10th Frame is a ten-pin bowling simulation that was developed by the same people who made the classic golf game, Leaderboard. It was first released by Access Software in 1986.

10th Frame doesn’t look like much – especially as still screenshots – but the developers (the Carver brothers) really spent time honing the control system so that the game was fun and challenging to play. The animation of the bowler was brilliant too.

While 10th Frame was never going to set the world on fire, it at least managed to raise a few eyebrows with its gameplay, which is both well-suited to multiplayer party challenges, and intense competition.

US Gold distributed the game in the UK and Europe.

Interestingly, I couldn’t find any interesting hacks of 10th Frame. Which I guess makes it a game that no one wants to improve on just yet. It could do with a bit more going on visually – there’s nothing for me to grab, other than the same screen over and over again! 😀

More: 10th Frame on Wikipedia
More: 10th Frame on CSDb