The history of electronic board games

The advent of the microprocessor in the 1970s stimulated drastic changes across many industries, from automobiles to consumer appliances.

Even the humble board game couldn't avoid its reach, receiving an electronic computerized upgrade courtesy of inexpensive microcontrollers like the Texas Instruments TMS1000, which first appeared in 1975.

Over the next 36 years, but peaking in the early to mid-1980s, toy companies experimented with hundreds of different electronically assisted board games. By the late 1980s, however, video games began to whisk players away to virtual realms and away from physical reality.

We'll look at 14 classic electronic board games, starting in the 1970s.

Bear in mind that to qualify as "electronic," the games had to contain active electronic components. In fact, every one of these games uses digital technology of some sort.