Vs. Balloon Fight

Manufacturer: Nintendo
Year: 1984
Class: Wide Release
Genre: System
Type: Videogame

Monitor:

Orientation: Horizontal
Type: Raster: Standard Resolution
CRT: Color
vs. DualSystem: Two monitors

Conversion Class: Nintendo Vs.
Number of Simultaneous Players: 2
Maximum number of Players: 2
Gameplay: Joint
Control Panel Layout: Multiple Player
Controls:

Joystick: 4-way (up, down, left, right)
Buttons: 2 [A|B]

Sound: Unamplified Mono (requires one-channel amp)

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Vs. Balloon Fight Description

A kid must float higher than the enemies to pop their balloons while avoiding lighting bolts and the giant fish.

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Cabinet Information

The Vs. DualSystem can be in one of two different cabinet configurations. The western style is a double wide stand-up cabinet that basically looks like two traditional cabinets side by side but at an angle to prevent peeking. The eastern style is a sit-down model with the screens and player controls on opposing sides. Regardless of the configuration, all player-start buttons are located on the player one side of the machine.

Cheats, Tricks and Bugs

Though the enemies are immune to lightning, they are not immune to the fish. If you can lure an enemy near the water, the fish will try to snap it up. This also holds for those floating down on parachutes.

Conversion

All Vs. games can be converted by swapping the ROMs, daughter boards, or other custom chips on the board. The Vs. DualSystem architecture allows two games, serving two separate monitors, to be played from the same board.

Game Introduction

Engage the enemies and burst their balloons before losing your own balloons or getting eaten by the giant fish.

Game Play

The control is basically the same as Joust. A and B are both used to "flap" and, by repeated pressing, lift you into the air. The object is to ram an enemy while your are on a higher level than him. This will pop his balloon, forcing him to resort to his parachute. If he manages to land, he will eventually inflate a new balloon and take to the sky again if enough time passes. If you hit the enemy on the ground or break his parachute, you finish off the enemy. You clear a stage by defeating all the enemies.

You start each life with two balloons. If an enemy hits you from above, you lose one of those balloons (as well as a little flying ability). If you lose both balloons, get hit by lightning, or drop too low to the water where the fish can bite you, you will lose a life. Apart from lightning, enemies, and the fish, bubbles will occasionally rise up. You can pop them for points.

Each level is three screens tall and scrolls as you ascend and descend. Every so often, there is a bonus stage where balloons will rise out of the pipes. Fly into them to pop them and go for a perfect score.

VAPS Arcade Census

GAMES OWNED, WANTED, or FOR SALE BY MEMBERS OF THE VIDEO ARCADE PRESERVATION SOCIETY

Scarce - There are 5 known instances of Vs. Balloon Fight owned by one of our 900 members. Of these, 5 of them are only circuit boards which a collector could put into a generic case if desired.

Of the 57,113 video games (3,420 unique) tracked by the Video Game Preservation Society, this game ranks a 1 on a scale out of 100 (100 = most commonly seen, 1=least common) in popularity based on ownership records.

Wanted - We currently do not know of any VAPS members that have gotten around to adding this game to their wish list. The wish-list system is fairly new (not all VAPS members have filled one out) and there are probably a number of collectors who might purchase this game if offered one at the right price. There is one VAPS member looking for a Vs. Balloon Fight circuit board set.

Rarity is NOT necessarily an indication of value. Some common games show up as very rare here because collectors don't want them (they are common because arcade operators might be sitting on tons of them in warehouses), while some fairly scarce games are grabbed by collectors every time they show up. Additionally, some games made in the last 5 years are still making money for operators and are thus not yet affordable to the typical collector. For a clue to value, compare how many people have this game vs. how many people want this game and then click on the eBay links to help determine an accurate price range.

Technical

The vs. Dualsystem uses a single board but effectively runs two separate units. There are two Nintendo 2A03 processors on board. The 2A03 is a modified M6502 with a built-in 5-channel PSG. Each CPU runs one of the screens and they communicate between each other when in two-player mode. There are two banks of DIP switches whose roles may vary from game to game. For Vs. Balloon Fight, they simply determine difficulty and number of lives.

eBay Listings

Click here to automatically search eBay's Arcade, Jukebox, and Pinball categories for the Vs. Balloon Fight Videogame machine and items related to it.

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