Bubble Symphony (Arcade)

Eight years later, they're still Bubblin' and Bobblin'.

Sub-Page#

Prototype Info Notes Unused Stage DataNames and stage settings and such.

Debug Functions#

Crash Handler#

When an error occurs, a screen appears along with one of two encouraging messages for the debugger.

   DEBUG ME!      USE THE FORCE!        
   DEBUG ME! WHERE DOES THE ANSWER LIE? 

Stage Select#

When booting the game, hold the Service Coin button until the "SERVICE SWITCH ERROR" message pops up on-screen, then press 1P Start (×3), Service Coin, 1P Start. Start the game and select a character, then the menu should appear after the intro sequence. Use 1P Joystick to choose a world and 2P Joystick to choose a stage in that world.

Expanded Input Test#

Normal	Full

Entering the Taito Code (1P Start (×3), Service Coin, 1P Start) on the switch test will greatly expand the number of inputs tested. This seems to include every possible input that the F3 system supports.

Debug Flags#

There are multiple ROM locations that the game checks to activate various testing features. Put the codes at the start of each section in any of the following MAME XML cheat files to activate these features:

• bublbob2o.xml (Bubble Bobble II Ver 2.5 - World Set)
• bubsymphe.xml (Bubble Symphony Ver 2.5 - World Set)
• bubsymphu.xml (Bubble Symphony Ver 2.5 - USA Set)
• bubsymphj.xml (Bubble Symphony Ver 2.5 - Japan Set)

Game Pause#

  <cheat desc="Game Pause">
    <script state="run">
      <action>maincpu.md@000300=00000001</action>
    </script>
    <script state="off">
      <action>maincpu.md@000300=00000000</action>
    </script>
  </cheat>

When activated, pressing 1P Button 3 will toggle a game pause. When paused, pressing 1P Button 3 again will advance the game by one frame, and pressing 2P Button 3 will resume normal play.

Alternate Error Handling#

  <cheat desc="Alternate Error Handling">
    <script state="run">
      <action>maincpu.md@000304=00000001</action>
    </script>
    <script state="off">
      <action>maincpu.md@000304=00000000</action>
    </script>
  </cheat>

Has the following effects:

• All exception vectors will immediately reset the game instead of displaying the crash handler.
• The Tilt and Coin Error screens, which are normally set to stay up for 112 frames before the game resets, will instead wait until the game detects that it's an infinite loop - about 7 seconds.

CPU Meter#

  <cheat desc="CPU Meter">
    <script state="run">
      <action>maincpu.md@000308=00000001</action>
    </script>
    <script state="off">
      <action>maincpu.md@000308=00000000</action>
    </script>
  </cheat>

Should enable a CPU meter on the left side of the screen. What it actually does is put a yellow line on the screen during boot-up and in the service menu that disappears once the game reaches attract mode.

Also tints the left side of the screen during gameplay... sometimes.

Sprite Viewer#

  <cheat desc="Sprite Viewer">
    <script state="run">
      <action>maincpu.md@000320=00000001</action>
    </script>
    <script state="off">
      <action>maincpu.md@000320=00000000</action>
    </script>
  </cheat>

Enables a sprite viewer. There are two problems with this tool:

• The game doesn't stop when it's active. Thankfully, it will still function when the game is paused.
• There doesn't seem to be a place that both displays the debug text at the bottom and loads the correct palettes for the viewer. For the former, pause the game during boot-up. For the latter, pause the game on the "Push 1P / 2P Start" screen.
• Underflowing the sprite number will heavily corrupt VRAM and lag the game horribly until the number goes back above FFFF.

Controls

• 1P Left/Right - Adjusts sprite number by 1.
• 1P Up - Decreases sprite number by 40.
• 1P Down - Increases sprite number by 40.
• 1P Button 1 + 1P Joystick - Repositions the sprite.
• 1P Button 2 + 1P Up/Down - Adjusts palette number.
• 1P Button 2 + 1P Left - Decreases palette number by 7C.
• 1P Button 2 + 1P Right - Increases palette number by 20.

