The Pop'n'Pop FAQ v0.5 (initial version)
Last updated 11 Dec 1998.
Maintained by Carl Chavez carl@bubandbob.com .
Get the latest version at www.bubandbob.com.
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I DON'T KNOW HOW TO READ JAPANESE, SO NEARLY EVERYTHING HERE IS BASED ON
OBSERVATION AND PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE. IF YOU CAN READ JAPANESE AND KNOW I'VE
MADE A MISTAKE, PLEASE CONTACT ME WITH THE CORRECTION!
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1. What is Pop'n'Pop?
2. Who are the characters, and what are their powers?
3. What are the selections in the main menu?
4. What are the selections in the options menu?
5. What are the selections in the game menu (when you press START during a
game)?
6. How do you play the game?
a. What are the basic rules?
b. What is a combo? How do you perform a "quick" combo?
c. What are the special items?
7. Who and what are the bosses?
8. How do you beat [a level] in the puzzle mode?
9. How do run Pop'n'Pop on PSEmu Pro?
10. CREDITS
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1. What is Pop'n'Pop?
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2. Who are the characters, and what are their powers?
The 1-player controller's character is first, the 2nd controller's character is
in parentheses. All characters have "familiars", who play for your chosen
character by carrying the balloons and releasing them toward the clouds. They
also have a special item that appears more often than other special items when
playing. In versus mode, when a combo is performed they also have a special
attack pattern for balloons that appear on the other player's side.
Bub the dragon (Bob) - the main characters in Bubble Bobble and many other
games. May actually be called Bubblen and Bobblen, which are the names of the
Puzzle Bobble 4 dragons, since the human forms of Bub and Bob are already in
the game.
FAMILIAR: Monsta
YEAR OF FIRST APPEARANCE: 1986 (Bubble Bobble)
SPECIAL POWER ITEM: up arrow
ATTACK: green-blue-green-blue-green
Bub the boy (Bob) - the main characters in Rainbow Islands and Parasol Stars.
FAMILIAR: Monsta
YEAR OF FIRST APPEARANCE: 1987 (Rainbow Islands) (well, technically the end of
Bubble Bobble is the first appearance, but Bub the boy was first playable in
Rainbow Islands).
SPECIAL POWER ITEM: up arrow
ATTACK: green-blue-green-blue-green
Bob (Don) - From Don Doko Don, a game I've only seen on the PC Engine. No
relation to Bob the dragon or Bob the boy.
FAMILIAR: Mushroom
YEAR OF FIRST APPEARANCE: 1989
SPECIAL POWER ITEM: hammer
ATTACK: red-lightning-red-lightning-red
Tiki (girlfriend) - From New Zealand Story, the first game I know of which
glorified vehicle theft. Tiki doesn't get to use any cool flying saucers or
armored blimps, but the balloons used in Pop'n'Pop look remarkably like the
balloons Tiki would sometimes hijack from spear-toting hoodlums. Tiki's
special power is the "arrow".
Popping balloons next to the arrow causes the arrow to fly upward and pop all
balloons in its path.
FAMILIAR: Little kiwi
YEAR OF FIRST APPEARANCE: 1988
SPECIAL POWER ITEM: magic arrow
ATTACK: water-blue-water-green-water
Sayo Chan/Pocky (Sayo Chan/Pocky, should've been Rocky the raccoon) - From the
Kiki Kaikai/Pocky and Rocky
series. Her special power is her paper flag.
FAMILIAR: Ghost (Kami)
YEAR OF FIRST APPEARANCE: 1986
SPECIAL POWER ITEM: paper flag
ATTACK: lightning-lightning-lightning-lightning-lightning
Ptolemy (Ptolemy) - From Fairyland Story, a 1985 game with very challenging
puzzles. Many bonus items and powerups from Bubble Bobble first appeared
in Fairyland Story.
FAMILIAR: Dragon
YEAR OF FIRST APPEARANCE: 1985
SPECIAL POWER ITEM: star
ATTACK: blue-green-red-brown-yellow
HIDDEN: Chackn Pop (girlfriend) - the oldest ancestor of all Bubble Bobble
games. He appeared in his own game in 1984, along with mightas and monstas. He
still makes cameos in other Taito games such as the Puzzle Bobble series.
FAMILIAR: ???
YEAR OF FIRST APPEARANCE: 1984
SPECIAL POWER ITEM: bomb
ATTACK: yellow-yellow-yellow-yellow-yellow
HIDDEN: Hipopo (girlfriend) - From Liquid Kids/Mizubaku Adventure.
FAMILIAR: ???
