Author Topic: Skee-ball Repro (Read 16153 times)

Jayhawk · « **on:** July 12, 2006, 01:04:21 am »

Since I was a little kid, Skee-Ball was always my favorite game at the arcade. I've wanted to build one for over a decade. A couple weeks ago, I found this forum. In particular, Ixliam's Skee-Ball project and, more importantly, UncleT's numerous measurements and images from his machine. I had four days off work over the Fourth of July, and decided to hit the ground running with the project.

I'm not aiming for a perfect replica, but I do want it to be pretty close. When someone plays it, I don't want them to say "Hey, that's a lot like Skee-Ball" I want them to say "Hey great Skee-Ball machine!" I've already had one friend complaining that I'm being too meticulous, so I think I'm on the right track.

I started with what sounded like it would be the most difficult piece, the jump at the end of the ramp. From UncleT's measurements, I was easily able to figure out the right curve. Instead of cutting out a ton of curved pieces of MDF like Ixliam did, I cut two curved pieces for the side of the ramp, put wooden slats between them, and used nearly a gallon of Bondo and a lot of sanding to get the curve right. I'm not sure if it saved me any time, but the biggest problem I had was that the ambient temp was around 115, and the Bondo was solidifying in about 20 seconds rather than several minutes. If I would have had more working time, I think it would have been MUCH easier.

versapak · « **Reply #1 on:** July 12, 2006, 01:40:20 am »

Looks great.

Skee-ball is one thing I'd love to have, and would get 100% approval from my wife, but alas there is no room for.

I can't wait to see your continued progress, and eventual completion.

Welcome to the site.

missioncontrol · « **Reply #2 on:** July 12, 2006, 06:29:46 am »

keep the progress pictures coming... skee-ball is one of my projects on my to-do list..... unfortunately my to-do list is longer than my accomplished list......

Havok · « **Reply #3 on:** July 12, 2006, 09:49:15 am »

Quote from: missioncontrol on July 12, 2006, 06:29:46 am

keep the progress pictures coming... skee-ball is one of my projects on my to-do list..... unfortunately my to-do list is longer than my accomplished list......

You have an accomplished list ?

I thought all you had was a bee infested yellow cabinet shell...

Zeosstud · « **Reply #4 on:** July 12, 2006, 05:40:40 pm »

What a great looking start to a project, I can tell already this one will be a keeper.

Zeosstud

Jayhawk · « **Reply #5 on:** July 12, 2006, 08:58:48 pm »

Okay, I've got some more pics. I've been spending most of my time lately on the target section-- in particular building the rubber target rings. While trying to figure out what I could use, I ran across some of the commercial grade rubber molding. At four inches high and super durable, it's perfect. In order to make the rubber a little more rigid, I've been doubling it up, sticking the backs to each other (if you look really closely at a picture, you can see the seam at the top of the ring) The first one I made didn't have a good round shape, so I've been making aluminum rings to provide a stable overall shape.

Here's a pic of a metal ring...

And a pic of the ring after I've added the rubber molding to the inside and outside.

Picture of the target section:

I've been using "peel-n-stick" molding, but I've found that it doesn't have stickiness all the way from top to bottom, so I've been supplementing it with contact cement. You might notice that the aluminum ring has also been sanded. I've found that to be important in order for the contact cement to adhere properly to the aluminum. I'm curious to see how well they'll withstand repeated beating with 3" wooden balls, but from what I've seen so far, I'm fairly optimistic.

I also just got in a shipment of wooden balls from VanDyke's Restorers. While they're not official balls, they're cheaper and I think they'll work very well.

The reason I haven't done the box on the right side of the ramp yet is because I want to know exactly what height the balls will exit the target area, since that will determine how the ramp needs to be built inside that box.

This is pretty much all I've got done so far...

Cameronj · « **Reply #6 on:** July 13, 2006, 01:57:21 am »

Oh wow! I have wanted one of these sooo bad! I didn't even think of building my own. I am inspired!!!!

mccoy178 · « **Reply #7 on:** July 13, 2006, 04:03:05 am »

Excellent progress so far. It looks fantastic.

Jayhawk · « **Reply #8 on:** July 13, 2006, 08:04:03 pm »

Thanks to everyone for the comments and inspiration!

