How to play Kaboom! online
Kaboom! was made for the Atari paddle controller, a dial that slides your buckets left and right. The emulator above switches to paddle mode automatically for this game.
- Move the buckets: left and right arrow keys
- Start the bombs falling: Space bar
- Start a new game: F12 (the console’s Reset switch)
- Choose one or two players: F11 (the console’s Select switch)
- Full-size or half-size buckets: F4 toggles the Player 1 difficulty switch (F9 for Player 2)
- Switch between paddle and joystick mode: Alt + L
- Save and load your progress: Ctrl + 0–9 saves to a slot, Alt + 0–9 loads it
Gameplay
You start with three buckets stacked on top of each other. Every bomb that lands in a bucket is put out and scores points. The bombs come in groups, and each group is longer, faster and worth more per bomb than the one before. Miss a single bomb and every bomb on the screen goes off, you lose a bucket, and the Mad Bomber looks very pleased with himself. After a miss the game drops back one group, so you get a short breather. When your last bucket is gone, the game is over.
| Bomb group | Bombs | Points per bomb |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 10 | 1 |
| 2 | 20 | 2 |
| 3 | 30 | 3 |
| 4 | 40 | 4 |
| 5 | 50 | 5 |
| 6 | 75 | 6 |
| 7 | 100 | 7 |
| 8 and beyond | 150 | 8 |
Clearing the first six groups without a miss takes you to exactly 1,000 points. Every 1,000 points you earn a lost bucket back, up to the maximum of three. From group 8 on, speed and points stay the same.
Game variations and switches
There are two games: Game 1 is for one player, and Game 2 lets two players take turns, each with their own score. The difficulty switch sets the bucket size. Position B gives you normal buckets; position A halves their width, which is meant for experienced players.
Tips
- Follow the bomber, not the bombs. Bombs fall straight down from wherever he is, so keeping your buckets under him saves you from long, panicked sweeps.
- Plan your misses. Larry Kaplan’s own advice in the manual: if you are about to reach a 1,000-point mark with all three buckets, a deliberate miss costs you nothing, because the bonus gives the bucket back, and the game slows down for a moment.
- Groups 5 and 6 are the first real wall. Getting through them cleanly is what takes you past 1,000 points, so concentrate there.
The story behind Kaboom!
Larry Kaplan was one of the former Atari programmers who set up Activision. He openly admitted that Kaboom! was based on Atari’s 1978 arcade game Avalanche, in which you catch falling rocks. The 2600 could not reproduce the rocks, so he replaced them with a single character throwing bombs. David Crane drew the Mad Bomber and the buckets and gave the bomber changing facial expressions that react to how well you are doing. If you pass 10,000 points, watch his face.
Kaboom! won Best Audio-Visual Effects at the 1982 Arcade Awards, and Activision later said it had sold more than a million copies. Players who scored 3,000 points or more could send a photo of their TV screen to Activision to join the “Bucket Brigade” and receive a patch. Paul Wilson later converted the game to the Atari 5200 and the Atari 8-bit computers in 1983. Its success also led to other catching games on the 2600, such as Lost Luggage and Eggomania.
Similar games to play next
- Eggomania – catch eggs dropped by a bird, then throw them back
- Lost Luggage – catch suitcases flying off an airport carousel
- Big Bird’s Egg Catch – a gentler catching game for younger players
- Super Breakout – another fast paddle game that rewards quick reflexes