Throwback Thursday: My pocket Simon

I've been thinking a lot lately about writing about memories of days past, in particular with regard to items that I remember having (or wanting to have) as a kid.  Items that by now would probably be considered antiques, especially the electronics.  I figured I'd start out by writing about items that I still have! (In some cases, I find that a little amazing!)  I wouldn't call myself a hoarder, but I do have a tendency to not want to let go to some things that had special meaning to me!  And as a result, I have several boxes in my basement that are full of items from my past.  Digging through those will give me plenty of content to write about, however who knows if I'll get the time to really dig through them too much.  John would love it if I cleaned out my boxes, but that would require many many hours of dedicated time.  Time that I don't get while watching two kids!

Anyway, to start this series off, I was thinking recently about technology and old electronics that I had as a kid.  One that stands out to me was my pocket Simon.  The Simon was a popular electronic game where you use your memory to remember sequences of sounds/lights.  The Simon plays the sequence and then you repeat it.  It starts out with just one tone/light, and then for every correct answer you get right it lengthened the sequence making it harder to remember.

The Simon was pretty big, and I personally never had one, but one year for either birthday or Christmas I got the pocket version!  Now, the name pocket Simon may be a big misleading.  This electronic toy was in no way able to fit in your pocket!  As most electronics of yesteryear, they were bigger than they are today.  And the pocket Simon was no exception!  It was a handheld device, smaller than the original Simon, but not something I could carry around in my pocket!  Rather, it was more of a travel version, given that it was easier to hold in one hand than the large original Simon.

Pocket Simon (left) and the original Simon (right).  (Photo from www.waitingforfriday.com)

I love the big bright colors and the ancient looking buttons.  The Simon was introduced in 1978, so is as old as me (gulp!).  The look of these devices definitely screams disco-era!

In case you need some scale, here is a photo I just took of my actual pocket Simon next to my Samsung Galaxy S3 smartphone.  It's definitely longer and at least twice as thick (not easy to see in the photo).  The original Simon was about the size of a vinyl record (another throwback item in itself!).  

My smartphone of today, and my pocket Simon of yesteryear.

Ever since I dug this thing out, Evan has been asking to play it.  It of course needed fresh batteries, and it takes a 9 volt along with 2 AAs, which I thought was strange.  As soon as a threw some new batteries in, I started it up and it scared Evan due to the beeping sound.  So, in the end he didn't want to play it and he didn't want me playing it anymore either.  

At first it seemed to be working fine, but when I got to 3 or 4 tones in sequence it played a slightly different sequence and gave me the wrong buzzer sound.  I thought maybe I'd really messed up, so I tried several more times and it kept doing the same thing.  Sadly, I think something in its electronics has not fared so well over the decades in storage. However, hearing those sounds again definitely took me waaaay back!