By Harry McCracken | Posted at 5:23 am on Monday, December 29, 2008
See all: Slideshows
Filed April 18,1978
This, of course, is Milton Bradley’s Simon–one of the simplest, most conceptually elegant, addictive electronic games ever. More than thirty years later, you can still buy it. And isn’t far more likely that folks will still be playing Simon thirty years from now than that they’ll have any interest whatsoever in, say, Gears of War 2?
[...] And if you like classic electronic game patents, there’s a lot more at the link. The list of 33 images includes the first lightgun patent, Wac-a-Mole, the NES, and R.O.B. [Technologizer] [...]
[...] And if you like classic electronic game patents, there’s a lot more at the link. The list of 33 images includes the first lightgun patent, Wac-a-Mole, the NES, and R.O.B. [Technologizer] [...]
[...] And if you like classic electronic game patents, there’s a lot more at the link. The list of 33 images includes the first lightgun patent, Wac-a-Mole, the NES, and R.O.B. [Technologizer] [...]
[...] And if you like classic electronic game patents, there’s a lot more at the link. The list of 33 images includes the first lightgun patent, Wac-a-Mole, the NES, and R.O.B. [Technologizer] [...]
[...] Very cool article on patents on electronic games (e.g., Simon, Atari 2600). See: Patentmania: The Golden Age of Electronic Games | Technologizer. [...]
[...] Le sprint, technique vitale de bien des apprentis fufu, m’est instantanément venu à l’esprit en découvrant cette image dans le billet Patentmania: The Golden Age of Electronic Games (Technologizer [en]). [...]
[...] Terça-feira, Dezembro 30, 2008 Posted by Maurilink in Coluna: Retro Games, Coluna: Tudo Sobre Consoles, Games. trackback Harry McCraken do Technologizer compilou 33 patentes de diversas geringonças que deram origens a consoles, jogos, acessórios e coisas que graças a Deus nunca saíram do papel. É bem legal comparar o rascunho com o produto já industrializado. Para curtir essa viagem no tempo rumo a descobertas, lembranças e muita bizarrices, convido você a seguir por esse LINK. [...]
[...] Posts iFrauds: The Fakest iPods Ever!Patentmania: The Golden Age of Electronic GamesApple Patentmania: 31 Years of Big IdeasIs Swoopo Nothing More Than a Well-Designed Gimmick?The [...]
[...] More patents here [...]
[...] gallery of diagrams that Technologizer has put together here, so don’t waste any instance and dive right in. You won’t be [...]
[...] of diagrams that Technologizer has place unitedly here, so don’t squander some instance and dive correct in. You won’t be [...]
[...] down memory lane, where they present patents from the early days of electronic games. They call it The Golden Age of Electronic Games. I guess I agree with that — though a lot of those games from early on in that age [...]
[...] gallery of diagrams that Technologizer has put together here, so don’t waste any time and dive right in. You won’t be disappointed. Gallery: http://www.wii-fit.co.za remote peripheral [...]
[...] gallery of diagrams that Technologizer has put together here, so don’t waste any time and dive right in. You won’t be [...]
[...] Patentmania: The Golden Age of Electronic Games. Very cool. Worth checking out just for fun. [...]
[...] gallery of diagrams that Technologizer has put together here, so don’t waste any time and dive right in. You won’t be [...]
[...] The Golden Age of Electronic Games More Ways to Get Us… Feed | Free Newsletter Add to: Google | Yahoo | More Twitter: Harry | All Technologizer Join Our Facebook Group [...]
[...] gallery of diagrams that Technologizer has put together here, so don’t waste any time and dive right in. You won’t be [...]
[...] as the Worlds.com patent debacle, Technologizer.com has posted a very interesting listing of old gaming related patents. Although these patents are nearly as stupid as “System and method for enabling users to [...]
[...] a post at technologizer.com: The first three decades of digital gaming saw a flurry of concepts, technologies, and products [...]
[...] Awesome video game history lesson! [...]
December 30th, 2008 at 1:30 pm
I had an Odyssey…wonder if it still works.
December 30th, 2008 at 5:34 pm
The bottom half of that is “Electronic Quarterback” by Coleco.
December 31st, 2008 at 2:06 pm
My favorite is missing: Mattell’s 1979 Intellivision.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intellivision
December 31st, 2008 at 6:30 pm
Carl: I know! I tried hard to find an Intellivision patent, but couldn’t…
–Harry
January 2nd, 2009 at 6:46 am
I totally had the “Interactive Audio Baseball Game”. It may still be in my parents’ attic. It was “cool” because you could buy little cards that had rosters for different baseball teams, including the “Hall of Fame” teams. Of course, all this meant was that the announcer would say “Willie Mays is at the bat” instead of “Babe Ruth”. lol.
January 2nd, 2009 at 7:40 am
Wow!
