Sports Games: Foosball
By Stephen Turk
Of all the sports games in the world, there is nothing quite as successful as foosball. Excluding video games, foosball is about as close as it gets to playing a sport without playing a sport. As far as tracking the game, it does not have a very astounding history, or really much of a history at all (at least that I could find, I’d love to know more) but it does embody everything that makes a sports game special.
The origins of the game are shadowy, with no one really knowing for sure when the game itself first appeared. There were apparently many soccer imitating table top parlor games invented in the late 1800s. Progress and popularity advanced the game’s technology from levers and gears, to the horizontal bars that we currently know and love by at least the 1920s.
This is merely the most likely scenario, as the game suffers (or benefits) from a case of “everyone having roughly the same idea at the same time.” It seems that the development of foosball was truly an international effort, as patent records and such cite entries from around the world for the game. Regardless of the multitudes of styles and the myriad explanations of its existence, the game is quickly learned and easy to love.
Foosball is brilliant in its simplicity. Plastic men mounted on poles are used to kick a ball into goals. It’s no wonder the idea spread like wildfire. There have been advances in the form of more detail and electronic scoreboards, but the game remains fundamentally unchanged. People play for fun, and people play competitively. The parlor game has become the garage game, and has not suffered for reputation in the move.
As a simulation, foosball is fairly accurate and requires a degree of strategy. That of course also depends on what rules you use. Though you can’t pass quite as effectively as real soccer, as everyone is in a straight line as opposed to maneuvering and cutting to get open, you do have to make plays and can’t simply try to unabashedly nail to the goal. That depends on the institution of the spin rule, as it is commonly known. The rules states that it is illegal to forcibly spin the pole so that your revolving player absolutely kills the ball, sending it careening unstoppably toward the goal. This is unrealistic and an abuse of the game, as it would be akin to a player do multiple back flips in mid air before coming down perfectly on the ball, untouched in his aerial absence, to send it directly at paydirt.
Therein lies one of the greatest values of foosball. Often the arguments over what was fair and what counts are a lot more memorable that the games itself. I cannot remember a running tally of my foosball results (I find I’m better on defense anyway), but I can remember good times had playing the game. I can remember scoring, saving, yelling, joking, and pinching my fingers in those stupid poles. I remember having fun, and really, when it comes down to it, that’s the whole point of a sports game over an organized sport to begin with.
Check this site out for valuable foosball information:
http://www.britfoos.com/News_Information/Articles.php
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