![]() ![]() So whether you root for the Red Wings or the Avalanche, they’ve got you covered. These high-quality tables feature logos of your favorite NHL teams. Going only a few hours west, you’ll find Holland, Michigan based Holland Bar Stool. Breakout features those same great graphics and infrared scoring, and instead has a low-profile dome and solid wooden legs. Slapshot features infrared scoring, a wide platform base, and attractive graphics. Shelti makes 2 manual models: Slapshot and Breakout. Still in the heart of Hockey country, in Bay City, Michigan, only 5 hours from where table hockey was born, is Gold Standard Games, makers of Shelti dome hockey tables. While these features might not seem to extreme, the price certainly is, with electronic models going for $3,000 and manual models going for $1,149. Because they are manual, these models tend to have less issues and, in the event there is an issue, the repairs are more affordable. The manual versions, on the other hand, usually have an optional electronic scoring unit, and feature a hole in the top of the dome through which to drop the puck. In electronic games the score is kept by a digital score unit and, after a goal, the puck comes up from the center of the playfield, accompanied by electronic cheering from the ‘crowd’. There are 2 styles: electronic and manual. A great fixture in game rooms and bars, the now evolved table hockey, is most often seen in the form of bubble hockey. Today, Munro and Eagle are no longer around, but you can still find some excellent ‘table’ hockey games. However, as times changed and the digital age began, it slowly faded away. This lead to game improvements from both companies such as a tin cut-out players and a playfield that resembled an ice hockey rink- slowly starting to look like the table hockey games we know today.įor years, table hockey was exceptionally popular in Canada and the Northern United States. It wasn’t long until competitors started cropping up, with Eagle being the largest. He applied for a patent in 1936 and started Munro Games Ltd. He visited a department store and by the end of the day had an order for 5 games. The kids loved it and he realized he might able to make more and sell them. Much different from modern versions, it featured pinball machine like flippers and a ball bearing for a puck. During the Great Depression, Munro lacked the funds to buy his children Christmas presents, so he decided to make them one instead from spare parts around the house. The very first known table hockey game was created in 1932 by Donald Munro, Sr. Created by Innovative Concepts in Entertainment (ICE) created the game in 1982, to this day it still shows the US team facing off against the Soviets. The buzzer sounds and the US team has beaten the Soviets, 4-3, in one of the largest upsets in sports history, and the crowd goes wild! The rest is history.ĭoes this story sound familiar? Popularized for a new generation by the 2004 movie, Miracle, this ‘Miracle on Ice’ as it is known, was the basis for the very first modern bubble hockey game. But with 10 minutes left on the clock in period 3, and a score of 3-3, Mike Eruzione on the US team shoots the game winning goal. Then at the end of the second period, the Soviets score bringing the score to 3-2. As the first period ends the, the game is tied, 2-2. While they have trained hard, they lost 3-10 in an exhibition game against the Soviets weeks ago. The US team, on the other hand, is mostly college students. They have taken home gold medals in the last 4 Winter Olympic games and even beaten a number of NHL teams in exhibition games. The Soviets are more than an ‘amateur international hockey’ team they are part of the Soviet military, where their lives are dedicated to the sport. ![]() The odds of the US beating the Soviets is low. And at this very moment, the United States Olympic Hockey Team is facing off against the Soviets. ![]() The Cold War is in full swing, Soviet troops are in Afghanistan, and the Iranian Hostage Crisis has been going on for 4 months. Picture this: It’s winter in Lake Placid, New York, 1980. From the Great Depression to Now, This is Where Bubble Hockey All Began.
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