Simon
Milton Bradley's electronic memory game: a round disc with four big colored panels (red, blue, green, yellow) that light up and beep in a growing sequence you have to repeat back from memory until you slip. The rising four-tone boop pattern is iconic.
Simon launched in 1978 as Milton Bradley's entry into electronic gaming toys, but it endured as a 1990s staple. The device was refreshingly simple: the game generates an ever-lengthening sequence of lights and sounds, and you repeat it back by pressing the four colored panels in the correct order. Succeed and the sequence grows longer; make one mistake and the buzzer sounds.
The rising four-tone pattern became instantly recognizable, and for an entire generation it defined what a "memory game" was. Millions of kids played Simon at home and in classrooms, competing to beat their own high score.
Similar items
Bop It
The barking baton that shouted commands — Bop it! Twist it! Pull it! — faster and faster until somebody fumbled and somebody else gloated. Simple enough to learn in ten seconds, merciless enough to end friendships, and loud enough that parents hid it on top of the fridge.
Lite-Brite
A backlit box where you push small colored translucent pegs through a sheet of black paper to make glowing pictures in a dark room. Simple, mesmerizing, and you always ran out of the color you needed.
Dream Phone
The pink electronic board game where you called cute boys on a plastic phone to figure out which one had a crush on you. A deduction game wrapped in early-'90s sleepover fantasy, complete with a chunky toy telephone and recorded voices.
Mall Madness
The electronic board game that let you live out the ultimate '90s fantasy: a shopping spree at the mall. A battery-powered voice called out sales — "Attention shoppers, there's a sale in the..." — while 2 to 4 players raced around a two-story plastic mall to buy everything on their list first.