Puzzle Bobble 4

Puzzle Bobble 4

Developers
	Taito
Publishers
Europe	Agetec
America	Interplay Entertainment
Japan	CYBERFRONT Corporation
Release dates
Windows	2000
Taxonomy
Modes	Singleplayer, Multiplayer
Pacing	Real-time
Perspectives	Side view
Controls	Direct control
Genres	Puzzle
Art styles	Cartoon, Pixel art
Themes	Fantasy
Series	Puzzle Bobble

Key points

Released as Bust-A-Move 4 in Europe and North America.

Might not run well in Windows 10. See Poor performance in Windows 10 for a fix.

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail		Disc needed to play for lesser install options.

This game is not available digitally.

Game data

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	<path-to-game>\save.dat

Video

Video settings.

Graphics feature	State	Notes
Widescreen resolution		Locked at 640x480 and 320x240. Press F5 to bring up resolution options.
Multi-monitor
Ultra-widescreen
4K Ultra HD
Field of view (FOV)
Windowed
Borderless fullscreen windowed		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)
Anti-aliasing (AA)
High-fidelity upscaling		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Vertical sync (Vsync)
60 FPS
120+ FPS
High dynamic range display (HDR)

Input

Input settings.

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping
Mouse acceleration
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus		Mouse only used for control remap, network, and resolution windows.
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support
Full controller support		Mouse needed for control remap, network, and resolution windows.
Controller remapping
Controller sensitivity
Controller Y-axis inversion

Controller types

XInput-compatible controllers
Xbox button prompts
Impulse Trigger vibration

PlayStation controllers

Generic/other controllers
Button prompts

Additional information
Controller hotplugging
Haptic feedback
Digital movement supported
Simultaneous controller+KB/M

Audio

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls
Surround sound
Subtitles		All dialogue is text-based.
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
Royalty free audio

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
Japanese				Japanese UI and text only available on Japanese copies.

Network

Multiplayer types

Type	Native	Players	Notes
Local play		2
LAN play
Online play		2	Serial, Modem, and Direct IP only.

Connection types

Type	Native	Notes
Matchmaking
Peer-to-peer
Dedicated
Self-hosting
Direct IP

Issues fixed

Poor performance in Windows 10

Using DxWrapper (Windows 10)

Works for both windowed and fullscreen. Download the lastest release of DxWrapper. Go to <path-to-game>, and extract dxwrapper.dll, dxwrapper.ini and ddraw.dll (the last one is inside "Stub" folder) there. Set DDrawCompat=0 to 1 in dxwrapper.ini Click the Compatibility tab, turn on Reduced color mode, select 16-bit color from the dropdown list, click Apply, then click OK. Run the game. Notes 16-bit color mode is only required to play the game on Windowed mode.

Use DDrawCompat
Download the lastest release of DDrawCompat. Go to <path-to-game>, and extract ddraw.dll there. Right click on BstMv4a.exe, and select Properties. Click the Compatibility tab, turn on Reduced color mode, select 16-bit color from the dropdown list, click Apply, then click OK. Run the game in fullscreen mode. Notes Still doesn't fix poor performance in windowed mode.

Registry Keys

32-bit Windows:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\CYBERFRONT\BUST-A-MOVE 4\1.00.000

64-bit Windows:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\CYBERFRONT\BUST-A-MOVE 4\1.00.000

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
DirectDraw	5

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows

Middleware

	Middleware	Notes
Multiplayer	DirectPlay

System requirements

Windows
	Minimum
Operating system (OS)	95
Processor (CPU)	Intel Pentium 100 MHz
System memory (RAM)	32 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	420 MB (Full install)
Video card (GPU)	DirectX-compatible GPU