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Skee ball (also spelled skeeball or skee-ball) is a common game found in arcades and one of the first redemption games. It is similar to bowling except it is played on an incline lane and the player aims to get the ball to fall into a hole rather than knock down pins.
Gameplay
Gameplay varies depending on the skee ball machine, but is generally similar across almost all variations. The player, after inserting some quarters (on modern machines, usually 50 cents) into the coin slot, is given (on average) nine baseball-sized wooden or plastic balls to use. The machine has a long ramp which the player must roll the balls up. At the top of the ramp (the ball-hop), there are several holes (usually separated by circular borders) that the player must try to get the balls to go into. Each hole gives the player a certain number of points based on which hole the ball rolls into, the harder to reach holes usually giving the most points. When finished playing, the player is given tickets dispensed by the machine based on how many points were earned. These tickets can be traded in at the arcade for prizes. The more tickets the player earns, the more valuable the prizes they can get.
Most machines provide the player with nine balls per game, either made from smooth polished wood or heavy plastic; this can vary from machine to machine, however.
Good players could regularly score perfect games by banking the ball against the side of the ramp/alley. Modern machines have pieces of molding affixed to the sides to make this technique unreliable.
Variations
Mega skee ball is a version of skee ball in which the machine is much larger than the standard size. Skee-daddle or Mini Skee-Ball is a version in which the machine is smaller, thus allowing young children to have an easier time at playing the game.
History
The game was invented in 1909 by J.D. Estes in the city of Philadelphia. In 1935 the rights to Skee-Ball were purchased by the Wurlitzer Corporation, which in 1945 sold them 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.
When Skee-Ball alleys were first sold in 1914 to the outdoor amusement park industry by Maurice Piesen, the game had a 36-foot lane. This was much 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, but was eventually changed again to the modern length of 10 feet. Soon after these changes, skee ball became very common in arcades around the United States. Due to the fact that 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 1935, the first ever skee ball tournament was held in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
Coney Island inventor Morris Goldberg also claims to have invented the game of Skeeball. While this claim can't be verified by a patent, there are records of his manufacturing plant at Coney Island as early as 1927. Most of the Skeeball games at Coney Island for at least the following 20 years came from his company, leading some to wonder who really invented the arcade game.
Skee ball in popular culture
In an episode of The Simpsons, the character Nelson Muntz is seen cheating at skee ball by standing at the head of the machine and simply dropping his balls into the high point circles. In another episode, Lisa practices the "Maggie-oop" which is scoring extra points by launching the balls up the skee-ball slide and having Maggie Simpson place the balls in the higher point value cylinders. Nelson says that she's cheating, then rips open the coin slot and takes all the tickets. This kind of cheating is also seen on several other shows, many of them for children.
Skee ball figured prominently into the Kevin Smith films Chasing Amy and Dogma, as it was a staple of arcades dotting the boardwalk of Asbury Park, New Jersey, located close to Smith's former home.
In one episode of the Aqua Teen Hunger Force cartoon on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim block, the Mooninites are seen cheating at a skee-ball-like game. They then trade the ill-gotten tickets for the Foreigner Belt.
A retired pricing game on The Price is Right called Super Ball!! is based on skee ball.
External links
"Skee ball"