What a blast form the past! I used to have one of those baseball sets when I was small, wow! what memories this brings back, all those little lights, and the buttons that only worked a fraction of the time…
Wow!
January 5th, 2009 at 9:25 pm
Where is the Sega Genesis?
January 6th, 2009 at 1:26 am
Are you sure you’re not thinking of Fun and Games or the old and plowed under Shopper’s World in Framingham? I don’t think there was a Natick Mall at the time Gun Fight came out. ;)
January 6th, 2009 at 4:01 am
BlindTyldak: I spent plenty of time at Shopper’s World and Fun and Games, but there was a Natick Mall (a far smaller and more downmarket one than the current version) back then–I spent a lot of time as a kid at the Sears, Woolworth’s, and York Steak House there…
–Harry
January 6th, 2009 at 8:16 am
Tomy produced a toy called “Blip: The Digital Game” in 1977. It uses a complicated set of gears and cogs to display a bouncing light (ball) underneath a translucent glass screen, which is very similar to the “Game Apparatus Utilizing a Display Screen” patent.
January 7th, 2009 at 5:16 am
Let’s face it Guitar Hero is just Simon, the only thing that’s changed is the shape, it’s basically the same game (only Simon was better of course ;-)
January 7th, 2009 at 7:09 am
My sister won that version of the NES that came with ROB and the light gun. Hours of fun. Of course it was too hard to actually play the game Gyromite using ROB.
January 8th, 2009 at 12:06 pm
#32 Is Starting Lineup Talking Baseball.
That game was amazing.
January 20th, 2009 at 1:29 pm
Figure Displaying Game Apparatus
Regarding this game, I was just at my parents home and cleaning out all of my momentos, including an Atari 800. I was attracted to the link on slashdot regarding the Atari Tablet then I browsed over to this article. For what it is worth, I also came across this game that I bought at a JC Penney Outlet for $3.00. I am surprised to her Nintendo held the patent. It was called “Whack a Mole” It was a small handheld game with a left and right button that you held the same way we would eventually come to hold the Nintendo controller. There two others I bought at the same time. One was a juggler and the other was a game where you bounced babies on firemen trampolines as they fell continuously faster out of a burning building. I can’t believe I just ran across this game about a week ago. I remember bringing these to grade school and what a hit I was when I let other kids borrow and play these at lunch time. They ran on small hearing aid style batteries and my next project was to see if I could still find these being made.
January 21st, 2009 at 6:16 am
Frame #18: the pinball machine that utilized the elevated ball tube was called “Xenon” and was released by Bally in 1981. The machine had a very realistic sounding synthesized female voice – which I believe was the first female voice ever heard on a pinball machine – who would exhort you at times to “try a tube shot”. It wasn’t the first machine to have above-the-table action: that honor goes to a 1971 Gottlieb game called “Roller Coaster” that used wireform ramps, which are now standard equipment on most machines. I actually have a “Roller Coaster” unit sitting in storage, waiting for room in my house to put it and two other pins I own. Maybe when my stepdaughters go to college…
January 31st, 2009 at 8:50 pm
Nice point about Guitar Hero being similar to Simon. The similarity gets even closer when you try the freeware Frets on Fire.
February 7th, 2009 at 7:20 am
gallery of diagrams that Technologizer has put together here, so don’t waste any time and dive right in. You won’t be
February 7th, 2009 at 8:01 am
:D
February 7th, 2009 at 8:04 am
Very cool
March 9th, 2009 at 2:30 pm
#22 is indeed a Game and Watch, the title is Vermin, and it is one of my favorites.
May 8th, 2009 at 8:14 pm
Page five figure 210 looks like a half-eaten super nintendo controller.
May 14th, 2009 at 4:11 am
Have you thought about the designs for the handheld game Merlin? Also know as the Electronic Wizard, Merlin was a handheld electronic game first made by Parker Brothers in 1978. Merlin is notable as one of the earliest and most popular handheld games, selling over 5 million units during its initial run, as well as one of the most long-lived, remaining popular throughout the 1980s. I absolutely loved this game!
May 18th, 2009 at 12:54 am
When I was a kid, my dad received an arcade-cabinet game that consisted of a joystick that ran a hair-dryer around on two axes, and an attenuator knob which controlled the power of the blower.
The blower would then lift a ping-pong ball to different heights, and carry it along to different targets which would register when the ball passed within its sensors.
The interior of the machine was painted in florescent paint and lit with blacklights.
We received it in the early ’80s (1982, perhaps?), but I wouldn’t be surprised if it were from the early ’70s.
Anyone know what the heck that was?
October 5th, 2009 at 12:39 pm
#21, the wireless Atari controller, was produced for the short-lived Atari 2700 VCS. Details:
http://www.atarimuseum.com/videogames/consoles/2700/a2700.html
I saw one of these units in person only once, circa 1983.