A table hockey game, also called rod hockey game or board hockey, is a game for two players, derived from ice hockey

Ice hockey

Ice hockey, often referred to as hockey, is a team sport played on ice, in which skaters use wooden or composite sticks to shoot a hard rubber puck into their opponent's net. The game is played between two teams of six players each. Five members of each team skate up and down the ice trying to take...

. The game consists of a representation of a hockey rink; the players score goals by hitting a small puck into the opposing "net" with cutout figures that represent hockey players. The figures are manipulated by rods below the "ice": each one slides forward and back along its own narrow slot when the player pushes or pulls on the rod, or rotates (about a vertical axis) to shoot or stickhandle the puck when the player spins the rod. Though similar in concept to air hockey

Air hockey

Air hockey is a game for two competing players trying to score points in the opposing player's goal.-Equipment:Air hockey requires an air-hockey table, two player-held mallets, and a puck....

 (commonly known as "glide hockey"), table hockey games are more of a simulation of the sport of ice hockey while air hockey is more abstract.

Game Play

Commonly, each half of the "rink" has three figures representing forwards

Forward (ice hockey)

In ice hockey, a forward is a player position on the ice whose primary responsibility is to score goals. Generally, the forwards try to stay in three different lanes, also known as thirds, of the ice going from goal to goal. It is not mandatory however, to stay in a lane. Staying in a lane aids in...

 and controlled by the farther player, moving in alternate slots with two representing defensemen

Defenceman (ice hockey)

Defence in ice hockey is a player position whose primary responsibility is to prevent the opposing team from scoring...

 and controlled by his opponent. Each player also defends his goal by manipulating a goaltender

Goaltender

In ice hockey, the goaltender is the player who defends his team's goal net by stopping shots of the puck from entering his team's net, thus preventing the opposing team from scoring...

 figure with a more limited range of motion.

Manufacturers

There are many types of the game. Stiga

Stiga

Stiga is a trade mark for various products.-GGP Sweden AB:GGP Sweden AB, previously named Stiga AB, is a maker of lawn mowers, snow blowers, chainsaws, and other lawn machinery with the trade mark Stiga...

 Games in Sweden

Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

 are used in the table hockey sport

ITHF table hockey

Table hockey is a sport played on table hockey games. The use only table hockeys made by Stiga. The origin of the sport was the Swedish Championship 1982 in Upplands Väsby. Organized table hockey is played in Northern, Central and Eastern Europe, in North America and in Japan.The World...

 administered by the International Table Hockey Federation.

The game has also been played using a variety of commercial boards in North America since the 1920s. The most popular board for many years was manufactured by the now-defunct Coleco

Coleco

Coleco is an American company founded in 1932 by Maurice Greenberg as "Connecticut Leather Company". It became a highly successful toy company in the 1980s, known for its mass-produced version of Cabbage Patch Kids dolls and its video game consoles, the Coleco Telstar and...

 company, and most North American boards (such as those built by The Carrom Company and Irwin toys) are a variant of this model. However, the Stiga board has begun to tap the North American market, even as other new boards continue to be introduced.

Arcade version

The arcade version is called 'dome hockey' or 'bubble hockey', because of the large plastic dome that covers the playing surface in order to prevent the puck either becoming lost or stolen. The most popular of these 'bubble hockey' tables is Chexx (USA vs. Soviet Union) and its successor, Super Chexx

Super Chexx

Super Chexx is a table top arcade ice hockey game manufactured by Innovative Concepts in Entertainment . ICE began manufacturing these table hockey games in 1982 and continues production to this day in Clarence, New York just outside of Buffalo...

(Canada vs. USA).

Game variations

There is another table hockey game called Do-To-Ho, that is completely different from the other games specified here. The play figures are not fastened to bars, but are mobile on the whole playing field. In their bases just like in the puck there is a ball bearing, so they slide like ice skate runners over the board.
Moving a play figure is done via a short, unique knock against the figure with a small stick as in the case for billiard. The play courses take place alternating, there are 'attack courses', with which the puck may be played by a play figure, and 'position courses' (defense courses as well as offside release courses), with which a play figure only may change position without touching the puck. Puck possession changes, if the aggressor misses the puck or hits an opposing play figure.
Do-To-Ho was developed in Germany and published in 1994.