Rainbow Islands


 PLAYERS GUIDE:

 Introduction
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~
 You have to negotiate the seven rainbow islands and each is split into
 four vertically-scrolling platform-filled rounds, which increase in
 height. You start at the bottom of a round, and the idea is to get to
 the goal at the top. When you complete an island, you must then face the
 guardian, which is anything from a Vampire to a Helicopter.
 The numbers on the right hand side of the Rounds represent the restart
 positions 1, 2, or 3. When either character dies, they are both returned
 to the last restart position passed. To give you time to get your
 bearings, they flash for five seconds, during which time they are
 invincible - so make the most of it.

 Extra Lives
 ~~~~~~~~~~~
 These versatile little fellows start with three lives each. An extra life
 is awarded when you first reach 100,000 points and thereafter you get one
 extra life at 1,000,000 points.

 Inhabitants Of Insect Island
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 There are six different creatures on insect island. Like most inhabitants
 here, the insects usually start in a happy state, but they don't like
 intruders. Eventually the creatures get angry, either after 12 seconds
 (or less on later islands) or when the "HURRY!" message appears. Every
 enemy generated after this is angry.
 Up to 16 enemies can be encountered on screen at one time, however only
 a maximum of six can exist if there are any other objects on the screen
 (like bonus objects), so use this to your advantage. Occasionally enemies
 stray too far and disappear off the top or bottom of the screen, they hang
 around for five character lines before disappearing, which means you can
 kill them even though they are not on screen. The same is true of any
 gems etc. lying around.
 Killing any creature is worth 1,000 points (except bosses, which aren't
 worth anything). Killing 2 creatures simultaneously is worth 2,000
 points, killing 3 is worth 4,000 and killing 4 is worth 8,000 etc.
 Exploding red stars or using clever rainbow traps is best for bigger
 bonuses.

 Common Things To Collect
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 Bonus Objects:

 There are 80 different types ranging from the Green Pepper (worth 10
 points) to the money bag (worth 10,000 points). Each Bonus Object
 collected produces the next bonus object in the sequence.
 But beware; this sequence wraps around after the money bag back to the
 Green pepper. All items are collected by walking over them or hitting
 them with a rainbow (either the star that produces it or by simply
 dropping a rainbow on the object). Bubby and Bobby have 20 seconds to
 collect these objects before they disappear.

 Magic Stars:

 These come in two forms; Yellow and Red. Both throw out death-dealing
 stars, the Yellow an arc of seven, the Red an a circle of 16.

 Red Pots:

 These aren't left lying around too often, but behave exactly the same
 as their Special Feature counterparts.

 Gems:

 Drop a rainbow on a bad guy and it leaves behind a Gem, which stays on
 screen for three seconds. You can capture a creature with the edge of
 the rainbow and break it to get a gem, but this is difficult and you
 more often then not end up breaking the rainbow and getting a gem.
 You may have noticed that when you collect one of the seven different
 rainbow-coloured gems, its displayed at the bottom of the screen.
 This is to let you know which colours you have acquired - the reasons
 why must remain a secret for the time being. Suffice it to say the Gems
 are quite important.

 Hidden Bonuses
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 One of the best ways of boosting your score is to find and collect
 hidden bonuses - mainly fruit, vegetables, cakes and sweets. On average
 around 10 such objects can exist on one screen - no more are produced
 unless you dispose of enemies or other bonus objects on the screen.
 Bonus items are only found before the "HURRY!" message appears.
 Collect any visible fruit and the like, then throw rainbows at the tops
 of the platforms - the magic of the rainbows causes bonus objects to
 appear, in the same sequence as before. The sequence is reset when bubby
 or bobby dies. Note that the scores that rise when you collect the
 objects are in rainbow colour sequence. Also, not all hidden objects are
 uncovered from the platform tops - some appear from mid-air!
 The round maps provided for insect island show when you can expect to
 find and hidden items.
 There are special items to collect which cause all hidden objects to
 appear in one particular form, e.g.: Money bags. In fact, its possible
 to make all hidden items become explosive stars!

 Secret Rooms
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~
 If you're having trouble finding the secret rooms, you have to crush
 rainbows over the nasties heads and collect the crystals in the order
 of the colours in the rainbow. In case you don't know the order it's:
 RED, ORANGE, YELLOW, GREEN, CYAN, BLUE, MAGENTA. If you do this a door
 to the secret room will appear on the end-of-island baddy screen.

 Avoid the Boss
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 We all know that collecting the seven different-coloured gems gives you
 an extra life and a 100,000 Bonus Gem once the Boss is defeated.
 But collecting all of the gems in the correct order of colour (from left
 to right on the gem counter) not only awards you the life and Bonus Gem,
 it also grants you access to a magical secret room. When you reach the
 end of the level, a silver door appears. You don't have to fight the
 Boss.

 Make Your Own Gems
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 Even more useful is how to create any colour gem. The screen is split
 into several invisible vertical stripes of colour. When a gem falls, its
 colour is determined by the "colour" of the area into which it fell.
 Now all you have to do is gauge carefully where the dead enemy will fall
 to create the gem colour of your choice.

 Rainbows
 ~~~~~~~~
 The rainbows have many uses. Their main function is as a weapon to kill
 the bad guys. However, they can also be walked on, jumped from, used to
 trap creatures or items, used as protection to deflect the flying beasts
 or crushed to fall on enemies or objects below. Only 12 rainbows may be
 on screen at any time, allowing complex traps or platform arrangements
 to be built. The appearance of any more causes the oldest rainbow to
 disappear. However firing a band of three rainbows with two bands of
 three already present on screen causes the first thrown band to
 disappear. Otherwise rainbows stay on the screen for 12 seconds before
 their magic begins to fade - they flash for a second and crumble away.
 Use the star that creates the rainbow to kill a bad guy and it spins up
 and away in the direction it was moving. When it lands on firm ground,
 it leaves behind a bonus object, in the same sequence as before.
 Bubby and Bobby can walk on or over a rainbow, or shatter it to send it
 crashing below. If they slide down a rainbow and step onto one of the
 other side, it gets broken.
 Land on the edge of a rainbow and it crumbles and falls down the screen.
 Any rainbows directly connected to the crushed rainbow fall with it,
 allowing you to create a string of death or an arm of immense collective
 power. Each rainbow crushed is worth ten points.
 Jumping as you land on the rainbow means that it isn't crushed and your
 jumping height is extended enormously. Jumping off a rainbow is also
 worth ten points. Beasts and other objects can be trapped inside rainbows
 - but don't leave your enemies cooped up for too long or they will get
 angry. Break the rainbow from above or below to crush its contents.
 For extra height make rainbow stairway and jump or climb it.
 This way you don't need the background, which comes in very handy later,
 on platform-starved islands.

