Museum of the Game ®

International Arcade Museum® — Killer List of Videogames®

Bubbles

Description

Player controls a soap bubble in the kitchen sink, roaming about and mopping up crumbs, ants, and greasies. Watch out for the razor blades and roaches!

Bubbles was produced by Williams Electronics, Inc. (1967-1985) in 1982.

Williams Electronics, Inc. (1967-1985) released 215 machines in our database under this trade name, starting in 1959. Williams Electronics, Inc. (1967-1985) was based in United States.

Other machines made by Williams Electronics, Inc. (1967-1985) during the time period Bubbles was produced include: Cyclone (1981), Barracora, Jungle Lord, Pharaoh, Hyperball, Varkon, Thunderball, Joust, Robotron: 2084, and Sinistar

Specs

Name	Bubbles
Developer	Williams Electronics, Inc. (1967-1985) (United States)
Year	1982
Type	Videogame
KLOV/MOG #	7226
Class	Wide Release
Genre	Platform
Monitor	Orientation: Horizontal Type: Raster: Standard Resolution Color: Color
Conversion Class	Williams
# Simultaneous Players	1
# Maximum Players	2
Game Play	Alternating
Control Panel Layout	Single Player
Controls	Joystick: 8-way
Sound	Amplified Mono (one channel)
Cabinet Styles	Upright/Standard Alternative - Duramold Cocktail
Bezel	Bubbles Bezel Image
Control Panel	Bubbles Control Panel Image

Video Clips

Lets Quickplay Bubbles (Arcade)

Bubbles

Bubbles shortplay by Ivan Paduano

Game Play

Your job is to run over the ants, crumbs, and greasies while avoiding razor blades, roaches, brushes, and sponges. As you roll over any of the aforementioned group, the bubble will grow and eventually sprout a pair of eyes and a mouth. Once you crack a smile you are permitted to bump both brushes and sponges.

Razor blades must always be avoided. The roaches can only be killed with a broom. You must get the cleaning lady in order to get a broom. Shortly after the beginning of each round she will pop up out of the drain. To arm yourself with the broom you must touch the bubble to the bristles. But you must not come into contact with any part of the cleaning lady or your character will swallow the broom. So be careful.

With broom in hand, you can safely confront and kill any roach that tries to sneak its repulsive self out of the drain. Be careful here. If the broom does not make direct contact with the roach, you will burst. Your best bet is to stay still once you have the broom. Move close to the drain, broom facing front and wait for the roach to come to you.

Being too meticulous will cost you points and a life. Throughout most of the game you must avoid the drain. But when it flashes green, that is your signal to jump in. If you reach the opening unscathed, the round will end and you will receive bonus points on the basis of how portly the bubble has become. If you mop up every last crumb, ant, and greasie, though, you will forfeit the bonus score and also lose a life when the faucet comes on. As soon as you get the green light, start making your way to the drain. Even if you overlooked an ant or two, you will notice that they will start crawling back to the drain on their own accord. If they crawl inside before you do the round is over and like the ants, your bonus score and a life will go down the drain.

Keep in mind that as you absorb dirt and bugs, your bubble will grow, making you a larger target for the razor blades, roaches, brushes and sponges. As your mass increases keep to the outer edges of the sink. Your enemies tend to congregate near the drain.

Bubbles KLOV/IAM 5 Point User Score: 3.20 (6 votes)

Fun Factor: 3.20

Overall Like	3.60
Fun (Social)	2.20
Fun (Solo)	3.60
Collector Desire	3.83

Technical Rating: 3.21

Gameplay	3.40
Graphics	3.00
Originality	4.17
Sound/Music	2.60

Personal Impressions and Technical Impressions each account for half of the total score. Within the Personal Impressions category, Like carries a little more weight than the other factors.

Images

Miscellaneous

Play the game on-line (requires Shockwave) at http://www.shockwave.com/sw/content/bubbles

VAPS Arcade/Coin-Op Bubbles Census

There are 15,264 members of the Video Arcade Preservation Society / Vintage Arcade Preservation Society, 9,669 whom participate in our arcade census project of games owned, wanted, or for sale. Census data currently includes 166,973 machines (7,000 unique titles).

Very Common - There are 122 known instances of this machine owned by Bubbles collectors who are active members. Of these, 108 of them are original dedicated machines. 4 of them are conversions in which game circuit boards (and possibly cabinet graphics) have been placed in (and on) another game cabinet. 9 of them are only circuit boards which a collector could put into a generic case if desired.

For Sale - There are 2 active VAPS members with a Bubbles machines for sale. There is one active VAPS member with an extra Bubbles circuit board for sale.

Wanted - Popular - There are 13 active VAPS members currently looking for Bubbles.

This game ranks a 33 on a scale out of 100 (100 = most often seen, 1=least common) in popularity based on census ownership records.

This game ranks a 25 on a scale out of 100 (100 = most often seen, 1=least common) in popularity based on census want list records.

Rarity and Popularity independently are not necessarily indications of value. [More Information]

Flyers

Williams' Line-up of Games

1983 / 8 Pages

Technical

This is one of seven games that can be implemented with ROM swapping and trivial (in most cases) modifications to a Robotron or Joust boardset. See http://www.kfu.com/~nsayer/games/ for a five game daughterboard.

Manuals

Instruction Manual - Bubbles Manual — **Instruction Manual**
(27 pages, 2.1 MB File)

Drawing Set - Bubbles Manual — **Drawing Set**
(28 pages, 3.1 MB File)

Foto-Finder® (Books)

The Encyclopedia of Arcade Video Games Kurtz (ISBN 0764319256) Page: 155; Color photo Price guide: No
Encyclopedia of Arcade Video Games Kurtz (ISBN 0764319256) Page: 155; Color photo

Additional References (logged in members often see more)

3D Model (External): Upright (d33567171a998dfcc86d48c6a4f11d2c)
3D Model (External): Upright (Duramold) (uabb55ce8-49ff-406b-99da-fec1a89b03d8)

eBay Listings

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