I like to watch the games, figure out the angles and excel. Hence we've won tons of watches, TV's, bikes and other items at the Mardi Gras on the Main Street Pier in Daytona Beach as a result of gaming during our many vacations. During our trip this past August, we snagged a power washer for my Dad.
We go, play and let the points accumulate. A couple of years ago, I picked up a Wii at Happy Days Arcade in Old Town in Kissimmee, where we celebrate our anniversary every year.
Plus, I am the Crane Master. Show me one of those prize cranes with stuffed animals and i will win. Every prize has a specific weight balance; a center.
All it takes to win arcade games, I often tell people, is patience and a total disregard for money.
So, last week, The Vindicator published a picture of an arcade game that caught my attention:
Michael Snyder, a vendor who runs a dart toss game at the Canfield Fair, waits for customers. © The Vindicator
If you look closely, you can see that if you play for $20, you can win an electric guitar. To me, the attraction was electric, frankly. And irresistible.
I sought out the booth after my Saturday morning shift at the Canfield Fair in The Vindicator booth. I snapped this picture of our cool booth during a rare lull in traffic:
I watched a few players at the game. You had to throw a dart and hit the colored section of a star with very thin points. Most players would aim for the star directly across from them; about a seven-foot throw. For some reason (Gimmicked? Too well-worn? Poor velocity?) the dart would stick in the white around the star and bounce off of the colored star. I decided that I would arc the darts up toward the top, gaining some velocity on the way down and choosing the stars less-often played.
I plunked $20 down and after three shots, I had perfectly and symmetrically surrounded a star. I hit no color. But all of the darts had stuck.
I plunked down another $20 and took better aim. The first landed well within the colored part of a star. Winner!
I still had two darts. Though the sign clearly limits players to just one prize per day, the guy running the game – who couldn't have been a nicer guy – let me continue on. The second shot: Winner! Other players took note. There was some amazement. The third just hit white.
So, I picked a black-and-white Crescent bass, that came with a gig bag, strap and accessory kit that includes a tuner and a pick. It looks like this:
You can find it for about $100 on eBay.com, so I figured $40 was a decent deal.
More importantly, I had won. And there were a few jealous stares as I walked through the fair, clutching the heavy, full-sized bass.
"Nice bass. Where did you get it?"
"I won it throwing darts."
"What? Really? Where?"
Now, I should point out I don't actually PLAY the bass. I have no musical talent whatsoever. None. But now I want an electric guitar to match...
More later,
Mark
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