Bubbles (video game)

Bubbles is an action game where the player controls a soap bubble from a top-down perspective. The object is to clean a kitchen sink by maneuvering over ants, crumbs, and grease spots to absorb them before they slide into the drain. As the bubble absorbs more objects, it grows in size, eventually acquiring eyes and then a smiling mouth. At the same time, sponges and scrub brushes slowly move around the sink, cleaning it on their own in competition with the player. Touching these enemies costs the player one life unless the bubble is at its largest size. If the bubble is large enough, the enemy will be knocked away and the bubble will shrink. Sponges and brushes can be knocked into the drain for bonus points, eliminating them from play. Two other enemies in the sink are stationary razor blades and roaches that crawl out of the drain. Contact with a blade is always fatal, while the bubble can safely touch the roach only when carrying a broom, which will kill the roach upon contact. The broom can be acquired by moving over a cleaning lady who sometimes appears in the sink. The level ends when all of the point-scoring objects are gone from the playing field. If the bubble has acquired a complete face, the player moves on to the next level; otherwise, one life is lost and the level must be replayed. Alternatively, the player can skip the level by going down the drain when it flashes green after the bubble has obtained a face. Entering the drain while the bubble is too small costs one life. == Development and release ==

Bubbles was developed and published by Williams Electronics. Like Williams' other early arcade games, Bubbles hardware is similar to that of the company's first video game, the 1981 arcade game Defender. Bubbles hardware consists of five circuit boards—a main central processing unit (CPU), a read-only memory (ROM) board, a soundboard, an interface controller board, and the power supply—that coordinate different processes required to operate the game. It uses a 1MHz Motorola 6809E microprocessor as the main CPU, which executes the game code and assembles the graphics to display on the screen. The soundboard consists of its own dedicated ROM and CPU to store sound data and play the game's sound effects, respectively. Though the plastic cabinets were durable, they would shrink over time, occasionally causing the device to become inoperable. Williams Electronics used this cabinet for only two other games: Blaster and Sinistar. After Bubbless release in arcades, the game was neither followed by a sequel nor ported to home consoles at the time. would later include Bubbles in several of its arcade compilations over a decade after its initial release: the 1996 ''Williams Arcade's Greatest Hits, the 2000 Midway's Greatest Arcade Hits (Dreamcast version only), the 2003 Midway Arcade Treasures, the 2012 Midway Arcade Origins, and the 2022 Midway Legacy Edition Arcade1Up cabinet. Many of the anthologies were created by Digital Eclipse, who used emulation to run the original source code. While the developers focused on including highly recognizable games, the team was able to easily add Bubbles'' as a bonus title due to the similarity between the hardware of Williams' early arcade games. In 2000, a web-based version of Bubbles, along with nine other classic arcade games, was published on Shockwave.com. Four years later, Midway Games launched a website featuring the Shockwave versions. == Reception ==

In his book of early video game history, Mark Wolf noted that Bubbles felt "unorthodox" when compared to modern gameplay conventions. He attributed this to "rapid innovation" that took place in the golden age of arcade video games before most conventions were established. Wolf also described it as an "offbeat and less-known experiment". Clare Edgeley of Computer and Video Games echoed similar statements. She criticized Bubbles, stating that the constant blue background was dull and the game lacked longevity. Retro Gamers Darran Jones described the game as engrossing and obscure, and he expressed disappointment that few people remember it. The game's inclusion in ''Williams Arcade's Greatest Hits was met with a mixed response from gaming publications. A reviewer for Maximum: The Video Game Magazine called Bubbles "easily forgettable" and excluded it from their praise of the compilation. Tommy Glide of GamePro magazine described the title as an extra inclusion, calling it "unique but mundane". In reviewing the Sega Genesis version of the anthology, which did not include Bubbles, the four Electronic Gaming Monthly reviewers questioned the reason behind the omission. Rich Leadbetter of Sega Saturn Magazine reviewed the Saturn version of the compilation, Midway Presents Arcade's Greatest Hits, and argued that Bubbles, though obscure, is solidly entertaining. Writing a review of Midway's Greatest Arcade Hits Volume 1 for GamesMaster magazine, Robin Alway did not consider Bubbles'' an "all-time classic" and described it as an inferior inclusion. == Notes ==