The National Football Museum currently has an excellent
exhibition 'Batteries Not included' on the glory days of
soccer themed board and computer games on its top floor. Our visit to the exhibition, which launched in July and finishes on 25th February 2024, was a blast of
nostalgia and we had a lot of fun trying everything out. First up was an exhibit from a Victorian
fairground game from Blackpool pier.
This was one of the largest exhibits and was not interactive for
visitors, but we did get a good photo!
Photo taken at the National Football Museum
In our groundbreaking book Foundations of Managing Sporting Events we talked about some of the merchandising that the FA came
up with for the event based around their lion character, World Cup Willie. One
of these things was a game, Willie Soccer, which is featured here along with
some other board games which attempted to portray aspects of soccer, including
couple of attempts at management games.
Photo taken at the National Football Museum
Of course, no exhibition about football games would be complete without the iconic Subbuteo, and we took the opportunity to 'flick to kick' in our stride!
Subbuteo was nicely set up on a baseboard
Created by Peter Adolph in 1946, by the 1960's Subbuteo evolved from paper to plastic and was a huge hit in post-war Britain, with 'Continental edition' sets introduced to reflect the 'new' floodlit European competitions. When we got on board with it in the 1980s and 1990s the figures were lighter, and even more associated products to keep up with trends in the game, such as Astroturf (tm) pitches.
Alex as a Subbuteo player!
Of course, the digital age created further opportunities to tap into the pocket money of football mad kids, and computer games are also covered in the NFMs exhibition. We played as England v
Scotland in the 8-bit C64 classic Emlyn Hughes International Soccer! Other
classics such as Championship Manager, Sensible Soccer, Football
Director and even the cult classic goalkeeping sim Peter Shilton’s
Handball Maradona were on display (but sadly not to play) in their original tape and disc versions.
The exhibition is an excellent collection of games which have
attempted to represent football in different ways, some more successfully than
others and runs at the NFM until 25 February 2024!
But even this exhibition couldn't cover everything and here at Soccer Mad Boffins we also have fun with other football games such as 'Striker League Champions' which integrates elements of the board game classic Monopoly, with a 'live action' penalty shootout in which players take turns to operate a plastic goalkeeper and a plastic striker whose leg kicks a plastic ball wen his head is pushed.
Photo from Dr Alex G. Gillett private collection
Managing your team involves buying and selling players using banknotes, to upgrade your team's rating and thus the number of shots you can take against your opponent in a match/shootout.
Photo from Dr Alex G. Gillett private collection
Of course, such a board game requires time and space and sometimes all you need is something more basic and convenient. We recommend the card based 'Top of the League Football Trivia Set' for car journeys and sophisticated after-dinner entertainment!
Photo from Dr Alex G. Gillett private collection
A special thanks to Dr Alexander Jackson and the National Football Museum in Manchester, England, for producing such an excellent exhibition.
