Very far from arcade perfect, especially in the gameplay department. It plays so wrong, particularly when dropping down, you can move so much sideways, it feels bad
Good old Bubble Bobble... love this game and I've played so many conversions I can't even count them. It's like an exercise in how to port an arcade game and keep it awesome - pretty much every platform has a good version. I even used it as the theme for my mini Mame cabinet.My mum and sister used to play through the DS version every afternoon... like drop the kids off at school, coffee, complete Bubble Bobble, Jeremy Kyle, then pick the kids up from school - that was their daily routine for about 2 years!
Couple of things here. To start, X68000 owners who had the official monitor from Sharp could set the screen to 15KHz and enjoy the game with proper scanlines (as it was a tri-sync monitor). Also, having previously owned the original 5.25" floppies for DOS, the game doesn't sound too bad if using Adlib sound.
The interesting things about Bubble Bobble ports were the levels where the bubbles reacted to different physics and speed; these tended not to be in the conversions like the Atari ST and Amiga but I am pretty sure that it was in the C64 which was a version of epic proportions. Also, Super Bubble Bobble was built into the original arcade machine if you know the combination of joystick and button presses. You could also put in a sequence where you started more powered up.
@@RetroCoreLate in the game here, but yes, there are actually 4 tricks you can perform at the game logo screen, before you insert any coin and if you wait for the demo to go and then logo screen to return you can do all four of them before you begin. They show a small message when done correctly naming the mode you activated. The blue is called Original and makes sure the diamond doors every twenty levels appear even if you lose a life, then there is the red, I think it is called pow (do not quite me on that, it has been many years) that gives you shoes and yellow and blue candy from the get go (they also survive losing a life) but not the purple one. Then there is life up (green) that removes the silly restriction where the green player can only get three extra lives and finally there is the Super, that makes your game into super bubble bobble. They all work in MAME.
Interesting part about Bubble Bobble Double Shot and Revolution is that both games were developed by Dreams Co. Ltd, which was founded by Space Invaders creator Tomohiro Nishikado. I guess you can say he wins some and loses some... Come to think of it, his company also worked on some of the later Puzzle Bobble entries along Taito's other Revolution games on DS, Space Invaders Infinity Gene and Arc System Works' Battle Fantasia.
The BBC version is based on the C64 code, screen a little shorter due to sprite limitations and memory restrictions, hence the black bars at top and bottom of the screen. Enemies no longer bounce around the screen before landing and turning into pick-ups, they just drop down. By time game was ready to find a publisher, the BBC wasn't seen as a commercially viable platform and TELECOMSOFT were up for sale. 4th Dimension were approached, but licence costs and age of game (Rainbow Islands conversions were now out on home micros) put them off. Thanks to Frank Gasking of GTW for the info.
Comparing the X68000 and FM Towns Marty to the Amiga and Atari ST is apples and oranges, they were basically PC's and cost 3-4 times as much. And they also were poor at 3D games compared to IBM PC's. They were better during the 2D era due to sprite hardware but soon became dinosaurs. Another reason their 2D games looked better was that they were given source code by Japanese companies while European developers were never given source code for Japanese games.
UK companies like Ocean/US Gold/Activision in the Amiga 500 days had zero quality control. Lotus II is the only 2.5D style game that extracts the performance of the Amiga 1000 machine. Out Run/Afterburner/Chase HQ look nothing like the arcade. Also the reason UK companies didn't have the source graphics from arcade machines they licensed conversions from is greed, pure and simple. The arcade companies were never asked to supply this data during the negotiations, all the software houses cared about was securing the licences to make massive profits. Chase HQ on the x68000 looks like a complete lump of shit too as does the other Taito racing game, certainly worse than F17/Lotus II/Prime Mover on a stock 1985 Amiga 1000 IMO because it is designed for SNES style platform/beat em ups
@Rooflesoft Games You don't see the irony there? Had they been given the source then the standard would have been better because it'd be using the same source as the original. Its because there was no source that those tragedies happened. Truth is, the east seem to think theyre some sort of authority on games. Theres a racist arrogance there. Funny thing is though even though eastern nations tout their own prowess and only really buy systems based on where theyre made most gaming hardware is made and developed in the west and put into a case made in the east. Also, guess who developed the apis that consoles have used for last 15 or so years? The west has advanced gaming beyond recognition. Chances are theyd lose their minds if they had this realization :-) edit: Im mocking stupidity here, not a race or culture. Im also generalizing. The sillyness amuses me, Im not actually just an asshole :-)
@Rooflesoft Games not even. Any arcade company gave the assets if requested. Look at Rainbow Islands, Saint Dragon, Rodland, Double Dragon III, Operation wolf, ninja warriors and some others, arcade companies gave the assets with the licence, and even documentation to make a perfect conversion (most possible).
This is one of those games that has just the right level of difficulty. It can be mastered with practice, but until then it can get you killed in surprising ways, but never in a blatantly unfair way. Very well designed game, as are a lot of games from the eighties. I had no idea there were SO MANY ports of this game!
@@RetroCore What would you say is THE most ported game of all time? Pac-Man? Space Invaders? Galaxian? I mean direct, authentic ports, not knock-offs that look and/or play exactly the same.
Probe DID indeed base the Saturn and Playstation versions off the Atari ST source code, Taito having apparently lost the coin-op source code. This was confirmed by Probe Software's Fergus McGovern (R. I. P) in the UK Press at the time.
Yeah I remember find that, and the X68000's codes by finishing the game, via 1CC on the X68000 version, and using save states for the Marty version(which has it's own code, ILOVEU). Prior to finding these codes, and posting them to the Shmups forum, I never saw anyone ever post the codes, not even on Japanese sites.
Man that's a load of bubble bobble games i used to love this game in the arcades played it loads when i was a kid, they had it in a local shop for what seems like years Lol.
