Marbleworks
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Marbleworks is a children's toy released in 1982 by Discovery Toys that consists of colorful, sloped, plastic half-pipes of different designs. The individual pieces interlock, creating a track on which marbles are run. Marbleworks teaches kids lessons in gravity and construction and provides an exciting racetrack for endless marble entertainment. Marbleworks pieces are made of hard plastic and come in red, yellow, blue, and green colors. The track pieces are open and allow the marble to be followed as it makes its way down the track. Each track piece is the same length allowing for easy connections, and has round fittings on each end that easily fit into the next piece. There are several types of track that make watching and racing the marbles very entertaining, and allows for many creative tracks to be built. One Marbleworks set contains enough parts to form a small tower, but multiple sets can be combined to build larger and more complex tracks. With enough pieces, a marbleworks tower can reach eight or nine feet high. A Marbleworks racetrack begins with the start funnel and ends with the finish line, and the builder is free to create his or her own type of track in between with the diverse pieces. A Marbleworks set and a handful of marbles presents numerous types of play for all ages.
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[edit] Construction
The Marbleworks pieces are lightweight and easy to put together. There is no specific pattern for building a tower; a builder can interchange pieces to produce a unique tower. There are several types of track that make watching and racing the marbles very entertaining:
[edit] Regular Track pieces
- Curly track
- This is the most abundant track in a Marbleworks set. It starts straight before curling in a tight circle around the joint that drops into the next piece.
- Zig-Zag
- This piece is a straight zig-zag that makes a "clanking" sound as the marble passes through it.
- Snake track
- This piece is very curvy and snake-like.
- Water wheel
- This piece is very similar to the curly track piece, but it has a wheel resembling a water wheel that is turned in a similar fashion as the marble passes under it.
[edit] Passing pieces
- Cloud
- This piece has a broad, flat surface with many pegs that impede the marbles' progress. Racing marbles might not take the same path through these pegs, which provides them with a chance to pass one another.
- Detour
- This piece separates into three different paths creating several different options for the marble to travel through. Usually the marble takes the quickest route through the center, but sometimes it will take a "detour" route that is longer, and another marble taking the shorter route can pass during this time.
- Banana
- A banana piece ramps downward before angling back upward, turning sharply around a median rib and leading back down and to the next piece. A fast marble will gain enough speed on this drop to go up and around the rib, while a slow marble must wait until it settles at the bottom before it falls into the next piece. Very often two racing marbles will collide in this piece, making it possible to drop into the next piece before the other marble.
- Funnel
- The funnel is perhaps the most exciting piece in Marbleworks, and presents the greatest chance of a marble being passed, which is why it is often used as the last piece of the race track. Marbles race into the funnel from the previous piece and roll around the outer rim of the funnel until they lose their momentum and fall into the center. Marbles perform differently in the funnel, and contact between marbles often decides the winner as one is knocked into the center. Because of the unpredictability of the funnel, a marble several pieces behind still has a chance to win the race.
[edit] Specialty pieces
- Starting line
- This is the first piece at the top of the tower. It has a hinged lift with six slots that makes it possible to start multiple marbles fairly as they drop into the funnel at the same time and battle for position entering the first track piece.
- Path splitter
- This piece creates a fork in the track and presents two routes for the marbles to take. Unlike most pieces, this piece has three interlocking joints and connects to three other pieces instead of two. The track splitter is very important for towers built especially for racing because a tower with multiple paths makes lead changes more likely since marbles can travel along different routes.
- Path joiner
- This piece is the opposite of the path splitter. It brings two paths together and joins them into one. When using a path splitter, a path joiner must also be used in order to have only one finish line.
- Ski jump
- This is a steep, sloping straight track piece that provides a marble with enough speed to jump of the ramp at the bottom. This piece, while very entertaining to use in casual play, is eschewed in racing tracks because marbles of different sizes have differing ranges off the ramp, so some might miss the catch tray.
- Catch tray
- The catch tray is the counterpart to the ski jump. Its flat surface and high sides catch the marbles and lead them to the next track piece.
- Finish line
- This is the last piece of a Marbleworks tower. With a checkered design, it stops the progress of all marbles and keeps them in the order they finished, making it clear who the winner and loser are.
- Supports and feet
- Vertical columns are the main support for a Marbleworks tower, and track pieces contribute to these columns. Support pieces fill in the gaps in the columns where there are no track pieces, and wide-based "feet" stabilize the tower. It is very important that the columns be as near vertical as possible in order to keep the tracks level and at an even slope. Higher towers have a tendency to lean, which alters the speed of the marbles and creates places where a marble may get stuck.
