Inventor John McDonough says his tabletop game, RocketBall, is a fun alternative to video games for young and old. (Photos/Nancy Hanson.)

Nancy Edmonds Hanson

Kids love to play RocketBall … and it doesn’t even have a screen.
“Parents have told me, ‘I don’t believe it,” inventor John McDonough reports. “They’re amazed. They say, ‘It’s not even electronic.’”
After a year of development, John is bringing his brainchild public. This winter, the first RocketBall games are going into production. Parts are being manufactured by small companies all over Minnesota. They’ll be put together by Productive Alternatives in Fergus Falls after Christmas, then delivered to homes in January or February.
It all began three years ago in the inventor’s basement workroom. “At first, I was trying to invent a board game, just as something to do … something that was fun and not practical,” he remembers. “Then I came up with a controller that could hit a ball and block shots. I made three more, then tried them out on a kid-sized pool table. And it worked!”
Already a seasoned inventor, John took his scrap-wood-and-duct-tape prototype to Applied Engineering to develop a sleek, durable, lightweight design that could be mass-produced. By last March, he was ready to go public.
RocketBall is played on a 2-by-3-foot portable tabletop. Up to four can compete, propelling a red ball back and forth with thumb-operated bright yellow controllers. The objective is simple: Zing the ball past your opponents to reach the edge, dinging a bell and gaining a point.
Young and old have been getting their hands on RocketBall controllers at demonstrations all summer. Hundreds of kids have tried it out, giving it an enthusiastic thumbs-up. Adults have gotten their hands on it at demos at Billiards and Buffalo Wild Wings in Moorhead. The director of a local assisted living facility has already ordered three for her residents.
Last week, RocketBall attracted a crowd of intrigued elders at Cruise Night. Most were old enough to remember Foosball and other pastimes that entertained young Boomers, long before video games and digital devices captured the full attention of the young.
John acknowledges that real-life games have become something of a novelty in a world dominated by digital pastimes. That’s what an industry expert told him last winter when he brought his invention to the Billiards Congress of America in Las Vegas, hoping to interest a distributor. “An engineer told me it would never sell,” he says. “Kids just want to push a button.”
Undaunted by that negative review, he persevered. Two months ago, John tested two RocketBall prototypes at Gen Con in Indianapolis, the largest tabletop game convention in North America. Savvy gamers got a chance to test the game, and, he says, “They loved it!” Sixty percent of those who tried RocketBall called it more fun than Foosball or air hockey and said they’d buy it for themselves if it were priced at no more than $200.
That price point, though, is the sticking point. “At this point, it costs me about half that much to manufacture it,” he explains. “That doesn’t leave enough room to go through distributors and retailers.”
So he’s taking a different route. RocketBall parts are being manufactured by small companies all over Minnesota, then assembled in Fergus Falls. While the first won’t be ready to deliver until January, John and his wife Lois are accepting pre-orders now on their website, www.RocketBall.fun.
(That web address is a story in itself. John found that the Houston Rockets basketball team owns the most common “rocketball” domains. Looking for alternatives, John discovered the lesser-known but perfect extension:“.fun.”)
Propelling RocketBall to the edge of public marketing has been neither easy nor cheap. John, who works full-time as a maintenance technician at the Federal Courthouse, estimates he has spent another 20 hours a week for the past year on the project. So far, he has invested $50,000 in its development, mostly on engineering. He currently awaits word on his patent application. He’s looking for investors now as production ramps up.
“It’s been a long road,” he acknowledges. “But when a child looks up at me with that sparkle in their eyes and tells me, ‘This is a great game!’ – well, it’s all worth it.”
Want to preview RocketBall for yourself? Look for John at upcoming community events, including Sausage Fest at First Presbyterian Church Sept. 28 and the St. Joseph’s School bazaar Oct. 13. More information is also available online: www.RocketBall.fun.