Marbles

One of the most fun games mostly played by boys in the 1980's. This game was for 2 players, and this game is also commonly known as "ringer". Players start the game by drawing a circle that is about 3 meters across, They usually use chalk if they're playing on the pavement, or a stick if they're playing on the sand.

Next, they would use their marbles, usually

around 13 of them. And arrange them in an cross formation inside the ring. As seen from Fig.2 above.

Players next decide the order of turn. Once that is done, players begin playing. The first player will position himself outside the ring and use his shooter marble, which is slightly bigger than the other marbles in the circle, and shoot it at the marbles in attempt to knock them out of the ring. If he is successful, he gets to go again and keeps the marble that he knocked out. He then shoots from the position in which his shooter stopped.

As seen from this picture, player No.1 shoots a marble, but fails to knock it out of the ring. This now ends player 1's turn. and is now player 2's turn to play. Players continue taking turns like this.

Once all the marbles have been knocked out of the circle, players now count their marbles. Since there is an odd number of marbles, it would be impossible to encounter a tie. The player with the most number of marbles would be the winner.

Players could also play "for keeps". In which the player keeps whatever marbles he had won during that game. Or they could just play for fun, with no stakes at all.

This game was a very popular game back in the 1980's, This game could have been played by your parents or other relatives. Now that you know how to play the game, why dont you give them a challenge? Let your older relatives re-live the olden times! Make them feel young again!