Quote from: versapak on July 12, 2006, 01:40:20 am

Skee-ball is one thing I'd love to have, and would get 100% approval from my wife, but alas there is no room for.

Versapak-- Thanks for the welcome. Have you considered building/ buying a 6' version? I know it's not the same...

Quote from: Cameronj on July 13, 2006, 01:57:21 am

Oh wow! I have wanted one of these sooo bad! I didn't even think of building my own. I am inspired!!!!

Cameronj-- if you decide to build one, let me know. Hopefully I could steer you around some of the hangups I've run into so far. I'd also be really interested in following your progress!

MameMaster! · « **Reply #9 on:** July 17, 2006, 04:43:18 pm »

WOW that's pretty wild!

Nice job!

NightGod · « **Reply #10 on:** July 17, 2006, 10:53:28 pm »

This is a very cool project-feel free to share those hangup tips you offered Cameronj with all of us, I can see myself making one of these this winter or something to pass time whem I'm bored. I'm interested in seeing how the Bondo holds up the the abuse of bouncing wooden balls off of it.

Jayhawk · « **Reply #11 on:** August 20, 2006, 10:02:47 pm »

Well, it's been a while since I've had a chance to do much work on the 'ol Skeeball machine. My brother had a wedding, and I acquired the ultimate time-sink-- a girlfriend (though I must admit, I'm not complaining).

Anyway, I've been putting some effort at getting the target half of the machine more complete. I have the rings pretty much done, just not mounted yet. I'm not thrilled with how they came out. I really wanted perfection here, and I think I came out with something decent. I think the floor molding was a really good choice. If I could have bought some that was thicker and not pre-glued, I wouldn't have had to double it up, and I think it would have come out much better.

Most of today was spent on the hidden ramp that returns the balls out of the target area. This ended up being easier than I expected. I could try and describe what I did, but a picture is worth a thousand words. Here are several thousand....

One other note: I wasn't initially sure how important scoring, a "9 ball per game" deliver system, and tickets really would be. Several weeks ago I was at Jillians playing on a machine, and the mechanism that keeps balls from coming down the chute broke. Essentially, I had a machine with endless balls, but no scoring and no tickets. It was pretty cool at first, but it did get old after about 15 minutes of "how fast can I chuck the balls up the alley." I now think that the first two of these features are critical to game play, and the tickets could be great either if I let a friend borrow it for their kid's birthday party, or even if I'm having a party at my place, the tickets could be used for getting drinks, some kind of a raffle, whatever.

dudebozo · « **Reply #12 on:** August 21, 2006, 12:40:55 am »

tickets for getting drinks...that idea is golden. hahaha.

so how many tickets do i need to get for a shot of patron?

haha, just joking. but yeah dude, that's a totally awesome build you got going on there. keep up the great work. maybe after i finally get done with my mame cabinet, that might be my next project. good stuff

Havok · « **Reply #13 on:** August 21, 2006, 01:38:05 pm »

This is so cool, I always wanted a skee ball, but alas I don't have the room... yet... Must buy a new house...

What are your plans for doing scoring\tickets? If I was doing this, I would go with a basic stamp: it would be able to control a motor to open a gate to let the balls come down for a new game, keep track of the score, output the score to a display, and control a servo to spit out tickets. If you haven't checked them out already, here's a great company to purchase them from - I have several kits from them already:

http://www.parallax.com/html_pages/products/basicstamps/basic_stamps.asp

Jayhawk · « **Reply #14 on:** August 21, 2006, 05:02:23 pm »

My original plan was to build all the scoring/ ball counting circuits out of TTL chips. More recently, I've been thinking of putting a full computer inside the thing and driving some minimal external circuitry with the parallel port. Both ideas are based off of the "what I have on hand" principle, combined with the fact that I've always wanted to do some parallel port project.

The full computer gives me a couple big advantages. One is sound-- all I have to do is play a .wav or .midi file. The other is cheating detection. I can add a couple sensors to detect the ball going up the ramp. If I have three, I can detect that the ball goes down the ramp at a constant velocity combined with the time it takes for the ball to drop in a hole. Basically, I'd want the cheating detection to be good enough to protect against the brainpower of a drunk friend trying to get extra tickets.

