243:(PTC) contacted Wurlitzer to ask about either licensing the rights to Skee-Ball or selling it outright. By January 1946, PTC was the new owner and manufacturer of Skee-Ball. That lasted until 1977 when Skee-Ball, Inc., was spun-off from PTC under the same ownership. By 1984, Joe Sladek and three other partners had bought the company. Over the next several years Sladek bought out his partners and renamed the company Skee-Ball Amusement Games Inc. In February 2016,
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208:. He purchased the patent and all rights to the game from Simpson, incorporated The J. D. Este Company to build and market the game, and hired Harper as general manager. In 1917 Este enlisted in the military and turned over operation of the company to his business partners. After his return in 1919 he sold The J. D. Este Company to his partners and exited the business.
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rings that direct the balls into holes of varying point values, with the smallest and hardest to reach usually giving the most points. The machine dispenses coupons to the player, based on scoring thresholds, either during the game or after the game ends. The coupons are typically traded at the arcade for
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bought all of the rights to the game and set up a games division. Wurlitzer produced more than five thousand Skee-Ball alleys and began selling them in
December 1936, but they ceased production of alleys in 1937 as demand weakened. Beginning in 1942, Wurlitzer shifted its focus from amusement devices
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or 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
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Este's business partners renamed the company the "Skee-Ball
Company". They operated the manufacturing and distribution of the game until 1928 when the game was sold to Herman Bergoffen, Hugo Piesen, and Maurice Piesen, who incorporated the National Skee-Ball Company. In 1929, the National Skee-Ball
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midways, prizes are typically won by scoring a certain minimum number of points in one game. This requires an attendant to hand out prizes immediately at the end of games, which is not common in arcade settings. Usually multiple small prizes can be traded for medium prizes and multiple mediums for
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The
National Skee-Ball Company organized the first national Skee-Ball tournament at Skee-Ball Stadium in Atlantic City. The tournament alleys were shorter than the alleys that Simpson had built. Over one hundred contestants qualified to play in the tournament. $ 2400 in prizes were awarded to the
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became enamored of the game, and in 1913 he helped
Simpson and John W. Harper to revitalize the company. Este installed two alleys at a Princeton location, near the university, to see how well they would do. After a few weeks, interest in the game fizzled, but in 1914 Este installed Skee-Ball in
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In
January 1910, Nice died unexpectedly, leaving Harper without the necessary funding for promotion. The company struggled for the rest of 1910, 1911 and 1912. Simpson worked with Harper, but they were having difficulty making any headway, and by December 1912 the Skee-Ball Alley Company was
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for his "Game". Simpson licensed the game to John W. Harper and
William Nice Jr. who created the Skee-Ball Alley Company and began marketing the thirty-two-foot games in early 1909. The first advertisement for Skee-Ball appeared on April 17, 1909, in
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rings. The object of the game is to collect as many points as possible by having the ball fall into holes in the rings which have progressively increasing point values the higher the ring is.
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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.
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Gameplay varies depending on the particular machine but, normally, a player, after inserting appropriate payment, receives a queue of (usually nine) balls made of either polished
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Skee-Ball is now a social sport played in bars in North
America, with leagues forming under various banners. In recent years, it has inspired the development of professional
251:, acquired Skee-Ball Amusement Games, Inc., acquiring the rights to the legacy Skee-Ball game and trademark in the process, and moved its manufacturing to Pulaski.
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In 1935, Bergoffen died unexpectedly in
Atlantic City, leaving Hugo and Maurice Piesen to run the National Skee-Ball Company. In June 1936,
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large. Perfect or nearly perfect scores earn the largest prize available, while very low scores may earn nothing at all.
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188:. About two months later the first alley was sold. Alleys continued to sell slowly over the next few years.
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840:"New beach game exclusive to Carolinas now available in Horry County. Here's how to get it"
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Skee-Ball was invented and patented in 1908 by Joseph
Fourestier Simpson, a resident of
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Young child playing skee-ball at
Fantasy Island on Long Beach Island, New Jersey, 2023
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United States Patent and Trademark Office Trademark Status And Document Retrieval
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to the war effort by building equipment for the United States government.
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Web page of The SKEE League, Chicago's First and Largest Skeeball League
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Seeking Redemption: The Real Story of the Beautiful Game of Skee-Ball
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Web page of United Social Sports, a national Skeeball league
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Washington area bars where you can be a kid again: Skeeball
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285:, is called Flyball. The inventors first publicized it on
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Brewskee-Ball, the first-ever National Skee-Ball League
810:"Wisconsin company buys local skee-ball manufacturer"
663:. Washington, D.C. USA: United States Patent Office
60:. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.
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864:Cooper, Thaddeus O.; Kreitman, Kevin B. (2016).
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225:The Rudolph Wurlitzer Manufacturing Company
175:. On December 8, 1908, Simpson was granted
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423:Skee-ball booth at the Indiana State Fair
395:Learn how and when to remove this message
120:Learn how and when to remove this message
891:Skeeball.com, web page of Skee-Ball, Inc
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277:A beach version of Skee-Ball played in
151:. It is played by rolling a ball up an
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329:adding citations to reliable sources
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58:adding citations to reliable sources
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808:Burdo, Alison (25 February 2016).
216:, trademarked the name Skee-Ball.
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896:The History of Skee-Ball Machines
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652:Bergoffen, Herman (21 May 1929).
654:"Trade-Mark 256,496 - SKEE-BALL"
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257:, a version of Skee-Ball, was a
239:As the war drew to a close, the
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922:"Why Skee-Ball Doesn't Change"
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241:Philadelphia Toboggan Company
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838:Morse, Ben (30 July 2023).
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159:) that jumps the ball into
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281:, with scoring resembling
261:on the American game show
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958:Games of physical skill
197:Jonathan Dickinson Este
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214:Coney Island, New York
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147:and one of the first
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325:improve this section
173:Vineland, New Jersey
54:improve this article
943:American inventions
868:. NoMoreBoxes LLC.
267:from 1981 to 1998.
245:Bay Tek Games, Inc.
178:U.S. patent 905,941
912:Bay Tek Games Inc.
759:, pp. 355–356
732:, pp. 336–337
720:, pp. 311–312
684:, pp. 287–290
606:, pp. 253–254
447:Fascination (game)
429:traveling carnival
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264:The Price Is Right
249:Pulaski, Wisconsin
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185:Billboard magazine
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657:(digitized image)
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310:This section
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385:January 2024
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323:Please help
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287:social media
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259:pricing game
255:Super Ball!!
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110:October 2023
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52:Please help
47:verification
44:
814:Bizjournals
344:"Skee-Ball"
212:Company of
145:arcade game
69:"Skee-Ball"
27:Arcade game
948:Ball games
937:Categories
453:References
355:newspapers
192:moribund.
80:newspapers
312:does not
220:winners.
206:boardwalk
195:In 1910,
141:Skee-Ball
18:Skee Ball
436:See also
409:Masonite
293:Gameplay
283:cornhole
272:Woodball
161:bullseye
157:ski jump
153:inclined
857:Sources
369:scholar
333:removed
318:sources
167:History
94:scholar
872:
414:prizes
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143:is an
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667:9 May
376:JSTOR
362:books
247:, of
101:JSTOR
87:books
870:ISBN
669:2017
348:news
316:any
314:cite
73:news
924:at
427:At
327:by
204:'s
56:by
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