Skee ball

More traditional skee ball machines like this one do not include the two additional "100 points" holes, located on the uppermost corners of the machine, on either side of the "50 points" hole.

Skee ball (also spelled skeeball or skee-ball; sometimes called skee roll) is a common arcade game and one of the first redemption games. It is similar to bowling except it is played on an inclined lane with fist-sized balls and the player aims to get the ball to fall into a hole rather than knock down pins. The object of the game is to collect as many points as possible by rolling balls up an incline and into the designated point value holes.

History

J. Dickinson Este invented the game in 1909[1][2] in Philadelphia. In 1935 the Wurlitzer Corporation purchased the Skee-Ball rights and sold them in 1945 to the Philadelphia Toboggan Company, an amusement park ride manufacturer. In 1977 the Philadelphia Toboggan Company set up Skee-Ball, Inc. to market the game, now located in Chalfont, Pennsylvania.

When Maurice Piesen first sold Skee-Ball alleys in 1914 to the outdoor amusement park industry (the stock was held by nine-year-old Maurice on behalf of his father, Hugo Piesen), the game had a 36-foot (11 m) lane. This was too big for most arcades and made it so that only people who were quite strong could play it well. As a result, it was later changed to 14 feet (4.3 m) and eventually changed again to the modern length of 10 or 13 feet (4.0 m). Soon after these changes, skee ball became very common in arcades around the United States. Because prizes were given to the players, the game was considered a form of gambling in some parts of the country. This led to restrictions on the number of machines allowed in an arcade in some places, and banning of the game in other places. These laws, however, did not last long, and thus skee ball is now found in almost all arcades in the country. It is also a staple of the restaurant/arcade chain Chuck E. Cheese's.

In 1932, the first skee ball tournament was held in Atlantic City, New Jersey.[3]

Super Ball!!, a version of skee-ball, was a pricing game on the American game show The Price Is Right from 1981 to 1998.

Skee-Ball is now a competitive and social sport being played in bars in North America. Skee-Ball leagues have begun to pop up under various banners including Skeeball World Tour[4] based in Cleveland, OH, Brewskee-ball, the United Social Sports banner[5][6] based in Washington DC, SkeeBOSTON [7] and The SKEE League [8] based in Chicago, IL. These leagues are rapidly increasing in popularity and are expanding the reach of Skee-Ball to new players.

Gameplay

Gameplay varies depending on the particular machine, but as a standard, the player, after inserting appropriate payment as coins, tokens, or their equivalent (such as a voucher or "club play" card) into the appropriate mechanism, receives a queue of (usually nine) balls made of either polished masonite or other heavy plastic and each approximately three inches in diameter. Each machine has an inclined ramp 10–13 feet long, up which the player must roll the balls. A sudden increase in incline at the end of the ramp (called the "ball-hop") launches the balls above the plane of the ramp toward a series of rings that direct the balls into holes of varying point values, the smallest and hardest to reach usually giving the most points. When the supply of balls is exhausted, the machine dispenses to the player a number of coupons based upon his final score. The coupons are typically traded at the arcade for prizes, the more valuable prizes requiring more coupons for redemption. Some machines award large bonuses of coupons to players who attain or surpass a posted exceptionally high score.

In some installations, particularly traveling carnival midways, prize-winning is achieved by scoring a certain minimum number of points within one game. This requires an attendant to hand out prizes immediately at the end of games, and is not common in arcade settings. Usually small prizes can be traded up for medium prizes and mediums for large. Perfect or nearly perfect scores earn the largest prize available, while very low scores may earn nothing at all.

Variations

A skee ball variation features in the Rock of Ages video game.

Mega Skee Ball is a variation of Skee Ball with physical dimensions much larger than standard size. Skee-Daddle and Mini Skee-Ball are smaller versions easier for younger children to play. A group in Toronto, Canada developed a variation called Riskee Ball that shoots fire. Some arcades feature a variation called Ice-Ball, which contains a cage with only a small opening for the balls to get through at the top of the incline.

See also

References

  1. ↑ The History of Skee-Ball Machines
  2. ↑ http://www.gamefaqs.com/redemption/918379-skee-ball
  3. ↑ About Skee-Ball
  4. ↑ http://www.skeeballworldtour.com
  5. ↑ United Social Sports
  6. ↑ Washington area bars where you can be a kid again: Skeeball
  7. ↑ SkeeBOSTON
  8. ↑ The SKEE League
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