As for the ticket mechanism, I did some research a couple months ago and from what I recall, there are a couple of standard ticket modules that you can buy. I figure that they'd be a part worth buying as opposed to trying to build, especially when you start thinking of drunk guys trying to find any mechanism possible to cheat the game and get extra tickets.

Jayhawk · « **Reply #15 on:** August 29, 2006, 12:06:44 pm »

I just snagged a DL-1275 ticket dispenser off of e-bay for $32.50! These things sell at Happs for $150+, and those don't include the front cover or ticket bin included in this lot!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=200020045517

Bring on the drink tickets...

dudebozo · « **Reply #16 on:** August 30, 2006, 12:20:11 am »

hahaha, nice. keep up the work Jayhawk

missioncontrol · « **Reply #17 on:** August 30, 2006, 06:27:19 am »

Quote from: Havok on July 12, 2006, 09:49:15 am

Quote from: missioncontrol on July 12, 2006, 06:29:46 am
keep the progress pictures coming... skee-ball is one of my projects on my to-do list..... unfortunately my to-do list is longer than my accomplished list......

You have an accomplished list ?

I thought all you had was a bee infested yellow cabinet shell...

well I did accomplish in painting it yellow

Jayhawk · « **Reply #18 on:** August 30, 2006, 11:36:16 am »

Quote from: missioncontrol on August 30, 2006, 06:27:19 am

Quote from: Havok on July 12, 2006, 09:49:15 am
Quote from: missioncontrol on July 12, 2006, 06:29:46 am
keep the progress pictures coming... skee-ball is one of my projects on my to-do list..... unfortunately my to-do list is longer than my accomplished list......

You have an accomplished list ?

I thought all you had was a bee infested yellow cabinet shell...

well I did accomplish in painting it yellow

Sounds like a great cab for your kitchen-- where do you plan on mounting the honey tap?

clanggedin · « **Reply #19 on:** August 30, 2006, 03:12:19 pm »

You know you could have saved alot of time by just buying a non-working one for $100 then fixing it so it worked.

That's what I did. Mine is a 13' cab. If you need any measurements I'll be happy to get them for you.

Havoc · « **Reply #20 on:** August 31, 2006, 10:36:39 am »

Whats the source ? I have been looking for awhile and haven't seen anything in the area. Besides shipping on one of these beasts would kill the deal anyway

clanggedin · « **Reply #21 on:** September 03, 2006, 08:34:54 pm »

I found mine on craigslist. I know that Chuck E Cheese updates their skee-ball machine every few years. Last time they sold each unit for $50 each. Unfortunately I didn't hear about it until a week after the sale.

You may want to check out any in your area and see if they are going to replace their machine any time soon.

theCoder · « **Reply #22 on:** September 03, 2006, 11:19:38 pm »

What are you planning on doing for inputs? A hacked joystick might work well.

SithMaster · « **Reply #23 on:** September 04, 2006, 01:16:14 am »

wait they get new skee ball machines or ticket dispensers?

killbill · « **Reply #24 on:** September 05, 2006, 02:44:03 pm »

Skeeball is awesome.

Good luck with the construction!

clanggedin · « **Reply #25 on:** September 05, 2006, 06:41:09 pm »

Quote from: SithMaster on September 04, 2006, 01:16:14 am

wait they get new skee ball machines or ticket dispensers?

New Skee Ball machines.

Santoro · « **Reply #26 on:** September 06, 2006, 08:51:24 am »

Awesome, watching with interest.

clanggedin · « **Reply #27 on:** September 06, 2006, 01:33:19 pm »

Are you going to put the corner holes onto your board also? The ones that are worth 100 points?

Jayhawk · « **Reply #28 on:** September 07, 2006, 02:53:39 am »

I've got to say that if I could have found a skeeball machine near where I live for even several hundred bucks, I would have picked it up. In the end, it'd probably be cheaper and easier. That said, I didn't want to have to wait to see if one might come available in my area for a reasonable price. I'm also somewhat picky in what I want-- a 10' classic skeeball machine without the 100 holes. (I know some people really like them, but they were never on the machines I played growing up.)

Quote from: theCoder on September 03, 2006, 11:19:38 pm

What are you planning on doing for inputs? A hacked joystick might work well.

