Electric Base Ball Game (1928)

This is a very old, battery-operated electronic baseball game in which players try to outguess each other. The board depicts a baseball field dotted with lights that give the results of a play. The players use switches located at either end of the board for each pitch. For example, if the player batting presses the #2 button, and the player in the field presses the #4 button, the Strike lamp would light up, while a combination of #6 and #4 would result in the triple lamp lighting. Each player also has A and B switches that are pressed to light the Safe or Out lamps needed for the results of some plays (like if a runner tries to steal 2nd base). Wooden cubes are used to represent base runners. The player with the most runs scored at the end of 9 innings wins. Extra innings are played if needed.

History:

An application for a U.S. patent was filed in December 1927 by James M. Prentice of Holyoke, Massachusetts. Prentice was 17 years old. The patent, for "Electric Baseball," was granted less than a year later, and Jim Prentice Electric Baseball, under a variety of titles and in a variety of forms, would go on to a production run of more than thirty years.

Prentice initially sold, or at least licensed, the rights to his invention to Parker Brothers, the game-publishing giant of nearby Salem -- probably to help fund his college tuition at the University of New Hampshire, whence he graduated with a degree in mathematics. Parkers produced Electric Base Ball Game, arguably the first electrical boardgame ever, in the very early 1930s. (Source)