Pay Off 1972

Game comes in a 14 1/2" x 14 1/2" x 5 1/4" box and requires assembly.

The plastic Pay Off contraption, once assembled, vaguely resembles a kind of lolly machine from the Wild West. Three catch-triggered compartments sit behind a transparent plastic window with a small target located centrally beneath each. In each compartment there are one or more marbles.

Players roll a single marble each turn at the three targets from a predetermined distance - six to eight feet is recommended in the rules. If any of these are hit, a catch is released and the marbles in the compartment above are released to the player. One marble must be replaced in the compartment once it is reset for the next player. A plastic ramp located behind the targets catches stray marbles which roll up the ramp and then enter one of the three compartments in the machine. Players must also place marbles from errant rolls (e.g. those which miss the machine completely or are not strong enough to reach it) in any compartment they choose (there is a small square hole above each for this purpose).

Players are eliminated when they are out of marbles. The last player left with one or more marbles is the winner.

N.B. This game should not be confused with the 1978 marble game called Pay Off (or Pay Off Machine - game ID# 9025) also released by IDEAL which looks like a canister with horizontal sections that rotate.