Bubble Bobble

CHEATS

These function key cheats don't work on every version of the game but may be worth a try.

F1 - advance one level
F2 - advance six levels
F3 - advance eleven levels

These sequences must be entered on the title screen showing Bubble Bobble written inside a cloud.

LEFT, JUMP, LEFT, F1, LEFT, BUBBLE, LEFT, F1

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, F1

The screen will say original game mode and you will get the bonus doors to treasure rooms whether you die or not.

F1, JUMP, BUBBLE, LEFT, RIGHT, JUMP, F1, RIGHT

This gives you super on the title screen. You play the game in the same order as normal Bubble Bobble but with different monsters. This is the only mode that lets you see the "True Ending" to this game.

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!

When you finish the game in normal mode you see a screen telling you "But it was not a true ending...". To get the true ending to the game all you need to do is enter the Super Bubble Bobble cheat at the intro screen and finish the game without losing a man (easier typed than done) when you finish the game you will see your parents rescued as well as your girlfriends. That's all there is to it.

This is one of the first games to feature bonuses when you entered the right initials in the high score table. Just finish a game and enter the initials below, the effects are described next to the initials. They mainly effect the second bonus object that appears on the first set. The best way to reap the rewards is to bubble the 3 monsters and wait for the second bonus to appear, get the bonus and then blow as many bubbles as possible so you get the maximum points available. You might want to blow bubbles and burst them while you wait or run along the bottom of the screen to make certain bonuses appear on the next level.

SEX - pitch fork-flying cakes/vegetables/etc across the screen, turn enemy into 6k diamonds (don't bubble them)
TAK - octopus-turns bubbles into X's at end of level
STR - flamingo-turns bubbles into smiling turds at end of level
KTT - beer-turns bubbles into pizzas at end of level
... - knife-flying cakes/vegetables/etc across the screen, turns enemy into 6k diamonds
I.F - coke can-flying sunflowers across the screen, turn enemies into 6k diamonds
MTJ - coke can-flying sunflowers across the screen, turn enemies into 6k diamonds
NSO - coke can-flying sunflowers across the screen, turn enemies into 6k diamonds
KIM - coke can-flying sunflowers across the screen, turn enemies into 6k diamonds
YSH - coke can-flying sunflowers across the screen, turn enemies into 6k diamonds

TIPS

LEVEL TIPS

While in the first screen, bubble the first two monsters and then fill the screen with hundreds of bubbles. Bubble and burst the remaining monster and the remaining bubbles should turn into fruit (usually bananas), each of which is worth 500 points. Also, Hold down 'FIRE' after losing your last life, and you should get another set of lives, though your score will be reset.

If you can get to levels 10, 20, 30 and 40 without losing a life, a magic door will appear to take you to a treasure screen, and if you can get up to stage 50 without losing a life, a magic door will appear and take you to level 70.

On levels 7 and 22 wait a few seconds until an umbrella falls and grab it, you will warp ahead 6 levels.

Beating level 100: Jump on the small platforms to collect all the green potion bottles. They will give you lightning bolts. Straight away fall to the bottom left hand corner, face in to the corner and fire like hell. The big guy at the end very rarely goes into the bottom corner, if he does don't worry just repeat the above process. After 100 hits, he will turn into a bubble. Pop him and you've done it!

GENERAL TIPS

Yellow bubblegum: increase bubble firing speed
Purple bubblegum: make the bubble travel further
Blue bubblegum --- increase the bubble speed across screen
Red shoe --------- faster moving Bub and Bob

The fireball bubble is randomly created. Whenever a bubble floats onto the screen, there is a 1 in 4096 chance that it is incarnated as a fireball bubble.

EXTEND bubbles appear only on "open levels" (levels where bubbles fly in from a "hole" in the ceiling or the bottom).

EXTEND bubbles appear only when you've popped in the previous non-open-stages 3 or more enemy-trapped-bubbles at once. The more enemies popped at once, the more DIFFERENT EXTEND bubbles will come.

So if you popped 2 enemy-trapped-bubbles on one stage there won't be any extend bubble on the stage. But if you popped 3 on one stage the next stage will have 1 extend bubble. If you popped 4 the next stage will have 2 extend bubbles and so on. This means that if you pop 8 enemy-trapped-bubbles at once on one stage the next stage will give you all 6 extend bubbles!

Any EXTEND letters that you haven't collected by the end of a stage reappear on the next open level, but are randomly selected again. So if you are offered a letter that you don't need, it may be worth leaving it, and hoping it is reincarnated as a more useful letter on the next level.

