A marble is a small spherical toy usually made from glass

Glass

Glass is an amorphous solid material. Glasses are typically brittle and optically transparent.The most familiar type of glass, used for centuries in windows and drinking vessels, is soda-lime glass, composed of about 75% silica plus Na2O, CaO, and several minor additives...

, clay

Clay

Clay is a general term including many combinations of one or more clay minerals with traces of metal oxides and organic matter. Geologic clay deposits are mostly composed of phyllosilicate minerals containing variable amounts of water trapped in the mineral structure.- Formation :Clay minerals...

, steel

Steel

Steel is an alloy that consists mostly of iron and has a carbon content between 0.2% and 2.1% by weight, depending on the grade. Carbon is the most common alloying material for iron, but various other alloying elements are used, such as manganese, chromium, vanadium, and tungsten...

, or agate

Agate

Agate is a microcrystalline variety of silica, chiefly chalcedony, characterised by its fineness of grain and brightness of color. Although agates may be found in various kinds of rock, they are classically associated with volcanic rocks and can be common in certain metamorphic rocks.-Etymology...

. These balls vary in size. Most commonly, they are about ½ inch (1.25 cm) in diameter, but they may range from less than ¼ inch (0.635 cm) to over 3 inches (7.75 cm), while some art glass marbles for
display purposes are over 12 inches (30 cm) wide. Marbles can be used for a variety of game

Game

A game is structured playing, usually undertaken for enjoyment and sometimes used as an educational tool. Games are distinct from work, which is usually carried out for remuneration, and from art, which is more often an expression of aesthetic or ideological elements...

s called marbles. They are often collected

Collecting

The hobby of collecting includes seeking, locating, acquiring, organizing, cataloging, displaying, storing, and maintaining whatever items are of interest to the individual collector. Some collectors are generalists, accumulating merchandise, or stamps from all countries of the world...

, both for nostalgia and for their aesthetic colors. In the North of England the objects and the game are called 'taws', with larger taws being called bottle washers after the use of a marble in Codd-neck bottles.

History

Marbles originated in Harappan civilization in Pakistan near the river Indus. Various marbles of stone were found on excavation near Mohenjo-daro

Mohenjo-daro

Mohenjo-daro is an archeological site situated in what is now the province of Sindh, Pakistan. Built around 2600 BC, it was one of the largest settlements of the ancient Indus Valley Civilization, and one of the world's earliest major urban settlements, existing at the same time as the...

. Marbles are also often mentioned in Roman literature, and there are many examples of marbles from ancient Egypt. They were commonly made of clay, stone or glass and commonly referred to as a "Glass alley".

Ceramic

Ceramic

A ceramic is an inorganic, nonmetallic solid prepared by the action of heat and subsequent cooling. Ceramic materials may have a crystalline or partly crystalline structure, or may be amorphous...

 marbles entered inexpensive mass production

Mass production

Mass production is the production of large amounts of standardized products, including and especially on assembly lines...

 in the 1870s.

A German glassblower

Glassblowing

Glassblowing is a glassforming technique that involves inflating molten glass into a bubble, or parison, with the aid of a blowpipe, or blow tube...

 invented marble scissors in 1846, a device for making marbles. The first mass-produced toy marbles (clay) made in the US were made in Akron, Ohio by S.C. Dyke, in the early 1890s. Some of the first US-produced glass marbles were also made in Akron, by James Harvey Leighton. In 1903, Martin Frederick Christensen—also of Akron, Ohio—made the first machine-made glass marbles on his patented machine. His company, The M.F. Christensen & Son Co., manufactured millions of toy and industrial glass marbles until they ceased operations in 1917. The next US company to enter the glass marble market was Akro Agate. This company was started by Akronites in 1911, but was located in Clarksburg, West Virginia. Today, there are only two American-based toy marble manufacturers: Jabo Vitro in Reno, Ohio, and Marble King, in Paden City, West Virginia.

Marbles games

Various games can be played with marbles; any such game can itself be called 'marbles' (cf. darts

Darts

Darts is a form of throwing game where darts are thrown at a circular target fixed to a wall. Though various boards and games have been used in the past, the term "darts" usually now refers to a standardised game involving a specific board design and set of rules...

