Ka-Bala
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Ka-Bala was a talking board game manufactured and released by the Transogram Company in 1967. It was marketed under the slogan, "The Mysterious Game that Tells the Future."
The game was molded out of green plastic that glowed in the dark. It sat upon a hemispherical rocker, and was operated by the players touching the "solary projectors", which were handles on either side of the game. Unlike most talking boards which are activated by a planchette, the Ka-Bala used a large black marble as an indicator; the marble ran around a circular track on the surface of the game. In addition to indicating the letters and numbers printed around the track, the marble could also be used to select one of twenty-two supplied major arcana tarot cards, supplied with the game. Each tarot card had the fortune it predicted printed on the back. The game also had the twelve zodiac signs marked along the track; these could be used to generate a simple horoscope. In the centre of the rocking board, the "Eye of Zohar" was mounted; this plastic eyeball would spin as the board was agitated by the players.
The name "Ka-Bala" and the reference to Zohar relate this game tenuously to the kabbalah school of Jewish mysticism. As they operated the game, the players were instructed to chant Pax, sax, sarax; hola, noa, nostra! For all its aura of arcane mystery, the game had a fundamental design flaw; it was not easy to keep the marble in its circular track as you operated the game. The Transogram company also made and sold the occult-themed glowing board game Green Ghost.
[edit] External links
- Ka-Bala at the online Museum of Talking Boards.
- Ka-Bala at BoardGameGeek
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