''Bugaboo (The Flea)'', later published in Spain as ''La Pulga'', is a computer game created in

1983 The year 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to Internet protocol suite, TCP/IP is officially completed (this is consid ...

by the Spanish team of programmers ''Paco & Paco'' for the

ZX Spectrum The ZX Spectrum () is an 8-bit computing, 8-bit home computer that was developed by Sinclair Research. It was released in the United Kingdom on 23 April 1982, and became Britain's best-selling microcomputer. Referred to during development as t ...

. Later versions for the

Commodore 64 The Commodore 64, also known as the C64, is an 8-bit home computer introduced in January 1982 by Commodore International (first shown at the Consumer Electronics Show, January 7–10, 1982, in Las Vegas). It has been listed in the Guinness ...

Amstrad Amstrad was a British electronics company, founded in 1968 by Alan Sugar at the age of 21. The name is a contraction of Alan Michael Sugar Trading. It was first listed on the London Stock Exchange in April 1980. During the late 1980s, Amstrad ...

and MSX were produced. Bugaboo, besides being the first video game made in Spain, is one of the first computer games to include cut scenes. Its publication marked the official beginning of the

Golden Era of Spanish Software The golden age of Spanish software ( es, edad de oro del software español) was a time, between 1983 and 1992, when Spain became the second largest 8 bit computer entertainment software producer in Europe, only behind the United Kingdom. The disap ...

. It was ported to the

Amstrad CPC The Amstrad CPC (short for ''Colour Personal Computer'') 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 Sin ...

under the name ''Roland in the Caves'', to exploit the CPC's recurring

Roland Roland (; frk, *Hrōþiland; lat-med, Hruodlandus or ''Rotholandus''; it, Orlando or ''Rolando''; died 15 August 778) was a Frankish military leader under Charlemagne who became one of the principal figures in the literary cycle known as the ...

character. A sequel was released in Spain by

Opera Soft Opera Soft was a Spanish computer game developer of the 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. Fou ...

under the title "Poogaboo", made by

Paco Suarez Paco is a Spanish nickname for Francisco. According to folk etymology, the nickname has its origins in Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis of Assisi, who was the father of the Franciscan order; his name was written in Latin by the order as ''Pater C ...

, one of the authors of the original game.

Paco Portalo Paco is a Spanish nickname for Francisco. According to folk etymology, the nickname has its origins in Saint Francis of Assisi, who was the father of the Franciscan order; his name was written in Latin by the order as ''Pater Communitatis'' (fath ...

, the other member of Paco & Paco, left the project after the publication of the original game for the

. The player takes control of a flea who has fallen into a cavern and must escape.

Gameplay

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 wanders around the cave. 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 ''

CRASH Crash or CRASH may refer to: Common meanings * Collision, an impact between two or more objects * Crash (computing), a condition where a program ceases to respond * Cardiac arrest, a medical condition in which the heart stops beating * Couch su ...

'' giving the game 92%, ''

Computer and Video Games ''Computer and Video Games'' (also known as ''CVG'', ''Computer & Video Games'', ''C&VG'', ''Computer + Video Games'', or ''C+VG'') was a UK-based video game magazine, published in its original form between 1981 and 2004. Its offshoot website ...

'' awarding it 8/10 and their ''Game of the Month'' and ''

Personal Computer Games ''Personal Computer Games'' was a multi-format UK computer games magazine of the early/mid-1980s published by VNU. History ''Personal Computer Games'' was launched in July 1983. The magazine was part of VNU and had its headquarters in London ...

'' 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." Tony Hetherington of ''Computer Gamer'' magazine included the game in "The Spectrum Collection" - "15 classic games that all Spectrum owners should have". Bugaboo reached number 3 in the Top 10 charts compiled by

WH Smith WHSmith (also written WH Smith, and known colloquially as Smith's and formerly as W. H. Smith & Son) is a British retailer, headquartered in Swindon, England, which operates a chain of high street, railway station, airport, port, hospital and m ...

behind

Lunar Jetman ''Lunar Jetman'' is a horizontally scrolling shooter developed and published by Ultimate Play the Game. It was released for the ZX Spectrum in 1983 and later on the BBC Micro. In this sequel to ''Jetpac'', the second installment of the ''Jetman'' ...

and Durell's Jungle Trouble.

Innovations and achievements

Technically and artistically, Bugaboo (The Flea) brought some novelties to the world of video games that have since been widely used. Among them we can highlight: * It was the first to implement a user interface based on click time. * It was the first microcomputer video game incorporating a

Cutscene A cutscene or event scene (sometimes in-game cinematic or in-game movie) is a sequence in a video game that is not interactive, interrupting the gameplay. Such scenes are used to show conversations between characters, set the mood, reward the ...

. * It was one of the first games to use full screen scroll. In addition it was decisive for

entry into Spain, and it inaugurated what is known as

Legacy

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 (i.e., Paco Portalo, one of the original authors of the game) and published by Universidad de Extremadura, which is available online.

References

External links

*{{WoS game, id=0000739, name=Bugaboo (The Flea)
''Bugaboo'', un hito en la historia del Software Español
(Spanish, 2009) 1983 video games Platform games ZX Spectrum games MSX games Commodore 64 games Roland in the Caves Quicksilva games Video games about insects Video games developed in Spain Single-player video games