 The Boss Rooms
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 The forth round at the end of every island is a boss room. Killing the
 bosses living in the boss rooms can prove daunting, so it helps to know
 how each one will behave relative to you. The most important technique is
 to lay traps of rainbows - as the boss moves into it, break the chain and
 any touching rainbows deplete the boss's energy by a unit apiece.
 Remember, you get a couple of seconds before the boss appears in the boss
 room.
 The best way of all is to shoot and break the rainbow almost
 simultaneously (i.e. jump into it as soon as you fire) - not only does
 the star hit the boss, the broken rainbow also counts as a hit.
 With the boss spider, use this time to fire off some rainbows under her.
 Wait until she drops and touches the rainbows before breaking them.
 Now walk back and forth across the bottom of the screen, shooting off
 rainbows at the spider as she makes contact with the floor. Its best to
 stay on ground level, although cocky players go straight to the top and
 unleash a stream of rainbows and dispose of her almost instantly.

 Special Features
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 Every creature killed, regardless of the technique used, leaves behind
 a special feature item, which stays on the screen for five seconds.
 They appear in a sequence of seven, which is reset when Bubby or Bobby
 dies. This is the sequence in order of appearance:

 Training Shoes:

 Help Bubby and Bobby run faster.

 Yellow Pot:

 Allows Bubby and Bobby to fire their rainbows faster.

 Red Pot:

 Provides a second extra rainbow. Bubby can now unleash a maximum of
 three rainbows in one shot. It is possible to fire a string of four
 rainbows, but only after collecting a special item!

 Red Magic Star:

 Behaves the same as the Red star.

 Yellow Magic Star:

 Behaves the same as a yellow star.

 Crystal Ball:

 The boss of shadows boys aren't what they seem. Collect the Crystal
 Ball to break the disguise spell. When you kill the enemies and they
 spin away, you can see them as they really are; Bubble Bobble baddies!
 These manifest themselves in different ways throughout the game, each
 alter ego behaving similarly to their real selves.
 For example: Rainbow Islanders that drop things as they move back and
 forth across the screen are more often then not the invader in disguise.

