Puzzle Bobble 2X

Puzzle Bobble 2X
Developer: NJK Techno Publisher: Taito Platform: Arcade (Taito F3 Hardware) Released in JP: December 1995 This game has unused playable characters. This game has hidden development-related text. This game has unused graphics. This game has debugging material.

A holiday themed version of Puzzle Bobble 2 with MORE and HARDER levels.

Character Select

Much like Puzzle Bobble 2, it's possible to select the playable character in both Puzzle and VS CPU modes when holding specific button combinations at the map screen.
You can even input them between rounds this time around, which wasn't possible in that game.

The button combinations were changed around between 2 and 2X -- notably, every character has a code assigned to it now.

Note that a few of the codes require holding B (the second button), which makes a few characters unselectable since the routine that handles the character select explicitly filters it out.
Put the following code in MAME's pbobble2x.xml cheat file and activate it to disable this restriction.

<cheat desc="Enable Second Button in Character Select codes">
    <script state="on">
      <action>temp0=maincpu.mw@A000A</action>
    </script>
    <script state="run">
      <action>maincpu.mw@A000A=003F</action>
    </script>
    <script state="off">
      <action>maincpu.mw@A000A=temp0</action>
    </script>
</cheat>

There's no such restriction in the Saturn port, making every character selectable there without cheating. The codes themselves were all changed though.

VS CPU Stage	Character ID	Character Name	Code (2)	Code (2X)
Practice 1	000C	Gaago	1P + A + Down
Practice 2	000D	Kajaku	1P + A + Left + Down
Normal 1	0000	Monsta	1P + A + Right	1P + Up
Normal 2	0001	Packy	1P + A + Left	1P + Up + Right
Normal 3	0002	Woolen	1P + Right
Normal 4	0003	Picard	1P + Right + Down
Normal 5	0004	Garaniyo	1P + Down
Normal 6	0005	Chun-Chun	1P + Left	1P + Left + Down
Normal 7	0006	Kligan	None	1P + B + Left
Normal 8	0007	Maita	1P + Up + Left
Normal 9	0008	Dorabo	1P + A + Up
Normal 10	0009	Chokkinta	1P + A + Up + Right
Normal 11	000A	Mecha Bubblen	None	1P + A + B + Right
Normal 12	000B	Drunk	None	1P + A + Right + Down

These remaining characters are not part of the normal VS CPU cast:

	Character ID	Character Name	Code (2)	Code (2X)	Notes
Bust-a-Move Again Player	FFFE (-2)	Hands	1P + A + Right + Down	1P + A + Left	In Puzzle Bobble 2X exclusively, this character uses a cannon.
Bust-a-Move Again CPU	000F	Computer	1P + A + Up + Left		In Puzzle Bobble 2X exclusively, this character uses a cannon. Sound effects are different compared to Bust-a-Move Again. As a side effect of how the VS CPU roster is implemented, technically he can be fought as an opponent by cheating.
N/A	FFFD (-3)	Sketch Bubblun	N/A	1P + A	Uses Bub/Bob's sound effects and palette depending on player. Character ID invalid in Puzzle Bobble 2. In the Saturn version, this character is internally named "BUG", presumably standing for "Bub Genga".
N/A	FFFC (-4)	Rabbit	N/A	1P Start + B	See below.

Worth noting that a few character IDs have negative values. Without exception, they are assigned to characters who aren't considered opponents in VS CPU mode. This pattern extends to Bub, whose character ID is 0xFFFF (-1).

Unused Rabbit Character

A pink rabbit/hedgehog hybrid that's very definitely not inspired by some other famous blue fellow.

This is the only character that's unavailable through normal means, as he's not an opponent in VS CPU mode and the code to play as him (1P Start + B) requires pressing the B button, which is filtered out by the character select routine.

Notably, he actually appears in Puzzle Bobble 2's title screen and in the VS CPU Hard Ending, strongly suggesting he was meant to be fought as an opponent (presumably on the third Practice Round, which pits you against a duplicate Monsta), but the character wasn't implemented at all in that game.
Here, he received the character ID 0xFFFC (-4), which tells that by this point, they scrapped the idea of treating him as an opponent.