[edit] Marbleworks racing
The diversity of marbles and the pieces of track present several types of racing that may bring more excitement than freely running marbles through the track. The quickness and ease of the races and the lack of ambiguity of the results allows complex tournaments to be created and completed.
[edit] Classic tournament
A single elimination tournament bracket can be easily completed with a Marbleworks set. A bracket is drawn, and marbles are given names or numbers corresponding with their spot in the bracket. Marbles race one on one, and the winner advances to the next round while the loser is eliminated. This process weeds out the slower marbles and crowns the champion as the tournaments fastest marble. Because of the ease of racing and recording results, a Marbleworks bracket can reach sizes of 1024 marbles and still be completed relatively fast.
[edit] Team tournament
Because of the wide variety of marble designs, they can be grouped into teams, such as blue marbles or clear marbles. Participants in the tournament pick teams of their own as well as including teams with no owner, to increase competition. A bracket is drawn, and marbles are randomly placed in the bracket. As marbles are eliminated, they continue to race successively with the other losers of that round until all the marbles are ranked from first to last. Then, by adding the rankings of each team's marbles, the best team can be determined by which has the lowest total. Because of the extra races needed to determine rank, a team tournament may only include 64 marbles or less.
[edit] Other variations
There are no restrictions on tournament brackets, and they need not be a perfect bracket (brackets with 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512 etc. marbles). Marbleworks brackets can contain play in games, double elimination tournaments, triple elimination tournaments, round-robin tournaments, or whatever creation the makers come up with. Entire leagues can be made, and a regular season can be run complete with divisions and standings before the playoffs determine the winner.
[edit] Group racing
Group racing contains more than two marbles racing at a time. Usually the number is six, because that is how many slots there are in the starting line, but more marbles can still be raced. Six distinctly different marbles are chosen and raced, and the positions they finish in are recorded. The six marbles re-race several times and their positions determine their overall ranking. The top four marbles advance to the bracket, where the winner is determined.
[edit] Marbles
There are many types of marbles that can be raced in Marbleworks, and each type has its own strengths and weaknesses. Overall, a small glass marble tends to be the fastest, but any marble still has a chance to beat a small glass marble in any race. Designs within the marble, such as cat's eyes or bubbles, do not affect their racing. The main factors that determine a marble's speed are its size and its surface. Larger marbles perform slower in the cloud piece, and are more likely to get stuck, but they are less likely to fall out and perform better in contact situations that may arise in the banana or the funnel. Little marbles are usually speedier and do very well in the cloud piece, but they are more likely to fall out and can get knocked out of the way by a larger marble. Smooth, glass marbles are the norm, but some marbles have a scratchy, chipped, cracked, or paint splattered surface. These marbles are generrally slower than a smooth glass marble, however marbles with a very uneven surface (if they can keep up) will waste no time dropping right through the funnel and passing a smooth marble. Marbles are also made in materials other than glass, such as plastic and metal. Plastic marbles are very light and are more likely to fall out, and aren't very fast either. Metal ballbearings are very fast because of their weight. However, they lose their edge in the funnel, because their momentum keeps them spinning around for a much longer time than a glass marble.
[edit] Troubleshooting and extraordinary situations
A Marbleworks race can be very exciting, and no two races are the same. Many things can happen that makes no race an ordinary race:
[edit] Stuck marbles
Sometimes a marble will get stuck, allowing other marbles to gain ground on them. Any marble can get stuck, but a larger marble is more likely to get stuck. The most common place a marble will get stuck is in between track pieces, in the cloud piece, and occasionally in the banana piece. A stuck marble remains stuck until a person watching starts it again. Stuck marbles add to the unpredictability of the outcome of a Marbleworks race.
[edit] Disqualifications
A marble is disqualified when it falls out of the Marbleworks track. When a marble falls out, the other marble must only finish the race without falling out to be declared winner. On rare occasions, both marbles may fall out, in which case the race is restarted. Other than the ski jump, which usually isn't used in racing towers, the most common piece in which a marble will fall out is the track joiner section. The rather steep slope of this piece compared to others contributes to marbles' falling out. In fluke instances a marble will fall out of other pieces, such as the starting line or the funnel.
[edit] Shortcuts
A shortcut is when a marble falls off the Marbleworks track but lands back in another piece lower in the tower. This occasion, however unlikely it seems, happens somewhat frequently and in a very exciting fashion. As long as the marble remains in the track after it falls and never touches the ground, it is not disqualified.
[edit] Remarkable comebacks
Even a marble several track pieces behind has a chance to come back and win the race, especially with the funnel used right before the finish line. Pieces such as the detour and the banana provide a great chance to make up ground. Also, a marble entering the funnel ahead of another might be just about to fall into the center before the second marble crashes into it. The marble who enters the funnel first always has a greater chance of winning, but it is never guaranteed.