, skittles

Skittles

Skittles may refer to:*Skittles , a small candy made in many flavors*Skittles , the game from which bowling originated*Skittles , a casual chess game in chess jargon...

, bowls

Bowls

Bowls is a sport in which the objective is to roll slightly asymmetric balls so that they stop close to a smaller "jack" or "kitty". It is played on a pitch which may be flat or convex or uneven...

).

One game involves drawing a circle in sand, and players will take turns knocking other players' marbles out of the circle with their own marble. This game is called ringer. Other versions involve shooting marbles at target marbles or into holes in the ground (such as rolly or rolley hole). A larger-scale game of marbles might involve taking turns trying to hit an opponent's marble to win. A useful strategy is to throw a marble so that it lands in a protected, or difficult location if it should miss the target. As with many children's games, new rules are devised all the time, and each group is likely to have its own version, often customized to the environment. While the game of marbles was once ubiquitous and attracted widespread press to national tournaments, its popularity has dwindled in the television age.

United Kingdom

Popular in the early 1970s was a marble game called grids. Similar to rolly or rolley hole, the object was to be the first to land one's marble into a hole. However, a makeshift board was created using manhole grids. Each player would start at either end and attempt to thumb-flick their marble between the raised sections of the grid towards the removal hook holes. A player was not permitted to jump his marble over the raised sections, but only travel down the grid lines. Each player took turns until one reached the hole. In a "keepsy" game the winner would get to keep the other player's marble.

Taiwan

Yet another specialized version of the game (as played in Taiwan) involves a five-holed course and can be played by two to six players. This version is typically played on a flat hard-packed clay surface. Five divots, approximately 2 cm deep and 4 to 5 cm wide, are excavated in the four corners of a 1.5m by 1.5m square. The fifth divot is excavated in the center of the square where the square's diagonals intersect. The players each begin with one marble and a series of games of rock-paper-scissors

Rock-paper-scissors

Rock-paper-scissors is a hand game played by two people. The game is also known as roshambo, or another ordering of the three items ....

 determines the starting order of the players. The beginning player starts at one of the holes in the corner of the square and this hole becomes the designated "home" hole for the remainder of the game. The first player shoots for the center hole. If he or she successfully shoots his or her marble into the center hole (namely, the marble comes to rest in the hole without bouncing out), then he or she gets to shoot for the hole to the right. In the event of a miss, the next player in line gets to start, and he or she also can proceed until a shot misses a hole. The idea is to shoot the marble from the home hole to center, from center to right, from right back to center, from center to left, from left back to center, from center to top, from top back to center, and finally from center back to home. The first player to complete this course becomes the "ghost" and is at liberty to shoot at the other players' marbles as they attempt to complete the course. If the ghost successfully hits another player's marble, the ghost then wins that marble and the losing party removes the marble from play, surrendering the marble to the ghost immediately. Although the ghost wins the match immediately upon completing the course, the game is not over until all players have either completed the course or have had their marbles removed from play by the ghost.

Canada

In Canada, the game is played using a hole. Two or three people can play this way, either solo, or in teams of two. One simply makes a shallow or deep hole in the ground using the heel of his/her foot. Everyone then takes turns (in no particular order) shooting their marbles at the hole, trying to see who can get closer. The closest person gets to go first at flicking the marbles into the hole using the tip of the middle finger or the side of the pointer finger. In some games, feet are used to play. A player's two feet would create an upside down uppercase L shape, with the back foot pointing straight ahead and its toes touching or near the toes of the second foot, which was turned completely sideways, pointing either left (if the right foot was in front) or right (if the left foot was in front). The marble would be placed on the outside of the front foot, near the pinky toe. The back foot would then lightly tap the front foot, which would hit the marble in the desired direction. If the first person misses, the person who was second-closest will then go. This goes on until all marbles are knocked in. Oddly, the person to knock the last marble into the hole wins all of the marbles. No matter what, whoever plays must play for keeps unless the player says not to at the beginning of the game. If a player says "clearsies", then the player takes out all of the marbles, keeping them safe so someone else cannot knock the marbles out of the hole. If a player says "doctor", then they can get someone else to make the shot for them, but only one shot. If one is playing with "knockies", then both players play the same way, but the person to get closest does not go first—the person who gets furthest does. However, he/she must take their turn to move his/her marble back a little and the first person will try to flick the further marble to the closer one to try and knock it in the hole. After there is one marble left, you will play the last one normally. After this is completed the player with the most marbles
wins.

