We just released a Feb. 5 '89 prototype of DuckTales for the NES!
If you'd like to support our preservation efforts (and this wasn't cheap), please consider donating or supporting us on Patreon. Thank you!

Double Dribble (NES)

From The Cutting Room Floor
Jump to navigation Jump to search

Title Screen

Double Dribble

Also known as: Exciting Basket (JP)
Developer: Konami
Publisher: Konami
Platforms: NES, Famicom Disk System
Released in JP: July 24, 1987 (FDS)
Released in US: September 1987
Released in EU: December 13, 1989


SoundIcon.png This game has unused sounds.


So very stubbly.
This page is rather stubbly and could use some expansion.
Are you a bad enough dude to rescue this article?

Double Dribble is an early basketball game for the NES, infamous for the bad quality of its voice sample at the title screen. Fans have interpreted the sound as "Bubble Bibble" or "Vubble Dwibble".

Voice Samples

32 years after the game's release, it was accidentally discovered that Double Dribble's voice samples were actually corrupted. More specifically, the DPCM samples are formatted correctly but the 2A07/2A03 (the sound chip in the NES/Family Computer) reads the bits in each of the sample's bytes backwards, causing the playback to sound very hissy or "crispy". Below are fixed versions of these samples, along with a unused sample thrown in the mix.

Description In-Game version Fixed version
"Double Dribble"
"Jump Ball"
"Free Throw"
"Dunk Shot" (Unused)

It's actually worth noting that this doesn't just affect Double Dribble: a wide variety of Nintendo games suffer from this exact issue.

Regional Differences

Title Screen

Japan World
Exciting Basket (Japan) title.png Double Dribble (NES)-title.png

A different title screen. Yup.

Intro

Japan World
Exciting Basket (Japan) intro002.png Double Dribble (USA) intro001.png
Exciting Basket (Japan) intro004.png Double Dribble (USA) intro003.png
Exciting Basket (Japan) intro005.png Double Dribble (USA) intro004.png

The intro was given a bit of the US of A. Palm trees (that are apparently as tall as skyscrapers) were added to the background (which as a whole was redrawn), the stadium was redrawn, the generic balloons are now all the same color, and the Konami logo balloons and blimp now carry the American flag.