Foam & Felt Shapes

Electric football is a tabletop football game played on a metal vibrating field. It resembles foosball, in that the game is played by controlling miniature figures, but controls are electrical rather than manual. more...

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History

In 1947, Tudor Games (now owned by Miggle Games) created electric football, using a vibrating car race game made by Tudor as the base for the game technology. Electric football was an immediate hit. More than 40 million of the games have been sold since its creation, and new editions are sold each year.

While video games of football have supplanted electric football in popularity, electric football has also benefitted from technological progress. Players became more realistic in sculpting, and Miggle sells pre-painted players from all 32 National Football League teams and 23 college teams, including home and away jerseys. Leagues, clubs and tournaments continue to play the game. The Electric Football League, headquartered in Highland Park, Illinois, held its 12th annual Official Electric Football Super Bowl & Convention in January 2006.

The game

The game is played on a metal field. Plastic players are placed on the field in offensive and defensive formations just like real football. The ball is a small piece of foam or felt in the shape of a football. A switch operates the field. When turned on the field vibrates and the players begin to move.

Each player has a "base" attached to them. The bases have prongs on the bottom that allow the player to move. Rookie bases are not adjustable and the player hopefully runs forward. Pro bases have a dial that you can turn to have players turn to the right or left. This method of controlling game characters through a dial resembles foosball.

A special player called the Triple Threat Quarterback (TTQ) allows players to pass, punt or kick field goals. The ball has a slit that lets the game player place it on the TTQ's arm. The arm is pulled back and released to pass the ball. For kicking the ball is placed on a tee on the TTQ and a plastic leg snaps to kick the ball.

In Popular Culture

In the film Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey, the two main characters, in a parody of The Seventh Seal, challenge Death to a series of games in order to escape Hell. One of the games Death loses is electric football.;

In an episode of the animated comedy series The Critic, a clip from a documentary about electric football shows an elderly man saying that "electric football is like America: always moving, always shaking" before suddenly changing his mind, saying, "Actually it's nothing like America. It's a stupid game! And it doesn't even work!!" and yelling at the cameraman to get out.;

Read more at Wikipedia.org