Yes, the shots/heart framers issue was the other one I was trying to remember! "Heart framers", another of those wonderful terms that can only be acquired through a precisely-tuned level of dodgy translation. In older games, that period of experimentation is just... accepted, even though I would consider it a real problem if I ever put a powerup that wasn't immediately visible into something like Boxplode. Now I'm thinking about putting something like that into Boxplode. No, I won't.

I went on to the Backloggery for the first time in ages to check where I'd got with the Lolo games, and suddenly remembered that I'd stolen their circular U/B/C icon style for one of the later things I did at my last job. Strange what sparks memories. Anyway, yes, apparently I did complete the first and second, which feels like a bit of a feat to me given how impossible they sound. I think that I remember the exact layout of the first level that stuck me in the third game, and even though it wasn't linear like the others, that felt discouraging enough to put me off it. I'll have to load it up again.