Frozen Bubble Explained

Frozen Bubble
Author:Guillaume Cottenceau (code)
Alexis Younes (graphic)
Matthias Le Bidan (music)
Amaury Amblard-Ladurantie (graphic)
Programming Language:Perl
Released:0.9.2 /
Genre:Single, two, and multiplayer (2 to 5 players) puzzle game
Platform:Linux, Windows (version 1.0.0 only), Mac OS X, Java, Symbian, gp2x, FreeBSD, NetBSD, Windows Phone 7, Android

Frozen Bubble is a free software clone of Puzzle Bobble for a variety of home and mobile systems.

Gameplay

Frozen Bubble's protagonist is a penguin a la Tux, the mascot of Linux and popular feature in many free software/open-source games. In this game, Tux has to shoot colored frozen bubbles to form groups of the same color. Such groups disappear and the object is to clear the whole screen in this way before a bubble passes a line at the bottom. There is a single player mode and a multiplayer mode via Split screen, LAN and Internet. The game features 100 levels and includes a level editor.

History

In 2001, Guillaume Cottenceau started writing the original Frozen Bubble game in Perl while using the Simple DirectMedia Layer (SDL) library.[1] The music was made with FastTracker II by demoscener Matthias Le Bidan.[2] Alexis Younes and Amaury Amblard-Ladurantie created the sprites and background graphic artwork with GIMP.[3] The game is released under the GNU GPL-2.0-only. There is a version programmed in Perl and another one programmed in Java. The Perl-version runs on POSIX-compatible operating systems, e.g. Linux and the BSDs, while the Java-version runs on any operating system that supports Java.[4]

The 2006 released version 2.0 introduced multiplayer play via LAN and Internet. Two players can also play on the same computer (Split screen). The chain reaction mode (where fallen bubbles will zoom back up to complete triplets, possibly causing more bubbles to fall and thus creating more combos) is also available in network mode as of Version 2.0, and greatly changes the mechanics of the game.[4] Version 2.0 introduced artwork rendered with Blender.

The Frozen Bubble Team provides builds only for Linux distributions, while ports to other Unix-like operating systems (such as Mac OS X and the BSDs), Windows and mobile phones exist from the community.

Reception and impact

Linux For You ranked Frozen Bubble 5/5 in September 2009.[5] Frozen Bubble was integrated in many Linux distributions and also ported to many platforms like macOS or PDAs.[6] Frozen Bubble became also a quite popular free game which got distributed via several gaming outlets and aggregated significant download numbers over the years: chip.de counted 80,000,[7] computerbild.de 93,000,[8] Softpedia 18,000,[9] and Softonic 350,000 downloads.[10] [11] [12] [13] It was also included on several cover disks of computer magazines, for instance MacAddict in February 2004 and Linux Format in March 2009.[14] [15]

Awards

See also

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Frozen-Bubbles: a bigger escape key . Joe Barr . Joe Barr . . 2003-12-03 . 2007-09-01 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20080705103757/http://www.newsforge.com/software/03/12/02/1252249.shtml . 2008-07-05.
  2. http://www.frozen-bubble.org/music/ music
  3. http://www.frozen-bubble.org/artwork/ artwork
  4. Web site: Official website . 2005-07-02 . 2009-01-06 . https://web.archive.org/web/20090106193748/http://frozen-bubble.org/ . dead.
  5. https://archive.org/stream/Linux-For-You-Issue-80/Linux-For-You-80-2009-09#page/n23/mode/2up/search/%22astromenace%22 Linux-For-You-Issue-80
  6. http://www.insidemacgames.com/news/story.php?ArticleID=7124 Frozen Bubble Available
  7. http://www.chip.de/downloads/Frozen-Bubble_19377888.html Frozen-Bubble
  8. http://www.computerbild.de/download/Frozen-Bubble-1553031.html Frozen bubble
  9. http://linux.softpedia.com/get/GAMES-ENTERTAINMENT/Arcade/Frozen-Bubble-602.shtml Frozen Bubble
  10. https://frozen-bubble.en.softonic.com/ frozen bubble en
  11. https://frozen-bubble.softonic.com/ frozen bubble es
  12. https://frozen-bubble.fr.softonic.com/ frozen bubble fr
  13. https://frozen-bubble.de.softonic.com/ frozen bubble de
  14. https://archive.org/stream/MacAddict-090-200402/MacAddict-090-200402-BobKiwi-v1#page/n7/mode/2up/search/%22Frozen+Bubble%22+ MacAddict-090-20040
  15. https://archive.org/stream/Linux_Format_116_March_2009#page/n115/mode/2up/search/%22Frozen+Bubble%22 Linux_Format_116_March_2009
  16. Web site: Linux Game Tome Awards . 2003-01-28 . 2008-04-01 . . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20120919010143/http://happypenguin.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=549 . 2012-09-19.
  17. 2003 Editors' Choice Awards. Linux Journal. Belltown Media, Inc.. 2003-08-01. 2007-09-01.
  18. 2003 Readers' Choice Awards. Heather Mead. Linux Journal. Belltown Media, Inc.. 2003-11-01. 2008-04-01.
  19. 2004 Readers' Choice Awards. Heather Mead. Linux Journal. Belltown Media, Inc.. 2004-11-01. 2007-09-01.
  20. 2005 Readers' Choice Awards. Linux Journal. Belltown Media, Inc.. 2005-09-28. 2008-04-01.
  21. 2008 Readers' Choice Awards. James Gray. Linux Journal. Belltown Media, Inc.. 2008-05-01. 2008-05-10.
  22. 2009 Readers' Choice Awards. James Gray. Linux Journal. Belltown Media, Inc.. 2009-05-01. 2009-05-08.
  23. 2010 Readers' Choice Awards. James Gray. Linux Journal. Belltown Media, Inc.. 2010-10-29. 2011-11-25.
  24. https://archive.org/stream/Linux_Format_089_February_2007/#page/n73/mode/2up/search/hotgames Linux Format 089 February 2007
  25. Web site: Sbarski. Peter . Top 5 best (free) open source games . APC. 5 July 2012. January 21, 2008.