Bubbles - MAME machine

Arcade Video game published 42 years ago:

Bubbles © 1982 Williams.

In Bubbles you control a cartoon soap bubble inside a large sink. The object of the game is clean out the sink. You can safely scrub away ants, grease, and crumbs all the time. But sponges, roaches, brushes, and razor blades are deadly to a small bubble. Don't worry too much though, because your bubble grows in size as it swallows up the dirt in the sink. When it gets big enough it will be able to hit brushes and sponges (but still not razors).

TECHNICAL
Bubbles was available in four different cabinets - A standard wooden upright cabinet, a plastic DuraMold cabinet, a mini (or cabaret) cabinet, and a cocktail. All four different varieties are pretty rare. On top of there being four different cabinets, there were also two different ROM revisions (the 'Red' and 'Blue' revisions), making a grand total of eight different Bubbles machines.

• The standard upright is in a dark blue cabinet (which is identical to one of the alternate "Robotron - 2084" cabinets). It is decorated with painted sideart of a bunch of bubbles coming up from a drain. The marquee matches the design of the sideart perfectly (a 'Bubbles' logo on a dark blue background, some of them also showed the main character, but many of them did not). The control panel features an 8-Way optical joystick that has an incredible feel, but is prone to breakage.
• The DuraMold cabinet was a round cabinet made completely out of thick plastic. This was an experiment in making an indestructible arcade cabinet that would last forever. There were a few other DuraMold games made, but Bubbles was the most common one by far. The DuraMold Bubbles was a big blue plastic cylinder with no sideart. It had a curved marquee on top that had the same graphics as the standard upright. The control panel had the same joystick that the upright model used, but the graphics on it were more detailed (cartoon images of characters from the game, as opposed to a simple design).
• The cabaret and cocktail models were identical in design to their "Robotron - 2084" counterparts. Both of these had very limited production runs.

Main CPU: Motorola M6809 (@ 1 Mhz)
Sound CPU: M6808 (@ 894.75 Khz)
Sound Chips: DAC

Screen orientation: Horizontal
Video resolution: 292 x 240 pixels
Screen refresh: 60.1 Hz
Palette colors: 256

Players: 2
Control: 8-way joystick

TRIVIA
Bubbles was released in March 1983 in the USA, even if the copyright year is 1982.

By 1983 it seemed every possible idea had been used in a video game except the kitchen sink. Then came Bubbles.

'What I was trying to do with Bubbles was come up with a non-violent, clean game (no pun intended)' says John Kotlarik. The game was intended to be a "Pac-Man" inspired take-off with a free form play field instead of walls. Kotlarik came up with the initial concept and Python Anghelo created all the artwork and wrote the game scenario.

Python had previously worked on many other Williams games, including much of the art for "Joust". Kotlarik had helped out on the sounds for "Joust" and "Defender", as well as creating the voice for Williams' first voice synthesized pinball game, "Gorgar". Together they brought the kitchen sink to life.

The early '80s were an era populated with off the wall video game characters like Q•Bert, Dig Dug, and Mr. Do. Even then, the cast of Bubbles stood out from the crowd. The game had crumbs, ants, greasies, sponges, brushes and the Cleaning Lady. It was certainly the only game ever to create a character out of something as sinister and bizarre as a razor blade. Piloting your scrubbing bubble, the goal was to scour sink after sink of scurrying scum.

The big challenge of programming the game was creating the drift movement of the free floating player bubble, which was a lot more complex than meets the eye. They wanted to program the bubble to move like it was on ice, or water, and not a hard surface track. To do this, Kotlarik had to do what he calls the damping of the velocity profile. The longer you held the joystick down, the faster you would go and experience a slight decrease in velocity once you started to coast. It was an attempt to make an analog control out of an eight way digital joystick. The game had different movement than any other immediate response game of its kind.

Bubbles also had innovative cabinet design. The wood cabinet graphics, created by Anghelo, were some of the best of all the Williams classic games. Anghelo also came up with the concept for a unique all plastic cabinet for Bubbles. Mechanical engineer Gary Berge developed it by using a special rotational molding process. The shape was cylindrical with a domed top. The Bubbles cabinets were in blue plastic. Black plastic ones were created for "Blaster" and a handful of "Sinistar" test machines. The plastic cabinets were almost indestructible. When crushed, they would spring back to shape like an accordion. When blemished, they could easily be fixed by heating and smoothing the plastic. 'If we'd made kits for those things we could have easily sold a couple hundred thousand', says Tom Cahill of the Williams service department.

Bubbles created a play environment like no other game of its time. The humorous animated action was a nice complement to Williams' cadre of famous sci-fi pulse racers.

Yashiro Oda holds the official record for this game with 1,566,960 points on August 1, 1984.

