New pool ball sets, lack of originality

[Straightpool_99]

Am I the only one who thinks that new ball sets suffer from a lack of original ideas. Yes, we have the marbled balls (that idea must be at least 40 years old) and all kinds of crazy color schemes that are made to make up for lack of change in any other areas.

Vintage balls seem to have a lot fresher "fonts" and circle/square (where the fonts are printed) ideas. I'd much rather have one of these old sets remade, rather than having aramith clones remade over and over in different colours.

Every time someone makes ball sets for tv use, it seems they forget to factor in what colour cloths are popular at the time. Every set has at least one ball that blends in with the cloth. It used to be the green ones, now its the blue ones. Now that tournament blue is used nearly universally, if we MUST have new colours, how about making colours that contrast to that background? Certainly it cannot be that hard, can it? Maybe that is why the camel colour of cloth is so easy to play on, every ball stands out against it? Too bad that colour is never used.

 

[Black-Balled]

LOL...some stream of consciousness shit right there.

I don't think there are a lot of new ideas pertaining to pool ball color schemes that are useful. I think the traditional colors are the best and any kind of busy patterns should be outlawed.

Now, where are the new ideas for pool balls? with the assimilation of technology into them. Location, speed, temperature, reaction measures, etc...

all that data is being generated...just need to capture it (and then find out how it could lead to an improved user-experience).

 

[David in FL]

I don't think there are a lot of new ideas pertaining to pool ball color schemes that are useful. I think the traditional colors are the best and any kind of busy patterns should be outlawed.

Agree completely. “New” isn’t always “better”. Often it’s simply different.

I’m exposed to more than enough “different” simply as a result of talking to my teenage daughter!

 

[garczar]

Am I the only one who thinks that new ball sets suffer from a lack of original ideas. Yes, we have the marbled balls (that idea must be at least 40 years old) and all kinds of crazy color schemes that are made to make up for lack of change in any other areas.

Vintage balls seem to have a lot fresher "fonts" and circle/square (where the fonts are printed) ideas. I'd much rather have one of these old sets remade, rather than having aramith clones remade over and over in different colours.

Every time someone makes ball sets for tv use, it seems they forget to factor in what colour cloths are popular at the time. Every set has at least one ball that blends in with the cloth. It used to be the green ones, now its the blue ones. Now that tournament blue is used nearly universally, if we MUST have new colours, how about making colours that contrast to that background? Certainly it cannot be that hard, can it? Maybe that is why the camel colour of cloth is so easy to play on, every ball stands out against it? Too bad that colour is never used.

Don't care about nor want any new ball colors, fonts, whatever.. At all. The classic Centennial-style has proven itself over the years. I hate ALL the tv balls especially the horrid new Aramith Black. With HD broadcasts/streams the standard color balls are easy to make out. I'm sick of all the lame attempts at re-inventing the wheel when it comes to pool balls.

 

[mikemosconi]

Bought a set of cyclops TV color balls on here and used them for only about a month and sold them- I liked nothing about them except that the cue ball stays very clean for some reason. I could not get used to the colors and they are not good balls for 14.1 as they have a low level of elasticity as well.

 

[cjr3559]

Every time a new set of colors is created, the whole point of making them easier to distinguish on TV fails miserably.

Traditional sets have their issues, but the pink 4 ball set didn’t solve anything since the 3 and 5 still look the same.

And the Cyclop set is even worse; on top of the 3 and 5 issue, now we’re dealing with a 7 that looks like the 6. And even the 2 is too light and it blends in with the common blue cloth. This set had the worst color palette of them all.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[straightline]

It's the numbers stoopid. Ball designers (whu'dda thunk?) don't seem to understand it's the numbers that distinguish each ball in a set.

 

[CocoboloCowboy]

My requirements are simple for my practice set, if they roll straight they are fine. Don't mind if they are a few chips, scratches, if the roll true, they are fine.

 

[Gunn_Slinger]

ITS ALL ABOUT MONEY ! In the 90's , I believe , the color red was a problem on TV ( ESPN ). Ball colors were changed for the old tech cameras.
For years now, the new HD cameras have no problems with colors.
But pool ball manufacturers keep making new sets for the money only !
Follow the money.

 

[MattPoland]

Pretty soon each ball will have its own Looney Tunes character on the side. Sending Daffy Duck on a double bank to the side pocket is not obvious and needs to be called.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

 

[Geosnooker]

Pretty soon each ball will have its own Looney Tunes character on the side. Sending Daffy Duck on a double bank to the side pocket is not obvious and needs to be called.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

Ha! Ha!

I’d prefer a Three Stooges set myself. Curly could be he cueball.

