Bolo Ball

Overview

Bolo Ball is a score-based puzzle game released in 1992 for DOS by Soleau software. The Player takes turns against either another player or the Computer, pushing one of 29 balls down a column of tiles to gain points. Score is awarded for each ball based upon how far down the lane it comes to rest. The ball's path down a column is affected by tiles it encounters along the way. Once all balls have been rolled by both players, the player with the highest cumulative score wins.

Tiles

Tiles in the path of a bolo ball affect how the ball moves and its final score.

Arrows - Arrow tiles direct any ball that strikes it from above in the direction of the arrow. Struck from the left or right, the arrow block simply impedes movement. After being struck by a ball, the arrow changes direction. Arrow blocks do not modify the score of a ball.

Score tiles - Score tiles do not obstruct a bolo ball, but instead add the shown value to the ball's cumulative score. Score tiles vanish after being collected once, and do no reappear within a single game.

Tele Tiles - Tele tiles come in pairs and transport a ball that encounters it to another tele tile somewhere on the board. There is no way to tell which pairs of tele tiles are associated without first sending a ball in. Regardless of what direction the tele tile is entered from, it always leaves the corresponding tele tile from the bottom.

Stone Tiles - Stone tiles stop any ball that strikes it from any side. As with arrow tiles, a ball that simply rolls across the top will continue in its original direction.

Balls - Balls that come to rest on the board do not disappear, but remain as obstacles or bridges for any successive balls thrown by any player. They act as Stone Tiles for the purposes of blocking balls.

Scoring

The final score of a thrown ball depends on its final resting place. Balls that make it further down a column gain +2 points per tile to a maximum of 34 points. A ball that reaches the end of the column is removed from play and earns the player 60 points. Additionally, score tiles collected by a ball add to its final score.