Each treasure room has a secret message. The messages can be decoded by recognising that the first 26 characters stand for the letters of the alphabet. This code is needed to read the message you get at the end of the game that tells you how to do a Super BB power up.

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.

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 (levels 90-99 have different items, not fruit). 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!

The items that you get for a score of the format abcdd0 are shown here:

score: item
000: french fries
110: double scoop ice cream cone
220: creme caramel
330: burger
440: slice of cake
550: cupcake
660: mug of beer
770: sausage on a stick
880: white ice cream cone
990: double blue lolly

The items that you get for matching your tens and hundreds to your partner's are listed here. Although both the tens and hundreds column need to be matched, only the tens column affects what item appears. They turn out to be the lowest 10 food items (the vegetables). They are, of course, all worth 700 points.

points: item
00: green pepper
10: aubergine
20: carrot
30: onion
40: beetroot
50: turnip
60: parsnip
70: marrow
80: pea pod
90: mushroom

Bubbles also turn into fruit if the hundreds and tens digits of the scores of both players are the same (but the hundreds and tens not necessarily the same as each other). eg BOTH players scores end in ...120.

Bubbles turn to fruit all the time on levels 1, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50, 85, 86, 92, 93, 94.

ITEM POINTS

Notes:

umb - means the item may appear on the screen after you've got an umbrella.
skel - means the item may appear if a skel appeared on the previous level.
hurry - means the item may appear if the previous level told you to hurry up, but no skel appeared.

SPECIAL COUNTERS

The game maintains a bunch of counters which keep a record of how many times you have done various things. Once a counter reaches its threshold, it is reset to zero and you get the item which that counter is associated with. Counters are only checked at the beginning of each round. If two or more counters reach their thresholds in the same round, the one which is associated with the highest numbered item is used. The other(s) will keep their value for the next screen. The counters aren't reset at the beginning of each game.

In the following, the ITEM_DATA line contains:

XXXX ( AA BB CC DD ) EE

XXXX is the address of the counter which is used.

AA BB CC and DD are the 4 possible thresholds which the counter must reach before you get the item. Which one of the 4 values is used depends on the difficulty setting that the game is currently running at:

CC for difficulty 00-04
DD for difficulty 05-07
BB for difficulty 08-0B
AA for difficulty 0C-1E

Initial difficulties are: 0D (v.hard), 0A (hard), 04 (easy) and 07 (normal). The difficulty changes throughout the game, going higher when you gain extra lives, lower when you die, and other things affect it, too, which I don't know about.

EE is non-zero if the bell should warn us that the item is around.

ITEM_NUMBER ------ 0/00
ITEM_DESCRIPTION: red and white sweetie - long-range bubbles
ITEM_DATA -------- E5DF (23 23 23 23) 00
ITEM_COUNTER ----- bubbles blown

e5df is incremented each time a bubble is blown (by either player) so blow 51 or more bubbles and get a red and white long-range bubbles sweetie on the next level.

ITEM_NUMBER ------ 1/01
ITEM_DESCRIPTION: purple and cyan sweetie - fast bubbles
ITEM_DATA -------- E5E0 ( 23 23 23 23 ) 00
ITEM_COUNTER ----- empty bubbles popped

e5e0 is incremented each time an empty bubble is popped (by either player) (for 10 points). So pop 51 or more empty bubbles and get a purple and cyan fast bubbles sweetie on the next level.

ITEM_NUMBER ------ 2/02
ITEM_DESCRIPTION: orange and yellow sweetie - rapid-fire bubbles
ITEM_DATA -------- E5E4 (23 23 23 23) 00
ITEM_COUNTER ----- jumps

e5e4 is incremented each time either player jumps, so jump 51 or more times and get an orange and yellow rapid-fire bubbles sweetie on the next level.

ITEM_NUMBER ------ 3/03
ITEM_DESCRIPTION: running shoes - run faster
ITEM_DATA -------- E5E6 (0C 0C 0C 0C) 00
ITEM_COUNTER ----- distance run

e5e5 is incremented each time either play runs along the ground: it goes at twice the speed if both players are running. When it reaches 256, it wraps around to 0, and e5e6 is incremented. If one player runs all the way across the bottom of the level about 15 times then there should be some running shoes on the next level.

ITEM_NUMBER ------ 4/04
ITEM_DESCRIPTION: clock - stop timer, no hurry up, no skels
ITEM_DATA -------- E5E1 (0C 0C 0C 0C) 00
ITEM_COUNTER ----- lightning bubbles popped

e5e1 is incremented whenever you pop a lightning bubble. Get 12 of them for a clock on the next level.