Extended Sound Test#

  <cheat desc="Extended Sound Test">
    <script state="run">
      <action>maincpu.md@000324=00000001</action>
    </script>
    <script state="off">
      <action>maincpu.md@000324=00000000</action>
    </script>
  </cheat>

Adds information to the game's sound test that lists the raw data of each sound effect / BGM, and adds a couple more features:

• The "Reset" option resets the game, and the "Code Volume" option lets the player set the relative volume of the current sound or music track.
• When playing BGM, the user can also adjust the volume of each of the track's sound channels.

Disable Auto Reset#

  <cheat desc="Disable Auto Reset">
    <script state="run">
      <action>maincpu.md@000340=00000000</action>
    </script>
    <script state="off">
      <action>maincpu.md@000340=00000001</action>
    </script>
  </cheat>

In what seems to be a common feature from Taito games of this era (Prime Time Fighter has the same routine), the game will reset itself at the end of the attract mode loop if it's been left on for at least 6 hours. This flag disables that reset.

Air Current Debug#

  <cheat desc="Air Current Viewer">
    <script state="run">
      <action>maincpu.mw@001B98=0001</action>
    </script>
    <script state="off">
      <action>maincpu.mw@001B98=0000</action>
    </script>
  </cheat>

Allows the user to see the air currents in each stage.

Note Clear Flag#

  <cheat desc="Note Clear Flag">
    <script state="run">
      <action>maincpu.mw@00AEB4=0001</action>
    </script>
    <script state="off">
      <action>maincpu.mw@00AEB4=0000</action>
    </script>
  </cheat>

When set, the game deletes the players' excess notes at the start of each round. This does not apply to the split paths in Round A.

Demo Control#

  <cheat desc="Demo Control">
    <script state="run">
      <action>maincpu.mw@00BA3E=0002</action>
    </script>
    <script state="off">
      <action>maincpu.mw@00BA3E=0001</action>
    </script>
  </cheat>

Setting this word to 0002 allows the user to freely move around during stage demos, including the tutorial.

Demo Test Flag#

  <cheat desc="Demo Test Flag">
    <script state="run">
      <action>maincpu.mw@00BA40=0001</action>
    </script>
    <script state="off">
      <action>maincpu.mw@00BA40=0000</action>
    </script>
  </cheat>

This flag overrides the normal demo stage rotation by forcing the game to load Round P-1, the "F-1 Track" stage, for every demo.

Disable Round Name / Note Display#

  <cheat desc="Disable Round Name">
    <script state="run">
      <action>maincpu.mw@00EF80=0000</action>
    </script>
    <script state="off">
      <action>maincpu.mw@00EF80=0001</action>
    </script>
  </cheat>

  <cheat desc="Disable Note Display">
    <script state="run">
      <action>maincpu.mw@00EF82=0000</action>
    </script>
    <script state="off">
      <action>maincpu.mw@00EF82=0001</action>
    </script>
  </cheat>

As stated, these flags will blank out the stage name and note display seen at the start of each stage.

Unused Items#

Items are grouped by the same categories that the game uses internally.

Point Items#

ID	009B	004A	009D	009F	00A1	004B	00A2	004C	00A3
Item
Value	7,000	8,000	8,000	8,000	8,000	9,000	9,000	10,000	9,000

To determine which point item to spawn at the start of each stage, the game subtracts the amount of time (in frames) the player spent on the previous stage from 1,800, then divides that value by 60. This results in a range from 0-30. Unfortunately, there are 40 entries in the point item table, so the nine most valuable point items end up being impossible to earn. The original Bubble Bobble expanded the number of point items that players could get if they were in a 2P game, but this game doesn't have this feature.

Note that Gold Crown I is not actually unused: the Holy Grail transforms enemies into item 4C. However, since the item category is unchanged, they're counted as point items instead of monster drops and they go 4 pixels below the floor they spawn on. Gold Crown II also seems to be using the wrong point value.

