Simon
MemoryHow to play Simon
I press Start, then I watch as the pads light up and play their tones one at a time. When it is my turn I tap or click the same pads back in the exact order I just saw.
Each round the game adds one more step to the sequence, so my memory has to stretch a little further every time. One wrong pad ends the game, and my best round is saved on screen so I can try to beat it on the next run.
About Simon
Simon is the glowing four-color memory game invented by Ralph Baer, the 'father of video games', and Howard Morrison, and launched by Milton Bradley in 1978 at, of all places, Studio 54. Its looping tones and lengthening light sequences made it a disco-era icon and one of the best-selling electronic games ever, and the format has never needed changing.
The game is working-memory weightlifting: watch the sequence, repeat it, then do it again one light longer. Because each color has its own tone, Simon quietly teaches you to remember with your ears as well as your eyes, and the players who go deep are the ones who stop memorizing lights and start memorizing music.
Going deeper in Simon
- Use the sounds. Each color's tone is fixed, and an audio-plus-visual memory holds sequences far longer than sight alone.
- Chunk the sequence like a phone number, groups of three or four, rather than one long undifferentiated string.
- Say the colors to yourself in rhythm; verbal encoding is a third memory channel on top of eyes and ears.
- Replay the full sequence mentally during the pause before your turn, rehearsal is what keeps early items alive.
- Do not rush your inputs. The sequence is not timed away from you, and hurried taps corrupt memory you actually had.
FAQ
How long a sequence can people remember?
Untrained working memory holds around seven items, which is where most beginners stall. With chunking and audio encoding, runs of 15-20 are very achievable, and dedicated players go much further, the original hardware's classic mode topped out at 31 steps.
Does the sequence change each round?
No, that is the mercy of Simon: each round appends one new step to the existing sequence, so everything you have memorized stays true. The game is cumulative recall, not fresh memorization, which is exactly why rehearsal between rounds pays.
Are the tones actually helpful or just decoration?
Genuinely helpful. The four fixed tones were designed to be harmonious, and melodic memory is strong in humans, many high scorers report they eventually 'play back the song' and barely think about colors at all.
Why do I always fail around the same length?
You have hit your unchunked capacity. Break the sequence into groups, attach the sounds, and rehearse during pauses; each technique typically buys several more steps. Plateaus in Simon are almost always encoding problems, not attention problems.
