Mini Ping Pong Table? Good idea bad idea?

I saw a set like this for sell at the store the other day:


http://www.amazon.com/NPW-USA-W3925-Desktop-Ping/dp/B0011BARFA/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1358793000&sr=8-4&keywords=mini+ping+pong+table

This set on Amazon costs about $9.00. The one I saw the other day was a little more expensive.

I don't get it. The paddles are no were near full size. I understand that the kit is trying to be space friendly but do full size ping pong paddles really take up that much space? The net is also cheap won't last long a full game.

I really don't care for many of the table top games that were hot sellers this past Christmas. There saw table top pool, ping pong, Foosball, and air hockey. These games were cheaply and mass produced. In my opinion the table top foosball and air hockey games were fun and okay buys for around $10.00 if you are going to play them and take care of them. The pool and ping pong ones were simply not worth it. Mostly they were bought by grandparents and uncles who did not know what toy to buy. They were opened on Christmas morning and now sit in a closet.

So when it comes to mini ping pong go buy a set of real paddles and a few ping pong balls (they will cost about the same as this mini set) and find some cardboard or wood (like a 2 by 6 you have laying around) and play ping pong that way. You'll have a lot more fun!  

I recently found out about a table top bumper pool table:


http://www.wayfair.com/Park-and-Sun-Table-Top-Dice-Football-Bumper-Pool-Game-TTC-DF-BP-PSS1058.html

I can't find one is stock anywhere. I would love to give it a shot I can't decide if it is big enough to really have fun with or if the balls are so small that I would find playing with it really frustrating. The table is 2 2/3 ft long which is more than half the length of a full size bumper pool table. 

If anyone would like to add to the cause and send me one of these mini bumper tables I will happily play on it some and review it on here.

Pub Billiards

There is this great website on old games and includes some really good information on old pub billiard games: http://manorgames.co.uk/

I love pool. Like most of the games I talk about on this blog I am no good at pool but I love playing it. Sadly pool tables are difficult to own. They are expensive (a cheap pool table is still going to cost you $600) and they take up a lot of room and they are really heavy and difficult to move. So for someone living a small apartment having a real pool table is next to impossible.

There are such things as mini pool tables sometimes called kid pool tables but I find these to be pretty dorky.


http://www.amazon.com/Westminster-Tabletop-Pool-Model-2480/dp/B00186IDDQ/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1358791127&sr=8-2&keywords=mini+pool+table

I want to hit around real pool balls but I don't want a seven foot pool table that is going to take up a whole room. This is why I find old pub billiard tables or bar billiards so interesting. Many of them can be set up on a table top and stored away when not in use. Many of them can be pressed against the wall. They are simply really nice alternatives to a full size pool table. Here are some examples:

These games are really cool! I would love to be part of the pub game revival. Games like these are no longer being manufactured. You can sometimes find them used on ebay but they get pretty expensive and often times they are in terrible shape.


So I have been trying to design my own Pub style billiard games. I want my design to be simple enough that anyone can build one.

This is my first game idea.


It is a pocket free rail free pool game that plays similarly to curling and corn-hole. The board is constructed by taking a sheet of MDF board around 3ft by 6ft (which is a size I can fit in my car) and glue and staple felt to the board and then draw the lines and circle on top. The playing surface is set on top of a stable and level table. No rails are needed but setting up barriers to catch balls is suggested.


The game is played with both players receiving 4 full size cue balls. One set of balls is white the other yellow. Players alternate shooting their cue ball from behind the first black line. balls that travel past the first black line are in play balls that fall short are removed from the table. Balls that travel off the playing surface are also out of play. After all of the balls are cued points are calculated. balls landing inside the red circle are worth 3 points and balls inside the blue circle are worth 1 point. Points on the table cancel out just like in corn-hole. Players play to 21 (also like in corn-hole).

I have not had a chance to construct a board yet. With working 2 jobs and being a student I just haven't had time and I'm not sure when I will. The idea sounds pretty solid though so I am confident it will work when I finally get around to it. I encourage people out there in world wide web to try the game out and tell me how it goes! 
 

Gopher Ping Pong Nets

 

http://www.gophersport.com/products/item_detail.cfm?item_id=3619&tree_id=1282

These cardboard ping pong nets are such a great idea I decided to make some on my own!

FLIPIN' Cornhole Review

So here we have it a table top version of corn-hole called FLIPIN' Cornhole.

Let me start by saying this is a FUN game. It sells for $30.00 online plus probably some shipping and handling. It is totally worth it. It is a great addition to any game collection.  It is the perfect game to set up on your ping pong or dinner table.

You can purchase this game at: www.createdtoenjoy.com

You can also contact: ejbmin@aol.com or 330-322-0015

I know the makers are traveling around to different craft shows selling the game.

You play by placing the small beanbags on the flipper and flipping it towards the next board. Flipping the bags instead of throwing them is a cool little twist on good ole corn-hole.

Besides that the game works just like corn-hole.

I do have a few complaints about the game:

1) It is REALLY hard to get a bag in the hole. Maybe I'm just really bad at this game but it seems just too hard.

2) The board is angled too high for the bags to stay on the board. They almost always slide off. Because of this I changed the rules when I play: 1 board if the bag touches the board even if it is on a bounce and 5 points if the bag goes through the hole. Otherwise the game would be tied 0-0 forever.

3) The flipper could be better. It hasn't broken on me which is good and I don't expect it to which is doubly good but it is kind of hard on one's hand. I also don't like that the flipper is a two-hand job. It might be worth trying to design a flipper separate from board and perhaps market the game with one board and one flipper.

These are the types of complaints I hope the game-maker will keep in mind for future versions of the game. For $30.00-50.00 dollars these shouldn't keep you from purchasing the game. I am also really impressed by all the color options. Here I have a Black and Gold set so I can play corn-hole on my kitchen table while I stream App State football games on ESPN3.

This is a good example of a small game doing something similar to their larger counterpart while also doing their own thing (I will talk more about my feelings of mini-games in future additions). If this game didn't have the flipper and I had to throw the bean-bags cola-pong (I don't drink beer) style this game would be really lame. I give props to the creator for being creative.

Homemade Ping Pong fun!

I am terrible at ping pong. Let’s be honest here I have no hand-eye coordination. With that said a lot of people LOVE ping pong. I figured I should add my own innovation to the game. There are really two types of ping pong players. There are the formal players that want to play on high dollar fancy tables:

http://www.designverb.com/2009/03/

Then there are the renegade players. The "any table any time" type players. The give me a ball and a paddle and a table and we will go at it.


http://www.likecool.com/Any_Table_Ping-Pong_Table--Sport--Gear.html

I fall more into the second category. I like the adventure of trying to figure out how to make games work with what you have at hand. I'm also really cheap!

Gopher, the company that sells all of the cool stuff that you played with in elementary school gym class, sells cardboard ping pong nets in a kit they sell to gym teachers so teachers can stage ping pong games on school lunch tables.

[I can't show this picture because of copyright but check it out at this link]
http://www.gophersport.com/products/item_detail.cfm?item_id=3619&tree_id=1282

These nets are a cool idea! I decided to make my own out of cardboard I stole out of a  recycling bin.

I work as a youth director and the church I work at have these round dinning tables.



http://www.bluehen.com/circular-folding-table-p-503.html

These tables are perfect for multi-person ping pong and the hard cardboard nets are perfect for multi-person ping pong too!

(My camera is currently broken but this is kind of what it looks like)


http://www.businessinsider.com/googles-london-office-is-a-gorgeous-mix-of-70s-style-and-weird-recycled-products-2012-5?op=1