Rockin' Bowl-O-Rama by Namco

I must say this next blog subject is close to my heart. No, I'm not a bowling kingpin, looking to strike out any and all competition. Like most people my age I grew up with video games (albeit Atari and Oregon Trail) so I really looked forward to this post on the Rockin' Bowl-O-Rama by Namco. Namco is an interesting company, a pioneer of sorts in the Arcade Video Game industry. You're probably most familiar with a game they created in 1980 called Pac-Man, a cultural icon and the best-selling arcade game in the history of the planet. If you haven't heard of Pac-Man, you must be living under a rock that's buried under another rock in the middle of the Mojave Desert. Everybody knows about Pac-Man! I could trail off about the history of this great game maker for hours, but let's stay focused on the Rockin' Bowl-O-Rama.

If you love to bowl, and are thinking of adding an Arcade Game to your basement game room, this arcade game is the perfect match. This morning I strolled down to the showroom to play a game. If you're not a fan of bowling, we also offer Arcade Legends II (everything from 1942 to Double Dragon to Zookeeper), Ms. Pac-Man/Galaga and the corner bar and basement standard Golden Tee. Now back to the Rockin' Bowl-O-Rama. The appearance of this arcade game offers bowling and early rock 'n' roll themed graphics, with instructions on how to throw a straight ball vs. how to throw a hook ball, along with four cup holders, a roller to throw your ball and four different buttons (start button, change the music button, check the score button and a something-else button I didn't write down and can't remember). Cracking my knuckles in preparation, I hit the start button, and started my game.

1. You choose your game. Your choices are half a game (five frames), full game (ten frames), three game series, trick shot (the toughest spares, etc.), ten pin poker (strikes and spares give you cards) and bowl 21 (three racks of 10 pins per frame; hit 21 without going over wins). I rolled with a half game, since I do have other work that needs to be accomplished today.
2. You choose your players and special options. Remember the four cup holders? Well, you have the choice of playing with one, two, three or four players. Being alone, I picked one player. You can now either head to the lanes, or head to the pro shop. Curious, I picked the pro shop. Here you can customize your game, adding custom balls, and choose your bowling ball's weight. The choices were cool, with assorted colors and styles, along with special bowling balls such as their eightball, soccer ball and basketball. Being from Indiana, and a basketball nut, can you imagine which custom ball I picked? If you guessed basketball, you are correct! And being a manly man, with big bulging muscles, I decided to roll with the 16-lbs. bowling ball (you can pick between 8 lbs. and 16 lbs.).
3. You are ready to hit the lanes! I'm not going to go into details regarding my game (because I was horrible), but here's a quick breakdown: I played all five frames of my half game. Disappointed with my score, I hit "continue" when I rolled the final fifth frame, and ended up bowling a whole entire game. Let's just say my score was in the 80's, which is horrible. The last time I played at a real bowling alley I worked the place: I scored in the 120's, and won a stuffed animal from one of those quarter games with the claw. Those things just eat your money!

So I returned to my desk to write this blog, clearly deflated from my horrible game. That says something about the realistic nature of this Arcade Game, right? Oh, and I almost forgot to mention that I explored the "Trick Shot" game before my return to my desk. You can choose between dozens of shots, from left double wood (2 & 8 pins) to the top hat (2, 3, 7, 8, 9 and 10 pins). I tried a few of these trick shots and failed, which didn't help my arcade-game-bowling confidence.

A few notes on the Rockin' Bowl-O-Rama by Namco: When you split, strike or throw a gutterball, fun bowling pin animations keep you and your guests amused. At any point during your game you can switch up the music, which is all from the 1950's. Choices include "Fats" Domino, Deke Dickerson, Nick Willet, Little Richard, Dee Clark and, one of the coolest band names in the history of rock 'n 'roll, Cave Cat Sammy.