Simon was a revolutionary electronic game developed during the late 1970s; it was manufactured and distributed by Milton Bradley. Simon was the brainchild of electronic inventor Ralph Baer, who had developed the first home video game console, the Magnavox Odyssey, in 1972. Simon was launched in 1978 at Studio 54 in New York and was an immediate success. Simon went on to become one of the symbols of the 1980s and open the doors to the marketing of electronic games, electronic handhelds, and other types of electronic toys.

Simon, conceptually, is very simple to learn but difficult to master. There are four large, colored push-buttons that light up either when the game produces a pattern to be duplicated or when a player pushes a button. The color of the buttons are red, blue, green, and yellow. The game starts by lighting up a single button; a musical tone also plays simultaneously when a button is illuminated. Each button has a distinct musical tone. The player then must mimick Simon and press that button. Simon will then light up two buttons in a "random" pattern; a button of a particular color can light up more than once consecutively. If the player correctly mimicks Simon, three buttons will then light up; an additional button (color) is continuously added to the otherwise repeated sequence until the human player cannot mimick Simon anymore, then the game ends.

Mathematically, the sequence generated is n, n + 1, n + (n + 1), n + (n + 2)..., in which n is the single occurrence of any of the four colors lighting up within a given color sequence. Simon's built-in computer generates which of the four colors is chosen, probably with a random number generator.

Simon was named after "Simon Says", the well-known children's game of mimicry. Simon is considered a classic electronic game and is still sold today by Milton Bradley (now owned by Hasbro).

External Links

An Online Version of Simon