Programmed by Mike Follin and published by Firebird in 1987 the ZX Spectrum conversion of Bubble Bobble is excellent, considering the machine’s limitations.

There’s some slowdown in places, but otherwise it’s a faithful conversion of the arcade game with all 100 levels and decent use of colour for the Spectrum. It also has the simultaneous two-player mode, which not all ports have.

The only downside in the 48K cassette version is that there is no music – just sound effects – during play, and the jump sound is a little disconcertingly ‘farty’ for my liking. Thankfully the 128k disk version does have music and it’s very good, if a little strange-sounding at times.

The game doesn’t feature passwords but it does give you six credits to play the game with. Overall it’s a very successful conversion that was a critical and commercial hit at the time of release.

See also: 10 Best Bubble Bobble Conversions

More: Bubble Bobble on Wikipedia