Game gate device

Claim 1

In a ball-rolling game having a downwardly sloping playfield defining an upper end and a lower end and enabling a game ball to be projected upwardly on the playfield, the combination therewith comprising gating apparatus including a pair of generally L-shaped gate members having first arm portions extending downwardly through said playfield in substantially parallel relation, means supporting said first arm portions for rotational movement about their longitudinal axes, said first arm portions extending above said playfield and being spaced apart a distance slightly greater than the diameter of a game ball so as to define a game ball passage therebetween, said gate members having generally coplanar second arm portions disposed above said playfield in substantially parallel spaced relation thereto and being directed generally toward the lower end of the playfield, a control link fixedly secured in radial relation to each of said first arm portions below said playfield, a pair of discrete control arms each of which is pivotally connected directly to a corresponding one of said control links, an actuator shaft supported below said playfield so that the axis of said shaft is substantially normal to a plane containing the axes of said first arm portions of said gate members, means pivotally connecting each of said control arms to said actuator shaft so as to define a common pivot axis therebetween, and actuator means operatively associated with said actuator shaft for effecting selective rectilinear movement thereof between first and second positions in response to command signals so as to effect selective rotation of said second arm portions of said gate members between first substantially parallel positions defining a generally parallel walled ball guide path therebetween and second diverging positions defining a converging guide path toward said game ball passage, whereby the difficulty of projecting a game ball through said game ball passage from the lower end of said playfield is increased when said second arm portions are in their said first positions.