Jim's LectraMatic Football

This is a very large and unusually sophisticated electric football game that appears from the photos on the box and rules to date from the early to mid-1960s. It uses metal player pieces that are inserted into holes on the board both to set a hidden defensive formation and to run offensive plays.

Behind a cardboard shield, the defensive player places 11 men into his choice of the 29 holes on the defensive side of the playing surface. These are arranged in 7 lines: Deep Back (3), Back (5), Quarterback (3), Scrimmage (7), Beyond (3), Short Pass (5) and Long Pass (3).

The offensive player then decides both on the play and a risk factor (that adds to both gains and losses). He then inserts a man into appropriate holes, one at a time. A Backfield Run must start in a Fullback or Half-back hole, then either Deep Back or Scrimmage, then Beyond. A QB Sneak starts at the QB hole, then to Scrimmage, then to Beyond and to a Breakaway hole. For a pass, the QB starts in his own hole, then to Deep Back, and to any hole in either the Short or Long Pass lines.

In essence, the offensive player is trying to guess where the defending players are and navigate a path through them. If there is no defensive player in the hole he uses, he carries on to a hole of his choice in the next line for the play; if there is, a red light goes on and the play ends, with the results coming up on an electric spinner and multiplied by the risk factor table. If he reaches the breakaway hole, a green light comes on, leading to a big gain.

The game thus enables the defense to be shaped for any situation, from guarding against a long pass to running a blitz by placing a defensive player in the QB hole and/or one or more Deep Back holes.

There are rules for tracking time, using time-outs, and penalties (for instance, when the offense uses an illegal sequence like QB - Scrimmage - Long Pass). The positions of the football and the 10-yard sticks are marked on a strip running along one side of the playing field.