website/content/software/bowling-851.md

title, tags, years, params

title	tags	years	params
Bowling	bowling sport	1971	specs screenshots machines company oc_id source label value year of release 1971 label value companies RCA label value type game label value media tape label value systems RCA Fred computers label value number of players 2 players (alternate) label value staff Joseph Weisbecker (Programmer) title subtitle text image Start of the game. First frame, player 1, first ball null title subtitle text image First frame, player 2's second ball null title subtitle text image Frame 3, first player second ball null title subtitle text image 5th frame, end of the game.. Player 1 wins null /museum/rca-fred /companies/rca 851 url date https://web.archive.org/web/20211027104635/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/software_detail.asp?id=851 2021-10-27

This game is simply the first ever Bowling video game known today !

It was programmed by Joseph Weisbecker on the 16th of august 1972 while developping the Fred concept at RCA.

This bowling concept eventually led to the bowling game found built-in the RCA Studio II videogame, also programmed by Joseph Weisbecker.

This version is a two players game, identified with X & O on the display. The game is played in 5 Frames, with 2 balls per frame for each player.

F1, F2 etc. indicates frame number on display. X1, X2, O1, O2 indicates player and ball number.

More incredibly, this game used sounds on tape when a ball is rolled ! The sounds on the tape were recordings from a bowling ball hitting targets, repeated multiple times.

There is no hook effects or anything like that. The player just has to press a key to launch the ball. But the randomness and incertitude of the game comes from the fact that the ball goes up and down in a erratic way, making it difficult to launch the ball at the desired position.