Rock'n'Ball

Rock'n'Ball
Also known as: Family Pinball (JP) Developer: KID Publishers: Namco (JP), Vap (US) Platform: NES Released in JP: March 29, 1989 Released in US: January 1990 This game has unused code. This game has regional differences.

This page is rather stubbly and could use some expansion. Are you a bad enough dude to rescue this article? Notes: There are a couple of button codes with unknown functionality.

Rock'n'Ball is yet another NES pinball game.

Unused Name Entry

To do: Figure out how the information is encoded for transmission.

The US version contains an unused and unfinished screen that asks for your name, age, and a few other details. The programming is very buggy and incomplete, as it asks for your name twice, and much of the information does not appear in the proper location on the screen.

Curiously, after the information is entered, the game emits a lengthy series of tones that seem to correspond to said information, and then proceeds to the Game Over screen. It seems likely that the screen is a remnant of some kind of competition mode (a la Treasure Master), and you would need to dial a special phone number and hold the receiver up to the TV speaker to transmit the information to a computer on the other end of the line.

Interestingly, VAP would later try to revisit this idea; Baseball Fighter, a Japan-only Famicom game published by them, features a similar competition screen and tone transmitting system that is actually accessible (with the number to call even being mentioned in the manual), though no contests were seemingly held with it.

Game Genie code IVOXPASE will make this screen appear at the end of a regular pinball mode game.

Unused Cheats

There are two non-working cheats. All cheats are entered on the title screen using controller 2.

10-Balls

Press B, Left, Right, A, Up, Down.

This cheat is given when you complete the "10 Ball" entry in the 9Ball mode. It should give you 10 chances in Pinball mode (like the five chances the 5-Balls cheat gives you), but unfortunately it doesn't seem to work at all.

Unknown

Press B, A, Down, Up, Left, Right.

This cheat is not provided anywhere in the game. When entered, it enables something, but it's unknown what exactly.

(Source: Cah4e3)

Regional Differences

To do: Quite a bit more.

Title Screen

Japan	US

The logos were changed and the copyright text was updated.

Menu Differences

Japan	US

The original Japanese version, being published by Namco and all, includes several references to their characters and games, with the game's main table being Pac-Man themed. Given the different western publisher, all of this was replaced in favor of, as the localized name implies, a rock 'n' roll theme.