A little information about the appearance of the powerball : the rule is very simple and you just have to look at the colour at the left and right of the multiplicator number, its size grows as you collect bombs.
1) Take a 'lit bomb' and you get 1 point ahead for the next Powerball. Take a non-lit bomb and you'll get 0.5 point for the next Powerball. When you achieve 10 points, the powerball appears. Your powerball points don't grow if either the powerball is there or if the 'power music' is playing, so avoid collecting bombs when it's not necessary.
2) The powerball can have different score values when taking it. When it appears, jump or hit a wall and its colour will change. The colours and score values are blue (100 points), red (200 points), purple (300 points), green (500 points), turquoize (800 points), yellow (1000 points) and grey (2000 points).
3) The 'B' bonus coin adds 1 to the multiplicator value and appears each 5,000 points, but only if you 'pass' these 5,000 points when not taking a 'B' coin. For example, your multiplicator is 2x, your score is 9,000 and you take a 'B' coin; giving you 1,000x2 = 2,000 points which makes a total of 11,000 points. A 'B' coin should then appear because you have passed the 10,000 points, but doesn't because you took a 'B' coin to achieve this score so you'll have to wait for 15,000 points to get a new 'B' coin. The multiplicator limit is X5.
An important piece of information to remember is that you can pick up the bombs in a certain order to earn maximum points. If you pick up most of the bombs while their fuses are lit, you get the following bonuses :
20 - 10,000 pts.
21 - 20,000 pts.
22 - 30,000 pts.
23 - 50,000 pts.
So of course, you'll want to try to get 23 each time (This is of course, VERY difficult!). The P (Power) coin appears after every ninth bomb is collected. The points value of the P coin ranges from 100 (Blue) to 2,000 (Silver). Since the color changes each time BJ jumps, you can control the bonus level by making small jumps until the coin turns silver.
The B (Bonus) coin appears every 5,000 points, and advances the bonus multiplier by 1. There is a maximum of 5 B coins per level.
Picking up the S (Special) coin awards one free credit. It will also take you to the next level automatically.
You can control where the mechanical bird appears by holding the joystick in the opposite direction. Example : Hold the joystick to the Right as soon as the round starts and the mechanical bird appears on the left of the screen. If the stick is held diagonally, the bird appears in the opposite corner.
When you start a level, and directly go to left or right, bird(s) will appear on the other side : it's useful to put them where you want in order to make this level easier, levels 7, 8 & 9 are good examples for that.