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website/content/software/bowling-851.md
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yann64andClaude Opus 5.5 de19014649 Content with the complete media download (15,344 files)
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Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01YDRjtmAiNpo5mK5N3d7QwZ
2026-10-13 16:47:19 +02:00

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2.2 KiB
Markdown

---
title: Bowling
tags:
- bowling
- sport
years:
- '1971'
params:
image: /media/museum/software/rca%20fred%20bowling.png
specs:
- label: year of release
value: '1971'
- label: companies
value: RCA
- label: type
value: game
- label: media
value: tape
- label: systems
value: RCA Fred computers
- label: number of players
value: 2 players (alternate)
- label: staff
value: Joseph Weisbecker (Programmer)
screenshots:
- title: Start of the game. First frame, player 1, first ball
subtitle: ''
text: ''
image: /media/museum/software/rca%20fred%20bowling.png
- title: First frame, player 2's second ball
subtitle: ''
text: ''
image: /media/museum/software/rca%20fred%20bowling.1.png
- title: Frame 3, first player second ball
subtitle: ''
text: ''
image: /media/museum/software/rca%20fred%20bowling.2.png
- title: 5th frame, end of the game.. Player 1 wins
subtitle: ''
text: ''
image: /media/museum/software/rca%20fred%20bowling.3.png
machines:
- /museum/rca-fred
company: /companies/rca
oc_id: 851
source:
url: https://web.archive.org/web/20211027104635/http://www.old-computers.com/museum/software_detail.asp?id=851
date: '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.