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Bowling | |
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Developer(s) | Atari, Inc. |
Publisher(s) | Atari, Inc. |
Designer(s) | Larry Kaplan |
Platform(s) | Atari 2600 |
Release | |
Genre(s) | Sports |
Mode(s) | Single-player, multiplayer |
Bowling is a sports video game published in 1979 by Atari, Inc. for the Atari VCS (later renamed the Atari 2600). It was programmed by Larry Kaplan who left Atari to co-found Activision the same year. The game is an interpretation of the sport bowling, playable by one or two players.
In all six variations, games last for 10 frames, or turns. At the start of each frame, the current player is given two chances to roll a bowling ball down an alley in an attempt to knock down as many of the ten bowling pins as possible. The bowler (on the left side of the screen) may move up and down his end of the alley to aim before releasing the ball. In four of the game's six variations, the ball can be steered before it hits the pins. Knocking down every pin on the first shot is a strike, while knocking every pin down in both shots is a spare. The player's score is determined by the number of pins knocked down in all 10 frames, as well as the number of strikes and spares acquired.
Odd-numbered variants are one player games, while two players alternate on frames in even-numbered games.
Bowling was reviewed by Video magazine in its "Arcade Alley" column where it was praised as "an enjoyable version of a sport that is perfectly suited to the video arcade format". The reviewers singled out the graphics (including the automatic frame-by-frame scoring and "deft" character animation) as "one of the game's best points". [2] : 18, 76
Five-pin bowling is a bowling variant which is played in Canada, where many bowling alleys offer it, either alone or in combination with ten-pin bowling. It was devised around 1909 by Thomas F. Ryan in Toronto, Ontario, at his Toronto Bowling Club, in response to customers who complained that the ten-pin game was too strenuous. He cut five tenpins down to about 75% of their size, and used hand-sized hard rubber balls, thus inventing the original version of five-pin bowling.
Ten-pin bowling is a type of bowling in which a bowler rolls a bowling ball down a wood or synthetic lane toward ten pins positioned evenly in four rows in an equilateral triangle at the far end of the lane. The objective is to knock down all ten pins on the first roll of the ball, or failing that, on the second roll.
Skittles is a historical lawn game and target sport of European origin, from which the modern sport of bowling is descended. In regions of the United Kingdom and Ireland the game remains as a popular indoor pub game. A continental version is popular in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Other varieties of bowling are more popular in Australia, but the similar game of kegel, based on German nine-pin bowling, is popular in some areas. In Catalonia, bitlles, a local version of this game, was formerly popular..
Candlepin bowling is a variation of bowling that is played primarily in the Canadian Maritime provinces and the New England region of the United States. It is played with a handheld-sized ball and tall, narrow pins that resemble candles, hence the name.
Warlords is an arcade game released by Atari, Inc. in 1980. The game resembles a combination of Breakout and Quadrapong ; up to four players play the game at the same time, and the "castles" in the four corners of the screen are brick walls that can be broken with a flaming ball.
Duckpin bowling is a variation of the sport of bowling.
River Raid is a vertically scrolling shooter designed and programmed by Carol Shaw and published by Activision in 1982 for the Atari 2600 video game console. Over a million game cartridges were sold. Activision later ported the title to the Atari 5200, ColecoVision, and Intellivision consoles, as well as to the Commodore 64, IBM PCjr, MSX, ZX Spectrum, and Atari 8-bit family. Shaw did the Atari 8-bit and Atari 5200 ports herself.
In bowling, a pinsetter or pinspotter is an automated mechanical device that sets bowling pins back in their original positions, returns bowling balls to the front of the alley, and clears fallen pins on the pin deck. Prior to the machine's invention, pinsetters were boys or young men who manually reset pins and returned balls. The first mechanical pinsetter was invented by Gottfried (Fred) Schmidt, who sold the patent in 1941 to AMF. Pinsetting machines have largely done away with pinsetting as a manual profession, although a small number of bowling alleys still use human pinsetters. While humans usually no longer set the pins, a pinchaser is often stationed near the equipment to ensure it is clean and working properly, and to clear minor jams.
