Arcade Volleyball

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Title screen.

Arcade Volleyball is a single-screen action developed by Rhett Anderson and Randy Thompson originally published in COMPUTE!'s Gazette as type-in code for the Commodore 64 in June 1988. It was later ported to Amiga and MS-DOS in 1989. The game uses the sport of volleyball as its theme, but has only a few similarities. Only servers can score, scoring occurs when the ball hits the ground to the player opposite the serve, or in a failed attempt to return the ball after three hits.

The original C64 version had two players on each team, but they moved in tandem, so they were effectively a single unit. The game ended when one team reached 15 points, and the ball could be knocked under the net. AI could be hacked on, but it was quite poor. The Amiga release used a single player on each side, a solid net, and required the winner to win by 2 points. The DOS port was essentially the same as the Amiga, only with poorer graphics and sound.

I found this game among collections of free DOS software somewhere in the late 1990s and thought it was quite charming.

Status

This game is freeware for all ports. I have beaten the AI on the MS-DOS port.

Review

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4 4 2 1 4

Best Version: 30%

Good

  • The players, giant grinning heads with bulbous noses and eyes, are quite charming.
  • The game's mechanics are enjoyable to learn, but don't take too long to master.
  • The AI is pretty darn good.
  • For as primitive as the game is, it offers a wide array of control customizations.

Bad

  • The graphics and sound are terrible across all ports, and the DOS port could really use better coloring.

Ugly

  • There just isn't much to the game. You'll see everything it has to offer in about a minute.

Download

Arcade Volleyball has been released as freeware by the developers.

Links

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