Sweet, I had a feeling this one was coming at some point. Love this game and was lucky enough to have it at a local laundromat to play while I washed my clothes. I also played the heck out of the PC and Famicom versions and managed to get pretty in each of them.
the bbc port was pretty impressive considering the hardware excluding the sound glitchs, i remember using one in school, most of the stuff i had to suffer was education software, never knew the bbc could do stuff like that :P
Thank you for all the hard work getting so many ports together for this comparison! I had the PC version and I'm sure I remember it supporting AdLib music, think you may have had to run it with a command line parameter or something tho... The unofficial Amstrad version is an impressive display of how far developers can push a machine when they know how :)
Tim Follin just made the music on the Spectrum, it was his other brother Mike Follin who programmed the Spectrum version. And the Spectrum gave me nightmares
My family used to play this a lot on the nes I and my brothers were used to call it the "little dragon" game, and for some reason we used to call puzzle bobble like that too xD
Something fun: while looking at the Segaretro entry of the sega saturn port of Bubble Bobble, I read that since Taito lost the source code to Bubble Bobble, Probe resorted to port not the Arcade version but rather the Atari ST version to the Playstation, Sega Saturn and MS DOS. The other story (albeit, more known) though, tells me that they reverse engineered the Arcade game.
I really enjoyed this Battle Of The Ports rundown of THE IMMORTAL BUBBLE BOBBLE (sorry, Death from Time Killers, you're not the real immortal). AND, I used to own a cracked copy of the C64 version! My mate and I used to put unlimited lives on and have a blast, but we hit a wall when we would get to Level 61, those Space Invader enemies were a little too Raph! I also played the ST and PC versions and though the C64 was better, they still weren't too bad. I can't remember if I ever played the Amiga version or not, I had a friend who had an Amiga and I think he put it on to show me once, but I'm not 100% certain, it was 30 years ago! After watching your video, I have to say, I actually liked the look of the MSX version. I never heard of this computer until I started becoming active on the internet and started seeing it pop up in Wikipedia articles. What were it's specs compared to the C64? Parodius looked really good on the MSX. One small criticism of your video, I would have liked it if you showed stuff like EXTEND with the music changing, those sorts of things happening were always cool. Overall, great video!
Ok, after showing so much of the fantastic Battle Of The Ports, here is the definitive problem on western computers arcade conversions imo. Basically it's more a problem of vision and involvement from publishers than a problem of coder skill (even if, at last, the publishers vision had of course an impact on developers skill on time). In Japan, original developers of arcade games were involved in the conversions, when they were not developed internally, the main idea being to make even more money with home entertainement to make profitable the huge development costs of arcade games but also to maintain their brand image with gamers directly at home. The stakes were therefore high, the quality of the adaptations on personal machines directly impacting sales to demanding players who could easily make the comparison between the original versions and those offered to them at home a few weeks or months later. Well, in Japan, In short, the arcade and home gaming markets were closely linked, competition between development studios was already tough, all of these elements mechanically drove the quality up. Asian computer gamers could count on high quality conversion and as nearly all the successful console systems were Japanese in the 80/90's, this permitted to worldwide players to play usually first class conversions on Megadrive, SNES, etc... But in this situation, western computers were totally isolated from this virtuous circle. To be clear, in those years, japanese gaming studios didn't really care about the western video game market, particularly the old continent because it represented a very small percentage of their sales. So adapt MD or Super Famicom games on their western counterparts, Genesis/MD and SNES, why not, it was so easy. But spend money in game development for such exotic systems as C64, Spectrum, CPC, Atari 800, ST or Amiga? No way. But all the same, their was a market to be seized for little European publishers like US Gold or Ocean and the European branches of American publishers like Atari or Activision. So they decided to make deal with Japanese manufacturers just for purchase licences, a good opportunity to quickly develop already famous games without great creation effort as they re-use existing productions. Their Japanese counterparts had nothing against the idea of making a little more money without any effort. But what is certain is that they did not care what the western publishers make with their creations. In this context, western publishers were totally free to develop their own industrial model, based on a lot of money spent in famous licenses (for exemple Bubble Bobble, here), then giving the developement to a studio (Software Creation, Tiertex for example) or a single guy that understood that the idea was to create numerous conversions in the shortest time. As the arcade and home entertainment market were really more segmented in Europe than in Japan, it was easy to convince with low costs and fast done conversions gamers that usually never saw the original arcade games in motion. Conversions were often average but sometimes a game had the luck to be entrusted to really competent and efficient guys, resulting in very good surprises (Rainbow Islands, Newzealand Story, Toki, Parasol Stars, Pang, and many more if you take time to count the good ones). And to be clear, we were happy with that. In one hand, Japanese home conversions developed under control of the original manufacturers and with the time needed to make the things right, in the other hand western conversions developed in a hurry sometimes by a single guy in its bedroom. Yep, this is clear that appart from some exceptions, this is sadly not on a western computer that you're advised to discover japanese arcade games. Hopefully, there is so much more to enjoy on each western computer if you take time to play original creations. Anyway, thank you Mark for these great videos, Battle Of the Ports definitly rocks!
I just noticed that the regular 1983 Mario Bros. and Bubble Bobble have similarities. From the multiple floors to the objective of knocking every enemy out and obtaining every bonus item. Besides that, I assume Shigeru Miyamoto being a Puck-Man/Pac-Man fan, decided to take elements of that maze game and replace the maze with platforms and adding KO to enemies. And in that unlicensed MD version, next to Doraemon is Crayon Shin-Chan, which in fact has a couple of Taito arcade games based on the manga/anime franchise.
Yeah, that's true about the unlicensed Mega Drive port. I was playing something the other day which I noticed was the original source of many if the graphics found in the MD game.
Not only was BB: Revolution the worse of the two DS releases, Revolution had to initially be recalled in North America because it had a game-breaking bug that caused the level 30 boss to not appear.
I've read that the NES game also had extra levels, but it totals at something like 110 or 112. The GG version is also made easier than the SMS one, as you can get some power ups quicker. Edit: Movement and shot speed look slower on C64.
used to have this and games like rainbow islands/parasoul stars and rodland for the amiga i thought they were ace....until i saw what the arcade versions actually were like
Gotta love the randomness of Chinese knockoffs: Some free RAM left? Let's throw in Doraemon and Shin-chan! I don't think Asahi TV would find this funny, but I sure do.
It seems in China, there are no words for original, genuine, or intellectual property :D (not to mention a whole slew of other things, but that's not topical here)
You should've played the game on the Ad-Lib mode, It's a conversion (a kinda poor one at that) of the arcade music, but it still sounds way better than the PC-Speaker.
I honestly think that Bub and Bob are the most overpowered fictional characters of all time. Think about it, they shoot indestructible bubbles at you and trap you to make you defenseless and then kill you. They’re the most dangerous killers since Kirby.
