Ten Pin Bowling - 2D Pin Physics

Hi fellow coders,

Does anyone have an idea of to how I'd go about doing 'fairly realistic' pin action 'code' for a game of Ten Pin Bowling?

I'm using BMax and want to achieve this in 2D.

To explain a bit further, essentially, I would appreciate ideas on how to get the pins to realistically fly / move / hit other pins, when the ball hits them.

The view of the pins will be from the front and slightly above, so you can see all ten pins at the same time.

Look forward to any response!

:)

Can't be that difficult today, they did a decent go on the c64..10th Frame.

Heh, I've spent most of my Sunday trawling the web for examples / samples, but no joy. Did come across a lot of good games though. ;)

Circle to circle physics? Look for billiards/pool examples.

Ah, that's very true, I didn't think of that. I suppose the difference between bowling and pool physics though, is that there is the third dimension (height) in bowling. If a pin lifts off of the lane and hits another pin, the effect will be different to it hitting it on the same 'plane'.

I realise I said I'm doing this in 2D, but that's purely the presentation of the game, not the 'effect' I want to achieve.

Ta,
M.

Use a 3D physics engine, like ODE, Newton, Tokamak(spelling?), etc.
The tricky part would be to draw all those 2D pictures, and then select which one to show during runtime. :)