Interview with Francisco Portalo Calero (Paco Portalo)

Paco Portalo: Before I start answering your kind questions, I would clarify that my relationship with game development was practically limited to the design and implementation of Bugaboo (The Flea) (AKA La Pulga) alongside the Spanish programmer Paco Suarez. We both formed the Paco & Paco group, the only ones who authored this game.

It is true that I also participated in two more projects that never came to completion, Treasure Island (Paco & Paco, 1983) and Koko Circus (Badasoft, 1985). My relationship with this exciting world only lasted a couple of years later, and I have to admit that I have continued playing, but chess and tennis instead of video games.

Greg Livingston: Before developing Bugaboo, what was your experience with video games?

Paco Portalo: Since childhood, I was interested in all kinds of games, especially chess, but also I used to go to the arcades, which abounded in the gray Spain of the early 70s. There we played football, pinball, and the first arcade games that came to Spain: Pong, Marcianitos (Space Invaders)... These machines, which we loved, had the disadvantage that they needed some coins which we did not always have on hand. By the early 80s we got a home computer, the ZX81, which apart from performing scientific and pedagogical work fascinated us with its playfulness, all without throwing coins... I especially remember playing with my brothers the labyrinthine Mazog.

Greg Livingston: Had you played anything like Pitfall before creating Bugaboo?

Paco Portalo: Not really. Perhaps one of the fundamental characteristics of Bugaboo is the lack of references from other games. Both the game mechanics based on a physics simulation and the colorful and minimal graphical view were innovative at the time of publication. Possibly, this had a lot to do with their initial success, especially in the UK.

Greg Livingston: How did you devise the level design? It's very intricate and interconnected. The path to the end is not immediately clear.

Paco Portalo: Note that in addition to being considered the first microcomputer videogame developed in Spain, it was also our first game to be commercialized, and in my case the only one. We were learning at the same time we were developing it that there was an essential clause: the buyer had to have a fun time (or martyrdom in some cases), and could not finish it in one sitting. I think that it was achieved with Bugaboo. Perhaps here began the reputation of being difficult than had at this time the games made in Spain.

Greg Livingston: How did you decide to make the game vertical (you must reach the top)?

Paco Portalo: The origins of the game are in the works on physical simulations we conducted early 80s. Specifically, flea jumping is based on the equations governing the oblique shot that Paco Suárez initially modelled using a ZX81 microcomputer. The representation was very simple, showing a stepped well on a single screen. An asterisk was the flea that must reach the top, jumping from wall to wall. This remained in Bugaboo and represented one of the great challenges to overcome, because we had to implement a multidirectional scroll in a ZX Spectrum game, and in those times I do not remember any game that did it.

Greg Livingston: Bugaboo features just one enemy: the Dragon. Still, it's a big threat. Why did you decide to add the Dragon, and how did you decide his behavior?

Paco Portalo: Yes, it was a natural decision. The game gained much excitement with this character who has limited intelligence but a very stubborn attitude.

Greg Livingston: Bugaboo's jump is unique. The book Bugaboo, un hito en la Historia del Software Español mentions that the jump was based on astronomical calculations. Did the nature of the jump influence how you designed the rest of the game?

Paco Portalo: Certainly the dynamics of the jump is one of the great contributions of Bugaboo, as well as the user interface to obtain its parameters. This is different from all the games that we had seen in those early years.

As I said earlier, we also used the microcomputer for scientific papers. Specifically I used the ZX81 to do my bachelor's thesis and get an engineering degree in 1982. It consisted of a computer simulation of Newton's law of universal gravitation. Paco Suarez, who continues to be one of the Spanish game development heavyweights, was very interested in my work and helped me in the astronomical aspect of it. So, he had a great amount of knowledge. From here, we began a collaboration resulting in Bugaboo (The Flea), which is a simulation based on oblique or parabolic motion. Certainly, there is an astronomical link in Bugaboo also stated in the introduction screens where we can observe, with their precise images, some real stars and constellations. Almach (Gamma Andromedae), which is the growing blue ball where Bugaboo goes, is only the star inhabited by the terrible dragon. If the Hubble Space Telescope is pointed towards it at the right time, we probably would see Bugaboo trying to get rid of him (who knows!).

Greg Livingston: Bugaboo is one of the first games to measure the player's time to completion. Today, there is a culture of "speedrunning" (finishing a game as quickly as possible). Did you ever imagine that players would compete for the best time in Bugaboo?

Paco Portalo: Bugaboo was truly innovative in many ways. Among them, we can highlight the user interface, the cinematic presentation (cutscenes), the use of planes and shocking colors, and, as you have also commented, the count of completion time of the game. I will include it among its contributions, since we had not considered it before. Actually, the chronometer was implemented to establish a rudimentary way of competition among players, but we never thought that an "Olympic sport" was made with La Pulga! ... ;)

Greg Livingston: Bugaboo, un hito en la Historia del Software Español also mentions that Paco Suarez and you faced technical challenges while making Bugaboo on the ZX Spectrum. What was the most difficult part?

Paco Portalo: Issues related to the implementation of scrolling and memory management as well as all programming problems that arose in the day to day and about which we were constantly talking.

Greg Livingston: Looking back, is there anything that you would change about Bugaboo?

Paco Portalo: Regarding the game absolutely nothing but about their commercialization possibly some things.

Greg Livingston: What is your favorite aspect of Bugaboo?

Paco Portalo: I have a wonderful memory of the time we made Bugaboo, and even today, I am very satisfied with the end result. Its visual impact, from the moment it begins loading the game, created a new atmosphere within the world of video games for home computers at that time. Some English publications called it in 1983, when computers' graphical resources were very limited, as the Walt Disney effect. Overall, despite its simplicity, it pleases me much that all the artistic and technical aspects of the game come together.

Greg Livingston: For video game design, what is the most important? The game itself, the intention of the developer, or the experience of the player?

Paco Portalo: I think all complement each other. As I said Bugaboo is one of the first games to contain a cinematic (cutscene) in its presentation. This introduces the player in a story during loading, ie, the player begins to play before you start typing to try to free the flea. Thus it expands its interactivity beyond mere touch, and thus clearly it is expanding the player's own experience with the game. I remember at that time we talked a lot about these issues, and we defined the game as an interactive "videotale."