Illegal Bowling 

Hopefully this doesn't come off as an irrelevant comment, but my Uncle Martin was actually the founder and former lead artist for Envisomation, the company responsible for creating those tacky bowling animations we've all come to know and love. I thought I'd share a little interesting piece of history as to how those came about, which is to say, it was by accident. My uncle was obsessed with traditional, hand-drawn animation his whole life, but was unfortunately not naturally gifted at creating it. However, come the late eighties, he was able to be an early adopter of learning how to produce 3D animation. This is because in the pioneer days of 3D, the difficulty came more in the learning curve for 3D programs, and less in so the technical artistic challenges that come with frame-by-frame 2D animation. Martin told me about how he initially designed a sphere (which was not a quick render, by any means) and crafted an animation of it rolling. From that point on, it's pretty easy to assume what happened next. But in case you can't infer the next several events, I'll explain them anyways. Martin's initial idea was to create 3D advertisements for marbles, which were being revived as a big trend in the nineties. He created ten individual marble animations and pitched them to both Cattailz Interactive and Hasbro, but was unfortunately rejected by both companies. They found the animations to be too crude and (although this interaction predates the term I'm about to use) uncanny valley for them to be aired on mainstream television. Naturally, Martin took to the bottle for a solid couple of months. However, aside from the divorce with his beautiful wife that ensued, this reliance on alcohol became a good thing. Every night he'd down an inhuman amount of everclear, bike to the local Pinhead's Bowling Emporium, and roll balls down the lane until he'd black out and wake up in the parking lot. One of these mornings, my poor uncle awoke with two broken arms. He was no longer able to bowl, but he'd still spend every night sitting at the venue's bar, wishing there was another form of entertainment in the building to take his mind off of the pins that he was unable to knock over. Naturally, he repurposed those old marble animations into the wacky bowling ones that we're all familiar with in the present day. Pinhead's across the country purchased these animations, and Martin created Envisomation as a result. Later on he would sell these animations to other top bowling establishments such as Spanky's Bowling Company and The Infinity Lanes. While my Uncle Martin may not be a household name, he is most definitely my own personal hero. So next time you knock down four pins and see the choppy 240p animation of a bowling ball massacring bowling pins dressed up as aliens, think of Uncle Martin. Think of persistence, think of ingenuity, and think of all the other underdogs out there in the world. If he were still alive today, I have no doubt in my mind that he could have pursued local politics and would have solved the global hunger crisis single-handedly. I love you, Uncle Martin.

The 9 pin bowling ban sounds like whoever drafted that law really liked bowling and worded it to make it easy to get around.

The Malcom in the Middle reference was a nice throwback in the Kid Leaves Stoop cinematic universe

Every day you learn something new. Like the fact that BOWLING USED TO BE ILLEGAL

If curling is an Olympic sport then bowling should be too

I just got the strange mental image of an ESRB label saying "Mature: Depictions of bowling"

I love all the old CG animations in this video. Those were always my favorite part of bowling as a kid.

I have a sudden urge to go bowling...

nice use of the bowling ally screens! those were lost online for the longest time actually, and it's great to see people remember them

You’re filling EmpLemon’s hiatus nicely

Glad that bowling will be _spared_ from another ban

1:42 can we all acknowledge the utter joy of seeing footage actually matching the topic spoken about at that very moment? Gracious edit.

*bowls with 9 pins* "Stop right there! You've violated the law!" *adds extra pin* "...never mind"

"Niko, It's Roman. Let's go bowling."

My dad tells tales of a time where bowling was a community thing, and how he'd go with his chain smoking mom back in the 70's and 80's to the alley in town. . . Every single time we drive by the old bowling alley, I am reminded of a time where the internet did not exist!

Shoutout to the Spyro music in the background

Finally some good fkin content!

very surprising this was made 9 months ago

And now the comments sections is going out of control

I wonder why this is in my recommended now

Okay that's wild that 1. People try too ban bowling 2. How much impact bowling has had on tv

I'm glad I subbed to you, man. Interesting stuff. Can't wait to see where your channel goes. P.S. and a Wendigoon reference? Nice

Watching this after Twitter be like: 😬

Never been a big bowling fan, but I never realized its importance and significance until watching this video. Great work.

Very interesting how the map at 4:47 seems to resemble an inverted population map - that is to say, it seems as though the amount of bowling venues increases as the population density decreases

Fantastic video as always man. Always love to hear the Spyro music and sound effects too. Please keep doin your thing.

This is such a random topic, i also never realized how everywhere bowling is

“What you in for?” “Murder, you? “I went bowling”

I love the use of the bowling screen animations! They fit in so well and it’s just a genius idea

Waited sooo long for a new video, keep up the really good work

I love your videos so much, simply because it's things I've never even thought about but am now interested in. Seriously, these videos are great and I love your content!

Hey Niko let’s go bowling **gains 1 star**

Man I wish you posted the sources for all those weird 3d bowling animations, they look really... interesting

The end of There Will Be Blood makes more sense now.

Now this, this is a great time. Thank you for the editing, it's amazing. I can't believe I remember the bowling episode of Malcom. Take care, and thanks again!

