Physics game

Is that thing a computer game program? The image you provide is obviously a graphic image, not a video of an actual physical device. I'd be motivated to try to assemble the device from a kit containing all the parts without looking at the instructions, but have no interest in try to "assemble" it if it's a virtual puzzle. I trained as a surgeon, not a computer programmer. Just the way my brain is wired.

The guys at sci.electronics.design might be interested, too.

It raised the question, in my mind, whether it was yet an actual video game or an " video artist's rendition " of what the concept video game might look like .. I wasn't inspired to look further. John T.

"It is called Mighty Marbles and is a contraption based marble game where you control the level and is available to wishlist on steam. Let me know what you think "

is a give-away. Steam is a video gaming site and wishlist hints it doesn;t exist yet. At one time I had a less complex version on a tablet, a maze with a marble that you had to navigate without falling into one of the holes. It was an interesting use of the built in 3-axis gyro/accelerometer chip.

Would be an interesting construct in the workshop, don't you think? Goldbergesque

I remember when I was a child and received a gift that was very similar to the image. It was fully assembled, made of wood, and consisted of a top surface that could be tilted both left/right and forward up/forward down by twisting either a knob on one side or a knob on the front. This was attached to a wooden box that had a sliding door on one side where the marbles could be stored and retrieved. The top surface resembled the top of a pinball table with elevated diversion channels leading into various holes, but without movable flippers. There was a way to release one marble at a time onto the playing surface but I don't remember the physical details. There were holes with assigned point scores heavy metal marbles. I seem to think that it came with an hourglass style egg timer. The goal was to steer the marbles, one at a time, by tilting the board so that they avoided the channels that led to the near, low score holes and instead steer the marble into the highest point holes in the time available by one inversion of the timer. It was either similar to or identical to the following (too long ago to be sure):

I remember a similar toy but iirc it was a friend's not mine. The virtual variety, at least the one I had, did an excellent job of modeling the physics of a mechanical device. I've never done any game programming beyond very simple Pong like stuff 40 years ago but I assume the available libraries handle the heavy lifting.

Was this it?

I had one of these when I was little and I spent a lot of time on it.

Interestingly, mine was older but more modern than the later model.

These pictures show the later model, with wood railings between the paths and a painted? wood surface to roll on. The later model came out by 1959 or 60, I think, but my earlier model had plastic (but strong) railings and a clear plastic surface to roll on, with something drawn underneath the plastic. I think mine was harder to win with, maybe. The plastic railings were narrower, so the path was wider. I think that made it harder to control the ball, or but still no easier to avoid the holes. Still not enough room to slide by. And the plastic surface might have been a trifle faster.

I never got a chance to play on the later model, but even as a 12- or

YOurs looks identical to what I remember from the later model, except I have no opinion on the knobs.

If I'd known these were still for sale, I would have bought my nephew one 15 years ago, and maybe my niece too. Is it too late?

I think eventually one of the springs came off at one end. Now I would take it apart and fix it, but I didn't do things like that then. I hope it was given to someone who did.

BTW, this was easy to find because from your descripion above, without seeing your url, I immediately thought of marble maze, a phrase I have not used in over 50 years.

When I was only half-way through.

And you had not used the word maze.

It shows what a good toy it is. I'm still precise and dextrous, and maybe that was my start.

The Amazon ad says "can be an educational toy to develop fine motor skills." Exactly

BTW, fwiw etsy charges 75 and amazon 45.

Hey, Etsy says "Vintage from the 1980s". maybe that's when the new model came out, but I had mine between 1953 and 1957.

And I notice neither ad calls it Marble Maze. Maybe the owner of the name wouldn't let them use it, but the path of the ball and the locations of the holes were the same. Did the first guy trademark the name but didn't get a design patent on the product, and it's made by different people? I had assumed since it was so, so similar, only the two diffeences I descirbed, and maybe a detail about the shape of the knobs, that it was the same company.

Etsy rellers buy from Amazon and double the price??

I remember it being called "Labirynth"

I' not sure when I had mine but it must have been in the mid-late 50's when I was in junior high school and it definitely was wood, not plastic.

Please, keep the marbles away from small children. DAMHIKT.

There's a $13 version on amazon as well.

WRT mine, the box was wood. Only the barricades and the rolling surface were plastic. Plastic sounds so cheap but it was well done. Nothing plastic ever broke at all.

So if you had wood in the mid-late 50's and plastic was sometime between