Basketball is an Atari 2600 video game written by Alan Miller and published by Atari, Inc. in 1978. The cartridge presents a simple game of one-on-one basketball playable by one or two players, one of the few early Atari 2600 titles to have a single-player mode with an AI-controlled opponent. Miller wrote a version of Basketball for the Atari 8-bit family with improved graphics, published in 1979. That same year, an arcade version similar to the computer port was released by Atari but in black and white.
Boxing is a video game interpretation of the sport of boxing developed by programmer Bob Whitehead for the Atari VCS. It was published by Activision in 1980. It's one of the first video games developed by Activision. The game is based on Boxer, an unreleased 1978 arcade game from Whitehead's previous employer, Atari, Inc. Boxer was written by Mike Albaugh who also wrote Drag Race for Atari, a game cloned by Activision as Dragster.
Video Olympics is a video game programmed by Joe Decuir for the Atari 2600. It is one of the nine 2600 launch titles Atari, Inc. published when that system was released in September 1977. The cartridge is a collection of games from Atari's popular arcade Pong series. A similar collection in arcade machine form called Tournament Table was published by Atari in 1978.
A spare is a term used in bowling to indicate that all of the pins have been knocked down during the second ball of a frame when not all the pins were knocked down in the first frame of that player's two turns. The symbol for a spare for most bowling sports is a forward slash mark (/), while the unique vertically-oriented scoring system for candlepin bowling is somewhat different.
In bowling, a strike means that all of the pins have been knocked down on the first ball roll of a frame. On a bowling scoresheet, a strike is marked by an "X".
RocketBowl is a sports game developed by LargeAnimal and published by GarageGames, released November 4, 2004 for Windows. The game features a retro-futuristic 1950s theme. It was also released on the Xbox 360 for Xbox Live Arcade on September 10, 2008.
10th Frame is a ten-pin bowling simulation game published by Access Software in 1986. Up to eight players can take part in open bowling or a tournament. It was released for the Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, IBM PC compatibles, MSX, and ZX Spectrum.
Rebound is a two-player sports arcade video game developed by Atari, Inc. and released in February 1974. In the game, two players each control paddles on either side of a volleyball net, with a ball dropped from the top of the screen. The players bounce the ball back and forth across the net with the goal of scoring points by having the ball reach the bottom or side of the other player's half of the screen, with the trajectory of the ball dependent on where it strikes the paddle. The winner is the first player to reach eleven or fifteen points, depending on the game settings.
Nine-pin bowling is a bowling game played primarily in Europe. European championships are held each year. Over 90,000 members are on teams in Germany, often playing in officially registered Bundeskegelbahnen to be found in almost every sizable town. In Europe overall, there are some 130,000 players. Nine-pin bowling lanes are often found in Austria, Czechia, Slovakia, Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Estonia, Switzerland, Serbia, Slovenia, Croatia, Poland, North Macedonia, Hungary, Brazil and Liechtenstein. The English-speaking countries, having a predominance of facilities for the modern ten-pin sport which originated in the United States, as well as regionally popular "small-ball" bowling sports of various types, do not have many facilities in existence for the nine-pin game in the 21st century. On the other hand, a modified version is played in the US state of Texas.
In ten-pin bowling, a Dutch 200 is a game in which the bowler records a score of 200 by getting strikes and spares in alternation throughout the game. Strikes, when thrown in the even-numbered frames, require six spares. For strikes in the odd-numbered frames, five spares are needed, with a strike on the last shot of the game. When bowled in certified play, the certifying body may issue a patch or other award commemorating the feat.
Bowling Solitaire is a patience or solitaire card game that uses a single deck standard playing cards to simulate a round of ten-pin bowling.