ITEM_NUMBER ------ 5/05
ITEM_DESCRIPTION: bomb - 10k (free) or 6k (bubbled) diamonds
ITEM_DATA -------- E5E2 (13 10 0A 0D) 01
ITEM_COUNTER ----- fire bubbles popped

e5e2 is incremented whenever you pop a fire bubble. Get 19/16/10/13 of them for a bomb on the next level.

ITEM_NUMBER ------ 6/06
ITEM_DESCRIPTION: orange umbrella - skip 3 levels
ITEM_DATA -------- E5E3 (0F 0F 0F 0F) 00
ITEM_COUNTER ----- water bubbles popped

ITEM_NUMBER ------ 7/07
ITEM_DESCRIPTION: red umbrella - skip 5 levels
ITEM_DATA -------- E5E3 (14 14 14 14) 00
ITEM_COUNTER ----- water bubbles popped

ITEM_NUMBER ------ 8/08
ITEM_DESCRIPTION: purple umbrella - skip 7 levels
ITEM_DATA -------- E5E3 (19 19 19 19) 00
ITEM_COUNTER ----- water bubbles popped

ITEM_DESCRIPTION: all three umbrellas and 'warp to 70'

e5e3 is incremented whenever you pop a water bubble, even if there's already water on the screen and it seems like the bubble didn't do anything, it's still counted. Get 15 of then for an orange umbrella, 20 for a red one or 25 for a purple one.

ITEM_NUMBER ------ 9/09
ITEM_DESCRIPTION: sunflower potion
ITEM_DATA -------- E5E7 ( 0F 0F 0F 0F ) 00
ITEM_COUNTER ----- wrap-arounds from bottom to top of screen

ITEM_NUMBER ------ 10/0a
ITEM_DESCRIPTION: flower potion
ITEM_DATA -------- E5E7 ( 10 10 10 10 ) 00
ITEM_COUNTER ----- wrap-arounds from bottom to top of screen

ITEM_NUMBER ------ 11/0b
ITEM_DESCRIPTION: clover potionv ITEM_DATA -------- E5E7 ( 11 11 11 11 ) 00
ITEM_COUNTER ----- wrap-arounds from bottom to top of screen

ITEM_NUMBER ------ 12/0c
ITEM_DESCRIPTION: rainbow potion
ITEM_DATA -------- E5E7 ( 12 12 12 12 ) 00
ITEM_COUNTER ----- wrap-arounds from bottom to top of screen

ITEM_NUMBER ------ 13/0d
ITEM_DESCRIPTION: musical potion
ITEM_DATA -------- E5E7 ( 13 13 13 13 ) 00
ITEM_COUNTER ----- wrap-arounds from bottom to top of screen

e5e7 is a counter of how many times either player has fallen from the bottom of the screen and appeared back on the top, as if by magic! If you do this enough times, you get a potion: 15, 16, 17, 18 and 19-or-more times for the different types of potions.

ITEM_NUMBER ------ 14/0e
ITEM_DESCRIPTION: flashing heart: freezes monsters & makes you flash & go all invincible
ITEM_DATA -------- E5E8 (41 3C 32 37) 01
ITEM_COUNTER ----- dead-monster fruits eaten

ITEM_NUMBER ------ 15/0f
ITEM_DESCRIPTION: blue ring: points for running
ITEM_DATA -------- E5E9 (03 03 03 03) 00
ITEM_COUNTER ----- 'fast bubbles' sweeties eaten

ITEM_NUMBER ------ 16/10
ITEM_DESCRIPTION: purple ring: points for jumping
ITEM_DATA -------- E5EA (03 03 03 03) 00
ITEM_COUNTER ----- 'rapid-fire bubbles' sweeties eaten

ITEM_NUMBER ------ 17/11
ITEM_DESCRIPTION: red ring, points for bubbles
ITEM_DATA -------- E5EB (03 03 03 03) 00
ITEM_COUNTER ----- 'long-range bubbles' sweeties eaten

ITEM_NUMBER ------ 18/12
ITEM_DESCRIPTION: blue cross, drowns monsters in water
ITEM_DATA -------- E5F6 (0D 0C 0A 0B) 01
ITEM_COUNTER ----- special items eaten

ITEM_NUMBER ------ 19/13
ITEM_DESCRIPTION: yellow and red cross, lightning kills monsters
ITEM_DATA -------- E5F7 ( 10 0E 0A 0C ) 01
ITEM_COUNTER ----- special fruits eaten