United States

A curious version of marbles which used the feet, rather than the hands, to shoot was played in Southern New Hampshire (Nashua-Derry region) in the mid 1960s through 1970s. Players first made a target hole, by pivoting on a heel in the dirt. Paired opponents would take turns to see who would get their marble into the hole first, starting from a distance of up to about ten feet. The marble was aimed and propelled (in the case of a right-footed person) by the left foot being placed touching the marble so that the marble was at the outside, widest part of the foot forward of the arch. Then, with that left foot planted, and requiring a bit of a knock-kneed stance, the right foot kicks the inside of the left foot (directly opposite the marble). This kick dislodges the left foot into the marble, hitting it into the direction of the hole. The basic strategy was that the first one to sink their marble into the hole won the game, and kept the opponent's marble. A distinct advantage was gained by getting to shoot first. Marbles had a defined value system based on size and style, with very large marbles (termed "Elephant Eggs") being the most valuable, and requiring an equally-valued assortment of marbles to be included in the wager if play was to commence. Steel ball bearings of large marble size were also desirable. Due to the two-player nature of the game, and the many players, school-grounds sprouted hundreds of holes, with many simultaneous games during recess. Marbles also became a distraction in the classroom, where they often spilled onto the floor from pockets or from slippery admiring hands.

Australia

In Australia, during the 1950s and 1960s, a very popular game with variety in its play was "Bunny Hole".
The winner of this game was he who was first able to hit the other player's marble four times, but this had to be achieved under certain constraints.
A hole (called the "bunny hole") was dug by pivoting the heel of the foot into the sand or dirt. A line was then marked out some 20 feet [6 metres] away, and each player in turn then pitched his/her marble from the line to see who could rest the marble nearest the bunny hole. The person whose marble came to rest nearest the hole would go first. This player would then attempt to 'fire' his marble in a manner so as to rest it in the hole.
No 'hits' on other marbles were accounted to any player until (s)he had successfully played his/her own marble into the bunny hole.

"Firing" a marble meant that a player had to flick his/her marble from a stationary position of his hand. No part of the hand firing the marble was permitted to be in front of the position where the marble had been resting on the ground. Using that hand, (s)he would flick or fire the marble from his/her hand, usually with the knuckle on the back of his/her hand resting on the ground, and usually using the thumb of that hand to do so. All shots of the game were conducted in this manner throughout except the very initial pitch towards the bunny hole that commenced the game.

Once a player was able to land his/her marble within the hole, (s)he would immediately then fire his marble at his opponents' marbles.
However, if any player hit another player's marble before his/her own marble had been to 'visit' the bunny hole, the act would be referred to as "a kiss"; the game would be over, and all or both players (in the case of two players only) would have to retreat back to the starting line to re-commence the game, without result. This, of course, could be quite annoying or frustrating if a player had already built up quite a few hits on another player's marble! So, most skilled players did not resort to this kind of tactic.

The overall aim was to hit a particular marble 3 times after getting into the hole, then you had to "run away", before the final contact shot was allowed to be played - which was called "the kill". Once a player made a kill on another marble, if the game was 'for keeps', (s)he would then get to keep the marble [bunny] (s)he had 'killed'. The format of playing this game was that each time you successfully hit another player's marble, you were to have another shot - even if it was not the marble you had originally intended to hit.

Of course, the ploy was to hit the particular opponent marble 3 times, and then 'run away' to the bunny hole, because once you rested the marble into the hole, you immediately had your shot again, thus leaving no opportunity at all for your opponent to retreat his/her marble before "the Kill" was made on it.

World championship

The British and World Marbles Championship

British and World Marbles Championship

-World Marbles at Tinsley Green:The tournament is said to date back several hundred years to 1588 during the reign of Elizabeth I, when is reputed to be the scene of an epic marbles battle between two young men, over the hand of a local milk maiden....

 have been held at Tinsley Green, West Sussex, England every year since 1932. (Marbles has been played in Tinsley Green and the surrounding area for many centuries: TIME

Time (magazine)

Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...

magazine traces its origins to 1588.) Traditionally, the marbles-playing season started on Ash Wednesday

Ash Wednesday

Ash Wednesday, in the calendar of Western Christianity, is the first day of Lent and occurs 46 days before Easter. It is a moveable fast, falling on a different date each year because it is dependent on the date of Easter...

 and lasted until midday on Good Friday

Good Friday

Good Friday , is a religious holiday observed primarily by Christians commemorating the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and his death at Calvary. The holiday is observed during Holy Week as part of the Paschal Triduum on the Friday preceding Easter Sunday, and may coincide with the Jewish observance of...

