Straight rail, sometimes called carom billiards, straight billiards, the three-ball game, the carambole game, and the free game in Europe, is thought to date to the 1700s. No exact time of origin is known though. It was called French caroms, French billiards or the French game in early times, taking those old names from the French who made the game popular. The object of straight rail is simple: one point, called a "count", is scored each time a player's cue ball makes contact with both object balls (the second cue ball and the third ball) on a single strike of the cue ball. Winning is achieved by reaching a certain number of points, agreed to between the players to be the winning number.