‘Hey Moe...stop poking me in the eye with that stick.’

 

[Rubik's Cube]

Good morning.

I’ve been working on an original ball set recently. If anyone would care to have a look, an article was posted up on the pool ball collecting thread and also in my profile’s private gallery (click the link in my signature below).

All feedback welcome and gratefully received.

 

[Geosnooker]

Premise is wrong.

90% of professional billiards on television is played on green cloth.

And at least 90% of the television audience for billiards is for Snooker, Chinese 8 ball...specific greens are used.

 

[Geosnooker]

My requirements are simple for my practice set, if they roll straight they are fine. Don't mind if they are a few chips, scratches, if the roll true, they are fine.

I’ve measured billiard sets in our lab. With computerized machine tooling, a set of $30 balls from Walmart is more consistent in shape, weight and density than a $300 set of Aramiths from 40 years ago...way, way more consistent.

The same with golf balls, etc.

I have older balls in my collection from the 1920’s. They must have been like muffins coming out of the oven...’good enough’ to do.

 

[Straightpool_99]

Premise is wrong.

90% of professional billiards on television is played on green cloth.

And at least 90% of the television audience for billiards is for Snooker, Chinese 8 ball...specific greens are used.

Snooker doesn't count, as it is an entirely different game, and not the subject of this thread. The ball colors have remained the same for 100 years or more and they don't even have numbers on them, except in old American sets. As for Chinese 8 ball, they may have a greater audience, but it's mainly played in China, with some occational qualifiers here and there. They have/had two different Federations, Star and Joy. Star uses naples cloth of a different green (closer to blue) and Joy uses snooker cloth. Star used different balls and colours. Haven't seen a lot of Star event recently on Youtube, so I don't know how active that Federation is now, but it was quite big. If we're talking about other cue games, Blackball is changing to blue (powder blue) and 3 cushion has been played on blue cloth for decades now.

For US style pool, almost all International events are played on Tournament blue and has been for the last decade or more. The exceptions are quite rare and are usually in Asia.

 

[Tennesseejoe]

With video sessions becoming more popular, we should go back to the original colors. Even the announcers are confused.

I usually watch on a smart phone and often hesitate to buy the session because it is hard to watch and follow the commentary.

 

[HNTFSH]

With video sessions becoming more popular, we should go back to the original colors. Even the announcers are confused.

I usually watch on a smart phone and often hesitate to buy the session because it is hard to watch and follow the commentary.

Wouldn't you enjoy it more on a big monitor? I personally never watch anything on a phone. I don't get the appeal/benefit?

 

[8cree]

With video sessions becoming more popular, we should go back to the original colors. Even the announcers are confused.

I usually watch on a smart phone and often hesitate to buy the session because it is hard to watch and follow the commentary.

I get that... and even though I'm pretty sure Pagulayan and Busty were using the standard colored balls last night on the stream, JJ must have called the wrong ball half dozen times, maybe he was watching on his phone while commentating from his phone, I donno, but I could see the ball and colors just fine on my tv at home.

 

[Geosnooker]

Snooker doesn't count, as it is an entirely different game, and not the subject of this thread. The ball colors have remained the same for 100 years or more and they don't even have numbers on them, except in old American sets. As for Chinese 8 ball, they may have a greater audience, but it's mainly played in China, with some occational qualifiers here and there. They have/had two different Federations, Star and Joy. Star uses naples cloth of a different green (closer to blue) and Joy uses snooker cloth. Star used different balls and colours. Haven't seen a lot of Star event recently on Youtube, so I don't know how active that Federation is now, but it was quite big. If we're talking about other cue games, Blackball is changing to blue (powder blue) and 3 cushion has been played on blue cloth for decades now.

For US style pool, almost all International events are played on Tournament blue and has been for the last decade or more. The exceptions are quite rare and are usually in Asia.

Chinese 8 ball isn’t ‘other pool games’. It’s the number one played and televised pool game in the world. Green cloth.

 

[Straightpool_99]

Good morning.

I’ve been working on an original ball set recently. If anyone would care to have a look, an article was posted up on the pool ball collecting thread and also in my profile’s private gallery (click the link in my signature below).

All feedback welcome and gratefully received.

Those balls look very nice and it's a novel idea. May I suggest creating a few custom games and adding a pamphlet with rules in the packaging, or at least include the rules of the games you mentioned? Keep us in the loop on pricing etc. I'd be happy to make a video review, should the balls be made at a reasonable price.

Since you are clearly adressing the collectors market, I think it would be a good idea to spend some time on the presentation (packaging, documentation etc), but as a collector you probably realize that.