I was born in an era where computers and gaming consoles were becoming a deal for the home of families back when I was younger. In our household, before having my first computer at the age of 17, my brother Greg and I had our own game consoles we had gotten from our maternal grandparents when the Merlin and Simon were a big commodity at the time, and the advertisements on TV while watching a show or the world and local news, at Christmastime with them one year. I got the Merlin and my brother got the Simon, and while were growing up, we shared our game consoles with one another or we played with our consoles together. I do not remember how long I had my Merlin, but it was about 5 years when batteries would no longer work for the Merlin to run, but by then the console stopped working altogether and had to be trashed. By then, I was 13 or 14 years old and in middle school, and into other things. The memories with my Merlin were few and far between from when I had gotten it that one Christmas now practically over 40 years ago. Greg’s Simon has lasted for quite some time that when he left for the service after graduating high school in Milton, Wisconsin in 1985, and that summer in July I turned 15 and will be a freshman in high school in September, I pulled out his Simon and played with it after putting batteries in it. When he called during one of his service training calls, I asked him if I could have his Simon since it still work and he was in the Army. I still wanted him to know it was still his when he came home on visits and leave when training allowed him to visit home. He gave me permission, and that Simon lived a few more years after that into the 90’s before it stopped working altogether.
The memories of the gaming consoles we have had as children and young adults have been in and out of my memory for ages. For 40 years or more to be honest with you. When I was talking to my stepdad LLL yesterday, I told him about how computers and gaming consoles have evolved through the years since I was a preteen to an early adult to the present day. Being that my stepdad was born in 1951, and the Merlin and Simon came out before my double digit years, LLL NEVER heard or seen what those two gaming consoles at the time they came out. He told me that he was computer programming by then. Of course, he would be in his 20’s by the 1970’s, lol. 👍🏻😎♥️ When I learned that he did not know what a Merlin and a Simon were, I went online to see if I could find a Merlin and a Simon. Once I did find both, I sent a text to him showing what each gaming consoles looked like. I was very surprised that I found a Merlin. Q from 1978 to show LLL what Merlin looked like, roughly. Today, on amazon.com I actually found a Merlin that I had in 1978 and until I was 12 years old. https I was impressed. As far as the Simon that lasted until the mid 1990’s, I was able to find the exact Simon my brother had in Amazon at h !! The memories of such a time when I was child growing up interested in electronics and learning about electronics at an early age and being born in a era of computers being made for the home for people like us. Fun and not fun at the same time. Do I make sense? Maybe, maybe not. It depends on who I am talking to to get my point across to you personally .*
Comments (3)
Those kinds of toys TO have a different slant to them. More feedback so to speak. I used to play Dr. Mario with my kids. It was fun. And SO simple compared to now!
I agree with you. The Merlin and the Simon were FUN gaming consoles for us kids. Now we have computer games similar to the Simon game. .
They have a game I found in Apple Store that looks like the Simon game and on the console it says Mimic on it where Simon would say on the game my beother had. I was impressed to see