''HyperBowl Plus! Edition'' is a 3D

bowling Bowling is a target sport and recreational activity in which a player rolls a ball toward pins (in pin bowling) or another target (in target bowling). The term ''bowling'' usually refers to pin bowling (most commonly ten-pin bowling), thoug ...

-style video game made in 2001 by HyperEntertainment. It was published by

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation, multinational technology company, technology corporation producing Software, computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at th ...

, and can only be accessed by use of a

Microsoft Plus! Microsoft Plus! is a discontinued commercial operating system enhancement product by Microsoft. The last edition is the Plus! SuperPack, which includes an assortment of screensavers, themes, and games, as well as multimedia applications. The Micr ...

CD-ROM.

Gameplay

''HyperBowl'' is similar to a basic game of

ten-pin bowling Ten-pin bowling is a type of bowling in which a bowler rolls a bowling ball down a wood or synthetic lane toward ten pins positioned evenly in four rows in an equilateral triangle. The objective is to knock down all ten pins on the first roll ...

: the goal is to knock down as many of the ten pins as possible within thirty seconds. Unlike in normal bowling, the lane also contains obstacles, like moving vehicles in the Tokyo and San Francisco lanes and trees in the Yosemite lane. The player can use a mouse or trackball to guide the ball while it's moving in order to avoid obstacles and aim for the pins. A clock at the upper-right corner of the lane window displays the time left to knock down pins. The game displays players' scores in a similar way to the displays found in traditional bowling alleys. The game ends when all players have completed the ten frames.

Upgrading ''HyperBowl''

The version of ''HyperBowl'' included in Microsoft Plus! for Windows XP contains two of the six lanes initially available (Classic and Pins of Rome) and is designed for a single player. When the upgrade has been purchased and installed, four additional lanes are installed. Multiplayer support is also enabled, allowing up to four players to bowl and keep track of their scores during a game.

Other versions

''HyperBowl'' was originally developed by Sony Development along with other games introduced in the Sony Metreon in June 1999. It featured a tall projection screen for the display and a real bowling ball as a trackball-style controller. The attraction version has since been installed in venues such as

Jillian's Jillian's was a restaurant and entertainment chain with locations in the United States, headquartered in Reno, Nevada. As of December 2018, all former locations have been closed. History Jillian's was founded in 1985 as a billiards club located ...

GameWorks GameWorks is a gaming-based entertainment center with a single location as of 2022, a chain of such businesses. It was owned by then-owner ExWorks Capital, each venue featured a wide array of video game arcades, in addition to full-service bars ...

and

Dave & Buster's Dave & Buster's is an American restaurant and entertainment business headquartered in Dallas. Each Dave & Buster's has a full-service restaurant and a video arcade. As of October 2022, the company has 151 locations in the United States and two ...

. Sony Development eventually spun off independently to become

Hyper Entertainment Hyper may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Hyper'' (2016 film), 2016 Indian Telugu film * ''Hyper'' (2018 film), 2018 Indian Kannada film * ''Hyper'' (magazine), an Australian video game magazine * Hyper (TV channel), a Filipino sports chann ...

, which currently retains the IP. The attraction version is currently supported by Jesler Enterprises. ''HyperBowl Arcade Edition'' is a version of ''HyperBowl Plus! Edition'' sold directly by Hyper Entertainment. Support was discontinued on April 1, 2007 due to the advent of

Windows Vista Windows Vista is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was the direct successor to Windows XP, which was released five years before, at the time being the longest time span between successive releases of ...

. However, the game can be run under compatibility mode (or Windows XP Mode in Windows 7). Versions of ''HyperBowl'' implemented with the

Unity game engine Unity is a cross-platform game engine developed by Unity Technologies, first announced and released in June 2005 at Apple Worldwide Developers Conference as a Mac OS X game engine. The engine has since been gradually extended to support a va ...

are available as web players, Mac widgets, Mac and Windows standalone executables, iOS and Android apps. These are developed by Technicat, LLC, under license from Hyper Entertainment.

References

{{reflist

External links

Official Hyperbowl homepage
(

Wayback Machine The Wayback Machine is a digital archive of the World Wide Web founded by the Internet Archive, a nonprofit based in San Francisco, California. Created in 1996 and launched to the public in 2001, it allows the user to go "back in time" and s ...

archive from June 24, 2007)
Jesler EnterprisesHyperBowl site of Technicat, LLC
2001 video games Bowling video games Trackball video games Video games developed in the United States Windows games Windows-only games