Who's winning, the dashes or the lines? I can never tell.

Hot on the heels of the wildly popular Mattel Football handheld game, Tudor Games released NFL DELUXE Electronic Football in 1980. Toy companies are certainly no stranger to hyperbole, but I think even by their standards this ad strains the limits of credibility. I have to hand it to any kid who could play this and envision themselves in the Super Bowl. Speaking of which – people, Super Bowl is two words, not one. No one ever writes about the Rosebowl or the Meineke Car Carebowl. Sorry, that’s just a major pet peeve of mine.

Anyway, I am curious about one thing – if this is the DELUXE version of NFL Electronic Football, what does the regular version look like? A circuit board with the NFL logo on it? Well thanks to Google, now I know. It looks like this. Oh yes, a huge improvement. I’ll say this for kids back then – they sure had active imaginations.

Even more incredible than the game’s claim of NFL excitement is the price tag. NFL DELUXE Electronic Football checks in at a modest $34.95! According to my handy inflation calculator that would be $85.85 in 2007 dollars. Dayum!

For more NFL DELUXE Electronic Football action, check out this page. You can even view the manual!