10th frame on the Commodore 64

This was the best 10 pin bowling game on the Commodore 64 and was brought to you by the same people that had released leaderboard.

As could be expected by the developers behind leaderboard the game had the same polished graphics, adequate sound effects and very good gameplay, if you had been a fan of leader board then the same type of control mechanism was introduced here.

The lane was viewed from behind the bowler, with the pins towards the top of the screen in a 3D perspective.

The scorecard for the current player was displayed above the lane. The player could move left or right on the lane before starting the run-up by holding fire. A target cursor could also be moved by pushing up and then moving it left or right (pressing down returned control to moving the onscreen player’s position).

Once the fire button was held, a power meter similar to Leaderboard’s was employed. The speed of the shot was determined by how long the button was held down. A small zone at the top determined if the player made an error, which had an impact on the spin.

10th Frame
10th Frame

When the meter started to descend on the right, it was stopped in the hook zone to determine how much hook/spin was applied—from straight at the top of the zone to full hook at the bottom. Play was completed after the standard 10 frames of bowling

The animation used a similar sprite system to Leaderboard, and the falling pin physics were handled well.

Players could also print out a scorecard at the end of a match and the game again could be played by multiple players again adding to the longevity of it.





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