Handheld electronic game:Simon

Billed as a "Computer Controlled" game, Simon first appeared in 1978. The game is an electronic version of the old favorite "Simon Says." Powered by three batteries, the Simon disc generates a random series of signals that each player
must duplicate in a fixed amount of time. The player who accurately mimics the most of Simon's signals wins the game. As an early electronic game, Simon seems quite simple, but it is an important beginning to the world of electronic games. Simon's intuitive game play has made it an enduringly popular toy since its debut in 1978. And yet simple game play was the result of intense effort by its creators, most notably Ralph Baer working for the independent toy and game design group Marvin Glass & Associates. Baer already had experience with electronic games as the creator of the Magnavox Odyssey, the first home video game system.When he saw a clunky Atari arcade game, Touch Me, at a 1976 show of coin-op arcade devices, he decided to create a better version for the home market. Simon was the result. Simon is one of the most prominent electronic games of the 1970s and early 1980s. Simon reminds us that not only were electronic games gaining millions of fans through video games like Atari's VCS/2600 system for the home television or the arcade hit Space Invaders, but that people were increasingly playing with toys of all kinds in which computers mediated the play. Simon helped usher in the present-day dominance of electronic games by using a computer to create a playing experience that even people uncomfortable or unfamiliar with computers could enjoy.