Bubble Bobble - Special Items

A general misconception about Bubble Bobble is that the power-up pickups are randomly generated. Whilst this is the case for most of the home ports, its far from the case in the arcade original. In the background Bubble Bobble runs a series of counters, which tally up the players behavior and spawn pick-ups on the the next level accordingly. The values that the counters must reach to activate an item sometimes change depending on the games difficulty level - the game starts with the difficulty specified by the dip-switches but is altered dynamically by the players performance to ensure constant supply of quarters! There are 4 difficulty levels used when rewarding items, and these are included below where relevant.

Item	Points	What Does It Do?	What did the player do to active it?
	100	Far reaching bubbles.	Blow 35 or more bubbles.
	100	Fast moving bubbles.	Pop 35 or more 10 point bubbles.
	100	Increased bubble firing rate.	Jump 35 or more times.
	100	Increases movement speed.	Run the full length of the screen 15 times or more.
	200	Freezes all monsters.	Pop 12 lightning bubbles.
	200	Makes explosion that kills all monsters, making diamonds worth 10000pt for free or 6000pt for bubbled monsters.	Pop 10 / 13 / 16 / 19 fire bubbles (Depending on difficulty).
	200	Skips next 3 levels.	Pop 15 water bubbles.
	200	Skips next 5 levels.	Pop 20 water bubbles.
	200	Skips next 7 levels.	Pop 25 water bubbles.
	3000	Enemies freeze, and are killed by touching them.	Eat 50 / 55 / 60 / 65 dead enemy fruits.
	1000	Get 10 points per pixel moved.	Eat 3 yellow 'increased bubble firing rate' sweets.
	1000	Get 500 points for each jump.	Eat 3 purple 'far reaching bubbles' sweets.
	1000	Get 100 points per bubble blown.	Eat 3 cyan 'fast moving bubbles' sweets.
	3000	Fills screen with water killing all monsters, making diamonds worth 7000pt for free or 6000pt for bubbled monsters.	Eat 10 / 11 / 12 / 13 special items.
	3000	Creates lightning strikes that kill monsters, makes 8000pt diamonds for free or 500pt bananas for bubbled monsters.	Eat 10 / 12 / 14 / 16 points items.
	3000	Players bubbles are replaced with fireballs. Kills monsters on contact for 9000pt diamonds.	Drown 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 enemies with water bubbles.
	2000	Get 10 points per pixel moved, 500 points for each jump and 100 points for each bubble blown.	Player 1 has joined a running game 5 times.
	2000	Get 10 points per pixel moved, 500 points for each jump, 100 points for each bubble blown, far reaching bubbles, fast moving bubbles and increased bubble firing rate.	Player 2 has joined a running game 5 times.
	2000	Makes explosion that kills all monsters,turning them into 6000pt diamonds.	Player has collected 1 / 1 / 2 / 2 level skip umbrellas.
	2000	Get far reaching bubbles, fast moving bubbles and increased bubble firing rate.	Player has collected 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 monster freeze clocks.
	3000	Makes explosion that kills all monsters, making diamonds worth 8000pt for free or 6000pt for bubbled monsters.	Burn 10 / 12 / 14 / 16 enemies with fire bubbles.
	3000	Falling stars kill any monsters on contact for 6000pt diamonds.	Kill 10 / 12 / 14 / 16 enemies with lightning bubbles.
	4000	Creates 10 extend letters.	Player has started 15 / 20 / 25 / 30 games. (2 Player games count as 2 games)
	5000	Creates bouncing star that kills monsters on contact for 6000pt diamonds.	Player has started 15 / 20 / 25 / 30 levels.
	1000	Creates 80000pt diamond.	Complete level 100 in any mode.
	1000	Creates 70000pt diamond.	Collect 3 book pickups.
	1000	Creates 60000pt diamond.	Collect 3 purple lanterns.
	1000	Creates 50000pt diamond.	Collect 3 blue crosses.
	1000	Creates 40000pt diamond.	Collect 3 red or yellow crosses.
	500	Creates 30000pt cake slice.	Collect 3 'D' extend letters.
	500	Creates 30000pt cake.	Collect 3 'N' extend letters.
	500	Creates 20000pt watermelon.	Collect 3 middle 'E' extend letters.
	500	Creates 20000pt orange.	Collect 3 'T' extend letters.
	500	Creates 10000pt lolly.	Collect 3 'X' extend letters.
	500	Creates 10000pt double lolly.	Collect 3 first 'E' extend letters.
	1000	Flashes the screen whenever a special item is to be displayed.	'Hurry Up' has been displayed 8 / 10 / 12 / 14 times.
	5000	Makes items appear after 4 seconds instead or 7 or 12.	Collect a crown on the previous level.
	100	Makes next 3 special items potions & activates same behavior as yellow rainbow potion immediately.	Play 777 levels.
	10	A shooting star goes across the screen making any create it touches 'angry' (i.e. 'hurry up' state)	Skel-Monsta has appeared 20 / 23 / 27 / 30 times.
	1000	Enter secret room.	Reach level 20 / 30 / 40 without dying.
	3000	Skip to level 70.	Reach level 50 without dying.
	1000	Gives player ability to fire lightning bubbles.	Reach level 100.
	1000	Any bubbles turn into wooden crosses at the end of the level.	Enter name as TAK
	1000	Any bubbles turn into pink puppy heads at the end of the level.	Enter name as STR
	1000	Any bubbles turn into pizzas at the end of the level.	Enter name as KTT
	20	Food pickups fall from the top of the screen killing anything they touch, turning them into 6000pt diamonds.	Enter name as SEX
	20	Food pickups fall from the top of the screen killing anything they touch, turning them into 6000pt diamonds.	Enter name as ...
	20	Food pickups fall from the top of the screen killing anything they touch, turning them into 6000pt diamonds.	Enter name as I.F / MTJ / NSO / KIM / YSH

Potions

Potions activate a kind of mini-game. All monsters are removed and most available space on the screen is filled with a certain type of pick-up. A 30 second timer is added to screen and the player or players have 30 seconds to collect all the pick-ups.

If all pickups are collected the player who collected most pickups will receive 100000 points, the other 50000 points. If both players collect the same number of pickups both players receive 100000 points. It's questionable as to whether all levels allow for a 100% clearance as some pickups seem to be placed in locations where without the ability to blow bubbles its not possible to collect them.

Item	Generates	What does it do?	How did the player activate it?
		Fills the screen with sunflowers.	Fall through the bottom of the screen 15 times.
		Fills the screen with flowers.	Fall through the bottom of the screen 16 times.
		Fills the screen with lucky shamrocks.	Fall through the bottom of the screen 17 times.
		Fills the screen with rainbows.	Fall through the bottom of the screen 18 times.
		Fills the screen with musical notes.	Fall through the bottom of the screen 19 times.

Note: It counts as a 'fall through the screen' if you jump at the top of the screen and get the top of the players head to wrap though onto the bottom of the screen. Using this system its considerably easier to make the tally.

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