Lost In Translation/Puzzle Bobble

This page is a stub for arcade games that are part of the Lost In Translation series using information based on MAME (version 0.113u2).
For an example of preferred content and layout please refer to Out Run or The Ninja Warriors.

Puzzle Bobble
Manufacturer	Taito Corporation
Released	1994
Control Method	8-way Joystick 3 Button(s)
Main CPU	68000 (@ 12.000 MHz) Z80 (@ 4.000 MHz)
Sound CPU	Mono YM2610B (@ 8.000 MHz)
Video Details	Raster (Horizontal) 320 x 224 pixels 60.00 Hz 4,096 Palette colours
Screens	1
ROM Info	6 ROMs 2,752,512 bytes (2.63 MiB)
MAME ID	pbobble

About The Game

Puzzle Bobble, as its name implies, is an arcade video puzzle game.

The first in the hugely successful puzzle series from Taito, Puzzle Bobble is a game for 1 or 2 players in which the aim is to clear each play area of the coloured bubbles that litter it. This is achieved by firing bubbles up the screen - with the angle of trajectory dictated by the player - at the clusters of static coloured bubbles that litter each play area. The aim is to forms chains of like-coloured bubbles, thus making them disappear. At regular intervals, the bubbles will drop one row down the screen, making life more difficult for the players. The game is over when the bubbles reach the very bottom of the play area.

In the 1-player game there are thirty rounds to complete, whereas in the 2-player Vs. mode, the winner is the player who clears their play area first. The addictive yet straightforward game-play mechanic ensured that the "Puzzle Bobble" games would be the most successful of their genre since Russian programmer, Alexey Pajitnov's legendary "Tetris" was unleashed upon the gaming world in the late 1980s.

Trivia

Released in June 1994.

The game was originally called "Bubble Buster". The Bubble Buster title screen is buried in the game itself.

This game is known in US as "Bust-A-Move".

This game was re-released 6 months later (December 1994) on the SNK Neo-Geo MVS hardware as "Puzzle Bobble [MVS]".

As well as typically cute Japanese animation (the characters from "Bubble Bobble" operate the cannon) and music, the game's mechanics and level design were beautifully balanced, and the game was terrifically successful at the arcades, spawning several sequels (see Series section for more information). It is unusual in being popular with women and girls.

If you look closely at the bubbles, you'll notice that the enemies from "Bubble Bobble" are trapped inside; a different enemy for each different coloured bubble. The following chart shows which enemies are trapped in which colour bubble :

Colour of bubble	Bubble Bobble enemy inside
Blue	Zen-Chan
Yellow	Pulpul
Red	Invader
Green	Drunk
Purple	Monsta
Orange	Banebou
Black	Hidegonsu
White	Mighta

The game forbids the initials 'SEX' on the high score table. If you try, it gets changed to 'AAA'.

During the credits you can see one of the constellations form the image of a fish, that fish is a boss from the "Darius" series; also made by Taito.

Stepehn Krogman holds the official records for this game with 13,874,390 points (difficulty 6) on 06/11/2004.

Zuntata Records released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Puzzle Bobble Variety - ZTTL-0009) on 28/03/1997.

Scoring

Pop bubbles of the same colour, each bubble is worth 10 points. When dropping bubbles, the first bubble is 20, and each additional bubble scores double, thus:

Bubbles dropped	Points
1	20
2	40
3	80
4	160
5	320
6	640
7	1,280
8	2,560
9	5,120
10	10,240
11	20,480
12	40,960
13	81,920
14	163,840
15	327,680
16	655,360
17 or more	1,310,720

Bonus points are awarded based on how fast you completed the stage.

Seconds	Points
0-5	50,000
6	49,160
7	48,320
8	47,480
9	46,640
10	45,800
...
64	440
65+	NO BONUS

Tips and tricks

There is a special bonus of a million points on rounds 9 and 13. This is achieved by linking up a number of ORANGE bubbles on round 9 and BLUE bubbles on round 13.