To replace the Sapphire Necklace (the item that appears on Round A-1 on a fresh boot) with one of the unused items, put the following code in the appropriate MAME XML cheat file:

  <cheat desc="Change Point Item">
    <parameter>
      <item value="0x009B">Spaghetti</item>
      <item value="0x004A">Ruby Necklace</item>
      <item value="0x009D">Hot Dog</item>
      <item value="0x009F">Bronze Crown I</item>
      <item value="0x00A1">Bronze Crown II</item>
      <item value="0x004B">Silver Crown I</item>
      <item value="0x00A2">Silver Crown II</item>
      <item value="0x004C">Gold Crown I</item>
      <item value="0x00A3">Gold Crown II</item>
    </parameter>
    <script state="run">
      <action>maincpu.pw@40ECA8=param</action>
    </script>
  </cheat>

Monster Drops#

There's a single unused monster drop: a Lemon worth 6,000 points. It was likely replaced by the Pink Diamond, also worth 6,000 points, to keep the game consistent with the original Bubble Bobble.

To change the Banana monster drops to the Lemon, place the following code in the appropriate MAME cheat file:

  <cheat desc="Change Monster Drop">
    <script state="run">
      <action>maincpu.mw@0AB5B4=0x0020</action>
    </script>
    <script state="off">
      <action>maincpu.mw@0AB5B4=0x0027</action>
    </script>
  </cheat>

End-of-Stage Drops#

0014	001A	0032	0034	0038	0047	007D	0087	0089	008C	0092	0094	0099	009C	009E	00A0	00A9

There are 17 unused end-of-stage drops (the items that replace bubbles once a stage has been cleared under certain conditions). Of these, all but the last four shares a sprite with a used item. All items are worth 700 points.

To change the end-of-stage drop in Round A-1 with one of the unused drops, add the following cheat to the cheat file:

  <cheat desc="Change Round A-1 Drop">
    <parameter>
      <item value="0x0014">Mushroom</item>
      <item value="0x001A">Chestnut</item>
      <item value="0x0032">Strawberry Shaved Ice</item>
      <item value="0x0034">Lemon Shaved Ice</item>
      <item value="0x0038">Ujikintoki</item>
      <item value="0x0047">Spear Shellfish</item>
      <item value="0x007D">Orange Flower</item>
      <item value="0x0087">Mochi</item>
      <item value="0x0089">Coffee</item>
      <item value="0x008C">Tuna Sushi</item>
      <item value="0x0092">Amethyst</item>
      <item value="0x0094">Butterfly</item>
      <item value="0x0099">Amethyst Necklace</item>
      <item value="0x009C">Spaghetti</item>
      <item value="0x009E">Hot Dog</item>
      <item value="0x00A0">Copper Crown I</item>
      <item value="0x00A9">Tomato</item>
    </parameter>
    <script state="run">
      <action>maincpu.mw@0AF59E=param</action>
    </script>
    <script state="off">
      <action>maincpu.mw@0AF59E=0x00A4</action>
    </script>
  </cheat>

Chest Drops#

One of the chest's small item drops is unused due to an off-by-one error: The table that contains all of the small item drops has 16 entries, but the code that reads that table only generates 15 items. The Melon Shaved Ice, worth 850 points, is the one that goes unused.

To fix this discrepancy, use the following cheat:

  <cheat desc="Fix Chest Drops">
    <script state="run">
      <action>maincpu.mw@0ACB88=0x0010</action>
    </script>
    <script state="off">
      <action>maincpu.mw@0ACB88=0x000F</action>
    </script>
  </cheat>

ID	0061	0062	0063	0064	0065	0066
Item
Value	10,000	10,000	20,000	20,000	30,000	30,000

The other six items are copies of the big point items that come from the six colored Magic Canes. The only differences between the cane-generated items and these copies are their IDs and their item class.

