Ball Bearing

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Ball Bearing
System(s): Amstrad CPC
Publisher: Radical Software
Developer: Radical Software
Number of players: 1
Release Date RRP Code Rating UK 1993 £3.99 ?

Ball Bearing is a computer game released for the Amstrad CPC in 1993 by Radical Software. It was released late on in the CPC's lifecycle only in the United Kingdom and could be bought using Radical Software's telephone number for £3.99. Though it was not officially licensed by Sega, the in-game graphics are heavily inspired by the first Sonic the Hedgehog game. To make matters worse, the game's source code is stolen from the public domain release of Croco Magneto. This prompted Amstrad Action, a popular CPC magazine, to award the game a 40% review score.

Gameplay

In the game, the player controls a bouncing blue ball and must collect rings. The ball will always move left or right, bouncing when it comes into contact with an obstacle, but the player can control its vertical movement. The ball has a limited amount of "oil", and the player will lose a life if the oil runs out. The oil steadily decreases over time, and will decrease faster if the player comes into contact with spikes or other traps. There are also several temporary powerups that will allow the ball to pass through these areas unharmed. To make things more interesting, there are objects that will cause the game to simulate gravity (i.e. the ball will always drift downwards) or reverse the controls.

Screenshots

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  First level, inspired by Labyrinth Zone.

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  Second Level, inspired by Scrap Brain Zone.

Downloads

Download Ball Bearing File: Ball Bearing.7z (67 kB) (info)

References

Unlicensed Sonic the Hedgehog games Somari (1994) | World Heroes 2 (1994) | Sonyc (1995) | Sonic Jam 6 (1998) | Sonic 3D Blast 5 (199x) | Chaoji Yinsu Xiaozi: Super Sonik II (200x) | Sonic 3 Fighter Sonic (200x) Ball Bearing (1993) | Jurassic Boy 2 (1994) | Sonic Dragon (1995) Unlicensed Sonic the Hedgehog hacks of licensed games Sonic | Super Mario & Sonic 2 | Sonic the Hedgehog (1996) | Sonic 6 (1998)