble Bobble except on the spectrum. I have to load it up on my gf's DS as soon as possible.

167,080 for me.

Right, I've updated everyone's scores. Can't believe I'm fourth - I only played three games of it.

You see, I know that I could easily beat 1st place score as it stands.

But a) I'd have to choose a game for next week
b) While doing so, I couldn't help but escape the conclusion I could be having more fun with the infinitely better arcade version

I've had more fun hacking the code than playing it to be honest. (If anyone wants a version where the end boss romps around the floor on each level, it's remarkably easy to do. Although I still have yet to figure out what it is about level 80 that makes him bounce around rather than walk along the floor)

Cheers. I'm on a painfully slow GPRS connection at the mo, but on the other hand I can see the sea out of one window and a pub out the other:

The phone signal gives 5 bars when placed in the corner of this room and 1 bar in the rest of the room. In the rest of the house I get no service. One of those places! Think the signal is coming across the sea from Bournemouth.

I might try and do a better score if I can! But I'm crap at the game and it's not a great conversion. For some reason I thought it was highly rated! Sorry everyone!

1st actual go yielded 103,680.

197790

92510.

No screenshot for net connection speed reasons. Not that my score will be bothering the top 5!

Still, there's always next week! Although I won't get chance to play it properly until Monday night when I get home!

Damn and blast you (scores updated).

Okay - I seem to have the highest score on here for this one so i'll pick another speccy arcade conversion.

This time we'll go for Bombjack



WOS Page :

http://www.worldofspectrum.org/infoseek ... id=0000617

Direct link to play in java :

http://www.worldofspectrum.org/infoseek ... .zip&emu=3

Damn. I used to be good at Bomb Jack

75,970.

34730 as a starter. I have proof but can't post it at the moment. Hopefully can better it.

53690

Back home now so I've been able tp update the league and this weeks scores (in the first post on the thread). We have some significant changes going on in the league and at the mid-point of the 12 week league there is still oppertunity for anyone to win, even if you haven't played before!

2 days to play Bombjack and at the moment a score of 1 would bag 4 league points!

35270, how do you get to the top bombs on level 4?

help please, I think its level 5 actually and cant get past until I figure out what Im supposed to do.

Press up while jumping.

And no I'm not joking. Up and jump gives you a boost that allows you to reach the top of the screen.

60010

10,420 I hate Bombjack and always have. *Crosses arms*

66500

Quite. This is stopping me from being bothered to try.

Perhaps I should given I got 2nd last week with only one play.

(Also: League tables infected with christmas names. Ick)

Sorry, I couldn't translate half of them. I'm correcting as I go where possible but the whole Christmas name farce has made things absurdly difficult.

Oh and the scores are updated.

Ok.

SisterSanta = SisterCheeba
DrGlydalwwwwfh = Doctor Glyndwr (Or that Gaywood, if you will)

246510



The bombs dont lite up on this in the same order as the arcade :-(

Puts on gaming trousers and fires up the Jesusputer.

Dank you. All fixed now.

Still another day and a half to try and beat my score ....

If not i'll probably be picking another arcade game that i've hardly or never played on the speccy before - my thoughts right now are on :

720'
Green Beret (seem to remember this being very hard on the speccy)
Hyper Sports (my favourite arcade game - think the speccy version misses some events)

Hyper Sports (I think it's the Pole Vault that's missing) might be a better choice than 720 as games on the latter could go on for ages as the speccy version.