19. Tenpins
I've been feeling a little out-of-shape lately, what with all this time spent sitting at the computer. Want to go get a little exercise with me? Let's go bowling.
Tenpins is the first "magazine program listing"-style game I've reviewed for the C128 Hoedown. Rather than being shipped on a disk or cartridge, these games and applications came in the form of printed source code in the back pages of magazines dedicated to home computers of the 1980s. While this approach often allowed a larger audience for up-and-coming developers vs. offering games at retail, players would instead be subjected to tedious sessions retyping the source code on their computer of choice, and magazines would eventually start offering bundled disks full of exclusive programs as the cost of storage media started to decrease. Prior to this change, printed-source offerings of this sort were usually of lesser quality and sophistication than stand-alone commercial releases, as their code needed to be kept short to cut down on printed-page real estate and make them easy for slower typists to enter.
I luckily obtained my copy of Tenpins in .CRT format and was able to move it to my C128 via the Kung Fu Flash, saving myself the trouble of tearing my hair out over any inevitable typos rendering the game unplayable.
Game developers have released bowling simulations on several occasions in the past, and Tenpins is certainly one of them. Not being content to let gamers listlessly stare down the lanes on their own, the game supports 4 player mode, which is a neat feature for the time. The top half of the screen is taken up by a jumbo-sized 4-player score display, regardless of the actual number of players actually participating. This limits the playfield to a bland quasi-overhead view of a tiny bowler, a black circle representing the bowling ball, and 10 white squares representing pins. Hopefully you'll find this layout enjoyable, because it's all you'll get.
Tenpin is unfortunately a game defined by the details it omits. There are no animations of the pins being re-racked after a strike. There are no kitschy graphic effects based on whether you bowl a 7-10 split or salvage a spare. The game's graphics recall the Atari 2600 with a distinct lack of curved objects and a small, non-descript player sprite with no facial features. There is no way to vary the force of your throw or put any spin on the ball - you can move upward, downward, and press a button to pitch the ball down the lane. There are no gutterballs. Sound was limited to two bursts of white noise representing the ball rolling down the lane and hitting the pins (which the developers seem to interpret as a mild explosion of sorts - perhaps the pins are actually sticks of dynamite?) All told, the game with which we're presented amounts to little more than a proof-of-concept or tech demo.
The gameplay itself is also incredibly simplistic. You bowl the ball, it hits a pin, then that pin and some (but usually not all) of the pins around it both disappear, seemingly at random. I'm assuming there's some rudimentary math involved in calculating "splash damage" to adjacent pins, but none of that action is depicted or animated whatsoever. Aiming the ball straight at pin 1 resulted in a 7-10 split nearly every time, so I guess that's at least something to avoid.
To its credit, the action is nicely paced, and it's easy to finish a game within a minute or two. If you're playing with friends, the game does at least care enough to differentiate multiple players with a differently-colored polo shirt. If it sounds like I'm stretching to find redeeming features.. well, I am.
A little online research revealed that this game was released in 1986 (..seriously?) by Tony Brantner for Ahoy! Magazine. This naturally sent me down a rabbit hole looking for the magazine in question, to which the Internet Archive fulfilled my request nicely. I wish I could've gleaned a little more insight on the program, but it's listed entirely in machine language rather than 6502 assembly or BASIC.
The magazine is full of inarguable, completely sincere gushing praise for the game from the cockles of the publisher's heart. "Tony Brantner's tight graphics have elicited their share of oohs and ahhs in the past - but he'll really bowl you over with this month's Tenpins!" states editor David Allikas. I can't imagine the amount of psychedelic substances one would have to consume in order to find these graphics interesting. I did see a cool looking advertisement for Episode 14's Kung Fu Master a few pages prior, however. Maybe they should've just hired that guy to animate this game also.
I make that statement half-seriously, but it outlines an important issue - 1986 was well into the C64s lifetime, and this game and console were now competing with the likes of Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda, among others. If you were stuck with a C64 and didn't have money for a full-priced retail game, you still likely would've had a plethora of better games floating around to pirate, regardless. It's easy to excuse some of the primitive "fresh out of the VIC-20 era" arcade ports I've reviewed in the past, but I'm not even sure if I'd consider this one worth the time it took to re-type. Look up a Let's Play or stare at some screenshots of this one if you're still interested, and save your gaming energy for more deserving efforts.
Tapper is a 1983 Bally Midway C64 port of the eponymous arcade bar-tending simulation released in the same year. You serve 4 bars worth of unruly patrons who like to drink everything you throw at them and keep coming back for more. While trying to keep your paying customers satisfied, you'll also need to quickly pick up empties thrown back by your barflies before they crash to the floor, and gather tips left on the bar to increase your point total and buy time by allowing your patrons some distraction courtesy of a pair of pixelated go-go dancers. Subsequent levels increase in speed and intensity, with a growing number of customers spawning much closer to you in later rounds and finishing many more drinks than their low-level counterparts before staggering out of the club.
Think you've got a 300 game up your sleeve and want to show old Hank who's boss? Check out our High Scores page and submit a screenshot to earn your spot in the C128 Hoedown hall of fame!
This site is copyright 2023 Hank Wesley Chorkin. If you don't like it, you can get out!
Back