Avalanche (marble game)

Avalanche is a mechanical marble game published by Parker Brothers in 1966, sold in other countries under names including Lawine in the Netherlands, Avalancha in Spain, and Astroslide or Skill in Germany. Two to six players roll colored marbles down a plastic board set at an incline, where a series of gates either stop a marble outright or let it pass while flipping the gate to face the opposite direction. Because a marble that passes through an open gate can free other marbles waiting behind closed gates further down the board, a single roll can trigger a chain reaction that sends several marbles down at once. The game combines an element of aimed skill in choosing where to send a marble with genuine unpredictability in how the resulting chain reaction plays out. It originally shipped with 60 glass cat's eye marbles in three colors, later switching to plastic marbles in subsequent editions.