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Table Top Football

edited February 2014 in Other Football and Sports
The kids of today have FIFA and PES, but for the all the electronic wizardry and no matter how big their database of junior/overseas players, there's still something that seems a little cold and sterile about them to me. Back in the good old days, when you had to make your own entertainment the stuff listed here was the best that we had. Its probably because I'm an old git but I genuinely thing this stuff was better. There's something about the fact that you had to set these games up yourself and that they were genuinely tactile, beyond thumbing a controller, that brought them to life.

I, like nearly everyone of my age, had loads of Subbuteo and I've now got loads of broken Subbuteo up in the loft. What better way to learn some genuine social skills through arguing about whether you opponent flicked it fairly or whether the ball went off after hitting this or that little plastic man? Astro-turf was the way to go though - far better than the cloth pitch.

I've only ever seen one pack of Pokkit Socca, my mate had it and I was really jealous. In the end, I shafted myself by offering him some ridiculous swapsie for it. Only after it was mine, did I realise that we played the game regularly all the time anyway, so owning it didn't make much difference. An early lesson in the daggers of coveting other's property. Another mate had Bobby Charlton's Casden Soccer, that was great fun, but I never saw this in the shops. Every Christmas seemed to bring another box of blow football. And every year it seemed as hard as ever, with my dad winning every game.

Best of all though was a game four of us played at school. My class had it's tutorials in one of the science labs and me and three mates always sat along the bench at the side of the room. Every morning we had a two-a-side match flicking a ball of tin foil along the bench. To score you had to get the ball between the gas taps. This was fantastic entertainment until, as ever, the bell would ring and we'd have to go off for lessons.

For those of an older disposition, what are your memories of various table football games? For the youngsters, do you have any of this, or is everything digitised now?

Comments

  • Loved Subbuteo. My dad glued the pitch onto a wooden board and then got some trestles for it. We then tacked down the goals and a fence. My brother and I spent hours playing matches. I'm sure he still has it all in his loft. Test Match cricket was another one we loved.
  • Nug said:

    Loved Subbuteo. My dad glued the pitch onto a wooden board and then got some trestles for it. We then tacked down the goals and a fence. My brother and I spent hours playing matches. I'm sure he still has it all in his loft. Test Match cricket was another one we loved.

    I was the same, pitch attached to a board, goals held in position, off the ground on legs, mates round playing league games and knock out cups.

    Those were the days.
  • My brothers and I used to make our own similar to subbuteo using player bubble gum cards on a clothes peg and a marble. Had hours of fun playing that on the living room carpet. Mum & Dad got fed up of us taking up the whole room with our matches, so bought us subbuteo, but within a couple of weeks, we'd gone back to our peg and marble version. Can't imagine kids doing such things these days...............
  • edited February 2014
    Apart from subbuteo and the 'fuseball' type table, there were a couple of others that we enjoyed.

    One was Striker, or SuperStriker, or something.
    You had to push down on the heads of the players and they would kick the ball.
    I seem to recall that the 'keepers had a stick coming out of their backs and you moved or twisted them to make the keeper dive.
    There were many of the players that had to go and get patched up as too much pressure on their heads caused the standing leg to break - painfull !!
    image

    Link from Stigs site
    There was another, much more basic game and I will try to remember the name / google it.
    it was played on a card pitch, which folded neatly into the box and the players were plastic and the ball was a flat counter.
    Thinking about it, it was probably just like a game of 'tiddlywinks' with 2 goals..

    Edit: Found It
  • I was a subbuteo player up until the age of 15, then I realised having that big disc attached to my boots was affecting my chances of getting a girlfiend..................
  • NugNug
    edited February 2014
    Yep, Super Striker was excellent too. Think we had that too, although might have been a mate who had it. Only blue or red teams in that game. Always liked the fact you could have team kits in subbuteo. Favourite I had was Tampa Bay Rowdies kit.

    image
  • edited February 2014
    For you real old 'uns out there who remember magnetic football, you had 2 sticks and I think a goalkeeper which you moved around on a stick and was non magnetic, and 5 outfield player, each with a magnet, under the pitch you had another magnetic on a stick, which you moved about, you could dribble and shoot, me and my brother played for hours, he had it for a Christmas in 1962. Hope I described it ok.

    Magnetic Football Games 1950s-60s.



    This seemed to have been a bit of a craze in the 1950s. There were several manufacturers of this type of game, but the principle was the same. Each playing piece had a magnet on the bottom of the base, which was manipulated by a rod which went under the table. The magnets of each team were polarised in reverse, so you could not affect your opponents players with your rod. The players were then used to push the ball around the pitch. Goalkeepers could either be on magnets like the outfielders, or on a rod like Subbuteo. The game boards were pretty similar with a smooth wooden or plastic surface, some form of fence surround, and legs to enable you to get under the pitch.

    Well known versions of this game included:

    "Super Soccer" by Balyna (Toogood and Jones of Whitstable in Kent). Came in a large card box. Pitch had lovely wooden sides and a tough fabric pitch. The legs were plastic, with suction cupped feet. This smart set up was ruined slightly by some very cheap looking players. The goalkeeper was on a plastic rod, but was the same horrible kicking player casting of the outfield players. This was a five-a-side set, bases were red and blue, wider at the bottom, and generally a nice design. The rods were plastic and matched the base colours. The goals sat within the pitch and were small, narrow and flimsy.
  • Still got tonnes of subbuteo stuff in the loft. Must have about 40 teams, floodlights, scoreboards, ball boys and loads of various bits. The pitch is the one my dad stuck on a board for me and is still in pretty good nick.
  • I never had Striker, but I did have a couple of players for some reason - they were all white and you had to paint them yourself. I think they came free in cereal packets. I can't imagine anyone eating enough cereal to make up a whole team though.
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  • I used to play subbuteo & Striker but my all time faves were rebound & crossfire

    In crossfire you could shoot the oppo with the ball bearings if you got your angles just right!

  • Blow football was brilliant.
    (Unless spotted with a white powdery nose)
  • I don't know why, but was thinking about Subbuteo on the way home from work tonight - agreed with myself that it was my favourite childhood memory. Collecting all the gear, setting it all up, designing complicated league and cup competitions and then playing the games - commentary and all. Great times. Think I also played until mates convinced me that we could sneak into the pub and pretend we were 18 and that they had humans called females in them (went to an all boys school).

    Think my old man threw the whole lot out. B@stard.
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