There's no music at all on the 48K version, and the music wouldn't work properly on certain 128K machines either because of hardware changes Amstrad made when they took over making Speccys from Sinclair. I had a black Speccy 128k+2A back in the day and it wouldn't play the Bubble Bobble music at all. I had a friend with a older grey 128k+2 model and the music worked on his, but after a short while the game ended up with really bad graphical glitches on screen so we ended up having to play it in 48k mode with no music to get rid of them anyway. It definitely wasn't a very fun experience.
Oh wow! A potential Lynx port. I woud've bought that back in the day for sure. You overlooked the NGPC version. That was really sore on my colorblind eyes. The MS-DOS version supported the Ad-Lib soundcard, I am pretty sure. I had Taito's DOS version of Arkanoid II and the music and sound were great with my Soundblaster/Ad-Lib card.
stevethefishdotnet Oh no, there was a Neo Geo Pocet version of Bubble Bobble? Bummer, I nevr knew that. Wish I had just to make the show more complete.
davidvfx Yep, something about it containing Super Bubble Bobble levels. I'm not too sure but it does have the most levels out of the home ports released in the west.
Just confirmed it. Final stage of Gynoug. Boy I love that game! Just a slight change in the palette. LOL What I can't stand about the Chinese MD Bubble Bobble is the music where they totally ruin the melody moving up into crescendo.
Neil Alderson Yep, first time I've ever done anything with the BBC Micro on this show. I used one a lot back in the day though. My school had a room full of them. During lunch break we could play actual games on them. Just a shame we never had access to this version of Bubble Bobble.
Another great comparison video. Love these, I look forward to them every week. Just a little observation... and call me a pedant... but the sprites in the Playstation and Saturn versions had improved shading/colours over the arcade original, making them arguably better than arcade perfect (or worse, depending on your point of view.)
I think the reason why that second DS bubble bobble game is named Double Shot is because Revolution sucked so they took another shot at a DS bubble bobble game (and it was worth it)
An average American gamer only thinks of this and Space Invaders when bringing up Taito, excluding developers under Taito's umbrella. But Taito was possibly the earliest Japanese video game developer, initially released Speed Race in November 1974 designed by Tomohiro Nishikado (who later went on to design the legendary Space Invaders). Taito was one of the developers that popularized the Yamaha YM2610 soundchip and its B counterpart, but also interestingly used the Ensoniq ES5510. Japan knows more of their games than foreigners. Sadly, they are now in the hands of Square Enix. However, ZUN and G.rev are splinter developers of Taito.
It is sad how the mighty developers of Japan have been bought up by companies that didn't really innovate. Sega to Sammy, Taito to Square and Namco to Bandai.
Retro Core Indeed. Namco and Bandai have been associated with each other for a long time since Macross for Famicom. Sammy even owns Visco Games, but their Vasara 1 and 2 arcade games are being HD enhanced and rereleased on today's platforms next year. But in America, not only video game developers, but especially other companies are buying one after another much more. Some decided to end permanently like Toys R Us and RadioShack for instance.
Bubble Bobble 4 Friends released for the Switch recently, with the original arcade game plus a new campaign. It's pretty arcade perfect, but kinda ridiculous for its price. You should check it out if you have the chance! Love this video! PS, Did you know that there is a version of the DOS port with much better sound quality? It plays exactly the same and looks the same aside from that, however.
PlayStation and saturn versions allow different amount of credits. Ps1 is 15, saturn is 9 I think. Ps1 version was incorrectly coded there is no wind in lvl 97 which means unless you have an umbrella or special attack you cannot progress.
I thought this was a tetris-like game where you shot Bubbles and had to match colors to make them disappear I played that in an arcade and this character was controlling the arrow in the center that through the bubbles.
Ah, that's puzzle bobble you are thinking of or bust-a-move to give the game its stupid English name. I mean, bust-a-move? That's a term used for dancing.
I played A LOT the C64 in those days, I'm still wondering how the hell the devs managed to fit so many content in only 38k. I think it was the best C64 port ever.
batlin you're right but longer games require loading stages from disk. Even commercial games were limited to 38k maximum, you can see that most games for emulators that don't have multiple loadings are in a file that has 38k.
the pc version only sounds horible because you were using the pc speaker setting. the game also supports add lib (and by extention, sound blaster and that mode sounds nearly like a dead ringer for the arcade.
@@RetroCore looks like it. If you get the chance check it out is a fun little time waster and it's main difference is you have a whip that you catch enemies with and then throw them at other enemies to hirt them. The damage an enemy dose when thrown is based of how much damage that enemy needs to die himself
Why do some people seem to think up for jump is bad and that multiple buttons is good? I always just assume it's because of limited exposure to different formats, so peoples ignorance will show through. Theres no "proper" way to do things, and in fact at times up for jump is better, more natural, as is the case with Bubble Bobble. It just "feels" right, and also works better for the game mechanics. Jumping on bubbles to get to higher ground for example,... just aim and keep up pressed. Two buttons is more cumbersome.
Maybe you were brought up on western computers where up was always jump and even worse for racing games up was accelerate. Its nothing at all about ignorance. I had access to the C64, cpc, speccy and Amiga as a kid. I also had access to a MSX, master system and Mega Drive. By choice having a button for jump was the preferred way. It made skillful jumps possible and it also made games more enjoyable. Ever wondered why 90% of Arcade games are also this way? People who prefer up for jump in anything other than a fighting game and games that are originally designed that way were probably brought up only with home computers from the West.
I disagree. Having jump on a seperate button is far better than up. As it's easier to adjust which way you're facing or if you're trying to aim for a certain platform after jumping. You can just hold the jump button to bounce giving. You free control of movement while doing so. I would theorise if it was a better control scheme enough players would have voiced a preference and it would have been an option in more ports and rereleases by now.
Nope, Fantasy Zone is actually due in a few weeks. Next week it's a scrolling Fighter with another action game following. After that you may see Fantasy Zone :)
Do Battle Of The Ports - Bust-a-Move/Puzzle Bobble (バスト移動/パズルボブル) 1. Arcade - Bust-A-Move 2. Arcade - Puzzle Bobble 3. Super Nintendo Entertainment System - Bust-A-Move 4. Super Nintendo Entertainment System - Puzzle Bobble 5. Neo Geo - Bust-A-Move 6. Neo Geo - Puzzle Bobble 7. 3DO Interactive Multiplayer - Bust-A-Move 8. 3DO Interactive Multiplayer - Puzzle Bobble 9. Game Gear - Bust-A-Move 10. Game Gear - Puzzle Bobble 11. Windows - Bust-A-Move 12. Windows - Puzzle Bobble 13. Neo Geo CD - Puzzle Bobble 14. WonderSwan - Puzzle Bobble Like So Retro Core Can See
I thought about doing that many years go. I actually own the Saturn version. But I remember it nit having many ports. I do like that game. Let me look on to it. Won't bee for a few weeks if I do it since the next 3 shows are already planned.
