Bubblomania

Bubblomania is a fast arcade/action shareware game for the classic Mac, written by Jochen De Schepper under his Swordlord label and first released in the mid-1990s. The player slides a pin across the top of the screen to catch coloured bubbles rising at increasing speed - some carry bonuses, some carry lasers and bombs, and "killer bubbles" are out to spoil the run.

Gameplay

Concept is deceptively simple: rising bubbles must be intercepted by a pin under direct mouse control. Different bubble types reward or punish - bonus points, lasers, bombs, and dedicated killer bubbles among them. The author's own press notes stress that high scores reward learning the game's tricks and keeping a cool head as the rise speed ramps up.

Modes and modifiers

Bubblomania exposes an "Extreme Action Mode" plus stackable modifiers like Difficult game, Always shaking and Fast as lightning, all aimed at squeezing more chaos out of the basic loop. The maximum framerate is capped at 32 fps. Custom bubble graphics and backgrounds can be added by dropping additional resource files alongside the game.

Versions and shareware terms

Three versions circulate: 1.0 (a 68020 build needing 1600 KB RAM), 1.3.1, and 1.5.4 (PowerPC, System 7.0 or later, 640x480 colour at 8 bits). The 1.5.4 release added Swordlord branding in-game, a redesigned intro screen and AppleEvents support. Registration is US$10 shareware; the unregistered build removes only the score limit so players can practice the full game.

Distribution

Original distribution was via the Bubblomania homepage at swordlord.ch and the major Macintosh shareware FTP sites; the Info-Mac mirror still carries the 1.5.4 BinHex upload. Author contact at release time was jochen.deschepper@student.kuleuven.ac.be, later routed through Kagi's payment service for shareware fulfilment.