Skee-Ball Revisited

Skee-Ball, in case you need to be reminded, is described most poignantly by Paul Lukas on his Inconspicuous Consumption website, as:

"...that coin-operated game where you roll a series of nine balls, one at a time, up a gently inclined lane that has a hump at the far end. The ball sort of launches off of the hump and then lands in one of several holes -- the farther away the hole is, the more points that hole is worth. It's a swell game, but the key moment for me is when I drop my coin in the slot, which releases the nine balls down a ramp -- the balls are all released at once and proceed down the ramp in unison, one after the other, so they all come to a near-simultaneous stop when the bottom ball reaches the base of the ramp, which produces a spectacularly satisfying Click! sound that resonates throughout the room. The appeal of the click (which is actually comprised of eight separate and distinct mini-clicks, which are separated by a nanosecond or so as each ball collides with the one in front of it) is hard to describe, but it's one of those exquisitely perfect noises that's exciting and comforting all at once."

Skee-Ball is manufactured by the Skee-Ball Company, and though it is their core product, it is one of many game machines they have invented. They produce a significant collection of Midway and Coin-op games. But Skee-Ball remains their most traditional, and for many, most beloved contribution to the world of pay-to-play. It is also something that could be easily made out of junk. For free. Granted, you probably won't be able to reproduce the proverbial "click," and the balls probably won't return automatically, let alone near-simultaneously, but with a few old golf balls, or maybe some Sacky-Sacks, a couple cardboard boxes and some old coffee cans, something most satisfyingly skee-ballish could be yours.