Customer Reviews

The Secrets of Amusement Park Games... Revealed!

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I'm not sure why I purchased THE SECRETS OF AMUSEMENT PARK GAMES ... REVEALED. Perhaps it's my obsessive craving for profound knowledge. Perhaps it's because on those very rare occasions when I visit the annual Los Angeles County Fair, I steer clear of the games and beeline for the junk food. (Once a long time ago, I tried to show off to my then fiancée at an amusement park shooting booth and failed miserably. We eventually married, but she refuses to call me "Bwana". Perhaps this book will give me an edge for a major comeback in spousal respect.)

SECRETS will likely appeal to a very narrow niche market. I'm probably not a legitimate occupier of that cranny, but am giving the volume the benefit of the doubt with 4 stars anyway. (At my level of carny involvement, 5 seems cheeky.) Author Brian Richardson seems to know what he's talking about as he advises the reader on how to increase the odds of winning at the Milk Can Softball Toss, the Peach Basket Softball Toss, the BB Gun Star Shootout, the Ring Toss, the Sign Ball Bounce Off, the Curly Bar Ring Guide, the Basketball Shoot, and several others. In the Ring Toss, for instance, is it better to go with a throw of high or low arc, and is it done overhand or underhand? Brian instructs. A nice touch on the first page is an impressive photo of (apparently) all the stuffed animals the author has won using his tried and true techniques. Richardson also includes two chapters on the games he personally avoids, and the Top Ten steel and wooden roller coasters in America.

Brian has obviously had a lot of fun gathering the material for this little paperback - 85 pages in a 4 x 6.5 inch format. Would that we could all be so clever with our free-time diversions.

Talk about timing. The book I ordered weeks ago arrived today, as we coincidentally decided to go our first carnival of the summer. Using the trick I learned an hour earlier, I tossed the ball into the milk jug and... swoosh... it went in. So did the next three, and my 3-year-old daughter beamed as she picked out a teddy bear from the top shelf. The bear will be in the garage sale next summer, but the experience is a keeper.

You could fit the learnings from this book on an index card, but it makes for a fun experience and easily covered the small cover and shipping price.

-Kevin

I'm one of those guys who always stood in the back watching all those other guys win AWESOME prizes for their girlfriends...until now!

I just recently aquired the book "The Secrets of Amement Park Games...Revealed!" (I figured, "Heck a chance at winning for $4 I might as well give it a shot.") Shortly after reading the book I took my girlfriend up to an Indoor Amusement Park in Ohio. As I was walking around the park I came acrose that BB gan game, and me having read that great Secrets of Amusement Park book I thought, "Well let's see if this book really knows what it's talking about." I'm one who doesn't believe in sucess books so imagine my doubt...

It was my first time playing this game, because I have NEVER seen anyone win this, but the prizes were BIG! $2 a try for one big prize and $5 a try would win you a Playstation. I told the guy I have never tried it (bla blah blah) and he just told me to shoot out the star. Well, since I knew what the book said to do, and I did EXACTLY what it said...A couple minutes later the star fell out!! I was in shock and looked at my girlfried and she looked at me, and then I asked the guy, "Did I win?"

He said, "You tell me?"

I looked at the paper and said, "It looks good!" He called the boss over and showed it to him. He held it up with another paper behind it and sure enough I WON!!!! They hung my paper up with my name and gave me the Playstation...all for ONLY $5!! I couldn't believe it, my first time playing, and I WON!!! We won 4 other HUGE stuffed animals that night doing what the book told us!

The rest of the summers now I spend going to amusement parks with my girlfriend (who is now my WIFE) winning GREAT prizes and making all the other guys looking bad!! And all because of very well written book for $4.

The author, Brian, rights the book just like he is talking to you and is very easy to understand. A MUST for anyone going to an amusement park and wants to walk away a HERO!!

PS- I'm going to go play my playstation now!!

I am a carnival junkie and love carnival games. The very first time I used this book, I won (to my surprise)the "shoot the red star with the BB machine gun" game. I've never witnessed anyone actually do it, but I did it, the very first time. Problem was, the stuffed dog we won was so big, I had to take it to the car before we could see the rest of the fair. Not a bad trade off. This is a must read!

As a kid, I remember going to amusement parks and being awed by all of the big stuffed animals. I always wanted to win one, but I was never good at any of the games where the big winners play.

I am an adult now, and my wife purchased Six Flags season tickets this summer. Our family really likes the carnival games, but with the exception of the Wacky Wire, it was hard for any of us to win the really BIG prizes. So, we purchased "The Secrets of Amusement Park Games... Revealed!" through Amazon.com just before our last trip to Astroworld in Houston, Texas. One of the games that really beguiled me was the Milkcan Toss. I had never seen anyone win this game. I had tried it a couple of times before - 13 balls for $5 seems to be one of the better deals going among the different games offering big prizes - but I had never even gotten close to winning. After receiving the book, I read the chapter on playing the Milkcan Toss. By using the technique Brian offers in his book, with my first $5, I had won my wife a giant-sized Taz!!! We went on from there and took home quite a few prizes - three giant stuffed animals and probably 30 other prizes of various sizes.

That is why I rate the book 5 out of 5 stars. How many other self-help books have you tried showed immediate results? This is a first for me. Thanks for the advice on playing and winning such a challenging game as the Milkcan Toss. I would have to say that purchasing this book paid off with the very first game I played after reading it! I look forward to learning and using the book's techniques on on some of the other carnival games I have had my eyes on...

Look, this book is so good, my SON read it, and it has done 2 things: 1) he loves to figure things out, and this helped him understand what works and doesn't in these games, and 2) it also taught him some games to AVOID and now he doesn't just sit there and waste money on these things. Now he plays games he know he has a chance to win, and he does get some nice stuffed animals, which keeps my wife happy as well. This book is worth every penny.

Brian has written a book on the many games that he has experimented with over the years. Although he does tell you that some may be altered against you, there are some games that do give you a fair chance at winning, depending on your skill level. As a law enforcement officer who inspects carnival games and teaches on the subject for other cops, I am impressed with Brians writing and his humor in telling others his experience with games. Yes, you can win at some, but don't think that you will if no one enforces the law at your fair or carnival.

I suppose the information in this book is solid and useful, but the production values are so amateurish that it's very hard to get through. It seems as if Mr. Richardson typed this thing up on his computer, hit "Print", and sent it right to his publisher... no copy editing, no nothing. Basically, it's a good few web pages worth of info, with amateur web page grammar, language, etc. For the price, it's probably worth it, but don't expect that that money has purchased any great level of quality.

This book explains the "mystery" of carnival games and how they work. I enjoyed the behind-the-scenes look at what I've only been able to speculate about until now. It might not help you win that huge stuffed animal but, at least you'll understand why you lost!

This little book covers just over a dozen games. Explanations are generally clear, with a few exceptions (e.g., the Curly Bar Ring Guide explanation is the most confusing, with poor illustrations; the Peach Basket Softball Toss explanation omits details like arc and spin; the Golf Ball Roll Race Game doesn't explain hops very well; the Basketball Shoot contains an ambiguity). The writing style is colloquial, and that's just fine with me. The joke on page 28 -- where you're supposed to look at the ceiling and then read fine print -- doesn't work and is just stupid. What bothered me the most is the lack of editing. I counted over 200 errors (mostly punctuation errors and typos, but many other categories of errors) in the second edition. (And no, I don't count things like colloquialisms and sound effects as errors.) This is a great idea for book. I'd like to see this one cleaned up. I'd also like to see more games added in future editions.