Bowl Trap

by Nigel Llewellyn

 

Issue 31

Jan/Feb 88

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Nigel Llewellyn shows that Indoor Bowls can actually be fun!

It is the first day of the World Indoor Bowls Championship, when the players' woods (technical term for bowls), decide one by one to cause chaos by running about the different coloured rinks (technical term for play area). It is your responsibility as head umpire to capture each wood by tactically placing bricks on the rinks and trapping them.

PLAYING THE GAME

First connect a joystick to port 1 of the computer. The title screen shows the game in action, as played by the computer. The play area is surrounded by a brick wall and is divided into six different coloured segments, which represent the six rinks.

On pressing START the play area will be cleared and a bowl will be placed in the area. By pressing the fire button, a brick will be placed behind the moving bowl. If the bowl touches a brick it will change direction. If the bowl is completely surrounded by bricks and cannot move, it is trapped and the computer will randomly a new bowl in the play area for you to trap.

The coloured segments correspond to different points values, with the middle segments having the most points. Your score is increased by the value of the segment that the bowl was trapped in. Each game requires you to trap twenty bowls. There are two best score objectives: The highest score and the least number of bricks used.

Although simple to play, the game requires a vast amount of practice in the timing of when to place the bricks, as bricks can only be placed while the bowl is in motion. Practice a lot and you will begin to get the idea. You might even get a high score! Who said Indoor Bowls was slow and boring!

AtariLister - requires Java

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