The Orbiter Grand Slam Ring Toss Story

WELLESLEY, Mass. - July 28, 2015 - PRLog -- The Orbiter story began 35 years ago on the island of Antigua. Games creator David Copplestone was taking a three-month sailing trip through the Caribbean in 1980. It was there that he joined a long line of people playing a Bimini ring toss game at the Admirals Inn. They had a brass ring hanging from the ceiling, and they were swinging it over onto a large hook anchored in a wall beam about eight feet away. The smiles on the faces and the wear on that hook showed this pastime’s popularity. As David played, he thought, “If there was a desktop version of this game, millions of people could enjoy it.” He immediately began to design that desktop game. By 1988, the engineering and designing of his game was finished, and a working model was made. He first called it The Pier and then El Toro. There remained much more to do in order to release the performance potential that this scientific toy possessed. To answer the question “what do you do with your game?” Copplestone continued to work on it from 1988 until today, and as of this posting he has settled on the name Orbiter™ and created sixteen different games to play using the Orbiter and models ranging in size from 8” to 8’ tall in various colors and materials such as wood, acrylic, brass and steel.

The Orbiter was made for the coffee table, desktop or bar and a 6' tall lawn version was later developed. Players are challenged to learn six Orbiter swings, each one different with increasingly difficult swing paths, and then to see which player will make the most ringers using those swings in order to win the match. In order to score the “Orbiter Classic Grand Slam” you must make six ringers in a row using all six swing types. For the last and most difficult of the grand slam swings you must make the ring fly around the taller post 2.5 times before landing on the shorter post. The swing concepts can be understood in minutes but they will take a lifetime to perfect.



A large part of the Orbiter’s appeal is learning the swings and then teaching the swings to others. To start, players will likely be trying to just make a ringer, but once they have mastered the six swings they will be able to enjoy the competitive games. The object is to set the ring in motion from one taller uniquely angled post to ring the second shorter conversely angled post. In the new Orbiter Grand Slam ring toss game players take turns, three swings per game, four games per set and three sets per match. An excellent proverb to describe the Grand Slam ring toss experience is “If at first you don’t succeed try, try, try again.”

Find it on Amazon by searching “orbiter ring toss”, or see it on the website copplestonegames.com.