How far was Starlight Bowl-O-Rama along?

[SteveW]

I remember reading about Starlight Bowl-O-Rama in a GameFan magazine sometime in '94, but it never came out. Were there even screenshots available? It was in development for a long time, and I can't believe a bowling game would be so hard to program. Anyone have any info?

[Gunstar]

Sorry, i don't remember that one at all and i don't recall seeing it in any of the old "in development" lists concerning the Jaguar. Are you sure it was a game for the Jaguar?

[SteveW]

Yep, I was reminded of it when I went to that Cyberroach web site from the Dactyl Joust thread. I remembered reading about it in GameFan magazine years ago. I always wondered why a bowling game would take so long to develop. Unless they did it in 3D polygons or something. I thought that maybe they were doing more with the game than just bowling. What if you could walk around freely in a 3D bowling alley? Open doors, go into back rooms, that kind of thing. You could wander into a hidden cavern underneath the bowling alley where they're genetically breeding an army of reptillian mutant waitresses, kind of like a wrinkly raptor with a bee-hive hairdo and always chewing gum...... I'd wait patiently for a game like that!

[Gunstar]

it was probably just another case of slow development due to the jaguar not being a top priority like was the case with so many developers. they wanted to get the higher budget and higher profile games for the other system's done first, and generally took their time with finishing Jaguar games, or even only had a couple people as the whole development team for the Jag projects!

[scrummy]

Steve,

 

I like the way you think. I would love to be able to finally play a bowling game where I could walk around inside the bowling alley and perhaps wonder into back rooms. Employee only rooms could have old magazines on the table that you could actually read. I was hanging out in a grocery store employee lounge once(i didn;t work there) and meet some of the strangest conversations with people I didnt know, this could be a whole new type of freedom, sort of a GTA3 for bowling.

 

The underground area for waitress manufacturing, would this be "bowling" gameplay or would the game engine need to switch to more platform elements,

 

I think the whole game should be bowling. or at least bowling like, the exploration of hidden rooms and employee only rooms could lead to new experiences in bowling unlike anything you have ever encountered in life.

 

I work with several major publishers and one of my design docs is all about utilizing the game mechanics of GOLF and associating those mechanics into genres and representations that have nothing to do with GOLF. This is the future.

 

If the Jaguar can generate a finishedd starlight game I would buy it, but only on cartridge.

[SteveW]

I got the odd idea about the underground stuff after playing a few levels in Redneck Rampage. There was a bowling alley in the game, and I thought about making a 3D bowling game with a mystery/RPG game that isn't advertised on the box. You'd just buy the game to play a little bowling game, and you'd wander the interior of the bowling alley and get involved in some bizarre adventure that isn't on the box back or instruction manual.

[scrummy]

Steve,

 

I don't know why more game developers haven't done things like that, I think that would be a true easter egg.

 

I walked the tracks in Road Rash hoping for a building that I could walk into, never found one, but man if I did.