Bubbles

Your job is to run over the ants, crumbs, and greasies while avoiding razor blades, roaches, brushes, and sponges. As you roll over any of the aforementioned group, the bubble will grow and eventually sprout a pair of eyes and a mouth. Once you crack a smile you are permitted to bump both brushes and sponges.

Razor blades must always be avoided. The roaches can only be killed with a broom. You must get the cleaning lady in order to get a broom. Shortly after the beginning of each round she will pop up out of the drain. To arm yourself with the broom you must touch the bubble to the bristles. But you must not come into contact with any part of the cleaning lady or your character will swallow the broom. So be careful.

With broom in hand, you can safely confront and kill any roach that tries to sneak its repulsive self out of the drain. Be careful here. If the broom does not make direct contact with the roach, you will burst. Your best bet is to stay still once you have the broom. Move close to the drain, broom facing front and wait for the roach to come to you.

Being too meticulous will cost you points and a life. Throughout most of the game you must avoid the drain. But when it flashes green, that is your signal to jump in. If you reach the opening unscathed, the round will end and you will receive bonus points on the basis of how portly the bubble has become. If you mop up every last crumb, ant, and greasie, though, you will forfeit the bonus score and also lose a life when the faucet comes on. As soon as you get the green light, start making your way to the drain. Even if you overlooked an ant or two, you will notice that they will start crawling back to the drain on their own accord. If they crawl inside before you do the round is over and like the ants, your bonus score and a life will go down the drain.

Keep in mind that as you absorb dirt and bugs, your bubble will grow, making you a larger target for the razor blades, roaches, brushes and sponges. As your mass increases keep to the outer edges of the sink. Your enemies tend to congregate near the drain.

Play the game on-line (requires Shockwave) at http://www.shockwave.com/sw/content/bubbles

This is one of seven games that can be implemented with ROM swapping and trivial (in most cases) modifications to a Robotron or Joust boardset. See http://www.kfu.com/~nsayer/games/ for a five game daughterboard.