Half a croissant, on a plate, with a sign in front of it saying '50c'
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pot-black

blind billiards game using angle, strength and sounds
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Setup: cover the old billiards table completely . Don't forget to allow for the height of the balls . Maybe use books around the edge and place over the top, some particle board . The playing area should not be able to be seen .

Each opponent has an even number of balls . The more balls the better . When nearly all the balls have been tabled there is more chance of a sink . Coin toss to start . The 'best of' number is decided .

Using any of the pockets as entry points, each player cues his or her ball onto the table . The current cued ball must stay on the table or the opponent gets that ball . This means each ball has to be individually marked .

The object of the game is to cue your ball to obtain as many tabled balls as possible until all the balls have been played .

Your opponent's stroke and the balls resulting sounds will help predict paths for your turn.

You might have to lift a corner of the table to recover any unsunk balls ;-) .

An unscrupulous player may have changed the felt surface or age may have warped the flatness . These factors would make prediction a bit more problematic .

TERMS

'the unknown' = hidden table area with or without balls .

'the pop' = The first ball being cued out there.

'a probe' = a players cued turn to put a ball out into the unknown.

'an in' = a sunk ball coming off table or coming into the light from the unknown .

'a shine' = a predicted in.

points: 5 for in, 11 for a shine, 5 to opponent for a failed shine .

wjt, Dec 22 2008


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       I'm not quite understanding yet. How many balls are in the game and how do you 'obtain' a ball?
Jinbish, Dec 22 2008
  

       it would appear that by hiding the action - you would spoil the enjoyment.   

       the billiards that I am familiar with has only 3 balls.
po, Dec 22 2008
  

       Billiards scores point by contact and by sinking/obtaining a ball . This game only involves the blind predictive cueing to sink any tabled ball . I probably should not have used the word billiards . A pool set can be used, 8 balls each (includes white cue ball) .   

       I think the enjoyment would be clever tactics - knowing where you left your ball so you can sink it later and the amazement when the hidden positions and your play make lots of balls leave the table .
wjt, Dec 22 2008
  

       Well, 'billiards' is as ambiguous as you could have gone for - some types of billiard tables do not have pockets. Wouldn't that be a laugh after 63 hours of play and no balls potted...   

       Wouldn't it be easier to just blindfold that players? (although less halfbaked)
Jinbish, Dec 22 2008
  

       This game would be complete random nonsense, even if professionals played it.   

       However, it would solve the pesky problem of badly hit balls jumping off the table.
phundug, Dec 22 2008
  

       Maybe, I should move the above to the computer game category . With mathematical manipulation of the newtonian engine, longer ball paths (a more frictionless enviroment or bouncier balls) will drop more balls into pockets .   

       A twist - points, 5 for a ball, 11 for predicting the fall pocket .
wjt, Dec 24 2008
  

       If you could selectively make balls disappear, then you could specify that each player can only see his/her own balls but not his opponent's (e.g in 8-Ball, where one person plays stripes and one plays solids).   

       But the opponent's balls are still there, and you might accidentally hit one. After your turn, you have to leave the room. Then your balls become invisible and your opponent's become visible.
phundug, Dec 24 2008
  

       I was thinking about a small window that you used a turn to place . The table covering would have a grid framework system to move the window .   

       If the game was software , making each persons balls show up or go invisible would be easy . Maybe like that answer paper, where you overlay a coloured filter and the answer words are revealed . If the patterns on the balls and the felt make the balls impossible to see unless an intervening filter is used . Could a pattern hide a 3D shape ? .   

       The game though, is really about hitting out into unknown with very little knowledge .
wjt, Dec 27 2008
  


 

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