Together Retro: Bubble Bobble

[noiseredux]

Yea I was meaning more towards Rainbow Islands for the 1cc. Bubble bobble would be insane.

Tek you wanna do like 2 weeks of BB, 1 week of Rainbox and then 1 week of Rainbow remake?

[Ivo]

I would say it is pretty hard to 1 cc it. There are some levels that are really quite hard, particularly if you are playing solo.

Ivo.

[dsheinem]

I would say it is pretty hard to 1 cc it. There are some levels that are really quite hard, particularly if you are playing solo.

Ivo.

I just decided to try credit feeding - and found out that's a no go There's no way to continue, the game sets you back to stage one every time.

(And that's yet another reason why Snow Bros. is better)

[dsheinem]

EDIT: You really think "Most" shmups are "doable" as a 1cc? Perhaps I've met someone more optimistic than even myself?

I've never been accused of being an optimist, but I do think that the majority of shmups - given dedication - can be 1cc'ed. Most of them are "fair" in that regard...

The first thing we should do is discuss how absolutely terrifying the Saturn/PSX version's intro FMV is.

What's terrifying about it? I kept waiting for some super-creepy moment or something...I don't see the problem...

[AppleQueso]

The first thing we should do is discuss how absolutely terrifying the Saturn/PSX version's intro FMV is.

What's terrifying about it? I kept waiting for some super-creepy moment or something...I don't see the problem...

It's just really ugly and everyone moves in this unnatural manner. Also, the never-ending laugh from the Rainbow Islands kid...

[Ivo]

I've never been accused of being an optimist, but I do think that the majority of shmups - given dedication - can be 1cc'ed. Most of them are "fair" in that regard...

If you are playing with two players I think Bubble Bobble is very "fair", probably more so than most shmups. You need good skills and strategies but for example in terms of memorisation or pixel perfect positioning it is much less demanding.

Although some levels are really hard, and I'm not so sure about how fair it is throughout the whole 100s if playing solo, because I really get the impression some levels were designed for two (e.g. either one blows bubbles for the other to jump on, or the starting point of the 2nd player allows the elimination of some enemies very easily whereas getting there with the 1st player is a huge pain).

In theory if you are really, really advanced you could control the appearance of an umbrella to skip a particular hard level, or otherwise get one of the various ways you can instantly beat one (EXTEND, one of the "smart bombs" or other power-ups). I'm not sure if people actually do that in practice (I don't).

[o.pwuaioc]

I'll second what Ivo said. This game is primarily geared for two players. I might practice a bit on my own, but I'll only play with a partner this month.

[dsheinem]

I'll second what Ivo said. This game is primarily geared for two players. I might practice a bit on my own, but I'll only play with a partner this month.

I see...is there an online co-op version?

I've not got past level 21 trying to 1cc it, so I've a long way to go...

[Ivo]

I'll second what Ivo said. This game is primarily geared for two players. I might practice a bit on my own, but I'll only play with a partner this month.

I see...is there an online co-op version?

I've not got past level 21 trying to 1cc it, so I've a long way to go...

I think there are some open source clones of it that allow it, something like this:
http://bub-n-bros.sourceforge.net/
If someone wants to try that I'd be in (although my timezone probably does not help).

EDIT:
If you want something official, you are out of luck. Not even the Xbox live arcade version has online co-op (some sources say it has, but apparently they are incorrect).

Ivo.

[Ivo]

Another thing - in the article you may notice I avoided referring to any home versions as arcade perfect. The reason is that sadly Taito has lost the source code for this game a good while ago. I'm not sure if the FM Towns port is truly arcade accurate.

The issue is with subtleties like item appearance conditions and such. It can be important at later levels where bubble behaviour and jumping on bubbles is tuned to work to high precision and if something is slightly off it can affect the stage significantly. Also I never really noticed most of these myself as I never played it at an actual arcade but true veterans have spotted the difference.

Even MAME has only managed to reproduce it perfectly since about 2006, after cracking a particular chip that controlled (among other things) enemy AI behaviour, you can read about that here:
http://mamelife.blogspot.co.uk/2006/08/ ... -last.html

The creator of MAME (Nicola) is credited in the Taito Legends compilation, which may mean that the TL version is also emulated from the original arcade version and therefore may be entirely arcade perfect - but I am not sure.

Ivo.