Digital Foosball: 4K Screens and Customized Players

The foosball (also called table football or metegol depending on the region) can be a casual pastime or become a true addiction. Usually, its designs follow a line of "the more classic, the better", however, that doesn't prevent them from incorporating high-tech elements. For example, the folks at Realtime Department shared a while ago their digital foosball, which replaces the field with a huge 4K panel, and enables changes impossible in a normal foosball, like the customization of the players...

In Amazon Spain we can find traditional wooden foosball tables for around 100 euros. It's a good gift for parents interested in keeping their kids away from screens (for a while), and moving from FIFA 19 to something a bit more "analog", if you will. Some foosball tables are truly wonderful, worthy of collecting... but technological progress also reaches our most classic games, and foosball is no exception.

Now... what does a digital foosball sound like? I don't mean mobile game versions for tablets or smartphones, but a full-size foosball that replaces the field and players with a 4K screen. A couple of years ago, Realtime Department presented a prototype at the 2017 edition of ISE:

Probably the most interesting aspect is the one that allows customizing the players' clothing, and inserting our own logos on the shirts, something that in a normal foosball would demand quite a bit of paint, and some patience. However, the game experience itself looks... limited. Unfortunately, the YouTube video doesn't let us confirm if the framerate of that foosball reaches a minimum of 60 FPS, but considering the panel's resolution and the year, I think the answer is no. Additionally, the players seem to suffer from a bit of lag in the movements of the levers.

Realtime Department hasn't published any update since then, which makes us suspect that their digital 4K foosball didn't gain traction, but with several technical improvements and a protection to prevent someone from breaking the screen with a hit... maybe? Until then, I'll stick with the classic foosball.

Source: The Awesomer