YEAR OF FIRST APPEARANCE: 1990
SPECIAL POWER ITEM: water
ATTACK: water-water-water-water-water
NON-PLAYER CHARACTER: Princess - From Don Doko Don. In Don Doko Don, she's
(ahem) kidnapped by flying cows (?!) and trapped in a bubble-like thing.
It's a very weird game... anyway, she's recruiting the Taito characters to
save the world.
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3. What are the selections in the main menu?
From top to bottom, they are (I've made descriptions up where I can't figure
out what is said):
Story mode
Play through your choice of branching levels,
facing a boss after every fifth level. Recover
something for the princess from "Don Doko Don".
1-player vs. computer "versus mode"
2-player "versus mode"
Test mode
The screen is split in half like a 2-player game,
but you have to play it as a 1-player game. You
manage both sides and try to ensure neither set of
balloons touches the boundary. Once you lose, the
princess will give you a rating based on how well
you played.
Training mode
Simple tutorial about the game.
Puzzle mode
There are 100 puzzles here. Each must be solved
with the given balloon pairs. Each puzzle can be
solved in one to three shots. Can you figure out
each one?
Options
Change difficulty and other settings. You may
also launch the train simulation demo here.
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4. What are the available options in the options menu?
The first option seems to be difficulty. The left one is easy, and the right
one is hard. The second allows you to choose from either best of 1, 3, or 5
rounds in the versus mode.
I'm not sure what the third does.
The fourth option is a background music selector.
The fifth may control the sound type (mono/stereo/surround), as it reminds me
of that control in Bubble Symphony (Saturn version).
You can change your controller configuration with the sixth option.
The seventh option is for saving or loading the game status from the memory
card. Once you beat the game, you free a secret character, and by loading the
game status you can use the secret characters anytime.
The eighth option launches the train simulator demo "[something]GO! 2".
I'm not sure what the last option is. You can pick between "G-[something]" and
"[something]GO!". Maybe something to do with G-Darius and the original train
simulator?!
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5. What are the selections in the game menu (when you press START during a
game)?
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6. How do you play the game?
a. What are the basic rules?
"Puzzle Bobble meets Space Invaders". A collection of balloons
are attached to clouds. The clouds move across the screen. When a
column of balloons touches the edge of the screen, the clouds move
down one level.
You control a familiar for your character, not your character
him/herself. The familiar can release pairs of balloons towards the
clouds. If a group of at least three similarly-colored balloons touch
each other, they pop! The goal of the game is to clear the screen of
all balloons.
If balloons do not touch the clouds, they continue up to the
top of the screen and disappear. As a penalty, the clouds will
temporarily speed up. You usually don't want to miss the clouds, but
sometimes it's a good idea to.
Any balloons below balloons that pop move upward. You can create
combos by causing balloons to move up and form new similarly-colored
groups of balloons, which will then pop too.
b. What is a combo?
A combo occurs when you pop some balloons, and the balloons
below the ones just popped drift up and pop more balloons. In story
mode, a combo stuns a boss for a short time. In versus mode, a combo
causes extra balloons to appear on the other player's side. In test
mode, I think a combo improves your final grade. In all modes, you get
more points from combos than from standard pops.
Combos make beating bosses much easier. When you perform a combo,
the boss becomes temporarily stunned. Always try to make combos against
the bosses so you have a little more time to clear the balloons from a
level.
If you're fast enough, you can create "quick" combos! You can
still move your familiar and fire balloons while other balloons
are popping, so any groups you pop while others are popping count
toward your combo count. For example, say you have this
configuration:
RRRB Familiar holding RB, next is GG
B
G
You could get a standard 2-group combo by turning firing RB vertically:
RRRB Familiar now holding GG
RB
BG
The four Rs pop, then the three Bs. You can get rid of the Gs by firing
the GG afterward.
If you're quick enough, fire the Gs while the Rs and Bs are popping.
Then you get something like this:
XX where x are popping blue balloons (the reds have
X already popped in this example)
G
G
G
That way you get a three-group combo. This skill is extremely useful
against bosses, since you can get combos much more often by being
quick.
Creating big combos (at least three pops) also causes a powerup related
to your character to appear. Combos can really help you clear levels
quickly. For example, if you're Ptolemy and you get a big combo, you
can get the Star powerup. The Star powerup causes rainbow balloons to
appear for several seconds!
c. What are the special items?
RAINBOW - This is the wildcard balloon.
MAGIC ARROW - On contact with any other balloon, it pops, the arrow
escapes, flies up and pops all balloons above it.
HAMMER - On contact with any other balloon, it pops and and two hammers
fly out sideways. These hammers pop all balloons in their path. If it
is already on the level, it will pop when an adjacent balloon group is
popped.
