Electronic Darts All Good Except Beep, Winner By Joan Young on Apr 20, 2008 - Updated Oct 15, 2011

The Halex Aipha Electronic Dartboard is a lot of fun for family or solo play. It's nice not to have to keep score yourself, but you can become really worn down by a dart board that tells you it wins all the time.

I mean, it's humiliating enough to be consistently beaten by the youngest son, but at least he's somewhat gracious about it. The board just beeps and announces that it has won yet again.

I was skeptical of how well it would work. The board is full of little holes, and the tip of a dart must enter a hole in order to stick. But for some reason the darts do just that about as often as sharpened darts stick in a wooden board. It's a little safer than brass darts. The darts are still sharp enough that someone could get hurt if directly hit with one, so use the same general precautions as with any dartboard.

There are supposedly 65 games that it's programmed to play and score. Some of them are variations of the same game, or designed for teams. Truly different games are 301, Cricket, Scram, Count Up, Round the Clock, Killer, Double Down, All Fives, Shanghai, Golf, Football, Bowling, Baseball, Steeplechase, Shove a Penny, Nine Dart Century, and Green vs Red.

The only thing that is bothersome about the electronic scoring is that if someone accidentally goes out of turn the machine can't deal with it, and you pretty much have to start that game over, or figure out where everyone was and finish scoring that game by hand.

It's also tricky to get it programmed for the game you want...just a bunch of scrolling through options, but once you learn which are your favorite games it gets easier. We keep the book nearby though. There are too many letter-number sequences to remember if you don't play often.

There are five skill levels if you chose to play against the computer.

Most games can be played with up to 4 players, but for team play it can score for four 2-person teams (8 players).

It comes with 6 darts, extra “feathers” (plastic) and a package of tips. The tips can get bent or even broken. More spare parts can be ordered from Regent-Halex

We've had it for 3 years, and it only gets occasional use, but so far everything has worked fine. I'm sure this isn't a board for real dart pros... but for quality adult family play it has served us very well.

Three AA batteries are required, and an optional AC adapter is available. The board must be mounted properly on a stud, since it is fairly heavy. If you buy this at Christmas, or some holiday, plan ahead if you want to be able to unwrap it, throw it on the wall and play.

I got a real deal on this board, since I just looked them up on line and have learned that the current model of this is retailing for $80, with a sale price of $50.