ITEM_NUMBER ------ 20/14
ITEM_DESCRIPTION: red and orange cross, breath fireballs for 9k diamonds
ITEM_DATA -------- E5EE ( 07 06 04 05 ) 01
ITEM_COUNTER ----- monsters drowned by water bubble

ITEM_NUMBER ------ 21/15
ITEM_DESCRIPTION: cyan lantern, same as items 0x10, 0x11 and 0x0f that's points for jumping, for bubbles and for running
ITEM_DATA -------- E5EF ( 05 05 05 05 ) 00
ITEM_COUNTER ----- times that p1 has joined a running game

ITEM_NUMBER ------ 22/16
ITEM_DESCRIPTION: red lantern, same as items 0x10,11,0f,00,01,02 that's points for jumping, for bubbles and for running and long-range, fast, rapid-fire bubbles
ITEM_DATA -------- E5F0 ( 05 05 05 05 ) 00
ITEM_COUNTER ----- times that p2 has joined a running game

ITEM_NUMBER ------ 23/17
ITEM_DESCRIPTION: exploding purple lantern
ITEM_DATA -------- E5EC ( 02 02 01 01 ) 01
ITEM_COUNTER ----- umbrellas (items 6, 7 and 8) collected

ITEM_NUMBER ------ 24/18
ITEM_DESCRIPTION: yellow lantern, same as items 0, 1 and 2 that's long-range, fast, rapid-fire bubbles
ITEM_DATA -------- E5ED ( 04 03 01 02 ) 00
ITEM_COUNTER ----- clocks (item 4) collected

ITEM_NUMBER ------ 25/19
ITEM_DESCRIPTION: book, shakes screen for 6/8k diamonds
ITEM_DATA -------- E5F3 ( 10 0E 0A 0C ) 01
ITEM_COUNTER ----- monsters killed by fire bubble

ITEM_NUMBER ------ 26/1a
ITEM_DESCRIPTION: silver ring, flying stars - 6k diamonds
ITEM_DATA -------- E5F4 ( 10 0E 0A 0C ) 01
ITEM_COUNTER ----- monsters killed by lightning bubble

ITEM_NUMBER ------ 27/1b
ITEM_DESCRIPTION: red pearl necklace, give 10 free extend letters
ITEM_DATA -------- E5D9 ( 1E 19 0F 14 ) 00
ITEM_COUNTER ----- games started (2 player games count as 2)

ITEM_NUMBER ------ 28/1c
ITEM_DESCRIPTION: purple? pearl necklace for bouncing thing - 6k diamonds
ITEM_DATA -------- E5DA ( 1E 19 0F 14 ) 01
ITEM_COUNTER ----- levels started

ITEM_NUMBER ------ 29/1d
ITEM_DESCRIPTION: fork - flying vegetables for 6k diamonds
ITEM_DATA -------- F457 ( 01 01 01 01 ) 01
ITEM_COUNTER ----- entries of SEX into high score table

ITEM_NUMBER ------ 30/1e
ITEM_DESCRIPTION: purple treasure chest - 80k diamond
ITEM_DATA -------- F458 ( 01 01 01 01 ) 00
ITEM_COUNTER ----- times level 100 is finished (happy or not)

ITEM_NUMBER ------ 31/1f
ITEM_DESCRIPTION: pink/orange treasure chest - 70k diamond
ITEM_DATA -------- E601 ( 03 03 03 03 ) 00
ITEM_COUNTER ----- books (item 0x19) collected

ITEM_NUMBER ------ 32/20
ITEM_DESCRIPTION: brown treasure chest - 60k diamond
ITEM_DATA -------- E602 ( 03 03 03 03 ) 00
ITEM_COUNTER ----- exploding purple lanterns (item 0x17) collected

ITEM_NUMBER ------ 33/21
ITEM_DESCRIPTION: cyan treasure chest - 50k diamond
ITEM_DATA -------- E600 ( 03 03 03 03 ) 00
ITEM_COUNTER ----- water crosses (item 0x12) collected

ITEM_NUMBER ------ 34/22
ITEM_DESCRIPTION: grey treasure chest - 40k diamond
ITEM_DATA -------- E5FF ( 03 03 03 03 ) 00
ITEM_COUNTER ----- yellow and red crosses (item 0x13) collected

ITEM_NUMBER ------ 35/23
ITEM_DESCRIPTION: red/pink cane - 30k pointy cake
ITEM_DATA -------- E5FD ( 03 03 03 03 ) 00
ITEM_COUNTER ----- D's collected

ITEM_NUMBER ------ 36/24
ITEM_DESCRIPTION: red/brown cane - 30k iced bun
ITEM_DATA -------- E5FC ( 03 03 03 03 ) 00
ITEM_COUNTER ----- N's collected