: playing after that brought bad luck. More than 20 teams from around the world take part in the championship, each Good Friday; German teams have been successful several times since 2000, although local teams from Crawley, Copthorne

Copthorne, West Sussex

Copthorne is a village in the Mid Sussex district of West Sussex, England. It lies close to Gatwick Airport, south of London, north of Brighton, and northeast of the county town of Chichester. Nearby towns include Crawley to the southwest and East Grinstead to the east...

 and other Sussex and Surrey

Surrey

Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...

 villages often take part as well; the first championship in 1932 was won by a team from the Black Horse in nearby Hookwood

Charlwood

Charlwood is a village and civil parish in the Mole Valley district of Surrey, England. It is immediately northwest of London Gatwick Airport in West Sussex, close west of Horley and north of Crawley. The historic county boundary between Surrey and Sussex ran to the south of Gatwick Airport...

.

Terms

• Kunchey is the term used in northern India
  India
  India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
  
   to refer to both a game played with marbles, and the marbles themselves.
• Lakhoti is the word for marble in many parts of western India, mainly in Gujarat. Names for types of marbles include anto, antak and picchi.
• Goli Gundu is a Tamil
  Tamil language
  Tamil is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by Tamil people of the Indian subcontinent. It has official status in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and in the Indian union territory of Pondicherry. Tamil is also an official language of Sri Lanka and Singapore...
  
   term used to refer to both a game played with marbles, and the marbles themselves.
• "Knuckle down", the position adopted at the start line at the beginning of a match.You begin with your knuckle against the ground.
• Marbles are also named by their color.
• "Quitsies": Allows any opponent to stop the game without consequence. You can either have "quitsies" (able to quit) or "no quitsies".
• "Keepsies" (or "for keeps"): The player keeps all the marbles he or she wins.
• "Elephant Stomps": When called, it allows a player to stomp his/her marble level with the ground surface, making it very difficult for other players to hit the marble.
• "Bombies": When called, it allows a player to take 1-2 steps while holding his/her marble and normally closing one eye will line up over one of the opponents marble and drop the marble trying to hit the marble on the ground.
• "Leaning Tops": When called, a shooter leans in on his/her off hand for leverage over an indentation on any type of surface or obstacle.
• A "taw" or "shooter" is a larger marble used to shoot with, and "ducks" are marbles to be shot at.
• Various names refer to the marbles' size. Any marble larger than the majority may be termed a boulder, masher, popper, shooter, taw, bumbo, crock, bumboozer, bowler, tonk, tronk, godfather, tom bowler, giant or Biggie. A marble smaller than the majority is a peawee/peewee or mini. A "grandfather" is the largest marble, the size of a billiards ball or tennis ball.
• Various names for different marble types (regional playground talk, Leicester
  Leicester
  Leicester is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands of England, and the county town of Leicestershire. The city lies on the River Soar and at the edge of the National Forest...
  
  , UK): Marleys (Marbles), Prit (white marble), Kong (large marble), King Kong (larger than a Bosser), Steely (Metal Ball-bearing). Names can be combined: e.g. Prit-Kong (large white marble). There are many more such names, as discussed in the next section.