Technically, shouldn't the PS2 version from Taito Memories Jokan (2005) be included? Taito said they lost the source code to the arcade verion in 1996, so every port from then on was reverse-engineered from an arcade PCB.
Should super bubble bobble really be here? Because judging by the sprites and some of the music, it really seems like an unlicensed remastering of bubble bobble part 2.
Hmm, I'm not familiar with Bubble Bobble 2 so I was unaware it shared a resemblance. It shouldn't really be featured anyway since it's an unofficial game but I added it just for fun.
Not really, cannot be as good as the original. Plus, amiga version made by David Whittaker is really nice, and the Atari St version made by the Follin brothers too. It is not because you played it on the c64 that it is thé best version, simple guy.
It is impressive how arcade prefect those two versions are, it it literally like using the same arcade code recompiled for the ps1 and saturn! Thanks for your great videos. The best "compare" channel on youtube.
The PS1 and Saturn versions are janky as can be, the physics of the bubbles are broken entirely. You can literally jump through walls sideways, which you should not be able to do.
There is now a new Amiga fan-port called Tiny Bobble - pretty much arcade perfect on an stock A500 with 512k RAM.
Very far from arcade perfect, especially in the gameplay department. It plays so wrong, particularly when dropping down, you can move so much sideways, it feels bad
Love how the BBC micro version give you about 15 seconds to complete a level.
Shaun Hickox Well, I guess since they were mainly used in schools it was to get the kids to hurry up gaming and back to studying :p
Good old Bubble Bobble... love this game and I've played so many conversions I can't even count them. It's like an exercise in how to port an arcade game and keep it awesome - pretty much every platform has a good version. I even used it as the theme for my mini Mame cabinet.My mum and sister used to play through the DS version every afternoon... like drop the kids off at school, coffee, complete Bubble Bobble, Jeremy Kyle, then pick the kids up from school - that was their daily routine for about 2 years!
Couple of things here. To start, X68000 owners who had the official monitor from Sharp could set the screen to 15KHz and enjoy the game with proper scanlines (as it was a tri-sync monitor). Also, having previously owned the original 5.25" floppies for DOS, the game doesn't sound too bad if using Adlib sound.
I played the Spectrum version a lot and never had an issue with it. Pretty sure it was the other brother too who programmed it, Mike Follin
Yep, says Mike Follin right there on the title screen. He also wrote The Sentinel.
batlin actually Mike only helped with the ZX Spectrum port of Geoff Crammond's The Sentinel
The interesting things about Bubble Bobble ports were the levels where the bubbles reacted to different physics and speed; these tended not to be in the conversions like the Atari ST and Amiga but I am pretty sure that it was in the C64 which was a version of epic proportions.
Also, Super Bubble Bobble was built into the original arcade machine if you know the combination of joystick and button presses. You could also put in a sequence where you started more powered up.
Cool, I didn't know about the hidden version in the Arcade game. I guess this would also work on MAME too.
@@RetroCoreLate in the game here, but yes, there are actually 4 tricks you can perform at the game logo screen, before you insert any coin and if you wait for the demo to go and then logo screen to return you can do all four of them before you begin. They show a small message when done correctly naming the mode you activated. The blue is called Original and makes sure the diamond doors every twenty levels appear even if you lose a life, then there is the red, I think it is called pow (do not quite me on that, it has been many years) that gives you shoes and yellow and blue candy from the get go (they also survive losing a life) but not the purple one. Then there is life up (green) that removes the silly restriction where the green player can only get three extra lives and finally there is the Super, that makes your game into super bubble bobble. They all work in MAME.
Also I think the "Classic DS version" is emulation so technically is 100% the arcade game.
Lord Alfajor There are definitely some instrument differences in the music, might be emulation though.
There’s a TI-83 Plus version. It’s very impressive. It contains every single arcade level, multiplayer, Super Bubble Bobble and external levels.
Nice, I wasn't aware of that.
Interesting part about Bubble Bobble Double Shot and Revolution is that both games were developed by Dreams Co. Ltd, which was founded by Space Invaders creator Tomohiro Nishikado. I guess you can say he wins some and loses some...
Come to think of it, his company also worked on some of the later Puzzle Bobble entries along Taito's other Revolution games on DS, Space Invaders Infinity Gene and Arc System Works' Battle Fantasia.
***** Well, I never knew that. His company really did balls up BB Revolution. That's rubbish.
Retro Core yeah....same
That pirate game for MD uses the final level of Gynoug/Wings of Wor's background, btw. The more you know.
Alianger So it does! I never noticed until you mentioned it. Well spotted.
this is the first battle of the ports video I've watched back in the summer of 2015, I've been really enjoying battle of the ports ever since
Wow, thanks! Hope you enjoy the many shows coming in the future.
The BBC version is based on the C64 code, screen a little shorter due to sprite limitations and memory restrictions, hence the black bars at top and bottom of the screen.
Enemies no longer bounce around the screen before landing and turning into pick-ups, they just drop down.
By time game was ready to find a publisher, the BBC wasn't seen as a commercially viable platform and TELECOMSOFT were up for sale.
4th Dimension were approached, but licence costs and age of game (Rainbow Islands conversions were now out on home micros) put them off.
Thanks to Frank Gasking of GTW for the info.
My very favourite game of all time, this. I grew up with the excellent C64 version but also played it in the arcade when I could.
Comparing the X68000 and FM Towns Marty to the Amiga and Atari ST is apples and oranges, they were basically PC's and cost 3-4 times as much. And they also were poor at 3D games compared to IBM PC's. They were better during the 2D era due to sprite hardware but soon became dinosaurs. Another reason their 2D games looked better was that they were given source code by Japanese companies while European developers were never given source code for Japanese games.
