Kings of the Beach: Professional Beach Volleyball
Released: March 1989
Published by: Electronic Arts
Developed by: Electronic Arts
Author(s): Michael Abbot, Nana Chambers, Sinjin Smith, Randy Stoklos, Michael Kosaka, Michael Anthony Lubuguin, Rob Hubbard, Don Traeger, Eric Wels, Nancy Fong
EGA 16-colour graphics
Introduction
Electronic Arts' Kings of the Beach is a two-player beach volleyball game. The game features practice courts for the Bump, Set and Spike moves, before you play a single match or enter the tournament which pitches you against 20 computer-controlled players (10 teams). There are 15 levels to get through before you can be reigned 'Kings of the Beach'.
The colourful backdrops have you playing in Chicago, Hawaii, Rio de Janeiro and Sydney. Since beach volleyball is 2 players per side rather than 6-per-side in regular volleyball, you can choose to play with a computer-controlled teammate or play 2-player cooperative on the same side. You can also play in competition with another human player, each with their computer-controlled counterpart. There are three difficulty settings: easy, medium and difficult.
Intro with Tandy 3-voice music and EGA
As you progress through the tournament with your escort, Spike, the skilled computer players become tougher to beat. The wind direction affects your serve, of which you can choose from three different types, though returning the ball over the net appears to put it randomly - you have no control over where to aim your return.
System Requirements
| System Requirements | Intel 8088/8086 CPU, DOS 2.1 or higher, 256 KB of RAM Graphics support for Tandy/PCjr, CGA and EGA (320 x 200 in 16 colours) Audio support for PC speaker, Tandy/PCjr and Ad Lib. Keyboard and joystick supported. |
|---|---|
| Original Media | Two 5.25" 360 KB (DS/DD) floppy disks. |
| Installed Size (MB) | 594 KB |
From where can it be run?
Kings of the Beach can be played directly from the original floppy disks, or installed to your hard disk.
Copy Protection
Kings of the Beach makes use of a code wheel for copy protection. When starting the game, you are asked to enter the number in the hole on the codewheel based on a specific Tournament # (outer ring), Match # (inner ring) and Court # (centre).
There are cracks available that circumvent the copy protection question entirely.
How to Setup
To install Kings of the Beach to your hard disk, insert GAME DISK 1 and run the INSTALL.BAT file with a single argument that denotes the hard disk drive letter to install to, e.g.
INSTALL C:
You cannot install this game from a subdirectory on your hard disk as the source.
If you already have a VBALL subdirectory in the root of the destination drive, you will get this error:
If any other error occurs, you may see this (including if you attempt to install from a hard disk subdirectory or are trying to use the DOS SUBST command to mimic a drive letter for a subdirectory):
Problems
Symptom: I'm playing the game on my Tandy computer, but I'm not getting the 3-voice Tandy/PCjr audio.
Cause: If you have a separate Ad Lib-compatible card in your PC the game will prioritise the Ad Lib over Tandy.
Resolution: Remove the Ad Lib card and retry.
Keys
For 2-player games, you each use a separate "keypad", as follows:
 Service:" = Flat ; = Jump L = Sky Ball Offense: " = Bump ; = Set L = Spike Defence: " = Bump ; = Set L = Block |
 Service:D = Flat S = Jump A = Sky Ball Offense: D = Bump S = Set A = Spike Defence: D = Bump S = Set A = Block |
For joystick play, button 1 is for a 'Flat' serve or 'Bump' moves and button 2 is for a 'Jump' serve or 'Set' moves, with both pressed for a 'Sky Ball' serve or 'Spike'/'Block' move.
Other Keys:
P = Pause game
F1 = Argue as Player 1
F2 = Argue as Player 2
F3 = Stat screen
Esc = Return to beach
F10 = Boss key (press any key to return to the game)
To Quit the Game
Go into the registration tent and go to the bottom option, 'Exit to DOS' and hit Enter.
Supporting Documents
- User Manual (PDF)
- Codewheel (Copy protection - this is an interactive version in HTML format)
Additional Files, Drivers & Utilities
- Tandy 3-voice patch - Forces Tandy 3-voice sound on a non-Tandy/PCjr machine. This of course is to be used with a Tandy compatible sound adapter on your regular IBM PC/XT/AT.
Save Games
There is no 'save game' option in VBALL. Instead, when playing in a tournament, every 3 games you will be taken to a new beach and given a password so you can return to that beach at any time going forward. The passwords for the various locations are always the same, and are:
- Chicago: Sideout
- Hawaii: Gekko
- Rio: Topflite
- Sydney: Sundevil
Versions of the game known to exist
| Version | Date | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| 1.0 | March 1989 | Initial public release. |
Original Floppy Disk Contents
The floppy disks have no specific volume label. Here are each disk's contents:
Disk 1 of 2 (5.25" 360 KB DS/DD):
Directory of A:\ DATAPAGE PAK 25,475 01-11-1988 11:46 |
|
Disk 2 of 2 (5.25" 360 KB DS/DD):
Directory of A:\ ARMANDO PAK 2,154 12-11-1988 12:30 |
|
Disk 1 of 1 (3.5" 720 KB DS/DD):
Directory of A:\ ARMANDO PAK 2,154 12-11-1988 12:30 |
|
Installed Directory Contents
Once installed, the following directory structure exists in the game directory:
Full Install chosen
Directory of C:\VBALL ARMANDO PAK 2,154 12-11-1988 12:30 |