A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away... the Coleco Bowlatronic

The 1981 hand-held bowling game traveled to the Star Wars universe in The Book of Boba Fett.

Back in 1981, Coleco released a number of amazing hand-held, and tabletop electronic games. Including some true classics, such as this little table-top Pac-Man:

One of the less remembered items that Coleco released back in 1981? The Bowlatronic. Which, obviously, is a hand-held, electronic bowling game.

In use, it looks (and sounds) something like this:

A friend of mine had the Coleco Bowlatronic. Pretty sure his family picked it up in the mid to late 1980s from a thrift store. I’m going to be honest… it was not a great game.

There were many fun, hand-held games from that period of time. The Bowlatronic is not one of them.

Just the same, if you watch the Season 1 finale of “The Book of Boba Fett”, you’ll be treated to the Coleco Bowlatronic as a prop that is central to the plot of the episode.

Seriously. Without giving away the plot, here’s a screengrab from the episode.

Note the prominent usage of the Bowlatronic. Which, obviously, had traveled back in time — and to a galaxy far, far away — in order to change the course of events on Tatooine.

The Bowlatronic is in use in multiple scenes, and by two prominent characters. Who, obviously, really wanted to play some sweet, 1980s electronic bowling.

Next up, I expect to see an original Simon game show up in the new Lord of Rings TV series. Pretty sure the Elves played them.

---

Lunduke.Substack.com — Lunduke.Locals.com — Reddit — Twitter

---

Current subscriber exclusives for The Lunduke Journal:

eBooks: Lunduke's Dad Jokes About Computers, vol. 1, Linux for Hank (kids book), Half a Decade of Linux-y Shenanigans, Lunduke Journal Quarterly - Volume 1, Paper Doll Tux, Road-Sign Hank & the Aliens (comic book), Operating System Not Found (choose your own adventure)

Games: Linux Tycoon (Linux, Windows, DOS), 2299 (Linux, Windows)

+ Exclusive Podcasts, Articles, & 24x7 Telnet BBS Access