Types of marbles

• Alley or real - made of marble or alabaster (alley is short for alabaster), streaked with wavy or other patterns with exotic names like corkscrew, spiral, snake, ribbon, onyx, swirl, bumblebee, butterfly, and...
  • Toothpaste - Also known as "Plainsies" in Canada. Wavy streaks usually with red, blue, black, white, orange.
  • Turtle - wavy streaks containing green and yellow
  • Ade - strands of opaque white and color, making lemon-ade, lime-ade, orange-ade, etc.
  • Oxblood - a streaky patch resembling blood
  • Oilie or Oily - Opaque with a rainbow, iridescent finish
  • Pearls - Opaque with single color with "mother of pearl" finish
  • Lutz - a type of swirl, taken from the skating term
  • Onionskin - swirled and layered like an onion
  • Clambroth - equally spaced opaque lines on a usually opaque base
  • Cat's Eye or catseye - central eye-shaped colored inserts or cores (injected inside the marble)
    • Devil's Eye - red with yellow eye
    • Beachball - three colors and six vanes
• Aggie - made of agate (aggie is short for agate) or glass resembling agate, with various patterns like in the alley
• Bumblebee - mostly yellow with two black strips on each side.
• China - glazed porcelain, with various patterns similar to an alley marble
  • Plaster - a form of china that is unglazed
• Commie or common - made of clay
  • Bennington - clay fired in a kiln with salt glaze
  • Crock - made from crockery (earthenware) clay
• Croton alley or Jasper - glazed and unglazed china marbled with blue
• Crystal or clearie or purie - any clear colored glass - including "opals," "glimmers," "bloods," "rubies," etc. These can have any number of descriptive names such as "deep blue sea", "blue moon", "green ghost", "brass bottle".
  • Princess - a tinted crystal
  • Galaxy - lots of dots inserted to look like like a sky of stars
• Indian - dark and opaque, usually black, with overlaid stripes of colors; usually white, and one or more other colors. Some new ones are also many colors like blue, green and scarlet.
• Mica - glassy to translucent with streaks or patches of mica, ranging from clear to misty
• Steely - made of steel; a steely was sometimes made from a flat piece of steel folded into a sphere and shows a cross where the corners all come together.
• Sulphide - Usually, a large (1.25 to 3 inch) clear glass sphere with a small statuette or figure inside. Most common are domesticated animals such as dogs, cats, cows, etc.; then wild animals; human figures are scarce; inanimate objects such as a train or pocket watch are very rare and command high prices. The interior figures are made of white clay or kaolin, and appear a silvery color due to light refraction. A sulphide with a colored-glass sphere, or with a painted figure inside, is also very rare and brings a high price. Like other types of antique marbles, sulphides have been reproduced and faked in large quantities.
• Tiger- Clear with orange/ yellow stripes

Marble collecting

Marbles are categorized by many factors including condition, size, type, manufacturer/artisan

Artisan

An artisan is a skilled manual worker who makes items that may be functional or strictly decorative, including furniture, clothing, jewellery, household items, and tools...

, age, style, materials, scarcity, and the existence of original packaging (which is further rated in terms of
condition). A marble's worth is primarily determined by type, size, condition and eye-appeal, coupled with the law of supply and demand. Ugly, but rare marbles may be valued as much as those of very fine quality. However, this is the exception, rather than the rule - "Condition is King" when it comes to marbles. Any surface damage (characterized by missing glass, such as chips or pits) typically cut book value by 50% or more.

Due to the large market, there are many related side businesses that have sprung up such as numerous books and guides, web sites dedicated to live auction

Auction

An auction is a process of buying and selling goods or services by offering them up for bid, taking bids, and then selling the item to the highest bidder...

s of marbles only, and collector convention

Convention (meeting)

A convention, in the sense of a meeting, is a gathering of individuals who meet at an arranged place and time in order to discuss or engage in some common interest. The most common conventions are based upon industry, profession, and fandom...

s. Additionally, many glass artisans produce marbles for the collectors' market only, with some selling for hundreds of dollars .

Manufacture

Marbles are made using many techniques. They can be categorized into two general types: hand-made

Lapidary

A lapidary is an artist or artisan who forms stone, mineral, gemstones, and other suitably durable materials into decorative items such as engraved gems, including cameos, or cabochons, and faceted designs...

 and machine-made.

Marbles were originally made by hand. Stone

Rock (geology)

In geology, rock or stone is a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals and/or mineraloids.The Earth's outer solid layer, the lithosphere, is made of rock. In general rocks are of three types, namely, igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic...

 or ivory

Ivory

Ivory is a term for dentine, which constitutes the bulk of the teeth and tusks of animals, when used as a material for art or manufacturing. Ivory has been important since ancient times for making a range of items, from ivory carvings to false teeth, fans, dominoes, joint tubes, piano keys and...

 marbles can be fashioned by grinding. Clay

Clay

Clay is a general term including many combinations of one or more clay minerals with traces of metal oxides and organic matter. Geologic clay deposits are mostly composed of phyllosilicate minerals containing variable amounts of water trapped in the mineral structure.- Formation :Clay minerals...