UK companies like Ocean/US Gold/Activision in the Amiga 500 days had zero quality control. Lotus II is the only 2.5D style game that extracts the performance of the Amiga 1000 machine. Out Run/Afterburner/Chase HQ look nothing like the arcade. Also the reason UK companies didn't have the source graphics from arcade machines they licensed conversions from is greed, pure and simple. The arcade companies were never asked to supply this data during the negotiations, all the software houses cared about was securing the licences to make massive profits. Chase HQ on the x68000 looks like a complete lump of shit too as does the other Taito racing game, certainly worse than F17/Lotus II/Prime Mover on a stock 1985 Amiga 1000 IMO because it is designed for SNES style platform/beat em ups
@Rooflesoft Games You don't see the irony there?
Had they been given the source then the standard would have been better because it'd be using the same source as the original. Its because there was no source that those tragedies happened.
Truth is, the east seem to think theyre some sort of authority on games. Theres a racist arrogance there.
Funny thing is though even though eastern nations tout their own prowess and only really buy systems based on where theyre made most gaming hardware is made and developed in the west and put into a case made in the east. Also, guess who developed the apis that consoles have used for last 15 or so years? The west has advanced gaming beyond recognition.
Chances are theyd lose their minds if they had this realization :-)
edit: Im mocking stupidity here, not a race or culture. Im also generalizing. The sillyness amuses me, Im not actually just an asshole :-)
@Rooflesoft Games not even. Any arcade company gave the assets if requested. Look at Rainbow Islands, Saint Dragon, Rodland, Double Dragon III, Operation wolf, ninja warriors and some others, arcade companies gave the assets with the licence, and even documentation to make a perfect conversion (most possible).
This is one of those games that has just the right level of difficulty. It can be mastered with practice, but until then it can get you killed in surprising ways, but never in a blatantly unfair way. Very well designed game, as are a lot of games from the eighties.
I had no idea there were SO MANY ports of this game!
Lol, neither did I. I jumped in head first with this video and regretted it 😅
@@RetroCore What would you say is THE most ported game of all time? Pac-Man? Space Invaders? Galaxian? I mean direct, authentic ports, not knock-offs that look and/or play exactly the same.
I'd guess Klax or Lemmings@@JustWasted3HoursHere
Probe DID indeed base the Saturn and Playstation versions off the Atari ST source code, Taito having apparently lost the coin-op source code.
This was confirmed by Probe Software's Fergus McGovern (R. I. P) in the UK Press at the time.
The X68000 version of Bubble Bobble has another mode called Sybubblen which turns the game into a darker Darius like Bubble Bobble game.
Jac2Mac That's right.
Yeah I remember find that, and the X68000's codes by finishing the game, via 1CC on the X68000 version, and using save states for the Marty version(which has it's own code, ILOVEU). Prior to finding these codes, and posting them to the Shmups forum, I never saw anyone ever post the codes, not even on Japanese sites.
Man that's a load of bubble bobble games i used to love this game in the arcades played it loads when i was a kid, they had it in a local shop for what seems like years Lol.
Sweet, I had a feeling this one was coming at some point. Love this game and was lucky enough to have it at a local laundromat to play while I washed my clothes. I also played the heck out of the PC and Famicom versions and managed to get pretty in each of them.
I used to play this a lot on the Amiga back in the day until the Master System version was released.
the bbc port was pretty impressive considering the hardware excluding the sound glitchs, i remember using one in school, most of the stuff i had to suffer was education software, never knew the bbc could do stuff like that :P
Thank you for all the hard work getting so many ports together for this comparison!
I had the PC version and I'm sure I remember it supporting AdLib music, think you may have had to run it with a command line parameter or something tho...
The unofficial Amstrad version is an impressive display of how far developers can push a machine when they know how :)
There is new Amiga port of this game called Tiny Bubble showing what real Amiga 500 could do.
ua-cam.com/video/hv7rKi3Nbag/v-deo.html
Bubble Bobble Revolution had a game breaking bug that makes one of the levels impossible to beat
Tim Follin just made the music on the Spectrum, it was his other brother Mike Follin who programmed the Spectrum version. And the Spectrum gave me nightmares
I knew I should not have clicked on this video....the music... IT'S IN MY HEAD AGAIN!!!!
Ken williams hahaha, how do you think I feel having to play the game a million times :p
I am sure there is a support group out there for us somewhere.
Lol, I hope so.
Wow. So many versions of Bubble Bobble. Nice!!!
The Megadrive one, hot damn! This looks fantastic and sounds awesome!
+Quinn The Quartz From what I remember, the quality does drop a bit after half way through.
Retro Core Ahh that sucks., but a nice take on it though?
To be honest, the arcade version I used to play back in the '80s had the jump set to up: no problem in playing it.
Love the Sega Master System and the unlicensed Mega Drive 👍👍👍👍 video
What a great game, and all (ok MOST) of the conversions are pretty well done.
My family used to play this a lot on the nes
I and my brothers were used to call it the "little dragon" game, and for some reason we used to call puzzle bobble like that too xD
The little dragon game is a cute name.
that apple 2 version 33:50 looks like the joker version of bub or bob....
That's bub
The amstrad have Bob and Bubu
He is Saggy Fatty Bub in Apple II.
Your bub n bob show was a gooden. Keep doing battle of the ports.
Aaron Poultney Cheers, Aaron. Don't worry, I've got a list of over a 100 titles still to cover in BOTP! :)
Retro Core I adore this content you need more exposure
I wish I could get more exposure but it seems hard to get that on UA-cam unless you belong to a certain group.
Retro Core Yeah...I agree.
Something fun: while looking at the Segaretro entry of the sega saturn port of Bubble Bobble, I read that since Taito lost the source code to Bubble Bobble, Probe resorted to port not the Arcade version but rather the Atari ST version to the Playstation, Sega Saturn and MS DOS. The other story (albeit, more known) though, tells me that they reverse engineered the Arcade game.
Hmm, I think we'd notice if it was the ST version.
@@RetroCore claim came from Fergus McGovern of Probe (RIP)
I really enjoyed this Battle Of The Ports rundown of THE IMMORTAL BUBBLE BOBBLE (sorry, Death from Time Killers, you're not the real immortal). AND, I used to own a cracked copy of the C64 version! My mate and I used to put unlimited lives on and have a blast, but we hit a wall when we would get to Level 61, those Space Invader enemies were a little too Raph! I also played the ST and PC versions and though the C64 was better, they still weren't too bad. I can't remember if I ever played the Amiga version or not, I had a friend who had an Amiga and I think he put it on to show me once, but I'm not 100% certain, it was 30 years ago!
