Oddballs Bowling

Oddballs Bowling consists of two to four players bowling against each other, or in teams, to compete for the highest score by knocking down the most pins over 10 frames. These players use their own customizable bowlers to make their appearance unique. People can try to earn reward money by scoring highly to buy new clothes and accessories to add more character to their online beings.

History of the Game and the Website

Oddballs is an online multiplayer game which was first seen on Gamer.tv. When Gamer.tv sold it's online games in 2004, Oddballs Bowling, along with Dinky Bomb and Voodoo Magic, moved to [http://www.WePlayHere.com WePlayHere] . When the games moved, the forums associated with those games were closed. As a result of this, some of the gamers created forums of their own in order to keep in contact with their fellow gamers. The most popular of these forums, GamerParty, eventually purchased both the games and the WePlayHere web domain, and began to host and service the games themselves. The GamerParty forums were then moved onto the WePlayHere domain. As of early 2007, WePlayHere was sold to Atari. In June 2007, Atari [http://www.ataricommunity.com/forums/showthread.php?t=592855 dismissed] every WePlayHere moderator. According to posts at the Atari forums site, the game moderators were involved in a denial of service attack on Atari servers. On September 26, 2007 Atari closed the WePlayHere gamesite and on September 28, 2007 closed the forums as well. It is generally believed that the site was closed because the site traffic did not justify the operating costs.

Gameplay

After launching the Oddballs lobby, there are 3 "Oddballs alleys" named Bedrock (named after The Flinstones), Kingpin (after the front pin in bowling) and Warped (one of the game's developers). You chose the alley that you want to play in by clicking on it.Once inside, you will see many options.There are two options in the top-left of the lobby. They are:
*Top Level
**This sends you into the main multiplayer lobby which allows you to choose to play in either Oddballs Bowling, Dinky Bomb or Voodoo Magic.
*Up
** This simply takes you back to the Oddballs main lobby, where you choose which alley to bowl in.

Below these, you can see the "Waiting" and "Playing" buttons:

*Waiting
**While waiting in the you can also chat in the chatbox at the bottom right of your screen.

*Playing
**You can see who is currently playing by clicking this option. Also, you can click on the "spectator" option.

Practice

Before you start to play for real against other bowlers, it is a good idea to play in the practice alley. Here you can try and figure out the basics of the game without having to worry about it affecting your overall average. This option is found near the top of the lobby.

Getting a Game

*Start game:
**By clicking on this option. A small box will pop up. First you have to decide if you want a standard or a team game.

*Team game:
**In team games, the only amount of player that can play is 4, making it 2 vs 2. Then you can choose if you want to play by "alternate frame" or "alternate ball". By clicking "OK" when all you set ups are made, you will just have to wait for people to join.

Note: Games in teams will always count as a 0 score for each player, no matter what each team had bowl.

*Standard game:
**This is the most used type of game, this way you can play 2, 3 or 4 people. this game is already under the "alternate frame" option. Each score you make here will be added up and then divided by the amount of total games played. This will give your account average, which determines your star color. By leaving a game for any reason in a standard type of game, will only count the amount of points you have made until your last shot. It wont be 0.

Tip: If you use an account in a standard game (with a star color already) and you play a team game. After finishing the game your average won't change even if your score will count as 0, you can play team games as many times as you want, and your average won't move. Your average will change if you play a standard game again ONLY.

Controls

When it is your turn to bowl, you must first decide where you bowler must stand. This is done using the left and right direction buttons on the keyboard. The direction of the shot is then chosen by a well timed press of the CTRL button, by tapping CTRL again you will get the power of the ball. Spin is then added by holding either the left or right directional button for the appropriate amount of time.

Customise Bowler

This is where you will decide how your in-game bowler will look. You start by choosing the gender, and then deciding on the facial features of your character.This feature also allows you to spend the money that you have earned by bowling to purchase clothes and accessories for your bowler, giving your bowler a unique identity. There are many types of clothing available in different colours.

Unfortunately, the customise bowler feature has not been available for a while because of unknown technical problems. It is hoped that the problem will soon be fixed by Atari, who are planning on revamping the games and the lobby. Until then, almost all users will have to use the default grey bowler.

Hall of Fame

Once you've played a number of games (6 - 7) and your average score has been calculated, you will be entered with everyone else into the Hall of Fame. Click the Hall of Fame button in the lobby to study your own stats and compare them with other bowlers. View your own stats by clicking Your Profile. Here you'll find a detailed breakdown of all your bowling stats, including such things as total pins hit, the number of gutterballs, perfect games and so on.

Click the Search tab to find another player and compare their stats with your own.

Weekly and All Time high-score tables can be sorted by: Average, Strikes and Earnings.

The week's top three players gain pride of place in the Hall of Fame as Polaroid photos of their avatars. Weekly high-score tables are reset every Sunday. Stats accrue game-by-game and affect your position in the All-Time table. The player in the No 1 position is officially recognised as the reigning record holder and hero at the top of the table.

