ALPHA Game Table Grows a Little Taller

by Apr 29, 2018Announcements

So when I have an opportunity to set-up at a gaming convention one of the most common questions about the ALPHA is whether it can be raised up past its 29.5-inch height. Up to now, the answer has been negative. There are several reasons for this lack of height option, most of them engineering in nature.

The overall surface of the table is over 24 square feet. That makes the ALPHA a large surface area table. Also, consider the fact that the whole structure is resting on 3 pairs of legs, and the entire material gross weight is under 30 lbs.

I’ve demonstrated the spring effect of the legs almost as much as the set-up and take down. If you have a 30 lb. body that gets bumped by a 200 lb. body certain 5th-grade lessons will come into play. The 200 lb. body will win this size-up contest and the lighter body will give up its space. A ridged table design would keep the table in its place until the force is so great that it would spring away. A jumpy table means lumpy models. Lots of expensive jumpy models that might fall to the floor.

The ALPHA has a buffer system in its legs so that the table surrenders its space sooner but starts to build up the tension. Kind of like a Tokyo skyscraper in an earthquake. Either stand strong or learn to go with the flow and remain standing.

Here’s the answer to that question. The taller the table the more energy it can build up. The stronger the spring back will be when said 200 lb. gamer moves away. We spent several months testing various solutions to giving you an option of height and retain stability. Enter the new extensions. These will allow the user to give the ALPHA an additional 4 inches of perch. 4 inches is a big deal as we found out. These will be included in the cost of all new versions along as the continental US shipping as per our original promise.

Keep in mind however, when we first tested out our original prototype before sending it to crowdfunding, 29 inches proved the optimum height for junior gamers. It is my hope that we can now offer best of both worlds in a single package; the original version height and the new adjusted height for those of us who may be too tall for an already too big table.

Keep rolling those dice and enjoy the hobby.