Bust-A-Move (SNES)

A Bubble Bobble-themed puzzle game revolving around matching and popping colored bubbles. It's been ported to more consoles than you've... had... it's on a lot of platforms, let's leave it at that.

Sound Test#

The Pro Action Replay (PAR) codes 8081BC7F + 8081BD82 + 8081BE8B (US version) will cause this sound test to replace the main menu.

Sound test Ver.
0.30.1994/09/16

It features a date and version number which does not differ between versions of the game.

Hidden Message#

This message appears at 7F510 in the US ROM (European version: 7F53E, Japanese version: 7F460), right after the "regional lockout" anti-piracy error message.

Nee Chotto, doushite kopii nanka suruno? ROM ni kawatte oshioki yo!! Kono bunshow wo yomu towa, onushimo nakanaka waru yo noo. E? Kopii surunja nakattanda. Korya mata shitsurei shimashita. Yoikono minna, geemuno kopii nante yatcha damedayo! Geemuno kopii nante, waruiojisanno surukoto dakarane. Sorekara, kono geemuwo kattekudasatta kata, arigato gozaimasu. Korekaramo yoroshiku! 

The line "ROM ni kawatte oshioki yo!!" is a play on Sailor Moon's famous catchphrase, "Tsuki ni kawatte oshioki yo!" (In the name of the moon, I will punish you!) It might be possible that this message was to be shown in the anti-piracy method described below, but the incorrect message was shown instead.

Other Messages#

This line appears at offset 28000 and is used to detect when the game has been reset:

program: KS&ST

This one appears at offset 2B77E:

PROGRAM Ver001
Tana-B & Magical SUGI chan
Aug.9,1994 TAITO CORPORATION

"KS&ST" likely refers to programmer Kazuhiko Sugiyama and director Shoji Takahashi, while "Tana-B & Magical SUGI chan" likely refers to programmers Satoru Tanabe and Kazuhiko Sugiyama. The version number and date do not differ between versions of the game.

Anti-Piracy#

At bootup, the game will attempt to write to SRAM at $700000 and if the write is successful, the game will display the above message. An official cartridge contains no SRAM, so this write will do nothing but cartridge copiers always have SRAM present. Oddly, the message used is usually used in SNES games as a region lockout rather than an anti piracy message, and ironically enough, the game itself does not have region lockout.

Regional Differences#

Japan	USA	Europe

The title screen was redesigned for each region. The Japanese version is known as Puzzle Bobble. This name was kept for the European version which adds the subtitle Bust-A-Move. In the US, the game was renamed to just Bust-A-Move and the logo was completely redesigned. The background was also changed to a dark blue, making it more closely resemble the arcade game's title screen.

Revision Differences#

Puzzle Bobble / Bust-a-Move (16-Bit Console Version) re-release#

On May 23, 2023, the game was re-released on the Nintendo Switch as Puzzle Bobble / Bust-A-Move under 16-bit console version, this release includes both the Japanese "Puzzle Bobble" and English "Bust-A-Move" versions.

To do: Get a screenshot of Bust-A-Move title screen from the Nintendo Switch re-release.

• The Taito logo intro in games was disabled, as there is already a Taito logo at boot-up before the game selection menu, but it is still present inside the rom.
• The "Licensed by Nintendo" copyright info is removed from the title screen, but it's still seen on the credits.