Carnival Secrets [Paperback]

Matthew Gryczan (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0941599248 | ISBN-13: 978-0941599245 | Publication Date: February 1994 | Edition: 2nd

This book reveals the secrets of winning midway games. The author describes dozens of games and explains how to play them. He also warns about dishonest games and those games which are almost impossible to win. The book includes plans for building your own games to be used for practice, home entertainment, or for making your own mini-carnival. This book provides a fascinating look at the world of carnival games.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The best book written for the consumer of carnival games." -- William Riedthaler, carnival game investigator

"The most informative of all on the subject. It's a must for investigators and all carnival game buffs." -- Bob Synder, nationally known gaming consultant

"Written for anyone who wants a better idea of what goes on under the carnival tent." -- Sports Form

About the Author

Matthew Gryczan is a working journalist who spent more than two years investigating and learning the tricks of the trade from carnival game manufacturers, law enforcement agents, and carnies.

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Players Pr; 2nd edition (February 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0941599248
• ISBN-13: 978-0941599245
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,392,624 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good Book for All, Especially Science and Math Teachers, March 29, 2001

By 

Nathan A. Unterman (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Carnival Secrets (Paperback)

This books talks about over 35 different carnival games, their strategies, and how they work. Some parts are so detailed, that it is easy enough to build your own attractions from the description. Just to pick two games that can be used in the classroom, Roll Down (Chapter 10) is good for a probability exercise, and Bottle Set Up (Chapter4) is good for a center of mass lab or demonstration. This is a fun book that will cause you to look at carnival games much differently, and for the creative teacher, has extensions for use in a classroom.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fun book!, December 13, 2008

By 

T. Peyton (Central CA United States) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Carnival Secrets (Paperback)

This book explains some of the "mystery" of carnival games. It was fun to have some of my suspicions confirmed and uncover even more explanations for why I never win the big prize!

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not so much revealed..., October 5, 2008

By 

A. Pontius - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Carnival Secrets: How to Win at Carnival Games, Which Games to Avoid, How to Make Your Own Games (English, Spanish, French, Italian, German, Japanese, ... Gujarati, Bengali and Korean Edition) (Paperback)

Sorry to say, but I was very disappointed with this book. The title promised to tell us "how to win carnival games and how to make your own games." The author does tell you how hard, if not impossible, it is to win each game. But he provides very little in the way of how to construct your own practice setup or how to best win the games. He also sites very old statistical data for how often people win - which isn't very often. After reading this book I was more discouraged than anything. My son wanted to learn how to win the big prizes, but this book's message is mostly "Don't bother, kid, you'll lose."