Simon: Classic Electronic Game Enters the Computer Age

The '80s were a great time to be a kid. We were the beneficiaries of some of the best cartoons (Transformers, Gobots, Thundercats), music (hair bands and New Wave), and video games (Atari, NES). The electronic game known as Simon was another treasure of the '80s. The thought of Simon, with is blinking colored lights and monotone aural outputs, brings back memories of staring intently at those buttons just trying to keep their pattern in my head.

Simon, which was released in 1978, was a circular game unit with four large colored buttos of green, red, blue, and yellow. Simon would begin a musical pattern by playing a tone and the colored button that corresponded with that tone would illuminate. The player would then be given a chance to press the same button and produce the same tone. If he was correct, Simon would then play the first tone followed by a second. It was now the player's turn turn to play the same two tones in the same order. This would continue with Simon adding a new tone (and thus button ) to the sequence with each pass. The player's job would be to play back the sequence exactly. This continued until the player entered the sequence incorrectly and would have to then start over. Simon would allow you to compete against others and you could spend hours stretching your short-term memory to its limits trying to keep up with this little circular machine.

But alas, all good things come to an end. With the coming of January 1, 1990, the '80s came to a screeching hault and the age of Dr. Martins, grunge, and TheReal World began. But there remains the faithful who have decided in their hearts that the 80's deserve another chance. The trends and the pop culture of those ten short years were timeless no matter how "uncool" the '90s tried to portray the decade of Reagan. One of these faithful ones is software development company Lumacode. Lumacode has brought our beloved Simon to the computer age.

Simon Extreme is a free (via download) game for Mac OS X whose user interface is an exact replica of the classic game: black, circular, 4 colored buttons of green, red, blue, and yellow. The rules and method of play are the same as the original. Simon Extreme will emit sequences of tones and button-illumination and the player must mimic them using the i, k, l and o keys of his keyboard. Many of the same options are available for the computer version. The user has the option to increase the speed of the sequences in order to make the game more challenging. An innovative and unique improvement that Lumacode has made to Simon Extreme is the option to change the types of tones that the game produces. Options such as Heavy Metal, Trip Hop, and Windchimes add a new dimension to Simon. So instead of single notes the user hears crunchy guitars and drums (Heavy Metal), beats and synths (Trip Hop) or the tinkling of chimes (Windchimes).

So if you are a Mac user and want to "get down with your nostalgic self" check out Simon Extreme.