Unfortunately, this feature is not working at the moment for unknown reasons, so a manually recorded hall of fame has been created in the forums by the bowlers of [http://www.WePlayHere.com WePlayHere] .

Ranking

A bowler's skill level is rated in a color star system as such:

*Black Star: (Untouchable)
**250+ average

*Red Star: (Deadly)
**200-249 average

*Blue Star: (Dangerous)
**150-199 average

*Yellow Star: (Improving)
**100-149 average

*Green Star: (Harmless)
**0-99 average

*Grey Star: (Unrated)
**Unrated, meaning they have currently not played a game on that account.

Hall of Fame

Records are kept in a player created Hall of Fame. It is used to keep track of such accomplishments such as most perfect games, best average, best average after 100 games, most earnings, most Weekly Tournament wins, etc. This is also the place where the record is stored for Player of the Month, which dates back to July 2005 to the present date.Here is a link to the [http://www.ataricommunity.com/forums/showthread.php?t=569632 Oddballs Hall of Fame]

VAX-Slippers currently holds the high score record with an average of 300 over 7 games. This is seen as an extraordinary achievement because until recently, many players had thought it was impossible to attain an average of 280, let alone 300.

Famous Achievements

In the game there are many ways a player can prove themselves to be good at the game. The obvious one is by bowling a perfect game. But there are others, such as getting a "600" (two players getting a 300 in the same game) a Dutch 200, playing unusual shots, winning tournaments, keeping an average and even by hitting a "900" (Three players all scoring 300 in a game)

There are a selection of famous names in the game of people who have broken big records or become the firs to do certain things.

*First 300
**FTB-Greenie

*First Person to score 5 "300"s
**VAX-Budblinkin

*First Person to Score 10 "300"s
**VAX-Budblinkin

*First Person to Score 50 "300"s
**UK-Sharkbate

*First Person to Score 100 "300"s
**VAX-Prototype

*First Person to Score 200 "300"s
**VAX-Prototype

*First Person to Score 300 "300"s
**VAX-Prototype

*First Person to Score 400 "300"s
**VAX-Slippers

*Most Earnings Ever
**GIOY with $605016

*Official Oddballs Tournament Winner
**BSF-Seductive (Runner up - VAX-Bubdlinkin)

*Most weekly Tournament Wins
**VAX- Slippers

*First Recorded 300 Game (recorded by Budblinkin)
**VAX-Slippers

*Most Dutch 200's
**BSF-Andres-VAX

Famous Shots

There is also a variety of strike shots available in the game, the most commonly used one is known as the "3rd Line" technique. Other famous ones are the "Arazi" shot and also the "4th Line" shot. Some players have been recognised for their skill in using a certain shot.

*4th Left Line
**VAX-Slippers
**DUB-G4NGST4
**Streets
**VAX-Prototype
**Mojo

*Left Arazi
**VAX-Budblinkin
**LOS-Mariners
**FTB-Greenie

*4th Line
**Most of the good players around today.

There are other shots also used in the game, most of them have been discovered but some remain to be found. The most sought after shot is the one used by Sharkbate, as he claims he does not use a shot that anyone else uses, and will not let slip what it is! Until Recently it was thought that the only Legitimate strike shots could come from a "full power" shot, but it has been proven by VAX-Slippers that this is not the case.

Clans

Like most other multi player online games, there are many clans which are associated with Oddballs Bowling. Clans that become popular enough are given a private forum at the [http://www.ataricommunity.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=530 WePlayHere Forums] .

Here is a list of some of the longest running clans which have made an impact on the game over the last few years:

*B4S (Bowling 4 Strikes)
**B4S was founded by B4S_Roberto in 2006. Although it didn't remain active for long, it housed some of the finest players of the game. No longer active.

*BSF (Bowling Stays Forever)
**BSF was created in February 2005 by BSF-Andres and BSF-Powerbowler. This clan is based mainly on friendship, rather than skill, and is still active today.

*LOS (Lords Of Strikes)
**A powerful clan created by LOS_Vito. No longer active.

*MOB (Masters Of Bowling)
**MOB was created by MOB_River, MOB_Prototype and MOB_Zubaz in January 2005. It was considered as the best bowling clan around for a long time, before eventually closing down. No longer active.

*MWG (Monkeys With Guns)
**One of the first Oddballs clans on the scene, started by -MWG-Anubis and -MWG-Greenie. No longer active.

*SI (Strategic Insomniacs)
**SI was in July 2006 by SI_Crash. This power clan is no longer active.

*UK (Unlimited Kebabs)
**UK was started by UK_Neo UK_Dagonet in January 2005. This clan is still active today.

*VAX (Velotic Astrodynamic Xenocracy)
**VAX was created in December 2005 by VAX_Budblinkin and VAX_Moneyshot. The clan boasts a roster of over 20 of the games finest players and is considered by many as the best active clan. Still active today.

Related Sites and Links

[http://www.ataricommunity.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=530 WePlayHere Community Forums]

Dinky Bomb Deluxe Wikipedia