Besides, the bubbles floating upwards can also be used as an aid to traverse the screen-sized levels: They can't carry the weight of the dinosaurs, but by jumping on them the player can reach higher areas. And so he invents the eponymous mechanics: The cute heroes spit bubbles, which wrap the opponents and let them float - a targeted jump, and the bubbles burst, whereby the knocked out victims swirl across the screen and turn into bonus objects, which are swiftly collected for points. Fukio Mitsuji, who designs the game for the Japanese arcade pros and Space Invaders makers Taito, wants to come up with brand new, equally thrilling and cheerful gameplay. What at first looks like an imaginative, yet quite typical jump'n'run game of the arcade era, soon proves to be a unique, clever and highly motivating skill test. To regain their human form - and their Baron-abducted girlfriends Patty and Betty - they must traverse a hundred enemy-riddled caves and hunt down a grim, brandy-bottle-throwing end boss. The heroes are Bub and Bob, two incredibly cute mini dinosaurs who are actually the two boys Bubblun and Bobblun, enchanted by the evil beluga whale Baron of Blubba. The result: The machine and its countless conversions and sequels become legendary, its heroes immortal. In 1986 Bubble Bobble achieves all this - and a few more things that have been unusual for the arcade to date. The sound must burn itself into the ear and the hero into the heart of the player. In order for this to happen and for an arcade game to become popular and successful, it must meet certain requirements: The controls must be intuitive, the game mechanics self-explanatory, and the course of the game motivating.

Or rather - this is a recognized video game standard - they come to three lives, which are usually lost too fast, so coin after coin ends up in the machine.

The gaming heroes of the 1980s are born in the arcade - they are the protagonists of videogame machines that come to life on flickering TV tubes through the insertion of a coin.

Bubble bobble n64