Is it a game? Or a calculator?

If you are of a certain age, you probably remember the game Mattel Football. No LCD screen or fancy cartridges. Just a few LEDs and a way to play football when you should be in class. Although these may seem primitive to children today, they were marvels of technology in the 1970s when they first came out. [Sean Riddle] looks like, well, not exactly the games, but more like them. It turns out that they used chips derived from those designed for calculators.

[Sean's] message is a glimpse into this world of more than four decades. Football was actually Mattel's second electronic game. The first was Auto Race. There were also games called Space Alert, Baseball and Gravity. Inside each are inline quad cases with 42 pins, a Rockwell logo, and a custom part number.

The analysis led [Sean] to buy several games as well as Rockwell calculators and microcontrollers. By unpacking the integrated circuits of each, he was able to note the similarities and differences between the old processors. There were also patent filings containing key information, as well as source and object code donations and an interview with the designer of several of the games.

In a classic case of a bad computer model, Mattel made 100,000 football games that were sold by Sears and Roebuck. Sears sold a few and used a computer model to predict that Football and Auto Race would not be big sellers, so production halted. However, the game was a smash hit, selling up to 500,000 units a week, according to the Handheld Museum article.

If you haven't had the pleasure of seeing a state-of-the-art 1977 football game, check out [The Retro Future]'s video below. Mattel even made a personal computer back then. Milton Bradley was also there with his programmable Big Trak.