Click here to play Bubblomania!
Instructions
Controls: LEFT and RIGHT arrow: move the pin left or right.
SPACE: shoot a laser - DOWN arrow: detonate a bomb.
ESC: pause the game, and show the menu. From this menu you can also toggle the sound.
Bubblomania uses the Java plugin, so if this is your first visit, loading can take a while... While waiting, you can read about the game and it's history further down this page!
If the game does not load, please read the FAQ.
About Bubblomania
Bubblomania is an arcade/action game, that mostly fits in the 2D shooter category. But it's a peaceful shooter, with cute, funky and even slightly psychedelic graphics! This game can be both a relaxing and a thrilling experience, depending on the chosen game mode. It can be enjoyed by both the casual and more hardcore gamer!
Instead of a spaceship, you control a pin, and your mission is to pop the big bubbles that are floating up. Don't go after the small bubbles, they can't be popped. Bubblomania starts out very relaxed, but will quickly turn into a frenzy! You have to make sure you pop every bubble, except the red bubbles, or you'll lose one of your pins! When you run out of pins, you will lose the game.
To make your life as a bubble popper easier, you can use lasers to shoot bubbles before they reach the pin. And when there's no way out, you can use a bomb to pop all bubbles on screen! But take care, these resources are limited!
Fortunately, some bubbles contain extra lasers or bombs, and every once and a while there's a bubble containing an extra pin. The greener bubbles contain bonus points, and the magic bubble (the one with the varying colors) can trigger special stages. Further in the game, you will also find other types of bubbles. And as you advance, your pin will be upgraded with new capabilities! Read the hints at the end of each game to learn more about these!
Bubblemania? Bubbleomania? Bubblomania!
Bubblomania is sometimes misspelled as Bubblemania or Bubbleomania, so just remember the pronunciation: Bubb-lo-mania!
The History of Bubblomania
The history of Bubblomania goes back to the summer of 1996, when the first version was released as a shareware game for Mac System 7. It was probably one of the first shareware games featuring bubbles, and one of the first designed for 16-bit color. Most games back then still used only 256 color (8-bit). As it was my very first game, and I was a beginning programmer, I probably did about everything wrong that could be done wrong! So it was only with version 1.5, released at the end of 1997, that it started to have some success. It sure was a huge thrill to actually get payments for the game, and I even got some fanmail!
In 1998 I joined Swordlord, the coding crew, and rebranded Bubblomania and released a couple of maintenance updates. But after that I got very busy at university, and didn't have the time anymore to work on shareware games. Even then, people kept downloading, playing and even registering the game for a few more years!
Several years later, in 2004, I discovered a Pascal compiler plugin for CodeWarrior, that could compile for MacOS X. At this time, I had already received a couple a requests for a MacOS X port, so I decided to go ahead and recompile the game. Of course, I couldn't resist making a few improvements. In november 2004, the game was thus re-released as Bubblomania X, by Dark Moon Software! Apparently people hadn't forgotten about Bubblomania, since a couple of players from 1997 immediatly bought the game again! But it was clear that the game was still a nineties game, and not really up to new standards. During 2005, I tried to improve the graphics, and added several new game modes and online topscores. It never became as popular as the original though. You can still download Bubblomania X for MacOS X.
Bubblomania, the Webgame
Today, at the end of 2006, more than 10 years after the original, I have done a total remake of Bubblomania as an online game. So for the first time, the game is also available to people using Windows and Linux! The game is rewritten from scratch in Java, using OpenGL 3D technology. So it looks a lot better now, with fluid animations and visual effects. But the core gameplay is still there!
So enjoy the game, be prepared to be surprised, and remember: topscores can only be obtained by cool and concentrated players!