Carom billiards, sometimes called
carambole billiards or simply
carambole (and in some cases used as a synonym for the game of
straight rail from which many carom games derive), is the overarching title of a family of
billiards games generally played on cloth-covered,
pocketless tables, which often feature heated slate beds. In its simplest form, the object of the game is to score or "counts" by one's own off both the opponent's cue ball and the on a single shot. The invention as well as the exact date of origin of carom billiards is somewhat obscure but is thought to be traceable to 18th-century France.