I've been planning on using the parallel port for both inputs and outputs. I've used joystick ports before, and they do work well for cheap and easy input. Should have enough of each. However, a friend who was helping me out this evening was also suggesting the use of a basic stamp. There are certain advantages, and I'm reconsidering. I really don't like the idea of having to wait for my skeeball machine to boot up.

I had a few people over for a BBQ on Labor Day this past Monday, and someone asked to see the under-development skeeball machine. With a half-dozen engineers hanging around, someone noted that if someone were to hold the rings in place, you could almost play. Within 15 minutes we had the thing jury-rigged to be able to play games with "manual scoring." We took turns for about an hour, and it definitely motivated me to get more work done. One of the guys came over tonight, and we built the right side box after much discussion about the requirements of the ball return and coin box.

One delima I'm up against is the cork for the alley. If I don't mind having a seam in the cork halfway down the alley, I can use off-the-shelf cork that I already have and only cost me about $10. I'm strongly considering buying online some quality cork for ~$40-$50, but I'm curious if anyone has any suggestions for another cork vendor? Most places seem to only sell 2'x4' rolls I've tried all the usual suspects-- Target, Wall-mart, Lowes, and Home Depot. It has to be at least 20" wide and 7.5' long. Any suggestions?

NightGod · « **Reply #29 on:** September 07, 2006, 03:27:12 am »

I'd check a real office supply store and see if they can order it for you.

theCoder · « **Reply #30 on:** September 07, 2006, 11:03:01 am »

If you can't track down the cork, you might consider thin rubber or (dare I say) vinyl.

Glaine · « **Reply #31 on:** September 08, 2006, 10:01:44 am »

There was another bloke who did this and I think he detailed what he used for cork boarding and why somewhere in here:
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=29727.0

Either way I'm sure that will be a good read for you, includes a program for points scoring.

You noted you might write out things to avoid when building you own, could you please detail some of that? I'm not in the market to make one of these, but part of the usefulness of this site is good documentation and I think that would help.

clanggedin · « **Reply #32 on:** September 08, 2006, 02:23:53 pm »

Dont' use rubber or vinyl. I played a Skee-Ball Lightning gmae on Labor day and it played much different than a regular cork runway.

Glaine · « **Reply #33 on:** September 15, 2006, 03:31:36 pm »

Bump. Hows it going mate?

unclet · « **Reply #34 on:** September 16, 2006, 07:09:27 pm »

I called the Skeeball corporation out of Pennsylvania and they sell complete cork board replacements. I "think" the cork board for a Model-H Skeeball machine (what I have) was about $110, but I can not be sure.

Project looks good.

nullb0y · « **Reply #35 on:** September 19, 2006, 07:51:57 pm »

::droooolll::
very nice
i had never seen anyone build one of theese now i have

unclet · « **Reply #36 on:** September 19, 2006, 08:22:33 pm »

Another good thing about the official cork ramp overlay is that you can clean it rather easily and make it look like new ......

pcdoctor · « **Reply #37 on:** April 07, 2007, 07:37:49 am »

Any updates?

lamboman · « **Reply #38 on:** November 13, 2007, 04:15:35 pm »

Very niceley done...Do you have any pics of the completed unit?.Thanks,

NiN^_^NiN · « **Reply #39 on:** November 13, 2007, 09:18:35 pm »

Hey man this looks fantastic

A few years ago we had someone wanting to use an old PC for a Repo Skeeball unit. This never happened but i did start work on a simulator for it on the PC

I had setup a sample program which was just a VB program which used keyboard inputs and everytime one of the keyboard inputs was triggered i had it display a GIF i had created for an animation and had a score keeping each animation was different for the points (10 20 30 etc)

And it was setup with a reed switch inside each hole and when a ball fell through it would move a magnet close to it which was just connected to a Keywiz encoder altho a leaf switch would work better.

I have sadly lost the VB program and the photoshop file of the pinball like overlay i created but if you are gonna use a computer i'd be happy to try and recreate the Pinball type of display and even make a program if you like

Could use a Keywiz for all the inputs and coin slot and use usb/parrallel port for ball stopper and ticket machine.

I have used a 12V Solenoid powered off the PC supply to stop cans sliding down (diy vending machine) and that can work to stop the balls from returning till a coin is inserted.

Anyway PM me if you want me to recreate the skeeball simulator
Here is the original Thread
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=20164.0


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