Here's an image of a prototype Bowling game made with a clear plastic
playfield so you can see the inside of the game and how it works:
(Thanks for Rick Levine for bringing this to CGE 2003!)
Mattel's Bowling (1980, LED, 9 Volt, Model# 1995) (Picture
of prototype game below!)
U. S. Patent # 4,369,971
Invented by: Richard Levine and Richard Chang (according to the patent)
Programmed by: Rick Levine
View Manual / View
Guts of this game
Bowling was released in 1980. It is a fairly rare game, I haven't seen too many of these forsale. It's an interesting combination of LED and mechanical games. You have two 'flippers' on the bottom of the machine that allow you to physically move the line of LEDs that represent the ball (You can see this along the left side of the alley in the scan, the horizontal line of little squares just before the pins are the metal contacts that tell the game where you have the 'bowling ball' lined up, and you can see it even better in the clear prototype at the bottom of the page). You line it up, and when you release the flippers, the ball starts rolling. Touch the flippers at this time, and it's a foul, you get no score. In a bright enough light, it's fairly easy to cheat, although even with this help getting a strike seems to be quite difficult (anyone know the secret there?)
Here's an image of a prototype Bowling game made with a clear plastic
playfield so you can see the inside of the game and how it works:
(Thanks for Rick Levine for bringing this to CGE 2003!)
Do I have this? Yes, boxed.