After watching your video, I have to say, I actually liked the look of the MSX version. I never heard of this computer until I started becoming active on the internet and started seeing it pop up in Wikipedia articles. What were it's specs compared to the C64? Parodius looked really good on the MSX.
One small criticism of your video, I would have liked it if you showed stuff like EXTEND with the music changing, those sorts of things happening were always cool.
Overall, great video!
Your bub and bob show was a gooden. Carry on doing your battle of the ports.
Ok, after showing so much of the fantastic Battle Of The Ports, here is the definitive problem on western computers arcade conversions imo.
Basically it's more a problem of vision and involvement from publishers than a problem of coder skill (even if, at last, the publishers vision had of course an impact on developers skill on time).
In Japan, original developers of arcade games were involved in the conversions, when they were not developed internally, the main idea being to make even more money with home entertainement to make profitable the huge development costs of arcade games but also to maintain their brand image with gamers directly at home. The stakes were therefore high, the quality of the adaptations on personal machines directly impacting sales to demanding players who could easily make the comparison between the original versions and those offered to them at home a few weeks or months later. Well, in Japan, In short, the arcade and home gaming markets were closely linked, competition between development studios was already tough, all of these elements mechanically drove the quality up. Asian computer gamers could count on high quality conversion and as nearly all the successful console systems were Japanese in the 80/90's, this permitted to worldwide players to play usually first class conversions on Megadrive, SNES, etc...
But in this situation, western computers were totally isolated from this virtuous circle. To be clear, in those years, japanese gaming studios didn't really care about the western video game market, particularly the old continent because it represented a very small percentage of their sales. So adapt MD or Super Famicom games on their western counterparts, Genesis/MD and SNES, why not, it was so easy. But spend money in game development for such exotic systems as C64, Spectrum, CPC, Atari 800, ST or Amiga? No way.
But all the same, their was a market to be seized for little European publishers like US Gold or Ocean and the European branches of American publishers like Atari or Activision. So they decided to make deal with Japanese manufacturers just for purchase licences, a good opportunity to quickly develop already famous games without great creation effort as they re-use existing productions. Their Japanese counterparts had nothing against the idea of making a little more money without any effort. But what is certain is that they did not care what the western publishers make with their creations.
In this context, western publishers were totally free to develop their own industrial model, based on a lot of money spent in famous licenses (for exemple Bubble Bobble, here), then giving the developement to a studio (Software Creation, Tiertex for example) or a single guy that understood that the idea was to create numerous conversions in the shortest time. As the arcade and home entertainment market were really more segmented in Europe than in Japan, it was easy to convince with low costs and fast done conversions gamers that usually never saw the original arcade games in motion. Conversions were often average but sometimes a game had the luck to be entrusted to really competent and efficient guys, resulting in very good surprises (Rainbow Islands, Newzealand Story, Toki, Parasol Stars, Pang, and many more if you take time to count the good ones). And to be clear, we were happy with that.
In one hand, Japanese home conversions developed under control of the original manufacturers and with the time needed to make the things right, in the other hand western conversions developed in a hurry sometimes by a single guy in its bedroom. Yep, this is clear that appart from some exceptions, this is sadly not on a western computer that you're advised to discover japanese arcade games.
Hopefully, there is so much more to enjoy on each western computer if you take time to play original creations.
Anyway, thank you Mark for these great videos, Battle Of the Ports definitly rocks!
a second GBA version, which also was to include rainbow islands, was developped and pitched to Electronic Arts, of all companies, but was rejected.
That's Electronic Arts for you.
You Forgot To Know That The MS-DOS Version Utilize A Sound Card Known As The Creative Music System
I just noticed that the regular 1983 Mario Bros. and Bubble Bobble have similarities. From the multiple floors to the objective of knocking every enemy out and obtaining every bonus item.
Besides that, I assume Shigeru Miyamoto being a Puck-Man/Pac-Man fan, decided to take elements of that maze game and replace the maze with platforms and adding KO to enemies.
And in that unlicensed MD version, next to Doraemon is Crayon Shin-Chan, which in fact has a couple of Taito arcade games based on the manga/anime franchise.
Yeah, that's true about the unlicensed Mega Drive port. I was playing something the other day which I noticed was the original source of many if the graphics found in the MD game.
Not only was BB: Revolution the worse of the two DS releases, Revolution had to initially be recalled in North America because it had a game-breaking bug that caused the level 30 boss to not appear.
now that is the icing on the cake to a crappy game.
MkidTrigun also it looks like a flash game
I've read that the NES game also had extra levels, but it totals at something like 110 or 112.
The GG version is also made easier than the SMS one, as you can get some power ups quicker.
Edit: Movement and shot speed look slower on C64.
Alianger I think the C64 speed is slower but it still feels nice.
Alianger you mean the A0 to B2 stages?
This make my days happy.
I find it impressive that the game received a lot of ports despite the source code being lost
I guess with it not being to complicated the Ports were just made via observation.
There's an official MS-DOS port that supports Adlib/SoundBlaster for music and sound effects.
Try that one, instead of the PC Speaker version.
used to have this and games like rainbow islands/parasoul stars and rodland for the amiga i thought they were ace....until i saw what the arcade versions actually were like
Gotta love the randomness of Chinese knockoffs: Some free RAM left? Let's throw in Doraemon and Shin-chan! I don't think Asahi TV would find this funny, but I sure do.
They're so guilty
It seems in China, there are no words for original, genuine, or intellectual property :D
(not to mention a whole slew of other things, but that's not topical here)
You should've played the game on the Ad-Lib mode, It's a conversion (a kinda poor one at that) of the arcade music, but it still sounds way better than the PC-Speaker.
PC version had of course Adlib music support. If you want to have an idea of what it was like, listen to to Fm Towns port.
I honestly think that Bub and Bob are the most overpowered fictional characters of all time. Think about it, they shoot indestructible bubbles at you and trap you to make you defenseless and then kill you. They’re the most dangerous killers since Kirby.
Kirby is the worst. He's a canible!
The ZX Spectrum had poor audio probably due to bad emulation. It sounds nicely on the actual hardware.
Or maybe this was the 48K version?
