Carnival games: Skee-Ball Success!

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I love playing Skee-Ball. While I remember finding it years ago in penny arcades, it has become increasingly harder to find a game. Nowadays, it seems to be mainly a carnival game, set in the midway alongside games like ring tosses, Bust-the-Bottles, Crown and Anchor, and other such diversions. So I generally only get to play it if I’m at a fair or carnival midway. At least the prizes are now decent midway prizes instead of the tickets we used to have to collect to trade at the arcade counter for cheap stuff.

So yesterday, finding myself suddenly in Toronto (sorry, Toronto Dopers; it was quite sudden and will be a very short visit; otherwise I would have let you know), with the Canadian National Exhibition on and me finding myself with a couple of hours to fill, I decided to go to the Ex, as it is commonly called, and see what I could see. The Ex is an overgrown fair, held in Toronto every August, and features lots of interesting exhibits, music, competitions of the kind you might find at a fair (“Best Floral Arrangement”), and so on. Oh, and a midway.

Yep, you guessed what I did. I headed straight for the Skee-Ball. A few dollars later, I was walking away with a big stuffed toy dog. Problem was, I hadn’t satisfied my Skee-Ball craving, but the game operator told me I couldn’t play any more. “One prize per player per day,” was what the operator said. “And besides, you’re good at this.”

Okay, fine. Further down the midway, I could see another Skee-Ball game. I headed for it. Thankfully, the operator there didn’t recognize my stuffed dog as coming from another Skee-Ball game, and I was allowed to play.

Which I did, and soon had a big stuffed toy penguin. And I was walking away–the one prize per player policy again kicked in.

Being cut off from two games, and carrying two big stuffed toys, I decided it might be best if I didn’t try to seek out a third game. I still needed to get back to my hotel, and remembering how crowded Toronto’s public transit system could be at rush hour, which is when I had to head back, I was a little concerned at how I’d manage with three big stuffed toys. It would be hard enough with my two. So I wandered around and looked at a few exhibits. It was hot, and having a big stuffed toy under each arm didn’t help matters. Maybe it was time for a beer in one of the beer gardens.

So I had one of those. And I paid an outrageous price for a bottle of just-slightly-colder-than-lukewarm beer. And it occurred to me that the price I paid for that beer would buy me a few more games of Skee-Ball, if I could find an operator who would let me play… No. I finished my beer and headed for the exit. It was time to go.

But does anybody else like–or even remember playing–Skee-Ball? Or have any other favourite carnival games?

2

This brings me back to a misspent youth on the Jersey shore.

I miss skee-ball, and I need to know what style you use. Do you roll straight up the middle, or use the Jersey method of ‘banking’ the ball against the top corner of the ramp?

During a few summers way back when, I worked some of the games on the midway. Mostly wheels of chance.

3

Skee-Ball rocks. If you have one of those chain restaurants Julian’s in your area (like we do down at Norfolk’s Waterside), they usually have a whole wall of Skee-Ball machines.

4

I’m horrid at those games. But I know, here in the states, that Chuck E Cheeses almost always has Skeeball :slight_smile:

5

What I find works best is straight up the middle. But not, as so many players do, by trying to stand square to the alley. All they’re trying to do then is to launch a centre shot from a side of the alley, which is hard to do.

Let me explain what I’m doing. I’m right-handed, so I stand slightly to the left of the machine–in fact, now that I think about it, the centre of my body is about at the side of the alley, and my left foot is probably in the way of the player to the left of me. I like to touch my right knee to the alley’s bottom ledge and the left-side wall at the same time–this tells me I’m in position.

This off-centre stance serves a purpose. It allows me to let my right arm hang like a pendulum. Swing the pendulum in line with the centre line of the alley, and let the ball go–straight up the middle, where the big points are. Enough “oomph,” and you’ll hit 50 points every time. Or at least 40.

I’ve seen players bank the ball, and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. Mostly, they’re surprised if it works–they don’t seem to expect that it will, at any rate. But I think I’d prefer my pendulum method, since it seems to produce more consistent (at least, to me) results.

6

I lurves me some Skee-ball! As Aunt Flow noted, Chuck E. Cheese and its ilk always seems to have a bank of Skee-ball machines.