SCORING
Crumb: 100 points.
Ants: 150 points.
Greasie: 200 points (can be conquered if you collect the Cleaning Lady and gain her sweeping skill to bump it into the drain).
Cleaning Lady: 500 points (will increase as she collects items).
Roach: 1,000 points (can be conquered if you collect the Cleaning Lady and gain her sweeping skill to bump it into the drain).
Dive Ahead Bonus: x 1,000 points per bubble enlargement.
Around the Drain: x 2 points (if you get the above items around the drain).

TIPS AND TRICKS

• Keep moving...you won't attract dirt if you just stand there. Also, Roaches are like heat-seeking missiles...they won't aimlessly wander because they WANT you.
• Go around the circumference/perimeter of the sink first, since they are the easiest to collect. Then work your way inwards.
• Dirt and crumbs will slowly head for the drain so you could spin around the drain, collecting them as they come.
• If the drain is flashing RED, back off! A Giant Ant/Roach is coming your way! Seek and capture the Cleaning Lady's broom (if there is one) to counter this threat.
• Do not try to out-run Roaches, because they are actually faster than your poor, slow-poke Bubble. Instead, out-maneuver them. Go in circles around them and pick up materials in the process. Once you have a smile, bid the ugly duckling farewell and head for the drain before you get bitten!
• If there is a low supply of materials abroad and you're not even close to getting a smile on your face...don't get the materials because it would speed your death up. Instead, use the remaining time to wait for the green light and go in! It might take a while. Hell, maybe the light will never come...
• DON'T BE SELFISH! You might want to try to collect more materials when you have a big, big smile on your face...it's not worth it. Take the safe road and go into the drain before someone kicks your head in.
• Try to collect the items around the drain, you get double points that way.
• Once you have a smile on your face, you can make the brushes/sponges bounce off without getting blown up. Try to aim them to the drain to add injury to the insult!
• Not really a tip... but the number of the level you are currently playing is on the top left corner. Once it goes past 99, it comes back to 01.
• A little-known strategy of the game is available once your bubble becomes large enough to have a face. The sponges and brush can no longer destroy it. Working from the right angle, a player can rack up extra points by shoving the sponges and brushes down the drain. The only drawback is that every time you throw your weight around in this manner you lose a little in size, until eventually you become vulnerable again.

STAFF
Program, design and sounds by: John Kotlarik (JJK), Tim Murphy (TIM)
Art and design by: Python Anghelo (ANG)
Support software by: Dave Rzepka
Hardware by: Chuck Bleich, Greg Wepner
Mechanical by: Leo Ludzia, Gary Berge
Video manager: Ken Lantz

PORTS

• CONSOLES:

[US] Sega Saturn (1996) "Arcade's Greatest Hits [Model T-9703H]"
[US] Sony PlayStation (apr.10, 1996) "Williams Arcade's Greatest Hits [Model SLUS-00201]"
[EU] Sony PlayStation (sept.1, 1996) "Williams Arcade's Greatest Hits [Model SLES-00323]"
[US] Sega Dreamcast (june.27, 2000) "Midway's Greatest Arcade Hits Vol. 1 [Model T-9713N]"
[EU] Sega Dreamcast (jul.28, 2000) "Midway's Greatest Arcade Hits Vol. 1 [Model T-9710D-50]"
[US] Sony PS2 (nov.18, 2003) "Midway Arcade Treasures [Model SLUS-20801]"
[US] Microsoft XBOX (nov.24, 2003) "Midway Arcade Treasures"
[US] Nintendo GameCube (dec.18, 2003) "Midway Arcade Treasures [Model DOL-GAKE-USA]"
[EU] Microsoft XBOX (feb.6, 2004) "Midway Arcade Treasures"
[EU] Sony PS2 (feb.6, 2004) "Midway Arcade Treasures [Model SLES-51927]"
[US] Microsoft XBOX 360 (nov.6, 2012) "Midway Arcade Origins"
[US] Sony PlayStation 3 (nov.6, 2012) "Midway Arcade Origins [Model BLUS-31083]"
[EU] Microsoft XBOX 360 (nov.15, 2012) "Midway Arcade Origins"
[EU] Sony PlayStation 3 (nov.15, 2012) "Midway Arcade Origins [Model BLES-01768]"

• COMPUTERS:

[US] PC [MS Windows 3.1/DOS, CD-ROM] (1995) "Williams Arcade Classics"
[US] PC [MS Windows 95/DOS, CD-ROM] (1996) "Williams Arcade Classics"
[US] PC [MS Windows, CD-ROM] (aug.27, 2004) "Midway Arcade Treasures"
[EU] PC [MS Windows, CD-ROM] (nov.23, 2004) "Midway Arcade Treasures"

CONTRIBUTE
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