I just found your texture archaeology video and expected to see a pretty big channel, was surprised to see you only had 35k subscribers. Your content is really high quality and fun to watch, hopefully more people will find these vids soon.

love the use of the Spyro soundtrack and sound effects to support your edit. Very interesting documentary!

"Hey Niko! Let's go bowling!" FBI OPEN UP!

you're quickly becoming a fave of mine, i went to check what other videos you had and i already watched all without noticing

Dude you are sooo underrated, I’m proud to say I was here from the start :)

you upload rarely, but you upload good ! Didn't expect to like this video so much, but as I had already watched your 3 other vids several time I finally gave it a shot despite my non-interest for the subject, and damn I got well entertained ! gg !

Always a great day when you upload bro. I wish you had more content to binge! Best breakout RU-vidr!

Looking forward to seeing this channel grow

8:25 yooooo elf bowling!!! That unlocked an old memory, I remember the creators or something would pop up and start chanting toga…. Great game

For a moment there I was worried. "How could Stoop Kid have not used a clip from Kingpins?" And then 5 seconds later it played. Nice save.

THIS Dancing Bowling ball cursed af.

I saw you're first video and thought "oh yeah this guys gonna be big" your content is top class

As someone who has bowled competitively since I was a child, this a fascinating and very well done mini-doc. :)

Great video, very much enjoyed it, keep it up!

I thought 'Grimey' lived 'above a bowling alley, and below another bowling alley'? (One of my favourite ever Simpsons lines). So I doubt he'd freak out about bowling being illegal!

This is an interesting insight in to a subject I'd never given much hard thought. Happy I subbed!

love your variety of content. you'll definitely blow up soon

Love your videos, dude

I fricken love your channel keep it up

the wendigoon joke caught me off guard

It's fate. I'm not even kidding -- I was invited to play bowling today, a rarity (I've only bowled I think 4 times in the past 15 years) but couldn't make it. Tonight about 20 min ago I was thinking of this channel and the Texture Archaeology video; I felt like rewatching it. The Simpsons Box video popped up as recommended (though I had seen it a few times a few months back)--and I decided to just click your channel and I saw there was a bowling video! Truly spectacular.

Love the video man 👍

Love your channel man, you need more subs imo

Oooh its you! I remember your other videos! Welcome back man

How do you only have 4 videos you are really good at making these!!!

amazing video, as always

"I wanted to go bowling!" -Frozone, 2004

1:04 can't say I was expecting King Crimson in this video

You're wayyyyyy too underrated man, keep it up!

Tbh i do not remember subscribing, but this vid by itself cemented that sub. Great stuff, keep on doing the good work!

I'm proud to be a subscriber of this channel at its 4th month of life

I freaking like this channel so much

Immediately recognized the Stewart Copeland Spyro music in the background. I love it!!

I love your random posts

I love how you always use Spyro music tracks, I just discovered that game this month.

Thanks for sharing

the hit king crimson song, 21st century bowling ban

"Hey Niko, its your cousin. Let's go bowling." -Roman

Another upload!

this appeared in my recommended and I know exactly why

Thought I was going nuts when I heard Season of Ice music in the background. Really unique choice! Gonna revisit that game sometime lol.

I’m very happy that I subscribed to this channel

after recent events it should've

I love how this video contains lots of those strange bowling screen videos

not what i expected but hey, gonna watch it anyways, lmao

I got an ad for a bowling game while watching this video

This is such a unique concept for a video

damn your choices of clips to put behind what you're saying are excellent the fucking archery one with the bowling ball shooting an arrow at bowling pins lmao, the use of the bowling scoring screen as section headers, great stuff

Thanks for compiling all these bowling animations. This was a really interesting piece and I'm honestly shocked at how deep bowling alleys go into American culture. No wonder the only arcade company in the US I've seen that's constantly adding new locations, Round 1, is primarily advertised as a bowling alley...

You have so many cool videos! You should have more subs! Looking forward for more videos!

you are one of the best TYers ive found

lol i literally just subbed a few hours ago, and then the first vid in 3 months drop

Those animayed bowling clips were a perfect fit with your script

This is probably my favorite video of yours.

holy shit that king crimson intro not only caught me off gaurd but had me rolling, very creative and funny joke

Hey what or where is the animation called or from that you used in the video thumbnail

Delightful video!

Another quality video my dude.

Seeing this in 2022, it's... strange.

I hope you make more videos!

Damn you're a talented filmmaker. Very engrossing stuff. Kudos.

This is some quality content. Don't be discouraged if you don't get a lot of views, channels grow slowly. Also, what's the topic of your channel? I don't even know, but I love it. I was actually wondering if you'd upload again (these new channels sometimes die out without a goodbye) and then BAM! Bowling. Good job.

Seeing rec room brought up in this video really brightened my day. Being a teenager and not having too many finances to worry about has allowed that game to become me and my girlfriend's primary source of income and my absolute favorite pass time. I know this seems a bit out of place but I just thought I would share my happiness with you :)

Definitely watching this when I get off work

I had no idea about this but I'm glad to have learned.