Last weekend, we took the kids to Lakemont Park in Altoona, PA. There’s an arcade there, and for $2.95 you can buy a wrist-band that lets you play in the arcade all day long! I looked, hoping against hope that they had Skee-ball machines. Man, I’d’ve plunked down my $3.00 so fast, your head would spin! Sadly, no such luck. :frowning:

7

Can you believe that it was only last week, at the age of 25, that I learned what “Skee-ball” is? I mean, I’d played that game before at arcades, and I’d heard of the existence of this “Skee-ball” thing, but I never knew the two were connected.

My boyfriend laughed at me when I had my moment of enlightenment. Can’t say I blame him.

8

My wife’s family seems to have some genetic Skee-ball superpower, and all three of our kids inherited it.

When my daughter was 14 and the twins were 11, we targeted an arcade. In 10 games my wife and kids scored something like 5,000 points. We walked away with an authentic oil painting (meaning it was painted with oil) of a Parisian streetscape.

9

I’m from New Jersey. I think it’s in our genetic make-up to rock at Skee-ball.

I bank against the top of the ramp. I would play for hours at Great Adventure or down the shore at Seaside Heights, Asbury Park, Pt. Pleasant, etc. when I was a kid/teen. And I had a room full of ridiculous stuffed animals to show for it.

Whenever I take my boys to a video arcade, I make them play a few rounds of Skee-ball against me, because it’s about the only thing in the arcade I can beat them at.

Love it.

10

A friend of mine took her kids to Chuck E Cheese’s for a birthday party, and sent a couple of kids (about five or six years old?) to play skee ball along with a toddler. They could see the games from where they were sitting, but I guess they weren’t paying too much attention.

The kids came back a short time later with a huge number of tickets. When asked how they had won so much, they revealed their winning strategy: Give the ball to the toddler, who would walk up the ramp and drop it into the center hole…

11

I love, love, love Skee-Ball! A couple of years ago, whilst I was still working at Sears, we had one set up at Christmas. Those slow night shifts while open until 11pm every night were suddenly going a lot faster!

12

On the nose. Being able to crack 380 off of nine balls is now a NJ driver’s license requirement.*

And banking it is the only way to go.

*Well, it should be, anyway.

13

I have played Skee Ball since I could lift the balls! It used to cost a dime per game at the Balboa Fun Zone series of arcades in Newport Beach, CA. I still play with my kids almost every weekend!

When one of the arcades was shutting down, my grandpa bought one of the old Skee Ball machines and a few sets of balls. Yep, the family has one in the basement of the vacation place!!! :smiley:

14

Can I come vacation with you? :cool:

15

Party at EJsGirl’s grandpa’s house!

I love Skee-ball. I’m not so fond of Skee-ball bankers, I have to say. It’s a great technique once it’s mastered, but I had to call in a lot of repair orders on the pinball machine next to the Skee-ball from banking newbees. Finally got the boss to rearange the room so I only had to retrieve Skee-balls from the basketball game - but at least no broken glass.

My technique is identical to Spoons’ - offset the body so the arm is centered, pendulum swing and let her fly straight home to Mama. Nothing better than that sound: Whiiiiiiiiiiiiir-shunk-doosh…Ding!

16

I loves me some skeeball, too, and I ain’t even from Jersy.
The only redeeming factor to Chucky Cheese’s would be their skeeball games. It is a oasis of all that is right in the world in the midst of the Pure Evil that is that place.

17

No, the CEC skee ball machines here suck. Cheap, pale imitations.

And I am a straight-home-to-Mama girl as well. I seldom throw less than 360 per 9 ball game…

18

Another I-love-SkeeBall vote. It’s the ONLY arcade game I can play and not completely embarrass myself. There used to be an arcade by the movie theater around here and that’s what I’d do when I was in a blue mood: go play SkeeBall.

I love the Toddler Technique! :smiley:

19

Here you go.

Skee-ball online - satisfy those cravings when the fairs are closed.

Have a ball! Shockwave required.

20

Squeeee! No laundry getting done today!

The following smiley was added just to humor my six-year-old and has nothing to do with my post.

:dubious: