game
icon
title King & Balloon (US)
set name kingball
manufacturer Namco
year 1980
genre Shooter (hof)
category Shooter / Gallery (hof)
driver status good
driver source galdrvr.c
snapshots MW: in game / CT: in game | title / PS: in game | title
zoom
rating

63.3% after 24 votes
 
clones King & Balloon (Japan)
display
colour emulation good
palette 32
display type raster
orientation vertical
resolution 224x768
frequency 60.606061Hz
sound
sound emulation good
channels mono
controls
players 2
nplayers 2P alt
controls 2 way joystick
buttons 1
coin slots 2
hardware
cpu Z80 @ 3.072MHz
cpu Z80 @ 2.5MHz
audio Samples
audio DAC
data
version added .034b01
last change(s) none since version .53
roms
name size crc set flags sha1
prg1.7f  4096  6cb49046  kingball    a0891605dff7f9ff51bc7ad85f831a749f2f61e9 
prg2.7j  4096  c223b416  kingball    ca2d9f6b8ef6db4f382089161f4147d9828c3554 
prg3.7l  2048  453634c0  kingball    0025ccd91e165692092a37541e730010e85e37f2 
kbe1.ic4  2048  5be2c80a  kingball    f719a80357bed3d66bce40569690f419740148c5 
kbe2.ic5  2048  bb59e965  kingball    830e0c415f051e932d76df604025e4e33118a799 
kbe3.ic6  2048  1c94dd31  kingball    14ab59b8eee741eb1f10ae99ddb99bf7c2dab957 
kbe2.ic7  2048  bb59e965  kingball    830e0c415f051e932d76df604025e4e33118a799 
chg1.1h  2048  9cd550e7  kingball    d2989e6b7a4d7b37a711ef1cfb536fe13e0c5482 
chg2.1k  2048  a206757d  kingball    46b50005876b7f61ab4a118d0a4caaebce8ce3e1 
kb2-1  32  15dd5b16  kingball    3d2ca2b42bf508a9e5198e970abcbbedf5729164 
cabinet art
cabinet kingball.png
marquee kingball.png
control panel kingball.png
flyer kingball.png
PCB kingball.png
additional information
info 0.34b1 [Brad Oliver]

WIP:
  • 0.124u1: Galaxian rewrite [Aaron Giles, Stephane Humbert]: Accurate video timing, correct stars implementation, better organization, simplified input ports, and many other smaller fixes. Removed RC Filter. Changed visible area to 224x768, palettesize to 32 colors and 'Unknown' to 'Unused' dipswitch.
  • 0.116u3: Couriersud extended the flt_rc filter to support highpass filtering. Fixed the lowpass filter to actually do a lowpass filter. Hooked up the filter to King & Balloon and updated several other drivers to the new interface. Added RC Filter.
  • 16th December 2002: Zsolt Vasvari fixed the flickering graphics in King and Balloon with better VBLANK emulation.
  • 0.35b8: Yasuhiro Ogawa added clone King & Balloon (Japan). Replaced color prom in King & Balloon (US) with the one from the (Japan) verison.
  • 0.34b3: Brad Oliver fixed speech in King & Balloon.
  • 0.34b1: Brad Oliver added King & Balloon (Namco 1980).
Recommended Games (Shooting):

Desert Gun

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Yosaku To Donbei

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Carnival

King & Balloon

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Monkey Mole Panic

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Romset: 23 kb / 10 files / 15.6 zip
history King & Balloon (c) 1980 Namco.


The player controls 2 green men (likely soldiers in the king's army) with an orange cannon that fires at squads of descending balloons. You must protect the king and prevent him from being captured and carried away by one of the balloons. Unlike most shooter games, the player's cannon can be hit and destroyed any number of times; it is the king that must be protected. The game ends when the king is carried away 3 times.


- TECHNICAL -


Main CPU : Z80 (@ 3.072 Mhz)

Sound CPU : Z80 (@ 2.5 Mhz)

Sound Chips : Tone generator, discrete circuits, and a DAC for speechs


Screen orientation : Vertical

Video resolution : 224 x 256 pixels

Screen refresh : 60.61 Hz

Palette colors : 16


Players : 2

Control : 2-way joystick

Buttons : 1 (FIRE)


- TRIVIA -


Released in June 1980.


King & Balloon is the first game from Namco to feature voices.


Kevin Olkowski holds the official record for this game with 48,900 points.


- UPDATES -


The voices differed between Japanese and U.S. versions. In the Japanese version, the abducted king yelled 'Help! Help!', but with heavy Japanese pronunciation, sounding more like 'Herupuu!'. In the U.S. version, the voice was redone as a more English-sounding 'Help!'.


- SCORING -


On single balloons, first score is in formation, second score diving or rising, third score is rising with King in tow.

Red Balloons : 50, 100, 150

Orange Balloons : 40, 80, 120

Yellow Balloons : 30, 60, 90

White balloons : 20, 40, 60


On combination balloons, first score is first hit, second score is second hit, third score is third hit. First color is balloon color, second color is line/gondola color

Red/White : 500, 1,000, 1,500

Orange/Yellow : 400, 600, 1,000

Yellow/Orange : 300, 500, 700

White/Red : 200, 300, 500


- PORTS -


* Consoles :

Sony PlayStation (1998, "Namco Museum Encore") : Japanese release only

Sony PSP (2005, "Namco Museum Battle Collection")


* Computers :

MSX


- SOURCES -


Game's rom.

Machine's picture.



Edit this entry at Arcade-History.com: http://www.arcade-history.com/?n=king-and-balloon&page=detail&id=1282&o=2
resource links view in MAWS
view in CAESAR
view high score and replay at MARP
view in Progetto EMMA (Italian)
view in arcade-history.com
view in System16
view in VGMuseum Gamepics
view in VGMuseum Gamepics
cheats
cheats
code comments
00000000:800A:00000004:FFFFFFFF  Infinite Lives
20800000:11E1:000000C9:FFFFFFFF  Invincibility - Player
20810000:11FB:000000C9:FFFFFFFF  Invincibility - Player (2/2)
20800000:0CDB:000000C9:FFFFFFFF  Invincibility - King
00000000:82D0:00000001:FFFFFFFF  Stop Disappearing when hit
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