ITEM_NUMBER ------ 37/25
ITEM_DESCRIPTION: red cane - 20k melon
ITEM_DATA -------- E5FB ( 03 03 03 03 ) 00
ITEM_COUNTER ----- (middle) 'E's collected

ITEM_NUMBER ------ 38/26
ITEM_DESCRIPTION: orange cane - 20k orange
ITEM_DATA -------- E5FA ( 03 03 03 03 ) 00
ITEM_COUNTER ----- T's collected

ITEM_NUMBER ------ 39/27
ITEM_DESCRIPTION: light brown cane - 10k lolly
ITEM_DATA -------- E5F9 ( 03 03 03 03 ) 00
ITEM_COUNTER ----- X's collected

ITEM_NUMBER ------ 40/28
ITEM_DESCRIPTION: cyan cane - 10k double lolly
ITEM_DATA -------- E5F8 ( 03 03 03 03 ) 00
ITEM_COUNTER ----- (initial) E's collected

ITEM_NUMBER ------ 41/29
ITEM_DESCRIPTION: bell
ITEM_DATA -------- E5FE ( 0E 0C 08 0A ) 00
ITEM_COUNTER ----- "hurry up!"s displayed

ITEM_NUMBER ------ 42/2a
ITEM_DESCRIPTION: octopus (turns bubbles into X's at end of level?)
ITEM_DATA -------- E604 ( 01 01 01 01 ) 00
ITEM_COUNTER ----- entries of TAK into high score table

ITEM_NUMBER ------ 43/2b
ITEM_DESCRIPTION: flamingo (turns bubbles into smiling turds at end of level?)
ITEM_DATA -------- E605 ( 01 01 01 01 ) 00
ITEM_COUNTER ----- entries of STR into high score table

ITEM_NUMBER ------ 44/2c
ITEM_DESCRIPTION: lager (turns bubbles into pizzas at end of level?)
ITEM_DATA -------- E606 ( 01 01 01 01 ) 00
ITEM_COUNTER ----- entries of KTT into high score table

ITEM_NUMBER ------ 45/2d
ITEM_DESCRIPTION: knife for flying cakes/beer/etc and 6k diamonds)
ITEM_DATA -------- E607 ( 01 01 01 01 ) 01
ITEM_COUNTER ----- entries of ... into high score table

ITEM_NUMBER ------ 46/2e
ITEM_DESCRIPTION: crystal ball, points items and special items each take 4 seconds to appear from now on, instead of 7 and 12 seconds
ITEM_DATA -------- E609 ( 01 01 01 01 ) 00
ITEM_COUNTER ----- got a crown

ITEM_NUMBER ------ 47/2f
ITEM_DESCRIPTION: pencil/cigar (makes next 3 special items be potions), and acts like item 0c, the rainbow potion
ITEM_DATA -------- E60A ( 01 01 01 01 ) 00
ITEM_COUNTER ----- started 777 levels

ITEM_NUMBER ------ 48/30
ITEM_DESCRIPTION: skull (immediate 'hurry up')
ITEM_DATA -------- E611 ( 14 19 1E 1B ) 00
ITEM_COUNTER ----- times the skel has come (+2 more sometimes if he catches you)

ITEM_NUMBER ------ 49/31
ITEM_DESCRIPTION: treasure room door to 20
ITEM_DATA -------- E60D ( 01 01 01 01 ) 00
ITEM_COUNTER ----- get to level 19 without loss of life

ITEM_NUMBER ------ 50/32
ITEM_DESCRIPTION: treasure room door to 30
ITEM_DATA -------- E60E ( 01 01 01 01 ) 00
ITEM_COUNTER ----- get to level 29 without loss of life

ITEM_NUMBER ------ 51/33
ITEM_DESCRIPTION: treasure room door to 40
ITEM_DATA -------- E60F ( 01 01 01 01 ) 00
ITEM_COUNTER ----- get to level 39 without loss of life

ITEM_NUMBER ------ 52/34
ITEM_DESCRIPTION: warp to 70
ITEM_DATA -------- E610 ( 01 01 01 01 ) 00
ITEM_COUNTER ----- get to level 49 without loss of life

ITEM_NUMBER ------ 53/35
ITEM_DESCRIPTION: coke - rains jam donuts for 6k diamonds (free) or 500 point bananas (bubbled)
ITEM_DATA -------- E608 ( 01 01 01 01 ) 01
ITEM_COUNTER ----- entries of I.F, MTJ, NSO, KIM or YSH into high score table