June 2nd, 2008
#520 - Aim
It’s interesting how deceptive carnival games can be. They are probably the sort of thing that are fairly easy if you had time to practice. When you only try them out once a year any insights you had from the previous attempt will have faded enough that you have to start all over again.
June 2nd, 2008 at 12:02 am
I got so darn close to winning one of these one time. The object was to use a BB gun to shoot a piece of paper until all traces of the star image on the paper were gone. I left a minuscule portion of one of the star’s points
I betcha if I had one or two more tries, I could’ve won…
The Duck Has Spoken.
June 2nd, 2008 at 12:08 am
I always go to those ‘every player a winner’ games- you get a string of beads, or a thumb tack, or some other lame prize, but at least you walk away with something.
June 2nd, 2008 at 12:28 am
When I was about 12 I lined up for one of these carnival games. You had to push on this large button (kinda like a TNT plunger from the cartoons), and that would make a mechanical arm throw a tennis ball through a hoop and then return back to the arm. Basically you had to get the force and rhythm just right to get the ball to keep going through the hoop. Each time you got it through the hoop, a toy monkey would climb up a pole a little bit. There were about 10 people all lined up together and whoever got to the top first would win a prize.
As they were waiting for the 10 places to fill up, they let you practise, but disabled the monkey-climbing part of it. They eventually got it all ready, and the guy yelled out “Everyone hands off!”, but I didn’t hear, and kept on practising. By the time he said “3..2..1.. go!” mine was already half way up the pole and I won!
Awesome.
June 2nd, 2008 at 12:56 am
My dad works with a guy who’s writing his memoirs about his days as a carny. Everynow and then Dad will come home with some funny story and a random tip about how carnival games are usually rigged and how to beat them.
It makes me wish I could go to the state fair this year..
June 2nd, 2008 at 12:56 am
I think the best one I saw (at least for the carnival/amusement park) was the Quarter on a plate game. Whoever thought that up was a genious…I wasted many a quarter trying to win the huge stuffed animal prize.
June 2nd, 2008 at 1:07 am
Biff’s lucky softball comes with it’s own instructions.
1) pick up ball
2) load into laser sighted cannon
3) fire!
4) run from the owner of whatever it is you just fired the cannon at.
June 2nd, 2008 at 2:43 am
Wow, that IS a lucky softball o_o
Don’t try those that much, too busy buying some snacks =p
June 2nd, 2008 at 2:43 am
Carnival Week?
June 2nd, 2008 at 7:28 am
It’s only so he doesn’t end up taking out the main circus tent behind this stall in the proper Biffish way.
June 2nd, 2008 at 8:21 am
I’ve never been particullarly good at carneval games. One of my brothers, though, is an absolute wizard at them - We’d feed him money, tokens, or tickets, as appropriate, and he’d win us anything we wanted.
I *do* home it’s carneval week! The trouble Biff could get into at a sideshow lot…
June 2nd, 2008 at 8:25 am
I prefer the dart games where you have to pop balloons. This is because it relies on a skill that is relatively easy to enhance:
A particle board, thumbtacks, and some balloons will run you around $10 and then you can practice all you want. If you go for the “El cheapo” darts as well, you’ll basically be practicing with the same stuff they’ll hand you.
10 minutes a day and the carnies will learn to hide the good stuff when they see you coming. My niece absolutely loves going to carnivals with me… she always walks away with a stuffed animal that is bigger than her.
June 2nd, 2008 at 9:35 am
For a second, I thought the big softball was just really close up.
June 2nd, 2008 at 10:54 am
carnival games have a tacky reputation.
that’s what makes them attractive.
it’s like hanging with bad guys; you
pay for the experience. it’s gravy if
you walk away with the teddy bear.
June 2nd, 2008 at 11:18 am
Hahaha! A ROFL one today’s one is. I’m surprised they let him use it last year….
June 2nd, 2008 at 12:19 pm
For some reason, I have ridiculous luck at carnival games. I’m always winning some huge stuffed animal.
June 2nd, 2008 at 1:15 pm
i remember watching a guy at the carnival once, he was playing the game that biff is. he obviously had a really strong arm, and when he hit the bottles with that softball, all but one flew off…the one that was remaining was at a 45 degree angle, obviously having been cemented to the table. the guy running the booth almost lost his head ^_^
June 2nd, 2008 at 4:43 pm
Whoa I thought the lucky softball was just really close up. lol.
@ PsychoDuck - What amusement park do you go to? I know it’s a long shot that it’s the same one as me but I’ve played the same exact game.
June 2nd, 2008 at 5:59 pm
How’s he gonna pick that up?
June 2nd, 2008 at 6:42 pm
@ no name: It was the Exhibition in downtown Toronto. Yep, I agree that it’s doubtful to be the same one
The Duck Has Spoken.
June 2nd, 2008 at 7:37 pm
Hah, funny coincidence, I actually won a teddy bear at one of those games today
It was whack-a-mole and I won against my friends… My first time winning at these!
Though I’m sure I would’ve won that big stuffed Shadow the hedgehog if I had Biff’s ball for another of those games…
June 2nd, 2008 at 7:41 pm
I was just at the Rose Festival in Portland the other day! The trick on those bottle ones is to aim right between the ones on the bottom row. If they go, everything else goes!
otherwise, I’m terrible at them…
June 2nd, 2008 at 9:21 pm
I was playing a basketball game once- You know the one where there’s the big long net?
Anyways, I threw the ball, it ricocheted off of the rim and hit the stallkeeper in the face. Needless to say, I wasn’t allowed to try again.
And first post I’ve made here FTW.
June 2nd, 2008 at 10:12 pm
I want that softball!
June 2nd, 2008 at 10:14 pm
The only carnival game that I tend to feel I am garanteed to win, is the one where the guy has to guess my age. I swear, even with a beard, most people think I am at least three to four years younger than I really am. And it always gets coupled with the comment, “You are really going to enjoy having such a youthful look when you are far older.” I guess I really playing that game in the hope that there would be someone who can finally guess correctly about me, but in the end…. A cheap stuffed animal as compensation…
June 3rd, 2008 at 4:44 pm
I was at Six Flags: Great Adventure and played ring toss- you get a bucket of rings for 5 bucks. On the third toss I managed to ring it. As it turns out, this was a game where just one win gets you the biggest prize available (as opposed to what the usually do where you need to win like, thirty times). So I won a giant stuffed dog, which was totally awesome. What was totally un-awesome was carrying it around with me for the remaining four hours of the trip.
June 3rd, 2008 at 11:49 pm
I remember a cartoon show in a rural community that would not have been out of place in the Music Man. One episode had the upstanding oldest son become obsessed with a carnival game (which Biff is playing) and spent all of his money on it. Of course, the man who ran the game had a peg that slipped into the bottom of one the milk bottles whenever somebody played. The kid should have brought a second one to surprise the guy, or develop telekinetic powers.
August 27th, 2008 at 12:05 am
I went to a carnival a few weeks back, and played pretty much all the prize-every-time games. I won, among other things, an obscene amount of Superman collectible stickers, a pin that has handcuffs and the words “USE ME” in huge red letters (Yeah, I don’t know either.) and a pair of kitty ears and a feather boa. Much fun.
October 29th, 2008 at 10:27 pm
Actually, the games are intentionally set up to use non-standard or very inaccurate tools. Olympic class shooters can’t win those carnival shooting games, Olympic class basketball players can’t consistently throw those balls through the hoops. It’s virtually all luck.
November 5th, 2008 at 6:35 pm
I can win any claw game, and my Dad once won me a giant stuffed tiger at a carnival.