, pottery

Pottery

Pottery is the material from which the potteryware is made, of which major types include earthenware, stoneware and porcelain. The place where such wares are made is also called a pottery . Pottery also refers to the art or craft of the potter or the manufacture of pottery...

, ceramic

Ceramic

A ceramic is an inorganic, nonmetallic solid prepared by the action of heat and subsequent cooling. Ceramic materials may have a crystalline or partly crystalline structure, or may be amorphous...

, or porcelain

Porcelain

Porcelain is a ceramic material made by heating raw materials, generally including clay in the form of kaolin, in a kiln to temperatures between and...

 marbles can be made by rolling the material into a ball, and then letting dry, or firing, and then can be left natural, painted, or glaze

Ceramic glaze

Glaze is a layer or coating of a vitreous substance which has been fired to fuse to a ceramic object to color, decorate, strengthen or waterproof it.-Use:...

d. Clay marbles, also known as crock marbles or commies (common), are made of slightly porous clay, traditionally from local clay or leftover earthenware ('crockery'), rolled into balls, then glazed and fired at low heat, creating an opaque imperfect sphere that is frequently sold as the poor boy's 'old timey' marble. Glass marbles can be fashioned through the production of glass rods which are stacked together to form the desired pattern, cutting the rod into marble-sized pieces using marble scissors, and rounding the still-malleable glass.

One mechanical technique is dropping globules of molten glass into a groove made by two interlocking parallel screws. As the screws rotate, the marble travels along them, gradually being shaped into a sphere as it cools. Color is added to the main batch glass and/or to additional glass streams that are combined with the main stream in a variety of ways. For example, in the "cat's-eye" style, colored glass vanes are injected into a transparent main stream. Applying more expensive colored glass to the surface of cheaper transparent or white glass is also a common technique.

Manufacturing locations

There were numerous businesses that made marbles in Akron, Ohio

Akron, Ohio

Akron , is the fifth largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Summit County. It is located in the Great Lakes region approximately south of Lake Erie along the Little Cuyahoga River. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 199,110. The Akron Metropolitan...

.
One major marble manufacturing company is Marble King, located in Paden City, West Virginia

Paden City, West Virginia

Paden City is a city in Tyler and Wetzel Counties in the U.S. state of West Virginia, along the Ohio River. The population was 2,860 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Paden City is located at ....

, which was featured in the television shows Made in America

John Ratzenberger's Made in America

John Ratzenberger's Made in America is an American documentary television series hosted by John Ratzenberger. The series premiered January 6, 2004, on the Travel Channel. Ratzenberger visits various American manufacturers, taking the show's viewers along on the tours and showing how various...

, Some Assembly Required

Some Assembly Required (TV series)

Some Assembly Required is a Discovery Channel TV series which premiered in the United States on December 27, 2007 and originally aired in 2007 and 2008. Hosts Brian Unger and physicist Lou Bloomfield explain how various things are manufactured and participate in the manufacturing process.-Season 1:...

and The Colbert Report. Currently, the world's largest manufacturer of playing marbles is Vacor de Mexico. The company makes 90 percent of the world’s marbles. Over 12 million of the little glass balls are produced each day.

Video games

• Marble Madness
  Marble Madness
  Marble Madness is an arcade video game designed by Mark Cerny, and published by Atari Games in 1984. It is a platform game in which the player must guide an onscreen marble through six courses, populated with obstacles and enemies, within a time limit. The player controls the marble by using a...
  
  , an Atari game where players race each other to the finish line.
• Marble Drop
  Marble Drop
  - Gameplay :Players are given an initial set of 42 marbles divided evenly into six colors. These marbles are picked up and dropped by the player into funnels leading to a series of rails, switches, traps and other devices which grow more complex as the game progresses. The aim is to ensure that...
  
  , a computer game where players place marbles in a complicated apparatus in an attempt to solve a puzzle.
• Marble Blast Gold
  Marble Blast Gold
  Marble Blast Gold is a 3D platformer game. It was pre-installed on some Apple Inc. computers like the iMac and iBook. It is also available for Windows operating systems as well as various Linux distributions...
  