Series

1. Puzzle Bobble (1994)

   Puzzle Bobble [MVS] (1994)

2. Puzzle Bobble 2 (1995)

   Puzzle Bobble 2 [MVS] (1999)

   Puzzle Bobble 2X (1995)

3. Puzzle Bobble 3 (1996)
4. Puzzle Bobble 4 (1997)
5. Super Puzzle Bobble (1999)
6. Azumanga Daioh Puzzle Bobble (2002)
7. Super Puzzle Bobble 2 (2002, Sony PlayStation 2)
8. Super Puzzle Bobble All-Stars (2003, Nintendo GameCube)
9. Puzzle Bobble Vs. (2003, Nokia N-Gage)
10. Ultra Bust-a-Move (2004, Microsoft XBOX)
11. Puzzle Bobble Pocket (2005, Sony PSP)
12. Puzzle Bobble DS (2005, Nintendo DS)

Staff

Game Designer

Seiichi Nakakuki

Programmer & Game Designer

Tkhc.02

Programmer & System Designer

Tmr

Programmer & Play Designer

Nob

Character & Game Designer

Kazuhiro Kinoshita

Character Designers

Komai Ryota

Miwa Kamiya

Music Composed By

Kazuko Umino

Yasuko Yamada

Sound Effects

Hideki Takahagi

Sound Soft

Naoto Yagishita

Sound Producer

Hiroshige Tonomura

Designers

Hiroyasu Nagai (Super Star Nagai)

T. Yoshiba

M. Osaka

Nobuaki Kuroki

Y. Onogi

Supervisors

Masaki Yagi

T. Saito

G Rox

H. Kato

K. Tajima

Cabinet and Artwork

• 

  Puzzle Bobble (Neo-Geo) marquee.

• 

  Puzzle Bobble flyer.

• 

  Back of the Puzzle Bobble flyer.

• 

  Alternate Puzzle Bobble flyer.

• 

  Back of the alternate Puzzle Bobble flyer.

Ports

Consoles

Nintendo Super Famicom (1995)

SNK Neo-Geo CD (1995)

Panasonic 3DO (1995)

Sega Game Gear (1995, "Bust-A-Move")

Nintendo Game Boy (1998, "Puzzle Bobble GB")

SNK Neo-Geo Pocket (1999, Puzzle Bobble Mini")

Bandai WonderSwan (1999)

Computers

PC [MS Windows 95, CD-ROM] (1996)

Other

SNK Neo-Geo Arcade (1994)

Soundtrack Releases

Album Name	Catalogue No.	Released	Publisher	Comments
Puzzle Bobble Variety	ZTTL-0009	1997-03-28	Zuntata Records	CD version.
ZUNTATA LIVE 1998 "güten Talk" from the earth ~AUDIO FILE~	ZTTL-0031	1998-10-21	Zuntata Records	2 CD version.
ZUNTATA LIVE 1998 "güten Talk" from the earth ~VISUAL FILE~	N/A	1998-11-10	Zuntata Records	Released on VHS.
ZUNTATA HISTORY L'ab-normal 2nd	ZTTL-0039	1999-04-01	Zuntata Records	CD version.
PUZZLE BOBBLE • GEKIRINDAN etc. ~Welcome to the Karuland~	PCCB-00196	1995-11-17	Pony Canyon/Scitron	CD version.

Sound Comparison

Platform	Song Titles							Sound Source
Arcade	"Title Demo"	"Let's Go To Pao Pao Island! (BGM1)"	"Forest In April (BGM2)"	"Clear"	"Continue"	"Ending"	"Game Over"	M1 v0.7.8a6

References

The contents of this page are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
The sources used include MAME (version 0.113u2) and history.dat (revision 1.28 - 2008-10-18).
Please see http://www.arcade-history.com for credits.