 Baddies
 ~~~~~~~
 Invader:

 The original Taito Invader moves back and forth across the screen,
 dropping bombs as it goes. It doesn't appear until Combat island.

 Zenchan:

 Moves back and forth across the platforms, stopping and turning when it
 reaches a gap - until it gets angry. On later islands the ZenChan falls
 down holes, regardless its mood. It first appears as the Baby Worm.

 Hi De Gonsu:

 Behaves very much like the ZenChan, except it fires. The life expectancy
 of its bullets increases on later islands, i.e. the bullet travels
 further. The Hi De Gonsu also starts to fire in your generation and
 eventually it jumps after you! It first appears on the Combat island.

 Banebo:

 The "Thing on a Spring" bounces horizontally towards Bubby or Bobby,
 jumping after them when they get above it. Later incarnations wait
 until either guy gets near before they respond. The Banebo first
 appears as the spider.

 Puru Puru:

 The least dangerous of the living enemies. It starts disguised as the
 bees (in the hive from which they are produced).

 Maitta:

 Behaves very much like the ZenChan and the Hi De Gonsu.
 At first the Maitta fires a single projectile, but on later islands it
 fires more often and the missiles travel further. Combat island is where
 the Maitta makes its debut.

 Bee:

 Buzzes around in a predictable pattern, at about 30 degrees to the
 horizon, turning when it collides with any solid scenery.
 True Identity: Puru Puru.

 Spider:

 Baby of the first boss. one of the more formidable enemies.
 It follows you by spinning webs up the screen, but only when you get
 above it. It also bounces left and right so watch it.
 True Identity: Banebo.

 Hive:

 Drops down from the top of the screen, and releases Bees.
 This first appears on round two and releases two bees, and again on
 round three, releasing three. Take out the hive quickly, unless you
 want to kill more enemies.
 True Identity: Puru Puru.

 Baby Worm:

 Patrols the platforms left to right, turning when it gets to the gap -
 unless its angry, in which case it drops down to the platform below and
 turns towards you. Beware, this climbs over rainbows.
 True Identity: Zen Chan.

 Beetle:

 Patrols platforms - until it gets angry and decides to come after you.
 When its angry and you are above it, the Beetle flies in straight lines
 towards you. otherwise it drops down to your level. Fortunately, it
 doesn't re-evaluate your position too often.
 True Identity: Monster.

 Crow:

 Behaves similar to the beetle, but hatches from an egg and flies after
 you. When its angry and you are above it, the beetle flies in straight
 lines after you. Otherwise it drops down to your level. Fortunately it
 doesn't re-evaluate your position too often.
 True Identity: Monster.

 Minosuke:

 The bag worm. Encased in its chrysalis hanging from a thread (at which
 point he's safe to touch), it blows a bubble and drops as an angry baby
 worm when you get near. The Minosuke appears only once in the entire
 game.
 True Identity: ZenChan.

 Monster:

 The other flying enemy is tricky. As it homes in on Bubby or Bobby.
 It stops and starts to check their position, but on later levels it
 moves in faster but shorter bursts and checks your position more often.
 The monster starts life as the Beetle and the Crow (including the egg,
 from which it hatches).

 Drunk:

 In the original arcade version there now came a drunk who hurled bottles
 at you, but Graftgold had to leave it out, due to disk space.

 Special Items
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 After the sequence of saved special features, the next third enemy to
 die produces a special item, which again only lasts for five seconds.
 There are 42 special items in all, each behaving in one of four ways;
 an immediate one-off effect, a delayed one-off effect, a temporary timed
 effect, or an effect that lasts until the round is over.
 The special items range from rings, which simply award bonus points, to
 magic wands that have an amazing effect on your rainbows!

 Goal In!
 ~~~~~~~
 Go to the top of the first three rounds and a magic chest throws out
 16 bonus items (from a selection of 32), each worth 500 points.
 Collect them quick!
 Crush any un-used rainbows to avoid walking on them or you could find
 yourself in mid-air with no place to go. But be quick! Take too long
 and the "HURRY!" message will appear after 45 seconds. Eight seconds
 later the water rises.
 With the boss removed from the scene, a big magic chest drops onto the
 floor and like its smaller counterparts throws out 16 bonus objects plus
 one big bonus object worth 100,000 points!

 Hurry!
 ~~~~~~
 Each round has a preset time limit before the "HURRY!" message appears.
 When this happens you know you have eight seconds before the water rises,
 as each of the rainbow islands is slowly sinking into the sea. On Insect
 island it appears after 55 seconds, on round two its 50 seconds, on round
 three its 60 seconds, and on round four there's 55 seconds. Play it cool,
 even when you fall it won't necessary be into the water as in its early
 stages of flow it scrolls down with the screen slightly, giving you vital
 seconds to get up.
 Where you die effects the time remaining before the "HURRY!" message
 appears. You get a percentage of the overall time for that round,
 depending on your restart position. You are given 80% of the original
 "HURRY!" time when you restart from position one, 50% from position two,
 and only 30% from position three.


 CHEAT MODE:

 Enter any of these codes on the Rainbow Islands title screen after
 the rainbow has begun to flash. You can only choose one at a time.
 If it's done correctly a large version of the relevent object will
 be shown on the credit screen.

 BLRBJSBJ - Permanent fast shoes.
 RJSBJSBR - Permanent red pot (double rainbows).
 SSSLLRRS - Permanent yellow pot (fast rainbows).
 BJBJBJRS - Hint A.
 LJKSKBLS - Hint B.
 SJBLRJSR - Hint C.
 LBSJRLJL - Book of continues.
 RRLLBBJS - All hidden bonuses become money bags.
 RRRRSBSJ - Both the previous two.
 SRBJSLSB - Increase counter size.