To replace the Big Purple Diamond at the end of Round A with one of these unused items, place this code in the cheat file and then pick the item:

  <cheat desc="Change Round A Chest Drop">
    <parameter>
      <item value="0x0061">Big Soda Popsicle</item>
      <item value="0x0062">Big Chocolate Popsicle</item>
      <item value="0x0063">Big Orange</item>
      <item value="0x0064">Big Watermelon</item>
      <item value="0x0065">Big Eclair</item>
      <item value="0x0066">Big Shortcake</item>
    </parameter>
    <script state="run">
      <action>maincpu.mw@0ACDF4=param</action>
      <action>maincpu.mw@0ACDF6=param</action>
      <action>maincpu.mw@0ACDF8=param</action>
    </script>
    <script state="off">
      <action>maincpu.mw@0ACDF4=0x006B</action>
      <action>maincpu.mw@0ACDF6=0x006B</action>
      <action>maincpu.mw@0ACDF8=0x006B</action>
    </script>
  </cheat>

Special Items#

Of the 15 unused special items in the game, four work as expected, four are bugged, and seven have no effect at all.

Item	ID	Points	Effects
	00CC	100	Increases player's speed by 2 steps. This is double the value of the standard Red Shoes.
	00CD	100	Increases player's speed by 3 steps, maxing it out.
	00E4	1,000	At the end of the stage, turns all bubbles into Red Diamonds worth 700 points and drops a Big Red Diamond worth 60,000 points. In the original Bubble Bobble, this spawned after collecting three Purple Lamps. There are no lamps of any kind in this game.
	00E5	1,000	At the end of the stage, turns all bubbles into Purple Diamonds worth 700 points and drops a Big Purple Diamond worth 80,000 points. In Bubble Bobble, the player has to clear the game to get this to spawn.
	00F3	200	Uses effect 18. While this does point to a unique subroutine, it's identical to the standard null item subroutine. In the original Bubble Bobble, parasols warped the player several rounds ahead. This game's world structure and secrets system makes warping ahead less of a benefit.
	0111	1,000	Note items that act similar to, but cannot be used in conjunction with, the non-beamed notes that appear in the final game. These notes are bugged: The red and blue notes will always spawn a big diamond, while the green and yellow notes will always spawn a key, even if the player already has it.
	0112	1,000
	0113	1,000
	0114	1,000
	012A	300	All five items use effect ID 35, which points to the standard null item subroutine. Boots were newly created for this game, so there's no telling what they might have done. Still, it's fun to dream...
	012B	300
	012C	300
	012D	300
	012E	300
	0130	100	Uses effect ID 38, which points to the standard null item subroutine. In Bubble Bobble, this item acted like one of the Holy Water items and also changed the next three special items into Holy Water.

To force one of these special items to spawn, put this code in the usual place:

  <cheat desc="Select Special Item">
    <parameter>
      <item value="0x00CC">Yellow Shoes</item>
      <item value="0x00CD">Purple Shoes</item>
      <item value="0x00E4">Red Chest</item>
      <item value="0x00E5">Pink Chest</item>
      <item value="0x00F3">Parasol</item>
      <item value="0x0111">Red Beamed Note</item>
      <item value="0x0112">Blue Beamed Note</item>
      <item value="0x0113">Green Beamed Note</item>
      <item value="0x0114">Yellow Beamed Note</item>
      <item value="0x012A">Green Boots</item>
      <item value="0x012B">Red Boots</item>
      <item value="0x012C">Gray Boots</item>
      <item value="0x012D">Blue Boots</item>
      <item value="0x012E">Yellow Boots</item>
      <item value="0x0130">Crayon</item>
    </parameter>
    <script state="run">
      <action>maincpu.pw@40EA50=param</action>
    </script>
  </cheat>

High Score Names#

There are eleven different names that the game checks on the high score entry screen. Non-Japanese sets have a three-character limit for names, so only the first two of these names can be put in.

Entering "BUNNY" or "GIRL" plays a ringing bell sound effect and unlocks a special item at the start of the next game. Both items look like top hats (), but have different effects:

{|

| |valign=bottom| |}

• The "BUNNY" top hat acts like a treasure chest/magic cane item: At the end of the stage, all bubbles will transform into small bunny girls worth 700 points, and a Big Bunny Girl worth 100,000 points will fall from the top of the screen.

• The "GIRL" top hat will spawn a Bunny Girl assist character. Enemies struck by her big top hat will transform into Grapes worth 4,000 points.