Like about everything else, he made his way to the Saturn port, where he's even normally selectable this time. In that version he's internally named "SNC", showing that Taito knew what they were doing.

Error Handler

Much like the other Puzzle Bobble games on the Taito F3, this screen appears whenever the game crashes.

Unused Region Settings

Since the game was never released outside Japan, these region settings are unused.

US Region

When the game region is set to US, the game behaves like Bust-a-Move Again, a leftover from Puzzle Bobble 2.

Other than the missing US-specific music, this mode clearly wasn't updated as:

• The title screen wasn't changed at all.
• There are some palette errors, like with the miscolored cannon pointer machinery.
• Puzzle Bobble characters can still be seen in some screens.
• The game crashes after the Merry Christmas/Happy New Year demos end.
• Test Mode settings are slightly broken. Play Price can't be selected: the cursor goes over an invisible option instead.

World Region

When the region is set to World, the game plays normally, except with English text. All of the newly added Japanese text was properly translated.

Developer Text

A list of internal sound names can be found fragmented on various ROM chips.

RIM          CLAP         CAB*S        TIMB         KICK         SNARE*1      SNARE*2      CLOSE       
OPEN         CRUSH        RIDE         TOM*MID      WHITE NOISE  CASTANET     QUIK         BONGO       
AGOGO        SYNTH BD     SYNTH SD     TB*TYPE-A    TB*TYPE-B    KICK         SNARE        CHUN*HI     
CHUN*LOW     TOM*MID      FINKPLOYD    SCRACH       STEEL        SQUARE       BANG         OBOE        
ORGAN        SOLO 08      HI*BRASS     FEED*BACK    ANKLUN       ROUND*BASS   MOOG         ENGLISH HORN
SCRACH       STEEL        HUMAN        HARP         PIZZ2        WOODY        SAW          SQUARE      
PULSE        RHORDS*B     SQ1 CLARINET SYNTH BELL   MARIMBA      OBOE         FULL*ST      BANG        
DOSUN        HYPER DOSUN  SAYO 1       SAYO 2       SNAKE 1      SNAKE 2      DORA 1       DORA 2      
ICE          MAITA 1      MAITA 2      BLUE   LASER DARIUS       COOL         DRK 1        DRK  2      
GAGO         QI QI        PAO          BUN          CHA          DOKAAN       POPPIN       SYNTH HORN  
SYNTH BELL 2 HAMOND*A4    TAITO*ROGO1  TAITO*ROGO4  CHORD PIANO  1980 BRASS   VOYAGER      LEAD 01     
BRASS LOWSEC SY STR       12-E-GUIT    REAL FLUTE   P5-LEAD      MONO*LEAD    100M*BRASS-1 FK*GUIT-1   
BELL PF      READY        GO           KOKEE        OUT          DON          BAB*OCHI     TIME        
SNAKE*01     POKO         MAWARU       KAITEN       DANCE*RESO   QUAKE        DENKI*1      WB*01       
RUNNING      JUMP         ASHI         HASAMI       KANI         BAB          BOX*OPEN     BIYOYON     
SUGOROKU     MONSTA       POINT*1      POINT*2      RIGHT*UP     EYE          SESSHOKU     COIN        
SHOOT        BOUND        AWA*HAKI     CHAKUCHI     RAM*CHAN     BALL*UP      KIERU        OCHIRU      
FURUE        KYU          ASHI*OTO     MARIO*JUMP   MARIO*BREAK  KINOKO*OCHI  MONSTA*SHOUT NEZUMI*STOP 
DR WARN      COM 1        COM 2        COM 3        STAR         BOW          HAKKEI       JANRU       
BOWAWA 2     HODAI*IDO S  EXPLO        URURU 2      GAGO 1       GAGO 2       YAN 1        YAN 2       
BONYOON 2    HODAI*STOP   BUB 1        BUB 2        BUB 3        BUB 4        VOICE*4      VOICE*5     
VOICE*6      VOICE*7      BONYOON      S BANG       KUBI         JAKIIN       CHUN 1       CHUN 2      
SPARK        MABUSI       NEKO 1       NFKO 2       CHOKI 1      YAN 1        CHOKI 2      YAN 2      
URURU 1