HAL Laboratory’s 1984 MSX pinball, now on the Amstrad CPC.
In 1984, HAL Laboratory released Roller Ball on MSX: a pinball table several screens tall, with bumpers, lanes and bonuses. Nearly forty years later, it finally arrives on the Amstrad CPC.
This port runs the original game program on the CPC. Ball physics, rules and scoring are exactly those of the MSX version. Display and sound were entirely rewritten for Amstrad’s machine:
- 256 × 192 screen, just like the MSX
- Colours recreated in mode 1 using dithering
- Table scrolling between sections
- Double-buffered display for tear-free graphics
- Music and sound effects converted for the CPC’s sound chip
- Keyboard and joystick support