There's a special case for names made up of a single character ("AAAAAAAA", "11111111", etc.). The game randomly picks one of the 64(!) different names in the following table to replace it:

Unused Graphics#

A large sepia-toned map and banner that would presumably track the player's progress from world to world. The map is far too tall to fit on-screen, so the game would have to pan down once the player made enough progress.

Put this code in the appropriate MAME cheat file to replace the starry background at the start of the game with the world map:

  <cheat desc="World Map Screen">
    <script state="run">
      <action>maincpu.mw@09D700=0xB0F0</action>
    </script>
    <script state="off">
      <action>maincpu.mw@09D700=0xB5E2</action>
    </script>
  </cheat>

Sprite IDs: 03D4-03D7

Early signs for world doors, the first two of which were used in the prototype. They translate to "over there", "over here", "secret", and "mystery" respectively.

Sprite IDs: 0CA7-0CA8

Unused level icons, probably from a scrapped stage. These books are in the same style as the ones found in the prologue.

Sprite IDs: 0F5E-0F5F (Icons), 0F60 (Text)

A level icon for the area where the left door of the starting stage leads. Since there's no door that leads to that part of the first stage, there's no use for this icon.

Sprite IDs: 033A-033C

Speaking of fairies, here's one now. These sprite sprites were originally used in Dungeon Magic and might have been meant to be used as an assist character. Similar fairies appeared in Rainbow Islands, which orbited the player and killed any enemies they touched.

Sprite IDs: 0365-036C

The multipliers from the first game are back, and they're still not used!

Sprite IDs: 059E-05AC (Orange flower), 05E3-05EB (White flower), 05EC-05F4 (Coin), 05F5-05FD (Rainbow), 05FE-0606 (Music note)

Alternate Holy Water items that match the ones from the original Bubble Bobble except for the coin, which replaces the clover. The first full frame of that coin is used for a special item that gives an extra life. The orange flower has 15 frames of animation, while everything else has only 7 frames.

Sprite IDs: 062A-062B

These two sprites were definitely meant to be used by the cut parasol item. Could have acted like a shield of some sort.

Sprite IDs: 062C-062F

Empty silver versions of the game's multicolored keys. These could be early versions of those keys, but since the final designs directly follow these sprites, that's probably not the case.

Sprite IDs: 0B54-0B9E

Five marbles from Cameltry: Black Steel, Misty Bry, Kakuren-Bon, Space Invader, and Operation Wolf. Besides the Operation Wolf marble, which shares a palette with the Dr. Cameltry marble that appears in the game's credits, none of the other marbles have proper palettes; the colors seen above are taken directly from Cameltry.

The six marbles were likely meant to be used as support characters like Chack'n, Ptolemy, and Tiki, but the game contains no code related to these sprites.

Sprite ID: 0E0B

A locked safe. This is grouped with the graphics for other end-of-round exclusive item drops like the Donut and Ramen, but there's nothing that uses this graphic in the game's item table.

Sprite ID: 1145

It's a blue shoe. This was used in the prototype in place of the geta that the final game uses.

Sprite ID: 11C6

A strange sprite of two Skel-Monstas carrying the four unused types of music notes in bubbles. Similar sprites are used in the game to show the Skel-Monstas absconding with the game's four keys, but those have two frames of animation each and have much lower IDs than this sprite.

Sprite IDs: 0ED8-0EF3

An odd, unused shadowy enemy. Seems it would spin around, fall, and do... uh, something. It has a panicked version of the spinning animation, possibly the "stunned" state of this enemy. There are also animations for being trapped inside a bubble and getting popped.

In-game	Full

Sprite IDs: 0EB0-0ED4

The Bunny Girl assist character has six walking frames, but only three are used in-game.

In-game	Full

Some of the frames meant for the walking sequence are instead used when jumping and falling, leaving the actual jumping and falling sprites unused.

There are also graphics for the Bunny Girl blinking that are never referenced in the code.

Animations for sitting, freaking out, and being trapped in a bubble! Seems she was originally conceived as an enemy instead of an assist character.

Sprite IDs: 0E65-0E7C, 0EA5-0EA8

An unused boss! This is a giant version of the Dranko enemy, it was meant to be the boss of one of the five pre-final stages (O, N, M, L, K), just as giant versions of the Mighta and Monsta enemies appear as bosses there. But instead, those two bosses are used 3 and 2 times respectively.

