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Bugaboo (The Flea)
Encyclopedia
Bugaboo, originally released in Spain as La Pulga, is a computer game released in for the Sinclair Spectrum
, Commodore 64
and MSX
. It was the first computer game ever made in Spain. It was ported to the Amstrad CPC
under the name Roland in the Caves, to exploit the CPC's recurring Roland character. It's publication marked the official beginning of the Golden Era of Spanish Software
. A second part was released in Spain by Opera Soft
under the tile Poogaboo, made by the same authors of the first part.
The player takes control of a flea who has fallen into a cavern, and must escape.
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The game begins with an animation depicting Bugaboo, a small, yellow creature with two extremely long legs, jumping around on a colourful planet before accidentally falling through a crack in the planet's surface and falling to the bottom of a cavern.
The player must control Bugaboo and guide him back to the top of the cavern, and out to the safety of the planet's surface.
There are only two control keys: left and right. When a key is held down a gauge at the bottom of the screen begins to fill up. When the key is released, Bugaboo will jump in that direction, with the strength of the jump being determined by how long the key was held down. The cavern is made up of various rocky ledges which Bugaboo may land on; however he can only stand on a flat area and, if a jump is mistimed, Bugaboo may end up on an angled area of rock, or miss the ledge altogether, which will cause him to fall straight down, landing on whatever is below.
Bugaboo may fall from any distance without dying. The only way for the player to lose a life is for Bugaboo to make contact with the large, yellow dragon which appears periodically. Bugaboo can escape the dragon by carefully leaping away, or by taking refuge inside one of the smaller caverns that are located around the play area.
giving the game 92%, Computer and Video Games
awarding it 8/10 and their Game of the Month and Personal Computer Games
giving it 7/10.
CRASH said that "Bugaboo is a high quality arcade standard game, and it’s highly addictive too. This game will definitely be a top seller!" while Personal Computer Games said that "...if you like a challenge, then this is it. Be patient though. It's not that easy to get back to the top." and Computer and Video Games praised the game's "Breath-taking graphics" and "perfect animation" and decided that "... a fresh and original approach to game design have been combined to produce yet another top rate game."
ZX Spectrum
The ZX Spectrum is an 8-bit personal home computer released in the United Kingdom in 1982 by Sinclair Research Ltd...
, Commodore 64
Commodore 64
The Commodore 64 is an 8-bit home computer introduced by Commodore International in January 1982.Volume production started in the spring of 1982, with machines being released on to the market in August at a price of US$595...
and MSX
MSX
MSX was the name of a standardized home computer architecture in the 1980s conceived by Kazuhiko Nishi, then Vice-president at Microsoft Japan and Director at ASCII Corporation...
. It was the first computer game ever made in Spain. It was ported to the Amstrad CPC
Amstrad CPC
The Amstrad CPC is a series of 8-bit home computers produced by Amstrad between 1984 and 1990. It was designed to compete in the mid-1980s home computer market dominated by the Commodore 64 and the Sinclair ZX Spectrum, where it successfully established itself primarily in the United Kingdom,...
under the name Roland in the Caves, to exploit the CPC's recurring Roland character. It's publication marked the official beginning of the Golden Era of Spanish Software
Golden Era of Spanish Software
The Golden Era of Spanish Software was a time, between 1983 and 1992, when Spain became the second 8 bit entertainment software producer in Europe, behind only the United Kingdom...
. A second part was released in Spain by Opera Soft
Opera Soft
Opera Soft was one the most prolific Spanish computer game developers of the so-called Golden Era of Spanish Software of the 1980s. It released many games for the ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC and similar computers in the mid-1980s, but its games were not as popular on the PC...
under the tile Poogaboo, made by the same authors of the first part.
The player takes control of a flea who has fallen into a cavern, and must escape.
Gameplay
The player must control Bugaboo and guide him back to the top of the cavern, and out to the safety of the planet's surface.
There are only two control keys: left and right. When a key is held down a gauge at the bottom of the screen begins to fill up. When the key is released, Bugaboo will jump in that direction, with the strength of the jump being determined by how long the key was held down. The cavern is made up of various rocky ledges which Bugaboo may land on; however he can only stand on a flat area and, if a jump is mistimed, Bugaboo may end up on an angled area of rock, or miss the ledge altogether, which will cause him to fall straight down, landing on whatever is below.
Bugaboo may fall from any distance without dying. The only way for the player to lose a life is for Bugaboo to make contact with the large, yellow dragon which appears periodically. Bugaboo can escape the dragon by carefully leaping away, or by taking refuge inside one of the smaller caverns that are located around the play area.
Reception
Reviews were overwhelmingly positive, with CRASHCRASH (magazine)
Crash was a magazine dedicated to the ZX Spectrum home computer. It was published from 1984 to 1991 by Newsfield Publications Ltd until their liquidation, and then until 1992 by Europress.-Development:...
giving the game 92%, Computer and Video Games
Computer and video games
A video game is an electronic game that involves human interaction with a user interface to generate visual feedback on a video device. The word video in video game traditionally referred to a raster display device, but following popularization of the term "video game", it now implies any type of...
awarding it 8/10 and their Game of the Month and Personal Computer Games
Personal Computer Games
Personal Computer Games was a multi-format UK computer games mag of the early/mid eighties.-History:It is famous for launching the careers of several notable games journalists of the '80s including Bob Wade, Peter Connor and Chris Anderson. Anderson would later launch Amstrad Action, and Future...
giving it 7/10.
CRASH said that "Bugaboo is a high quality arcade standard game, and it’s highly addictive too. This game will definitely be a top seller!" while Personal Computer Games said that "...if you like a challenge, then this is it. Be patient though. It's not that easy to get back to the top." and Computer and Video Games praised the game's "Breath-taking graphics" and "perfect animation" and decided that "... a fresh and original approach to game design have been combined to produce yet another top rate game."
Book
The game's popularity spawned the creation of a book in 2009 entitled Bugaboo, un hito en la Historia del software español by Francisco Portalo Calero and published by Universidad de Extremadura, which is available online.External links
- Bugaboo, "Bugaboo, un hito en la historia del Software Español" (Spanish).