Frequently Asked Questions

• Help! I am unable to download Frozen-Bubble from your website!
• Help! Frozen-Bubble doesn't work!
• Hey, why not porting Frozen-Bubble to <my favorite phone or whatever>?
• I'd suggest adding mouse aiming to the game
• My joystick doesn't work!
• Special keys
• It is a shame, I cannot toggle sound in the game!
• Why not 2 or more players on the same computer, and still a 3/4/5 player game in network?
• What are chain reactions?
• What's single player targetting?

Uh, the downloads page should be fairly understandable..

If you're using Windows, or Mac OS X, read the Ports section of the downloads page! man, you can do it, I am sure you can, don't quit trying so fast!

Easy, go to the troubleshooting page. And don't forget we don't know your system or distribution, help yourself or ask your vendor.

Simple! Because we aren't interested in this. Ask the authors of other ports, maybe they will be. But no use emailing us about it. Thanks.

Yes, but, see, it would not be fair to players using keyboard, because mouse aiming is analog-based, whereas keys are not. So, no mouse, sorry.

If you're not using Linux, sorry we don't know and support your system.

If you're using Linux, maybe we can help. When trying to use your joystick in Frozen-Bubble, if nothing comes up, most probably your joystick isn't configured correctly (or supported in Linux), use --joysticks-info commandline parameter to verify that FB detects your joystick properly: if it does, information about your joystick(s) will be printed in console on startup, and you should have no problem using your joystick in FB - just trigger a direction or a button in the "change keys" dialog; if not, try to load the proper kernel modules etc - for example, the kernel module joydev is needed for all joysticks, but it is sometimes not automatically loaded when plugging in a joystick (even in modern distros and with USB joysticks) - after loading this kernel module, retry in FB.

In the 3p/4p/5p network game, you can see F1, F2, F3 and F4 printed in the game screen - one function key per remote player. These keys allow you to aim at a particular remote player instead of everyone at the same time. Indeed, by default, when you create malus bubbles to be sent to your opponents (by exploding a larger group or when bubbles were sticked to exploding bubbles), they are distributed evenly among all of the (living) opponents. If you hit the, say, F2 key before (you can verify you did because F2 is then printed in white on the game screen), next time you will create malus bubbles, they will all be sent to the top-right opponent. This feature can allow you to team up or to aim at the strongest opponent. You can hit F10 to request back an evenly distribution. Notice that when using at least version 2.1.0, you can see who's attacking you at any time by looking at at pinguins left to your igloo.

The keys F11 and F12 are also useful (version 2.1.0 minimum): F11 allows to toggle the music, and F12 allows to toggle the sound (music plus sound effects). Additionally, keypad's minus and plus keys allow to alter sound volume.

Easy, read the Special keys FAQ item.

Because in 3p/4p/5p game, there is room for only one player with full size graphics. For the other players, the graphics are smaller, so more than one local player is not possible.

When you pop some bubbles, and another bubble was being held up by the bubbles you popped, that other bubble falls and becomes a malus bubble. In chain reaction mode, that other bubble can also rise up and pop some other bubbles, if you have a pair of bubbles on your screen that are the same color as it with a free position next to it. This might, in turn, release more bubbles, which can also rise up and pop pairs of their own color, in a big chain reaction. Let's illustrate that:

	1. First, you pop some bubbles of the same color, yellow in our example, which release some extra bubbles of a different color (black and purple).
	2. The purple bubble just falls. The black bubble would fall too, but this is chain-reaction mode. So instead of falling, the black bubble sees a group of other black bubble with a free position next to it, and swoops back up to be with them.
	3. The black bubbles pop, releasing several other bubbles. The orange bubble sees a group of other orange bubbles with a free position next to it, and swoops back up to be with them.
	4. The orange bubbles pop, releasing a couple of other bubbles.
	5. But there are no more groups for these bubbles, so the chain reaction is over.

Easy, read the Special keys FAQ item.