The pointing animations would be used for attacks. And along with the standard death animation, a range of different emotions are available for this boss, with the last frame being unfinished and missing the complicated shading found on the rest of the frames.

However, an altered version of one of the Super Dranko sprites did make it into the game: it's used in the background of the fifth Treasure Room that can be visited during a playthrough.

Sprite IDs: 0E96-0EA4

Two different bottles that would have been thrown by Super Dranko.

Sprite IDs: 0E7D-0E88 (Fireballs), 0E91-0E95 (Star)

Small and large fireballs, as well as a big star. This is basically a giant version of the Dranko enemy's attack.

Sprite IDs: 0E89-0E90, 0FCF-0FD6

These lightning bolt graphics, however, aren't similar to any attack by the Dranko enemies. This might have been spawned by the silver bottle.

Unused Music#

Sound A5 is a short, upbeat jingle, and is named "Map Display" on the OST. It's a safe bet that this would have played on the scrapped World Map screen.

Developer Text#

This needs some investigation. Discuss ideas and findings on the talk page. Specifically: What do the internal names correspond to?

An incomplete set of internal sound names can be found, fragmented, on various ROM chips.

JACK*WARAI-1 UNNAMEDLAYER JACK*WARAI-2 JACK*TAMA    JACK*OKORI   JACK*DEAD    SLEIGHBELL   TILE*HAGARE 
AWA*WARI     NAGERU       PROPERA      EXP*MINI     PARTS*TOBASI S*DRANK-WARA WIND*AWA     BANE        
WARNING      1UP          COUNT        WARI*NORM    IWA*KUDAKE   SUIBOTU      LADIES       AND         
GENTLEMAN    THIS         IS           TITLE*1      DRUM*ROLL    BUUU         AWA*1        SP*AWA      
EXTEND*AWA   ITEM         DOOR*IN      SIBIRE       MOERU        AWA*MATOME   P*DEAD       FIRE        
NAGARE       EXP          ZISIN        STAR         BALL*1       BALL*2       LARGE*RACKA  CDOOR*OPEN  
DRIUS*WAR    DRIUS*DETA   DRIUS*TAMA   MANUKE       OKORI        EXTEND       GATTAI       INV*1       
INV*2        INV*3        INV*4        DRANKO       COUNT        SIBIRE*2     SUZU         CAKE        
BEEM         ITEM*2       COMIC*RACKA  COMIC*CHAKU  ATAMA*HAZUMU MAHO         IWA*1        KASA        
THUNDER      FOOD         KO*MONSTA    CURSOL       AWA*JUMP     JUMP         TITLE*2      ICE         
COMICAL*TMP  HAKUSHU      BOSS*TOBU    TAMA         BOSS*HIT     COIN         INV**HIT     EXTRA*WARI  
BIN          BIN*2        G+ROCK       PIANO        SLOW         BOSS*HIT-2   IWA*BIG      CATLE       
LASER        UFO*HIT      UFO*HIKO     DARIUS*SHOT  CELLO        VIOLIN       SNARE        PAR         

Regional Differences#

Title Screen#

Japan	US	Europe	Europe (Alt) and World

The game is titled Bubble Symphony in Japan, North America, and Europe. It was later re-released in Europe, as well as in Southeast Asia, Hong Kong, Mainland China, Taiwan, and South Korea, under the alternate title of Bubble Bobble II.

The nature of the game's title is determined by the long at address 0x0033C: If the region flag is set to 03 (Europe/World), setting that address to a non-zero value will change the game title to Bubble Bobble II.

Aside this, here's the title screen differences:

• Different logo
• The small Japanese text was removed in the international versions.
• Different Taito copyright.

High Score Names#

High score names can be up to eight characters long in Japanese version, and only three characters long in other versions, necessitating two different sets of default high score names.

Revisional Differences#

In December 1994, Bubble Bobble II saw a (minor or major) revision.

2.5	2.6

The year date in the copyright string is now written in Roman letters instead in numbers.