  , a 2003 'get to the finish' first person game for the PC and Xbox; a sequel, Marble Blast Ultra
  Marble Blast Ultra
  Marble Blast Ultra is a 3D puzzle/action game involving a marble developed by GarageGames. It was released on January 25, 2006 for the Xbox 360 via Xbox Live Arcade. It is the sequel to Marble Blast Gold. It features 60 brand new levels, enhanced graphics, 2 new power-ups and a multiplayer mode...
  
  , was released later for the Xbox 360
  Xbox 360
  The Xbox 360 is the second video game console produced by Microsoft and the successor to the Xbox. The Xbox 360 competes with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
  
  
• Oxyd
  Oxyd
  Oxyd is a Trade Marked name for a patented chemical used by Reckitt Benckiser in some Optrex products.Oxyd is a computer puzzle game released for the Amiga, Atari ST, Macintosh, PC, and the NeXT platform by Dongleware Verlags GmbH in 1990....
  
  , a 1991 game for Atari ST
  Atari ST
  The Atari ST is a home/personal computer that was released by Atari Corporation in 1985 and commercially available from that summer into the early 1990s. The "ST" officially stands for "Sixteen/Thirty-two", which referred to the Motorola 68000's 16-bit external bus and 32-bit internals...
  
  , Amiga
  Amiga
  The Amiga is a family of personal computers that was sold by Commodore in the 1980s and 1990s. The first model was launched in 1985 as a high-end home computer and became popular for its graphical, audio and multi-tasking abilities...
  
   and Macintosh
  Macintosh
  The Macintosh , or Mac, is a series of several lines of personal computers designed, developed, and marketed by Apple Inc. The first Macintosh was introduced by Apple's then-chairman Steve Jobs on January 24, 1984; it was the first commercially successful personal computer to feature a mouse and a...
  
  
• Switchball
  Switchball
  Switchball is a 3D action-puzzle game, made by Swedish developer Atomic Elbow, which was released for Microsoft Windows on June 26, 2007, on Xbox Live Arcade for the Xbox 360 on November 7, 2007 and on PlayStation Network for the PlayStation 3 on September 17, 2009.-Gameplay:The game puts the...
  
  , a 2007 game for the PC and Xbox 360
• The World Ends With You uses a marble-like system called "Tin Pin Slammer" as the basis for several plot events. But, as the name suggests, this mini-game event requires the use of pins instead of marbles.

Other

• Ker-Plunk
  KerPlunk (game)
  KerPlunk is a children's game first marketed by the Ideal Toy Company in 1967.The game consists of a transparent plastic tube, plastic rods called straws and a number of marbles...
  
  , a game for two to four players involving marbles.
• Hungry Hungry Hippos
  Hungry Hungry Hippos
  Hungry Hungry Hippos is a tabletop game made for young children, currently produced by Hasbro, under the brand of its subsidiary, Milton Bradley. It was published in 1967 and introduced in 1978...
  
  , a game for two to four players involving marbles
• Chinese Checkers
  Chinese checkers
  Chinese checkers is a board game that can be played by two, three, four, or six people, playing individually or with partners...
  
  , often called "Marble Checkers", a board game for two to six players using marbles as game pieces
• Bakugan Battle Brawlers
  Bakugan Battle Brawlers
  is a Japanese action adventure anime television series produced by TMS Entertainment and Japan Vistec under the direction of Mitsuo Hashimoto. The story centers on the lives of creatures called Bakugan and the battle brawlers who possess them...
  
  , a game which uses magnetic spring loading marbles which open up to reveal creatures used to play the game
• B-Daman
  B-Daman
  is a marble shooting toy produced in Japan by Takara. In 2005, Hasbro licensed the "Battle B-Daman" configuration of the toy. In 2004, Hasbro joined forces with Takara and Fox Entertainment Group to bring it to the Japan and USA....
  
  , a toy that fires marbles and can be played under several game rules

External links

• German Marble Federation was established in 1997
• World Marbles Federation
• The American Toy Marble Museum
• National Marbles Championship and National Marbles Hall of Fame
• World Marbles Championship
• Streetplay's pages on marbles
• Introduction to marbles, with terms and rules
• Names of Marbles
• Terminology
• 1953 newspaper commentary on how marbles was played in early 1900s
• How to Play Marbles