Talk:Jacks

Spinning jacks

I have a set of jacks here (of which I may manage to provide a photograph), but I've never played. I note that, of the six points of each jack, four have balls on the end, and two (opposite) are more pointed. This suggests to me (and experiment confirms) that the jack can be spun on a smooth level surface, but this isn't mentioned in the description of the game. Is there some variant that uses this property? Bovlb 14:40:11, 2005-08-05 (UTC)

This is completely anecdotal and un-encyclopaedic, but when we were young my brother and I 'spiced up' the game by requiring the playing to set the jacks spinning and scoop them up before they stopped moving. --Adam Brink 18:50, 14 July 2006 (UTC)

There are likely to be many local variations on this game - eg in the school where I played it the jacks were first put on the back of the hand, then tossed in the air and the hand turned over: however many were caught provided the number from which picking up was started. Once all had been picked up the person started at one again, but had to touch the ground with their hand once before the ball bounced - and if the cycle was completed again, twice etc. Jackiespeel 15:59, 11 October 2006 (UTC)

When you reach a current level you have to do tricks like spinig the jack and scooping them up before they stop. If you reach this level you would have to do this trick at a show.

Our variation: You throw the ball up, do onesies through tensies, only re-throwing the jacks if there aren't enough on the ground left to pick up. Once you reach tensies, you start again from onesies, but you have to drop the ball instead of throwing it up. First one to reach tensies the second time wins. Bzzhuh 21:36, 6 July 2007 (UTC)

All the games mentioned in the 'Variations' section of the article are essentially the same game transposed to different cultures. Should something be done to condense this together? 76.232.50.212 (talk) 02:33, 26 August 2009 (UTC)

Merge

Shouldn't this be merged with the Knucklebones article? François (talk) 11:08, 22 July 2010 (UTC)

I don't know which direction the merge should take, as both seem to be valid, widely-used names (It may be an ENGVAR thing), but I concur with the idea of a merge. The Jacks article includes "knucklebones" as an alternate name, while the description of a modern knucklebones playing piece is exactly the same as a jack. It's pretty obvious that they are the same game, or at least variations on the rules. There's no need for separate article, though I would like to discuss which way to merge, which comes down to WP:COMMONNAME.oknazevad (talk) 18:23, 13 September 2010 (UTC)

Merge per → WP:UCS. Regards, Krenakarore (talk) 02:51, 17 March 2011 (UTC)

I agree that the two articles should be merged. It is quite obvious that the two games are slight variants of each other, and it seems to me that Jacks is a North American term for what in Australia is called Knucklebones. There may be variations in the rules, but then again, there are variations in the rules of Jacks based on regional differences or personal preference. — Preceding unsigned comment added by OlafRigaud (talk • contribs) 11:04, 4 November 2011 (UTC)

Similar looking barrier

There's a type of barrier (road or otherwise) that looks a lot like the metal jacks piece, usually with barbed wire strung between. What is it called? SharkD  Talk  04:18, 25 December 2010 (UTC)