Air Hockey Mod Idea

[USSEnterprise]

I've thought about this a lot. Take an air hockey table, and put slingshots, like on a pinball machine, in various places around the surface. When the puck hits, it flys away very fast

[Ken Layton]

Sounds stupid to me.

[paigeoliver]

The pucks are only a few millimeters tall. No off the shelf pinball stuff would work (and even if it did, it would launch them into the air).

[Hoagie_one]

Here's to stamping out ideas before they have a chance to reach fruition.

*Cheers*

[paigeoliver]

Here's to stamping out ideas before they have a chance to reach fruition.

*Cheers*

No reason why he couldn't use pinballs instead?

[ChadTower]

Because pinballs won't float on an air hockey table.

It could work if he made his disc out of a thicker, lighter material, so that it was thick enough to be affected by the slingshots.

[Scott84]

Have you ever even played air hockey? the puck goes fast enough!

[RayB]

Here's an idea that would be easy to do, and really, I shouldn't be mentioning it here because it's a million dollar idea......

Make a puck with an offset weight inside it.

You don't even need much of a weight. Just a slight weight on one side of the puck. The effect this will have is to cause irregular movement of the puck instead of straight shots. Might spice up the game with a bit more (albeit random) challenge.

[ChadTower]

Traditionally, this is done by inebriating the players instead.

[Stingray]

Here's an idea that would be easy to do, and really, I shouldn't be mentioning it here because it's a million dollar idea......

Make a puck with an offset weight inside it.

You don't even need much of a weight. Just a slight weight on one side of the puck. The effect this will have is to cause irregular movement of the puck instead of straight shots. Might spice up the game with a bit more (albeit random) challenge.

Interesting notion. Who has an air hockey table for testing? I'd be curious about how much different weights effect the puck. I'd bet something as light as a dime or even a paperclip taped to one side would cause a visible wobble.

-S

[RayB]

Here's another one:

Super-power the air pressure  and then try to play pingpong on it.
 

[TheOtherBob]

No reason why he couldn't use pinballs instead?

Imagine getting an airball right into the knuckles....  Time to break out the hockey gloves......

[ChadTower]

SLINGSHOT TO THE NUTS!

[Stingray]

No reason why he couldn't use pinballs instead?

Imagine getting an airball right into the knuckles....  Time to break out the hockey gloves......

Ray's ping pong ball suggestion makes a lot more sense. You could build walls on both sides of the table out of MDF or plywood to keep the ball from bouncing out of play.

-S

[ChadTower]

Arena Air Hockey.

[AmericanDemon]

Heh.  Made me think of that old Crossfire game.  It used small ball bearings and you launched them at your opponent and tried to score goals.  That would be a lot of fun using Pinballs and various parts from scrapped machines and turn it into a versus game on the scale of a foosball table or air hockey.  Maybe enclose it in a dome like those Hockey games.

[ChadTower]

As a kid I used to play a similar, basketball themed game under a dome at Salem Willows in MA.

[JackTucky]

We eat dinner on ours and it makes passing the potatoes easy.  We just push the plate and let the air do the rest.

This was the same week that my wife was mugged and we ate in the basement.

Art

[TheOtherBob]

We eat dinner on ours and it makes passing the potatoes easy.

[RayB]

Wasn't this in an episode of the Simpsons or something??

[Level42]

As a kid I used to play a similar, basketball themed game under a dome at Salem Willows in MA.

Yep played that too. A table full of "holes" where the ball would come to a rest. Every hole had a number, you had to push the button with the correct number to launch the ball in the "right" direction earlier then your oponent did.....man I had almost forgotten that one...

[menace]

I picked up this at a yard sale in the summer--it's exactly what was proposed it seems--the flippers are used to control the puck and the table is slightly canted in the middle so the puck always goes one way or the other--its actually a fun little game.

[ChadTower]

Yep played that too. A table full of "holes" where the ball would come to a rest. Every hole had a number, you had to push the button with the correct number to launch the ball in the "right" direction earlier then your oponent did.....man I had almost forgotten that one...

That's the one.  Good stuff.

[JackTucky]

Wasn't this in an episode of the Simpsons or something??

Yep...

[Ed_McCarron]

Yep played that too. A table full of "holes" where the ball would come to a rest. Every hole had a number, you had to push the button with the correct number to launch the ball in the "right" direction earlier then your oponent did.....man I had almost forgotten that one...

Like that???

[Level42]

Haha, something like that, but A LOT bigger

Also there were little baskets on both sides as the target and there was only 1 ball.
The playfield was all bumps so that the ball would always "land" in a hole. Too make it even harder, the number for the 1st player was never the same like the 2nd player. It was the coolest to launch the ball before it would actualy come to a rest, so right at the moment that it hit the hole.

I'm not to sure about the baskets now.....seems virtualy impossible to actualy score that way.....small hole in memory.

I played this a lot with my brother, maybe he remembers

[Level42]

Here's an idea that would be easy to do, and really, I shouldn't be mentioning it here because it's a million dollar idea......

Make a puck with an offset weight inside it.

You don't even need much of a weight. Just a slight weight on one side of the puck. The effect this will have is to cause irregular movement of the puck instead of straight shots. Might spice up the game with a bit more (albeit random) challenge.

Sorry Ray, but you're too late:
http://www.automaten-hoffmann.de/
sells triangle pucks, and their paper catalogue even features 8 sided pucks (shape of a American STOP sign). This has the same effect, it bounces of the sides in all the wrong directions Also I doubt if your weight idea is a good one, because it will also destabilize the puck horizontaly.

[ChadTower]

I'm not to sure about the baskets now.....seems virtualy impossible to actualy score that way.....small hole in memory.

It had baskets, I remember them clearly.  The top of the dome was angled around the baskets to help it move in that direction.