PAPER FLAG - On contact with any other balloon, it pops all balloons of
the same color as the one above the paper flag.
STAR - On contact with any other balloon, it causes the sun to come
out, like in Fairyland Story. Unlike Fairyland Story, your enemies
don't turn into cupcakes.
Instead, every pair of balloons you get will consist of one colored
balloon and one *rainbow* balloon for as long as the sun is out. This
is the best powerup, and makes Ptolemy the best character!
WATER
BOMB
UP ARROW - It is assigned a random color. When you use it as part of a
popped group, it will pop and cause the cloud it was connected to to
move up one level.
CLOCK - It is assigned a random color. When you use it as part of a
popped group, it will pop and cause time to stop for a few seconds.
CAUTION: The clouds will stop moving, but bosses will continue to move
and shoot!
RAINBOW -
LIGHTNING - Pops when an adjacent group pops. One demon appears in the
clouds and throws a projectile at you for every lightning balloon you
pop. If you're hit, you release the balloons you're holding.
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7. Who and what are the bosses?
All bosses will walk back and forth on top of the clouds. Every so often the
boss will jump and land on the cloud, causing the cloud to drop down one
level. This pushes all balloons attached to the cloud to move down, too. You
can temporarily stun a boss by popping a combo. Remember that the "quick"
combos are very useful!
If a boss hits your familiar with a projectile, your familiar will release the
balloons it holds. This can be VERY BAD, but at least your familiar doesn't
die...
World A - Zen Chan/Bubble Buster (Bubble Bobble and many other games)
The Bubble Buster just has the basic boss behavior. When you beat it,
it breaks into pieces.
World B,C - Pig Archer (New Zealand Story)
The Pig Archer fires arrows down toward your familiar. When you beat
it, it turns into a pigpile.
World D - Rocky (Kiki Kaikai 2/Pocky and Rocky and sequels)
??? - I don't remember what Rocky does.
World G,F,E - Manuke (Kiki Kaikai 3/Pocky and Rocky 2, Bubble Symphony)
Manuke, a magic melding of Sayo Chan (Pocky) and Rocky the raccoon,
throws three cards in a spread pattern.
World J - Gacchan (Puzzle Bobble 2, Bubble Memories)
??? - I don't remember what Gacchan does.
World O - Wally Walrus (New Zealand Story)
Wally is packing some artillery this time around. He wears two rocket
launchers on his blubbery back and launches two rockets straight down
at you.
World U - King Cow (Don Doko Don)
The King Cow summons four magical bolts straight down toward you.
When you beat the King Cow, it becomes a human king who holds his head
like he was under mind control.
World "?" - After beating world U, you uncover a "?". I accidentally hit
reset shortly after seeing this, so I don't know what's there yet!
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8. How do you beat [level] in the puzzle mode?
TO BE COMPLETED
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9. How do run Pop'n'Pop on PSEmu Pro?
Pop'n'Pop will run on PSEmu Pro v1.04 and up. Through experimentation, I have
determined the following setup to work best:
Enable MDEC Skipping: checked
Disable XDA Read: checked (if unchecked, music will play if you also uncheck
Disable XA Decode. The music is buggy, though)
Graphics Processing Unit: Lewpy's 3dfx Glide3 Renderer v1.14 got the fastest
performance, but if you don't have a Voodoo1/2 then try Kazzuya Software
Rendering Driver v1.1, which allows screenshots.
Sound Processing Unit: Kazzuya DirectSound Audio Driver v0.7 runs faster and
more accurately than the SEAL v0.6 driver. Turn sound off for better
performance if you have a slow computer (less than PII-233?).
CD-ROM: I have an IDE CD-ROM, and I use ASPI Driver 1.2. I think it's faster if
you have a SCSI drive, but I haven't tested that.
After the Taito logo comes up and the screen goes black, you will have to wait
a while for the Pop'n'Pop title screen to appear. During this period, hit F1 a
few times to skip an MDEC. If you don't do this, then every level will take a
long time to load. If you do skip the MDEC, then every level will load very
quickly.
All testing was performed on a PII-300 with 128MB RAM, IDE CD-ROM, Riva 128
2D/3D board and 12MB Voodoo2 3D board, and Soundblaster PCI 64. The game runs
at full speed on this system. I just got a TNT and it appears to work fine on
that board.
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10. CREDITS
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Taito for the fun games, and Zuntata for the first-rate music.
Bobby Conover at www.intensepsx.com for first telling me about the game and
explaining parts of it before I had seen it.
This document is copyright (C) 1998 Carl Chavez.
This FAQ may be distributed freely for non-commercial use. It may not be sold
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