The one that made you a copycat …
Who’s Simon, and why do we have to do what he says? Some people believe it’s based on the Biblical character, but regardless, it’s a pretty fun game to play.
It’s so fun, in fact, that when the game of Simon Says was transformed into an electronic device, it became one of the most iconic toys of the ‘80s. Whether you played solo or with a group, Simon’s flashing lights and musical sounds were quickly ingrained into your childhood memories.
But did you know …
1. The Father of Video Games
By the time he designed Simon, Ralph H. Baer had already made a name for himself by inventing the first home video game console: the Magnavox Odyssey. He started working on his invention in 1966, and the device was eventually licensed by Magnavox and released in 1972. Baer is considered “The Father of Video Games” and was even awarded the National Medal of Technology in 2006.
2. Touch Me
Although Baer was certainly a video game innovator, he essentially ripped off Atari with his next big invention. In 1974, Atari released an arcade game called Touch Me. It had four big buttons that lit up and made sounds. Players had to repeat the sequences, each time with one more button added. Sound familiar?
A couple years later, Baer saw Touch Me at a trade show. His review was blunt: "Nice gameplay. Terrible execution. Visually boring. Miserable, rasping sounds.” He came up with a prototype called Follow Me, which featured similar gameplay but had an improved handheld design, brightly colored buttons, and harmonious tones.
That invention was later dubbed — you guessed it — Simon. Atari saw the new game’s success and released a handheld version of Touch Me, but everyone thought it was a total Simon rip-off. Oh, the irony.
3. Music to your ears
When deciding which sounds to pair with Simon’s four buttons, Baer looked to the ‘70s version of Google: an encyclopedia. He found out that bugles produce a limited number of notes in a harmonic series, allowing them to play a wide variety of note sequences that all sound pleasant to the ear. Based on that little nugget of information, he decided to program the device buttons to G, C, E, and G, creating Simon’s signature sounds.
4. Simon’s night out
Simon’s debut took place in a decidedly adult setting. In 1978, the game had a lavish midnight release party at Studio 54, a famously debaucherous nightclub in NYC. The event even featured a 4-foot-wide Simon suspended over the attendees like a flying saucer. Nothing like dancing to some disco under a giant Simon spaceship.
5. Earth to Simon
Turns out the UFO saucer-style design was a good choice. The recent popularity of Close Encounters of the Third Kind made the Simon game even more enticing. The similarities were almost eerie. Like Simon, the disc-shaped spaceship in Close Encounters communicates through a series of musical notes and lights. And the Academy Award for best accidental movie tie-in goes to … Simon!
6. All I want for Christmas
After its May 1978 debut, Simon quickly became a hit. By the time the holidays rolled around, it was the must-have toy of the season. It didn’t come cheap, however. The original Simon was priced at $24.95, the equivalent of nearly $120 today.
7. Look Ma, no buttons!
There have been several variations on the classic Simon game since it was first introduced, including the six-button Super Simon and Simon Flash, which had colorful light-up cubes that could be shuffled into different positions.
But Simon Optix literally changed the game by eliminating physical buttons and creating a whole new way to play. Players wear a headset and move their hands in front to repeat the flashing light patterns. Pretty sure the creators of Simon couldn’t have predicted this futuristic spin on the original.
8. The Simon prodigy
Did you ever dream of setting a Guinness World Record as a kid? Maddex Ranjbar from Caesarea, Canada got to live the dream when he broke the record for the most sequences completed in a game of Simon. At just 10 years old, he completed 84 sequences of the game after training for about six months.
9. Two games for the price of one
One of the most notable pop culture references to Simon occurred in the 2014 film, Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones. A group of teens in the movie are messing around with a classic Simon when something starts communicating to them through the game. The lights and sounds of the possessed Simon game act almost like a Ouija board, answering yes-or-no questions by lighting up green or red. Spoooooky …
10. What’s your high score?
Think you’ve still got it after all these years? You can actually see how your skills have held up since childhood by playing Simon online. Tell us your top score in the comments and we’ll see who’s the Simon champ.
Did Simon make us all copycats, or did it boost our short-term memory skills? Share this with a friend and challenge them to a game.
Editorial: Ashley
Illustration: Nick