Puzzle Bobble

Puzzle Bobble

Developers
	Taito
Windows	Kinesoft
Publishers
North America, 1996-99 copies	GT Interactive
North America, post-1999 copies	Interplay Entertainment
Japan, 1996-99 copies	GameBank
Japan, post-1999 copies	CYBERFRONT Corporation
Release dates
Windows	1996
Taxonomy
Modes	Singleplayer, Multiplayer
Pacing	Real-time
Perspectives	Side view
Controls	Direct control
Genres	Puzzle
Art styles	Cartoon, Pixel art
Themes	Fantasy
Series	Puzzle Bobble

Puzzle Bobble
Subseries of Bubble Bobble
Puzzle Bobble	1995
Bust-A-Move 2: Arcade Edition	1996
Puzzle Bobble 2	1997
Puzzle Bobble 3DX	2001
Puzzle Bobble 4	2000
Super Puzzle Bobble	2001
Bust-A-Move Online	2007

Key points

Released in North America and Europe as Bust-A-Move.

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail		Game runs directly off of the disc.

This game is not available digitally.

Essential improvements

Play without the disc

Music will now loop correctly on Vista and above, and will play on cue 100% of time as side effects to this fix.

How to run the game completely off the hard drive

Copy all of the files from the disc into a folder of your choosing. Download the _inmm.dll installer and extract it, then run the installer. Open your game CD in any application that rips audio CDs, and rip the audio into an easy to find place, preferably into a new folder in the game’s directory. Open _inmmcnf.exe, and on the "Method" tab, change the "default" option to DirectShow. Select the "_inmm.dll" tab, then click "add". Go to the folder you ripped the game's music into. Then select all of the "track" files. Select "Save", go to the folder you installed Puzzle Bobble/Bust-A-Move in, then save the ini file. Close _inmmcnf.exe, then drag pb.exe onto the _inmmcnf.exe file itself. This will pop up a message asking if you want to patch the executable. Select "Ok". Launch loader.exe whenever you want to play the game, or launch pb.exe to skip the launcher.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Gamebank\Puzzle Bobble

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Gamebank\Puzzle Bobble

Video settings

Graphics feature	State	Notes
Widescreen resolution
Multi-monitor
Ultra-widescreen
4K Ultra HD		Locked at 320x240 and 640x480 in fullscreen mode.
Field of view (FOV)
Windowed
Borderless fullscreen windowed		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)
Anti-aliasing (AA)
Vertical sync (Vsync)
60 FPS
120+ FPS
High dynamic range display (HDR)

Input settings

General settings.

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus		Needed to navigate game options.
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support
Full controller support		Mouse needed to navigate game options.
Controller remapping
Controller sensitivity
Controller Y-axis inversion

Controller types

XInput-compatible controllers
Xbox button prompts
Impulse Trigger vibration

DualShock 4 controllers

Generic/other controllers
Button prompts

Additional information
Controller hotplugging
Haptic feedback
Simultaneous controller+KB/M

Audio settings

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls		BGM and SFX on/off only.
Surround sound
Subtitles
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
Red Book CD audio

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English

Network

Multiplayer types

Type	Native	Players	Notes
Local play		2
LAN play
Online play		Serial, Modem, and Direct IP only.
Asynchronous multiplayer

Connection types

Type	Native	Notes
Peer-to-peer
Dedicated
Self-hosting
Direct IP

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
DirectDraw

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows

Middleware

	Middleware	Notes
Multiplayer	DirectPlay

System requirements

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	95	98
Processor (CPU)	Pentium 75Mhz	Pentium 120Mhz
System memory (RAM)	8 MB	16 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	8 MB
Video card (GPU)	DirectX-compatible