Buzz
Launched in 1978, Simon marked a significant leap in tabletop gaming. It wasn’t quite a board game or a video game but rather a unique blend of both, bridging the gap between traditional and modern entertainment. Players are tasked with memorizing sequences of lights and sounds emitted by the four-button device and replicating them accurately. As the patterns increase in difficulty, so does the challenge—or the frustration, depending on your viewpoint. Simon became an instant classic and has maintained its status as a cultural icon for more than four decades. Dive deeper to uncover its fascinating history.
1. Ralph Baer, the “Father of Video Games,” is the mastermind behind Simon.
During the 1960s, Ralph Baer, a German immigrant and former World War II intelligence officer, worked as a military engineering contractor while pursuing his passion for video game innovation. Baer envisioned a device that could connect to a television set, allowing users to play games directly on the screen. By 1971, Baer and his employer, Sanders Associates, secured the first-ever video game patent. This groundbreaking invention evolved into the Magnavox Odyssey, which hit the market in 1972.
Years later, Baer conceived another groundbreaking idea. As an independent consultant for Marvin Glass and Associates, Baer became intrigued by an Atari arcade game titled Touch Me. He and Howard Morrison, a Marvin Glass employee, encountered the game at a 1976 trade show. While they appreciated its core concept—repeating a musical sequence—they believed the execution fell short, with unappealing sounds. Inspired by Touch Me, they aimed to create a superior version. (This was poetic justice, as Atari had drawn inspiration from Baer’s Magnavox Odyssey for their hit game Pong.) Collaborating with programmer Lenny Cope, Baer and Morrison spent nearly two years developing a handheld device initially named Follow Me, featuring four buttons. A key improvement was the use of four pleasant, bugle-like tones. Milton Bradley licensed the concept, and Simon (named after the children’s game Simon Says) launched in 1978.
2. Simon became the must-have toy of the 1978 holiday season.
Debuting with flair at New York’s iconic Studio 54 nightclub on May 15, 1978, Simon captivated adults and became a top holiday gift. That winter, stores faced shortages, with long lines forming as soon as new shipments arrived. One retailer sold 1000 units in just five days. Milton Bradley had to allocate supplies, sending stores only partial orders until production could meet the overwhelming demand.
3. Simon was a high-priced item for its era.
Originally priced at $25 (equivalent to about $92 today), Simon was a significant investment. Unlike versatile video game systems, it performed only one function. However, its appeal lay in the fascination with microprocessor technology, which was relatively novel at the time. (Previously, such chips were primarily used in handheld calculators.) The original Simon was also bulky, occupying substantial table space and consuming multiple D batteries.
4. Simon received a significant sales boost thanks to Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
A year before Simon hit the market, Steven Spielberg’s film Close Encounters of the Third Kind premiered, featuring Richard Dreyfuss as a man communicating with aliens. The movie’s climax involved extraterrestrials using musical tones and lights to interact, a concept reminiscent of Simon. While there was no direct link between the film and the game, the movie’s popularity heightened interest in Simon, which shared a similar light-and-sound theme. By the end of 1982, over 10 million units had been sold.
5. Simon sparked a wave of imitations.
Milton Bradley noticed numerous devices attempting to capitalize on Simon’s success. One such imitation, Einstein, featured a rectangular design but mirrored Simon’s gameplay. Atari, the creator of the Touch Me arcade game that inspired Baer and Morrison, released a handheld version of their original game. Among the clones, Tiger Electronics stood out with their humorously named cat, an octagonal device. Baer noted that none of these knock-offs succeeded, as their sounds lacked the appeal of Simon’s distinctive bugle tones.
6. Simon influenced the cover art of a Queen album.
Queen, the legendary rock band fronted by Freddie Mercury, were among the fans of this musical toy. For their 1982 album, Hot Space, the band appeared to draw inspiration from Simon’s design, featuring the four members arranged in a vibrant, four-colored grid on the cover.
7. A touch-free version of Simon exists.
Over the years, Simon has inspired numerous adaptations. In 1979, Milton Bradley introduced Super Simon, a rectangular device with buttons on both sides, enabling timed multiplayer challenges. Later came Simon Stix, which included drumsticks, and Simon Swipe, which introduced touch-based gameplay. Perhaps the most innovative is Simon Air, a vertical version by Hasbro—Milton Bradley’s parent company—that responds to hand gestures over its colored sections. Another notable variant, Simon Optix, employs a headset to display color sequences visually, challenging players to replicate the patterns using hand movements.