@@RetroCore
I think no,the beeper (48k) would be more ear-grinding.
There's no music at all on the 48K version, and the music wouldn't work properly on certain 128K machines either because of hardware changes Amstrad made when they took over making Speccys from Sinclair. I had a black Speccy 128k+2A back in the day and it wouldn't play the Bubble Bobble music at all. I had a friend with a older grey 128k+2 model and the music worked on his, but after a short while the game ended up with really bad graphical glitches on screen so we ended up having to play it in 48k mode with no music to get rid of them anyway. It definitely wasn't a very fun experience.
Oh wow! A potential Lynx port. I woud've bought that back in the day for sure. You overlooked the NGPC version. That was really sore on my colorblind eyes. The MS-DOS version supported the Ad-Lib soundcard, I am pretty sure. I had Taito's DOS version of Arkanoid II and the music and sound were great with my Soundblaster/Ad-Lib card.
stevethefishdotnet Oh no, there was a Neo Geo Pocet version of Bubble Bobble? Bummer, I nevr knew that. Wish I had just to make the show more complete.
Retro Core The Neo Geo Pocket got a port of Puzzle Bobble, not Bubble Bobble.
Jac2Mac Oh, oops. You're right. I made a mistake.
There was a windows port of Bubble Bobble & Rainbow Islands. It was pretty much exactly like the Sega Saturn one.
Thanks for the info. I wasn't aware of that port.
@@RetroCore Don't forget, there's a port of Bubble Bobble on the Xbox 360 titled Bubble Bobble Neo.
Wow I didn't know this was on the BBC Micro! And I had tons of games for it
Yep, the BBC micro had so many hidden gems.
Sega Master System 200 LEVELSSSSS 100 EXTRA LEVES????.... BEST VERSION
davidvfx Yep, something about it containing Super Bubble Bobble levels. I'm not too sure but it does have the most levels out of the home ports released in the west.
+Retro Core Amazing how Sega did the extra mile back then.
FinalFantasySete had nothing to do with sega
@@fandangobrandango7864 This Version was Ported by Sega themselves.
wow so many bubbles
wow.. i think the cloud background in the unlicensed MD version has the graphics ripped straight from the MD shooter Gynoug.
Oh wow, now that you mention it I think you are right! Well spotted!
Just confirmed it. Final stage of Gynoug. Boy I love that game! Just a slight change in the palette. LOL What I can't stand about the Chinese MD Bubble Bobble is the music where they totally ruin the melody moving up into crescendo.
and some of the sfx come from squirrel king, aka new super mario world.
3:56 yo bubbles at the top dance all you want but you pop when you get to level 3
Is that a first time a bbc micro has been involved, remember them from school,
Neil Alderson Yep, first time I've ever done anything with the BBC Micro on this show. I used one a lot back in the day though. My school had a room full of them. During lunch break we could play actual games on them. Just a shame we never had access to this version of Bubble Bobble.
That's a lot of ports. :)
Your telling me. This week's show took days to get ready.
sometimes there is so much sprite flicker that it may cause in an invisible death... something usually found in apple
2 games
Yep, that was often an issue in older games.
The MSDOS version made my cat freak out......
Haha, I'm not surprised
Would not happen if the MS DOS adlib version was recorded..
Another great comparison video. Love these, I look forward to them every week. Just a little observation... and call me a pedant... but the sprites in the Playstation and Saturn versions had improved shading/colours over the arcade original, making them arguably better than arcade perfect (or worse, depending on your point of view.)
molhoy Very true. For the purest I'd say they were worse but for me they're better.
*They are all good but my favorites are NES and Master System as they are so Arcade perfect* ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
best way to discribe the DOS version's audio: OH MY GDD! WHERE'S THE BLOODY MIDI!?
There was actually adlib sound card support for it, but Retro Core recorded the PC speaker version.
I think the reason why that second DS bubble bobble game is named Double Shot is because Revolution sucked so they took another shot at a DS bubble bobble game (and it was worth it)
An average American gamer only thinks of this and Space Invaders when bringing up Taito, excluding developers under Taito's umbrella.
But Taito was possibly the earliest Japanese video game developer, initially released Speed Race in November 1974 designed by Tomohiro Nishikado (who later went on to design the legendary Space Invaders).
Taito was one of the developers that popularized the Yamaha YM2610 soundchip and its B counterpart, but also interestingly used the Ensoniq ES5510.
Japan knows more of their games than foreigners. Sadly, they are now in the hands of Square Enix.
However, ZUN and G.rev are splinter developers of Taito.
It is sad how the mighty developers of Japan have been bought up by companies that didn't really innovate. Sega to Sammy, Taito to Square and Namco to Bandai.
Retro Core Indeed. Namco and Bandai have been associated with each other for a long time since Macross for Famicom. Sammy even owns Visco Games, but their Vasara 1 and 2 arcade games are being HD enhanced and rereleased on today's platforms next year.
But in America, not only video game developers, but especially other companies are buying one after another much more. Some decided to end permanently like Toys R Us and RadioShack for instance.
I guess the likes of Toys R US and Radio Shack wanted to go out with a legacy.
Bubble Bobble 4 Friends released for the Switch recently, with the original arcade game plus a new campaign. It's pretty arcade perfect, but kinda ridiculous for its price. You should check it out if you have the chance! Love this video!
PS, Did you know that there is a version of the DOS port with much better sound quality? It plays exactly the same and looks the same aside from that, however.
If it's arcade emulation, he wouldn't include it. BotP avoids emulation typically
Sounds good for an Atari ST
PlayStation and saturn versions allow different amount of credits. Ps1 is 15, saturn is 9 I think. Ps1 version was incorrectly coded there is no wind in lvl 97 which means unless you have an umbrella or special attack you cannot progress.
Now that is a major issue.
I thought this was a tetris-like game where you shot Bubbles and had to match colors to make them disappear I played that in an arcade and this character was controlling the arrow in the center that through the bubbles.
Ah, that's puzzle bobble you are thinking of or bust-a-move to give the game its stupid English name. I mean, bust-a-move? That's a term used for dancing.
@@RetroCore bust a move should have been a ddr ripoff
Hardly recall the game in the arcades at all, but the NES port was a lot more common over here. We never had the Sega Master System release however.
Christopher Sobieniak Yeah, you poor guys in the US didn't hget half of the Master system games. Still, you got a lot more than Japan did!
Retro Core I bet.
