Taito F3 Bubble Bobble 2 PROTOTYPE PCB!!!!

For those of you not reading the Unigame 1.0 meet thread you won't be aware of this....
I was going through a stack of untested pcb's at Dsyde's unit and it was reaching the very end of the last day and I just wanted to have a final rummage through some interesting looking Taito pcb's that were almost out of reach.
I grabbed the last one from the shelf I could get to and handed it to Roger/rcantor and asked him and Paulcan69 to go and stick it in a cab and see what game it was so we could bag it up and label it.

They came back and said it was some kind of Bubble Bobble type game but with no title screen and it all looked a bit weird, so I thought they were winding me up as I know my BB pcb's!

After looking this weird 3 layer boards several times I realised it was an uncased F3 mobo on the bottom, with 2 larger boards on top. Very unusual....

It was only when I went out to see for myself that this was something a bit special. The graphics were only showing in green and half the inputs weren't working so I couldn't credit it up, what I could do though was hit the test button. And that said 'Bubble Bobble 2 Ver 0.0J'. And the game had different graphics & sprites & levels in the demo...

I almost needed to change my pants

When I got back in the room I think it was pretty obvious to everyone that I was more than a little excited, I talked some crap for a while and Julian said it was obviously meant to go off with me Mr. Bubble Bobble, and I wasn't about to say no! What were the odds of finding that on the last few minutes of the last day after testing about 100 boards

I had a little time to investigate some more this evening.....




Edited by muddymusic - 29 July 2013 at 11:25pm

Here's a little sneak peek at the very first things that are different in the game...

Bubble Bobble 2 Release version (mame)


Bubble Symphony Release Version (F3 Cart)




Bubble Bobble 2 Prototype (PCB)




Big difference in the dates!


Edited by muddymusic - 29 July 2013 at 10:43pm

Incredible! more info n vids pleaseeee!!!

What fixed it bud?
Just a clean or more than that?

What a find!
Well done!
I presume there's someone here that can track this back through to Taito?
If this is a prototype board, how did it make it's way to the UK?

Damn Olly.. I know we said about the VER 0.0 but I did not realise the dates were 10 months different... I cannot wait to see what differences this very early version has or hasn't.



Edited by rcantor77 - 29 July 2013 at 11:09pm

Rich1221 wrote: What a find! Well done! I presume there's someone here that can track this back through to Taito? If this is a prototype board, how did it make it's way to the UK?

Julian is far better placed to answer this, but you need to read the threads about the closure of the Casino Arcade in London and the retrieval of a vast amount of stuff from Electrocoins warehouse in Wembley.

When we went down to the Casino Arcade to assist Julian in saving alot of cabs from being scrapped, John Stergides (the owner of Electrocoin) gave us a huge insight into his life involved in the Arcade industry.

During the mid to late 70s, John worked for a company that ran most of the Arcades in London and was one of the only people able to talk with the salesman coming over from Japan to sell the new games into the UK Arcades. Very quickly he became the sole contact for the Japan salesmen and after a time he decided to setup his own business... Electrocoin and start bringing in the games himself.

Over time he became integrated into most of the Japanese Arcade development companies and was invited to sit on the board for most of them. Because of this he was given game boards at the earliest stages and on some occassions was involed at the conception and design stages... Mr. Do for one that he mentioned of designing alot of the level layouts and he also told me about a proto of Operation Wolf he was given that had no sound effects on the opening credits... so he encouraged Taito to add some in and the tying of the laces and the sheathing of the knife was all down to him. There are so many other amazing stories he shared with us on that day and it was truly amazing to hear.

Anyway... John was hugely integrated and highly respected within the industry not just in the UK but globally and therefore he had many of these things given to him. Sadly he also told us that he had thrown lots out, but he did find it difficult and that is whe he still ahd so much.

As you may know, Julian has become very close friends with John over the years and when John finally decided to part with his hoard of Arcade treasures, he deemed it only fitting to keep it in the community to be loved by enthusiasts.




Edited by rcantor77 - 29 July 2013 at 11:54pm

Someone please dump these roms so we can run them without a proto board
Even if we have to force mame to read them

This is an absolutely fantastic find!

vib_ribbon wrote: i wonder how long between this version and version 1.0? as from the screen shot it looks pretty close to the final thing so maybe at the pre-alpha stage already. pretty sure casino used to do location-testing to get customer feedback before a game goes on nationwide/ worldwide release (wonderpark used to do the same too on namco games).

There are some quite substantial changes I've not gone in to yet that would suggest they got some feedback and altered a few gameplay areas - so I think your theory about location testing is absolutely right.