Grantland so far

[daman]

I thought I'd quickly interject that - although the sum of its parts has been disappointing - the Colson Whitehead piece on the WSOP (or, I should say, HIS experience on the WSOP) may be the gold medal of the site so far. I haven't seen much discussion of it here. It's the kind of stuff I partially imagined as a specialty of the site.

 

[SF_Express]

Not to go too far afield, but this was my game for a while. We kept every stat on every player:

http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/16874/vince-lombardis-game

 

[Small Town Guy]

heck I basically invented a rudimentary fantasy-type baseball game with dice when I was 12 or 13 and my friends and I spent an entire summer playing it. And I turned out just fine.

We played Strat-O but a friend of ours didn't think it was realistic enough so he too created a rudimentary game of his own with dice, cards, numbers, charts, graphs, and more. It proved impossible to explain, much less play. But I'm sure it was probably more realistic. Unfortunately, he didn't turn out just fine.

My question: Did anyone ever complete an entire game of Electric Football?

 

[jr/shotglass]

Not here. My quarterback kept running around in circles.

 

[Small Town Guy]

We need a saber guy to come up with some figure that shows if electric football had the worst ratio of any toy or game of expectations vs. reality.

Everyone I've known who had electric football experienced out-of-their-mind excitement when they first got it. Only to be completely disillusioned after tinkering with each player's little setting for three hours. And many children probably heard their fathers say fork for the first time when they tried to help with the setup and execution. Then the game would be put back into the closet, perhaps retrieved a few months later, only to be put back again when it proves impossible to get any of the little men to do anything.

Other candidates:
Nerf basketball with suction cups. So excited to get it. So upset when it refused to stick to our sliding glass door.

Toy racetracks: Not as infuriating as electric football but the one I had was shoddily constructed and the damn cars would not stay on the tracks, or they'd get dust or carpet or whatever inside of them and start to falter. All this after setting up the stupid thing for hours.

Fielding net: It looked so exotic, was so fun putting up in the yard. But then it was like, all right, the ball comes back to me. And it has a strike zone. But I wasn't a pitcher so I didn't need that - and even when I did pretend to be a teacher I threw it up against the Lutheran church in our backyard. And our street had this really cool, old rock wall that I used for grounders. You could get grounders or little line drives that had a much better variety than off the net. I had to use a tennis ball instead of a baseball but the net eventually went into the garage.

 

[terrier]

Wow.

That story should not be about the game, it should be about him as a boy wasting his summer by himself playing this game. I assumed he played the games with another person.

As a parent, I seriously would not allow that to happen to my child. That was an obsessive addiction to a freaking game. I wonder if he has started playing it since the story posted?

I am much more interested in what is between his ears than what is in that box.

Did it with several games (SI pro and college football, Statis-Pro basketball, etc.. Strat-O-Matic hockey). I grew up to be a well-adjusted adult regardless.

Have little doubt there's a tremendous correlation between being in this business and being involved with one or another of those games for a sustained period. Nagamco's baseball product was relatively simple, but sufficiently satisfactory for a pre-teen. Also had extended exposure to Strat-O-Matic and APBA. You quickly learned whether you had special multiplication/division skills when calculating stats. Fun while it lasted.

In my younger days, I played Sher-Co Baseball (could position the fielders, used Major League ballparks, etc.). The one game I still play consistently (best-of-7 30-team tournament every year) is Dynasty League Baseball (the successor to Pursue the Pennant). I actually picked up PtP with the '86 season, which I'm saving for a strike-shortened major league season, on eBay.

Anybody here remember the Strat-o-Matic NFL game? Took longer to play than an actual pro football game.

Hear hear. My favorite football game is definitely the deceased Statis-Pro Football (R.I.P., Avalon Hill). A company called Table Top Sports picked it up briefly about 10 years ago before folding. You can occasionally find modern card sets made by game geeks on the Web (I'm about one game into replaying the entire '07 season, which will take years - decent set, but the kicking and punting cards are abysmal - the homemade card sets vary greatly in quality).

 

[93Devil]

As a parent, I seriously would not allow that to happen to my child.

Glad you weren't my parent, then. Spending my summers with MicroLeague Baseball (and, later, Tony La Russa/Old Time Baseballs) was and remains a cherished part of my childhood.

Buck, I have no problem you playing it for hours, but I would also wanted a few hours spent actually throwing and catching baseballs, which I am pretty sure you did as well.

 

[93Devil]

I had a ping pong basketball ball game where you shot the ball from different positions on the court by flipping a spring loaded switch.

I also had a football game with paper stock cards for offense and transparent cards for defense. You would place them on top of each other and flick some balls on a metal pole to see which play came out.

I played with them a lot, but this author gives the impression that he did nothing else but sleep, shirt and play this game. That I do not agree with.

 

[Mystery Meat II]

Bow down to the king:

 

[The Big Ragu]

I had a ping pong basketball ball game where you shot the ball from different positions on the court by flipping a spring loaded switch.

I also had a football game with paper stock cards for offense and transparent cards for defense. You would place them on top of each other and flick some balls on a metal pole to see which play came out.

I played with them a lot, but this author gives the impression that he did nothing else but sleep, shirt and play this game. That I do agree with.

No idea what game you are talking about, but it made me think of "Rock em, sock em robots," which for my money was one of my top three childhood toys.

 

[terrier]

Bow down to the king:

Had the original 1971 game, passed it on to stepson...big mistake.

The ping-pong-based hoops game, Basket...I've seen versions of that in toy stores at least into the '90s.

 

[onceuponaX]

I thought I'd quickly interject that - although the sum of its parts has been disappointing - the Colson Whitehead piece on the WSOP (or, I should say, HIS experience on the WSOP) may be the gold medal of the site so far. I haven't seen much discussion of it here. It's the kind of stuff I partially imagined as a specialty of the site.

Ditto.