Ok, here's the deal with Bubbels that you need to know to win the game.

First of all, take advantage of the fact that for most of the game there is
no time limit. Think carefully about where you are going to place your
bubbels. Plan ahead, and don't rely on trick shots to get you out of
trouble.

   How new lines appear:

See those 5 green "bubbels" over to the right hand side? Each time you don't
manage to pop anything, one turns into an "X".  Once there's no green
bubbels left, your next "missed" shot will cause a line of bubbels to appear
at the top of your screen, and it will re-set with 4 green bubbels instead
of 5, meaning you can now only miss 4 times safely - on your 5th shot you'll
get an extra row. Then you'll get 3 green bubbels, then 2, then 1, and then
none. After that, it will go back to 5 green "bubbels" in the box, but now
every time you miss when there are no green bubbels in that box, you'll get
*two* lines instead of one. It will go through the cycle, and three lines
each time, and then 4 etc etc etc.

   How they move down:

Each time you get a new line of bubbels, the bubbels that were already on
the screen move down to let the new rows in. You will have noticed, however,
that the old bubbels seem to move around in relation to each other, which
often means an nice clumpof one colour is broken up. Don't despair! There is
a pattern to their movement. You will note that because they form a
hegagonal pattern, each horizontal row doesn't quite fit properly onto the
screen - there is a bigger gap at one side of the row than the other. When
they move down one row, the bubbels move across in such a way as to put the
bigger gap on the other side of the screen. That is, if the gap is at the
left, the bubbels will all move half a bubbel width to the left when the
move down one row, and if the gap is at the right, all the bubbels in that
row will move half a width to the right. Effectively, this means they move
one bubbel across in relation to each other.

   How to eliminate a colour:

You must remove all of that particular colour from the screen.
Unfortuantely, that also means the two bubbels at the bottom of the screen
you are about to fire. Even if you eliminate the colour from the top of the
screen, the next bubbel to appear on the screen may very well be the colour
you just eliminated, and if you are about to get a new row, it will use that
just-elimanated colour if it happens to be in your "next up" set. Its
frustrating, but doens't mean you shouldn't work on getting your colours
reduced.  Just keep looking at your screen and figure out which colour is
the easiest to get rid of (this will change regularly) and work on that.

   Where do you place a bubbel that cannot be used to pop something?

*    Have a good think. Are you due for a new row? How will this change the
formation? Whilst the bubbels won't pop if you line three or more up when
they rearrange, you can make the deal sweeter for the next shot of that
colour if you know how they are going to change.

*    Always take into account *both* of the bubbels at the bottom of the
screen. Its madness itself to block of a formation  you could pop with your
second bubbel by putting your first bubbel in a dumb place.

*     If you have two of the same colour in your arsenal, you may be able to
shoot the first one to a location to which the second bubbel will pop both
the original formation plus your first bubbel, rather than using the first
to pop just a few and leaving the next one as an orphan

*    If you cannot make a scoring shot, try to pair up your shooting bubbel
with one of its own, so that you can get a scoring shot when another one of
its colour turns up, however, don't block an oppurtunity that would be more
advantageous.

*    When setting up paired shots, try to make them easy shots rather than
the ones you have to bounce off walls or have to squeeze through small gaps.

*    Never ever play a shot that means it gets stuck on the top row. Your
are trying to eliminate the top row. If its a non-popping shot and you are
trying to pair it with one of its own colour, try to make it so it is
sitting below it.

*    If you are utterly stuck and cannot even pair up your shot with one of
its own, try to place it such that it will fall away when something above it
is popped (which brings us to stalactites).

   Building Stalactites

*    If you've got a few non-scoring shots in a row, instead of spreading
them out across the playing field, build a stalactite, so that they will all
be eliminated when you get that right colour above them

*    The fact that they move in relation to one another as another row
appears can be used to your advantage. If there is a "stalactite" of
unmatched bubbels one bubbel thick, when they move down when youget a new
row, they won't have any bubbel to stick to and they'll just pop. You won't
get any points for this, but the stalactite will be gone.

*    If you have to build a stalactite, try not to build it in the middle of
the playing area, because that will make future play more difficult to aim
(you'll only be able to shoot to each side). Keep stalactites off to one
side, and always ALWAY make sure the "dislocation" bubbels are easily
shootable when the right colour comes along

* The best place to build stalactites, IMHO, is one bubbel width away from
each side. That way, you aren't interferring with the middle of the play
field, but they don't get weird and find something else to hang onto when
they all move down.

Mostly, though, you just have to *think* rather than go for he obvious
shots. You only get the 5 minute time limit when you are down to two
colours, and by then you should be using the above so insitinctively that
you will be able to clear the screen.

Good Luck!

Yowie

You don't understand: YOU'VE BEEN SPARED. Now, cut and run!! :)

Joyce

CS - often it helps to try another browser.   My old one wouldn't bring
up a lot of sites I wanted so I changed to Firefox.

Bev