h a l f b a k e r yContrary to popular belief
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This was not intended to be a half-baked idea. I figured that it would be baked to a fare-thee-well; I still wouldn't be too surprised if someone found it out there in the wild.
The idea is to simply enlarge the game of pool to about 4 times original size - played on a table (floor? court? arena?)
20 feet wide and 30 feet long, with pockets at scale. The balls are undrilled bowling balls colored appropriately; the cue ball is, of course, drilled to be handled like a standard bowling ball.
One major equipment change is that instead of bowling shoes, a shoe with a good protection for ankle-crush injury should be used.
A ten-foot wide border outside the playing surface can also be used for your approach; just remember the step down.
A fault would be called if the cue ball is not put back into play within the circle it occupied at the the end of the last shot.
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Annotation:
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Hearing protection will most likely be needed, too. |
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I would assume the surface would not be oiled; that may allow your spin to take effect without as much room as bowling lane requires. |
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This is soooo cool!! I love both games, and I wouldn't be amazed it somebody stole this idea from you [lurch]. PLEASE bakers!! REgister your ideas, patent your inventions, protect your creativity! Or do you care not? |
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Sounds like a slight adaptation of lawn bowling. |
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//allow for English on the cue ball// Am I being dim or does this make no sense at all? (+) for the idea though....I would really, really love to play this. |
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English is what Americans call spin because Americans love to obfuscate the games they play. |
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Nah, it's we just put our own spin on things. |
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Now, as far as the French, we don't allow them to touch the cue ball at all. |
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This is an idea I also came up with sometime back in the 90's. I actually did a bit of figuring to estimate cost and approached a few people about building a billiard bowling rink. The problem is cost- bowling lanes are more than just hardwood floors. Also would need some R&D...finding the right material to use as bumpers, and (crucially) from experiments, the right material
for the object balls. The human arm is not capable of rolling a bowling ball hard enough to get a satisfactory response out of another bowling ball, let alone 15. Still, this idea should be done, and I'll bet someday it will. |
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Also, I should point out that it is quite a bit more difficult to aim a bowling ball than a billiard ball. Games would take forever, and what with the construction costs and space cost, you'd have to charge 20 bucks a game. |
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I'd pay that. Get a few mates together and you're paying less than the cost of a pint each. |
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Of course that's what you would need to do, unabubba. However, reducing the size defeats the purpose, and inventing and manufacturing a large sphere of custom plastic with the proper density would be wicked expensive..I've made inquiries...
What is needed is a prototype to attract investors- I think I could do it for a quarter mil. Anyone?
I'm just saying that this is a classic half-baked idea....but I want to play BB sooo bad. |
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(which is what I was gonna call it before the prepost Search) :) |
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1. Players stay off the playing 'surface.' (Less ankle
crushing.) |
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2. The cue stick would be a tube, long enough to
reach any possible shot on the floor. To propel the
cue ball (make the shot), another ball ('the
shooter') is chosen from a Set of five, or so, same
size balls with varying masses. |
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The player drops his chosen shooter into the tube,
which rolls down the tube, hitting a thin metal
membrane at the end, which is being held against
the cue ball. When the shooter strikes the
membrane, its momentum is transferred to the cue
ball, sending it off at a speed proportional to the
mass of the shooter. (Think of Newton's Cradle.) |
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The angle of the 'cue tube' is another variable,
contributing to the velocity of the shot. This could
either be incorporated into the game or equalized
with fixed-angle-brace of some sort. |
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3. Play proceed as in billiards. |
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Oh, forget english (spin)... |
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