PULASKI, Wis.— Skee-ball isn’t just for your local arcade these days. Thanks to a Wisconsin-based manufacturer you can now play it in your own home.

Bay Tek, About 25 miles northeast of Green Bay in the Village of Pulaski has been making games since 1977. They’re now part of The Village Companies. Tonita Proulx is the director of e-commerce and marketing for The Village Companies.

“We make a number of different games that you’d see in Dave and Busters and Chucky Cheese,” said Proulx.

With places like those closed down due to the pandemic, the group focused on bringing their arcade classic, Skee-Ball, into homes.

“The last few years we’ve been looking at getting in the consumer market but with the pandemic this year, that pushed us to fast forward that pretty quick,” said Proulx.

The team was challenged with making a miniature version that’s lighter weight and easy to assemble. Rick Hallet is The Village Companies' research and development director.

“There’s some math and geometry that go into getting the game to play the way it does. We wanted you to have the same experience when playing at home that you do in the arcade, just in a smaller footprint,” said Hallet.

Their manufacturing floor was shut down for a month in the spring because of the pandemic. When they were ready to work, orders had dried up from family entertainment centers. Skee-Ball at home brought things back to life.

“The plan was to launch that product in 2021 but with the Pandemic, what we did, we fast-forwarded that pretty quick. We started talking about it in April and had product out in the field for consumers in July,” said Proulx.

Idle workers were soon backfilling orders.

“It was great to be able to bring the employees back into the building and give them some new product to work on,” said Hallet.

Home versions, The Premium and The Deluxe, were created. One of the differences between the models is that the balls that come with the Deluxe are designed to be softer.

“We like to say it’s drywall friendly,” said Heller.

The home versions have options not found in arcade models. The Deluxe has a two-player mode. The Premium can track six-players' scores and has six gameplay versions.

So far, these new styles have been a hit and found their way into a lot of homes for the holidays.

“Right now, people are cooped up at home, looking for fun things to do. Skee-Ball has been an exciting product to get to people,” said Proulx.

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