I played A LOT the C64 in those days, I'm still wondering how the hell the devs managed to fit so many content in only 38k. I think it was the best C64 port ever.
You were only limited to 38k on the C64 if you wrote your game in Basic, which pretty much no commercial game shop did.
batlin you're right but longer games require loading stages from disk. Even commercial games were limited to 38k maximum, you can see that most games for emulators that don't have multiple loadings are in a file that has 38k.
Mr. Smith, this sure was a long one!
Yep. That took me days to film.
Retro Core
*_D A Y S ? ? !_*
I say the music in the GB version rivals the C64's!
I don't know why, but seeing someone not pop bubbles on the wall and collect all of the items makes me uneasy.
shin chan!!!!! i must play that XD
Yep, doraemon and crayon shin chan. What an odd addition.
Retro Core Seems typical.
+Retro Core If this was official it would sell like crack.
the pc version only sounds horible because you were using the pc speaker setting. the game also supports add lib (and by extention, sound blaster and that mode sounds nearly like a dead ringer for the arcade.
This game looks like magical whip on the dsi shop
Maybe that game is inspired by this one?
@@RetroCore looks like it. If you get the chance check it out is a fun little time waster and it's main difference is you have a whip that you catch enemies with and then throw them at other enemies to hirt them. The damage an enemy dose when thrown is based of how much damage that enemy needs to die himself
God 60fps is Godlike
brokenSCART standard
ah yes,the x68k port includes a hidden game
Why do some people seem to think up for jump is bad and that multiple buttons is good?
I always just assume it's because of limited exposure to different formats, so peoples ignorance will show through.
Theres no "proper" way to do things, and in fact at times up for jump is better, more natural, as is the case with Bubble Bobble. It just "feels" right, and also works better for the game mechanics. Jumping on bubbles to get to higher ground for example,... just aim and keep up pressed. Two buttons is more cumbersome.
Maybe you were brought up on western computers where up was always jump and even worse for racing games up was accelerate. Its nothing at all about ignorance. I had access to the C64, cpc, speccy and Amiga as a kid. I also had access to a MSX, master system and Mega Drive. By choice having a button for jump was the preferred way. It made skillful jumps possible and it also made games more enjoyable. Ever wondered why 90% of Arcade games are also this way?
People who prefer up for jump in anything other than a fighting game and games that are originally designed that way were probably brought up only with home computers from the West.
I disagree. Having jump on a seperate button is far better than up. As it's easier to adjust which way you're facing or if you're trying to aim for a certain platform after jumping. You can just hold the jump button to bounce giving. You free control of movement while doing so.
I would theorise if it was a better control scheme enough players would have voiced a preference and it would have been an option in more ports and rereleases by now.
Behemoth battle this week... great to see!
By the way, you haven't done (or I can't find) a Fantasy Zone Battle of the Ports yet, have you?
Nope, Fantasy Zone is actually due in a few weeks. Next week it's a scrolling Fighter with another action game following. After that you may see Fantasy Zone :)
Scrolling in bubble bobble should be illegal...
Do Battle Of The Ports - Bust-a-Move/Puzzle Bobble (バスト移動/パズルボブル)
1. Arcade - Bust-A-Move
2. Arcade - Puzzle Bobble
3. Super Nintendo Entertainment System - Bust-A-Move
4. Super Nintendo Entertainment System - Puzzle Bobble
5. Neo Geo - Bust-A-Move
6. Neo Geo - Puzzle Bobble
7. 3DO Interactive Multiplayer - Bust-A-Move
8. 3DO Interactive Multiplayer - Puzzle Bobble
9. Game Gear - Bust-A-Move
10. Game Gear - Puzzle Bobble
11. Windows - Bust-A-Move
12. Windows - Puzzle Bobble
13. Neo Geo CD - Puzzle Bobble
14. WonderSwan - Puzzle Bobble
Like So Retro Core Can See
One day I will 👍
Bubble Symphony BOTP, maybe?
I thought about doing that many years go. I actually own the Saturn version. But I remember it nit having many ports. I do like that game. Let me look on to it. Won't bee for a few weeks if I do it since the next 3 shows are already planned.
Shin chan and doraemon as a playable character on super bubble bobble MD
Yep.
Had a few vodkas.
Aaron Poultney Me too last night. Few White Russians and Bull Dogs along with the stadard selection of beers.
Technically, shouldn't the PS2 version from Taito Memories Jokan (2005) be included? Taito said they lost the source code to the arcade verion in 1996, so every port from then on was reverse-engineered from an arcade PCB.
No idea about that. They could just be running a mame rom.
So many versions...
Should super bubble bobble really be here? Because judging by the sprites and some of the music, it really seems like an unlicensed remastering of bubble bobble part 2.
Hmm, I'm not familiar with Bubble Bobble 2 so I was unaware it shared a resemblance. It shouldn't really be featured anyway since it's an unofficial game but I added it just for fun.
C64 music wins all of version combined
Not really, cannot be as good as the original. Plus, amiga version made by David Whittaker is really nice, and the Atari St version made by the Follin brothers too. It is not because you played it on the c64 that it is thé best version, simple guy.
The dos version is really impressive!
However,I can't get it work properly in my friend's win 98 pc,what is the recommend specs for playing it?
I can't remember. Best to use DOS Box and keep lowering the CPU cycles in the options until you get a speed you are happy with.
Retro Core oh I see,maybe my friend's win 98 pc's CPU cycle are too high
Is the ps1 port or emulation?
It's like the Saturn version, re-coded so not emulation.
It is impressive how arcade prefect those two versions are, it it literally like using the same arcade code recompiled for the ps1 and saturn! Thanks for your great videos. The best "compare" channel on youtube.
The PS1 and Saturn versions are janky as can be, the physics of the bubbles are broken entirely. You can literally jump through walls sideways, which you should not be able to do.
You missied the Wii version Xbox 360 version and 2020 Android and iOS version
How could the 2020 version be featured? Check the date this video was made.
I immediately knew the Mega Drive version was a bootleg when I heard the shitty FM drums.
Yep, most bootlegs use the same horrid sound engine.
What about Bubble Bobble Nostalgia ?
bubble on my knobble
There are two more ports missing in this video.
Michael Foster which ones?
@@mattsephton We will never know, apparently. :-(
Windows version
@@mattsephton Xbox 360 and Nintendo Wii.