He He. I'd love to see a game in action...

Take care, Ian

An old time carny first broke me in on this game in 1973 at an amusement park in White Lake, NC. A man and his wife Charles and Alice had joints side by side at Goldston’s Beach. Charles ran the Cover the Spot and Alice had the joint right next to her husband, but I can’t remember what game she operated. Charles made me a proposition that if I could find him some new disks that he would show me the joint. I immediately started looking in Lumberton, the closest town of any size. I found a sheet metal shop and the metal crafter had some sheets of zinc that he had left over from covering science tables at a local high school. He told me to bring him one of Charles’s disks as a pattern and that he would make as many new disks as I wanted. The metal crafter knew exactly what he was doing and took an awl and scored around the pattern. Then, as I watched, he cut out the disks with a pair of airplane sheers. I remember that this amazed me at the time as to how uniform he could cut each disk. I’m sure that today any such disks would be cut by a machine.

So any way, back to the joint. Charles first told me to practice so that I could cover the red correctly as many times as possible. But he also taught me how to “shade” so that the mark would think that I had completely covered the red, even when I missed. So yes guys, there is a “gaff” to this joint. Charles also taught me several other moves to con the mark that amount to what all of you magicians would call “slight of hand”.

This may be hard to find unless you go to a large library, but the September 1961 issue of "Scientific American" had an article on this game. I remember that the author stated that the disks and the red spot were a direct proportion. In other words, if one had 5-disks of the correct size, one could cover a Ferris wheel if the disks were placed properly.

Yep - the Scientific American article was probably by Martin Gardner - he had a section on the game in one of his books (I forget which one) where he gives a formula for placing the first disk.

The ratio between the large and small disks is important, and if you have that you can make a set in any size.

Take care, Ian

Hey guys, I just found an online version of the Spot the Spot Game.

http://www.smart-kit.com/games/game2/

Thanks for the recent posts gmonte3 and Ian. This is my favorite carnival game con. Does anyone know a source for getting the game or does everyone make their own? Also does anyone know or have the articles? Gmonte3 that online version is great, thanks for the link.

Muggs

I made a video lesson on the game a while back, which I believe is the only one. It's now part of the Virtual Sessions. I go over the pattern, how to make it surefire and the dimentions of the discs so you can make your own.

There are a couple of places in the States that sell the board without instructions.

Take care, Ian

Hey Muggs, Check out this link to a Carnival Game Supplier.

http://www.redboneproducts.com/secure/sh......emid=359

Good Luck,

Monty

I have seen two versions of this - one where you have DROP the discs onto the spot and the other where you simply place the discs down.

I assume the different that one is next to impossible and the other is just tricky.

The ad in the link that I left for Muggs above states that one can order boards with the red at 6 and 7/8, 7 and 7 and 1/8 inches. Believe me this has a lot to do with it. The disks sold here could be slightly larger than mine, but I measured my boards and the red is only 6 and 5/8 inches.

Remember this is a direct proportion!

Monty

Gmonty, thanks for the link, I appreciate it. There are some great resources on this thread for Spot the Spot. I've check all of them out. Ian Kendalls info and site are highly recommended. He has a lot of other great material on the site on cards and coins. He, like us, also has a side interest in this game and did great research on the topic.

Muggs

My friend, Mark Finnis, pointed me in the right direction. If you want to know exactly how large to make the discs... and how to do it, try this link:

http://mathworld.wolfram.com/DiskCoveringProblem.html

John

Ian Kendall and Alan Wong have released Cover the Spot- DVD and disks. I just ordered it and I can't wait to add this to my gambling show!

This DVD /spot set is excellent. The spots are high quality, durable plastic that can be used literally anywhere. The DVD got straight to the point. There aren't shots of a guy wearing sunglasses and ripped jeans in an alley to blaring techno music. It's straightforward and teaches you the real "work" on the Cover the Spot game. Even after watching the DVD,I quickly realized that operating the game will take lots of practice to do it smoothly and effortlessly. Ian's teaching style was very relaxed and I could immediately tell that he has been doing this for a long time. I highly recommend this product to anyone wanting to add a new game to their gambling show!