Bubble Bobble Bootleg info

[idc]

Cool. I'll get my board out tomorrow so I can have a look. I already hacked together a working Bubble Bobble program ROM set for it, based upon the dump from the legit board. Seems to work okay, but as expected, the only thing that still differs - at least as far as I can tell so far - is the enemy AI, so hopefully this should fix that.

[joaoljr]

I would be interested in any changes you have picked from the original Bubble Bobble...

For example, have you being able to restore the title screen, i.e., change the title from Bobble to Bubble?

Punji

[idc]

I would be interested in any changes you have picked from the original Bubble Bobble...

For example, have you being able to restore the title screen, i.e., change the title from Bobble to Bubble?

Punji

Yes.

[joaoljr]

Cool, I hope we are willing to share the patches!

[idc]

Well it turns out my board is a "Super Bobble Bobble (set 2)" type board, "sboblbob.zip" in MAME.

Here are the patched ROMs I made to (hopefully) convert the board to Bubble Bobble. As I said, the only thing that isn't right is the enemy AI and of course the random - or not so random in the bootlegs - EXTEND bonuses. The patched ROMs seem to work fine, fixing the title screen, etc. although I've not, as of yet, tested the game to completion.

I made sets for both the Taito version and the Romstar USA version:

https://ianc.net/temp/sboblbob_romstarm ... ct-idc.zip"
https://ianc.net/temp/sboblbob_taito-idc.zip"

Look for the original sboblbob.zip file and make a comparison if you so wish. If you spot anything amiss, please let me know.

[joaoljr]

Ian, please check your inbox for the patched files.
Punji

[joaoljr]

I just verified that white ghosts are not shooting the rolling boulders, like in the regular bootleg version... this is bad.

The bootleggers may have disabled this somewhere in the code not related to PS4 simulation... there are lots of small changes spread through the ROMs that I do not understand.

I feel this will be a though one to fix...

Punji

[joaoljr]

After burning some midnight oil, I got the white ghost firing restored... as I suspected, the issue was NOT related to the PS4 simulation, but to some code that was disabled by the bootleggers, not sure why. I tested on MAME and it worked fine.

I will now need to look at other similar changes done throughout the ROMs...

Punji

[invzim]

Why not use the original image as a starting point, instead of the boot?

[joaoljr]

All those little patches spread through the code were placed there for some purpose. For a start, there are HW differences in the bootleg board that need to be accounted for. Maybe some changes are there to account for the extra CPU cycles required to execute the PS4 simulated code, by skipping some of the original code. It is too difficult to know which changes are really needed. I'm sure the game would crash all around if I tried to start from the original ROMs.

Anyway, I reverted just one patch that was preventing the monsters to shoot. It is working now for Mightas, Drunks and Hidegons.

The question is: what other obvious differences still remain? I'm just not familiar enough with Bubble Bobble gameplay to tell, and I can only get to level 10 or so. I need help from someone that is willing to play all levels using the modified ROMs. We could use MAME for that, no need to burn any ROMs. Any volunteers?

Punji

[ninn]

the randomization of the letters is off in the bootleg. it just repeats same order.

I wish i could help, but christmas days means busy days.

[ninn]

your advancement is awesome, really like it! I will definitely try it on my board.

[joaoljr]

Regarding the EXTEND letters behavior, it is now working as per the original board.

Also, I confirmed that the clock item behavior is also correct.

I have fixed the title screen and replace "bobbles" by "bubbles" in the game text.

I'm able to inject any item I want, so I will continue to do some validation.

Punji

[joaoljr]

My first candidate patch is below. Copy everything below, starting from "begin" until "end" (inclusive), to a new text file named "bbr.uue". Open that file using winzip or similar and extract the three binary patches. Apply each patch to the corresponding file (same name) from the "boblbobl" ROM images for MAME. Use the xdelta3 program from http://xdelta.org/" for doing that, like "xdelta3.exe -d -s old\bb3 bb3.patch new\bb3", etc. This patch may be executed on MAME, just make sure you start it in debug mode like "mamepp -d boblbobl", since the ROMs checksum has changed.
Punji

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end

[idc]

My first candidate patch is below. Copy everything below, starting from "begin" until "end" (inclusive), to a new text file named "bbr.uue". Open that file using winzip or similar and extract the three binary patches. Apply each patch to the corresponding file (same name) from the "boblbobl" ROM images for MAME. Use the xdelta3 program from http://xdelta.org/" for doing that, like "xdelta3.exe -d -s old\bb3 bb3.patch new\bb3", etc. This patch may be executed on MAME, just make sure you start it in debug mode like "mamepp -d boblbobl", since the ROMs checksum has changed.

I can confirm that the above patch instructions appear to work fine on my "almost-JAMMA" bootleg which previously ran an sboblbob variant.

Currently attempting to test it as best as I can, but I suck at this game after the first few levels...

Edit: 1000 posts. Again.

[joaoljr]

Thanks Ian!

Looking at MAME configuration for Bubble Bobble (http://mamedev.org/source/src/mame/driv ... obl.c.html"), it seems all bootleg boards, except the one that has a 68705 MCU, share the same hardware, so this patch may probably work for everyone.

I will test on my two boards once my burner arrives. I have one like in Ninn's post and another more recent single board design that I got from Korea.

Punji

[trmatthe]

Excellent work dude! And the first time I've seen uuencoded data in about a decade

Will burn some new PROMs and give it a bash.

[joaoljr]

Thou shall be known as:

BOBBLE BOBBLE REDUX

[idc]

Excellent work dude! And the first time I've seen uuencoded data in about a decade

Actually a good way of sharing small files that we can't otherwise attach here. WinRAR opens .uue files out of the box, and practically everyone should have that installed, right?

BOBBLE BOBBLE REDUX

I did notice the text that was shown for a second at power on. Nice!

[cools]

I've not had winrar installed in forever. 7zip is vastly superior and free.