Skee-Ball was invented as an arcade game in 1907 by Joseph Fourestier Simpson of Vineland, N.J., located in the southern part of the state.
Simpson had tried his hand at lots of jobs, including working as a real estate agent, cash register salesman and railroad clerk, according to Jake Rossen, senior staff writer at Mental Floss.
He
also dabbled as an inventor. Simpson “perfected an egg crate that could protect
shells during bumpy transportation routes, and he created a new kind of trunk
clasp that kept luggage tightly shut,” Rossen wrote.
Simpson thought he might “strike it rich,” though, with his invention of Skee-Ball, which was a form of bowling without gutters.
He added a “ski jump-like hump” in the middle of a 32-foot lane, causing the wooden ball (3 1/8” in diameter), to go airborne.
There
were no pins. Instead, the target area contained a series of holes of various
sizes and point values. Simpson cleverly named his new game “Skee-Ball.”
The first commercial Skee-Ball alleys were installed in 1908 on the Boardwalk in Atlantic City, N.J. The game became quite popular, but Simpson wasn’t a very good money manager. The company was rescued in 1914 by Jonathan Dickinson (J.D.) Este of Philadelphia, Pa., an aggressive marketer.
Ownership of the company would change hands several more times over the years. Skee-Ball alleys were first shortened to 14 feet in 1928 “to be more friendly to women, children and the elderly.”
Today,
a ski jump-like ramp is at the very end of the alley just before the targets,
and the alley has been standardized at a 10-foot length. Players are referred
to as “rollers.”
At
one time, Skee-Ball was owned by the Rudolph Wurlitzer Company of Cincinnati,
Ohio. Wurlitzer saw the game pairing well with its jukeboxes in taverns and
saloons and cranked out enough games in 1937 to keep the pipeline full for
nearly a decade.
In
1960, Frank D. Johns, a Daytona Beach, Fla., amusement park owner, received a
patent that truly made Skee-Ball a “no attendant required redemption game,”
with the automatic ticket dispenser. Players received tickets proportional to
their score, which they would “cash in” for prizes at a central arcade station
or kiosk.
In
the 1990s, Skee-Ball updated its alleys by adding sophisticated lighting and sound
effects, musical selections and other new electronic components.
For
the past 10 years, Skee-Ball has been owned by Bay Tek Entertainment, based in
Pulaski, Wis. The community has a population of about 4,075 and is located
about 25 miles northwest of Green Bay.
The family-owned business employs several hundred people. The company’s slogan is: “It’s all fun and games here,” which creates a positive workforce climate at Bay Tek and its parent organization, The Village Companies.
In 2023, Skee-Ball was selected as a charter member of the Amusement Industry Hall of Fame, sponsored by the American Amusement Machine Association in Cary, Ill.
To celebrate that accolade, Bay Tek worked with the Pulaski Area Chamber of Commerce and Pulaski village officials to change the name of the community for just one day – to “Pulaskee.”
Holly
Hampton, Bay Tek’s vice president of amusement products and services, said it
was all in fun, of course.
Hampton’s
next project may be to campaign for Skee-Ball to be voted into the National Toy
Hall of Fame. Currently, the only true arcade game that has been inducted is
pinball. Surely, Skee-Ball deserves consideration.
Originally designed and patented in 1908 by Joseph Fourestier Simpson, the game only featured five center targets (10, 20, 30, 40, and 50 points).
Skee-Ball first added two small 100-point pockets to the upper corners of the target area during the 1980s to
increase the game's maximum possible score and add an element of risk.
Most Skee-Ball strategists advise novice players to aim for the 40-hole to maximize their success.
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