One of my favorite multiplayer games of all time has to be Bubble Bobble for the NES - there’s no telling how much time I’ve poured into that stupid game when I was busy growing. Maybe my brother was outside throwing rocks at squirrels in the back yard, but I was always inside, perched in front of my ancient, fading Magnavox TV that was, to my suprise, “Cable Ready!” I have so many fond memories of getting to level 99 and losing my last life, or losing six lives in a row on level 55. Good times.

However, I always wished I could play the game with somebody who knew what the game was - and unfortunately, one of my best friends was over 1,000 miles away - and let’s not kid ourselves: without UDP connections, netplay on emulators is just sawing a tree with a herring. Not. Fun.

Thankfully, there was an open-source effort at hand, busily working on porting an old Mac OS X game of the same name - except, instead of just being a direct clone of the game, it was one that was built from the ground up to feature slick, smooth-as-teflon internet play. It works, and much to my hullabaloo, it works well. Bub and Bob Brothers. It’s a religious experience.

The game’s pre-game code is a bit clunky and uninspired (about as uninspired as cream of wheat on cardboard), but once you get into the game itself, your jaw will drop. Remember how Bubble Bobble was a two player game? This is a maxiumum of ten players strong. Ten dinosaurs darting back and forth, all at once, in an insane point-grab that could bring any powerhouse computer to its knees in the busiet times of the game.

It wouldn’t be exciting if just ten people were just trying to conquer 100 levels of monster crawling, right? Of course not! That’s why they added all sorts of items that give you points and absolutely insane powerups. Wouldn’t you like to blow sixteen bubbles at once? What about walk on the ceiling? Maybe become invisible, and move like you’re in the Matrix? Come on - who wouldn’t like a little Bubble Bobble bullet time? Of course!

That’s not all, either. If your brain was exploding from all of the crap I just mentioned, the list spirals on and on with even more powerups and items that would make your mind crash to a nonbelieving halt. “What? How did I make the entire level collapse onto itself?” Also, did I mention about special modes that center around playing as older retro games? Pac-Man? Lemmings? Snoopy vs. the Red Baron? Oh yeah.

If you have any self respect, you’ll at least give this game a try. Find all your friends, and make them play too. This is one from my private collection. Mitch tested, mother approved.

Bub & Bob Brothers Website