Play Simon Online
Repeat the growing sequence of lights and sounds.
How to Play Simon
Modes: Classic
Four colored pads flash in a sequence.
Repeat the sequence by tapping the same pads in order.
Each correct repeat adds one more flash to the pattern.
Tap a wrong pad and the game is over.
Rules
The pads must be tapped in exactly the order they flashed.
A wrong tap ends the run.
Difficulty only changes how fast the sequence plays.
Scoring
| Sequence length | longest pattern remembered |
History & Origins of Simon
Simon was created by Ralph Baer and Howard Morrison and released by Milton Bradley in 1978, inspired by the Atari arcade game Touch Me. Four large coloured quadrants flash in an order while each plays its own note, and players repeat the growing sequence back by pressing the pads. That blend of light, sound and pressure made it one of the defining electronic toys of the late seventies.
The toy’s success owed much to a simple trick: the same hardware could challenge a five-year-old and an adult, because the sequence simply grows until you slip. Simon became a must-have holiday gift in 1978, earned a place in popular culture far beyond its shelf life, and its pad-and-sequence layout became the template for countless clones and spin-offs.
ThinkyPlay’s version strips the toy back to four touch-friendly pads whose colours match their tones. Easy, Medium and Hard alter only playback speed, never the rules, and one wrong press ends the round with your best score remembered. Because a run ends only when you err, the game is endless and real-time, which is why no daily variant exists.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Watching the colours instead of the rhythm: each flash pairs a position with a note, and players who read colours rather than feel the run tend to blank out on the middle of longer sequences.
- Pressing along with the playback demo: pads are locked while the sequence plays, and rehearsing during the demo primes you to tap early the instant your own input starts.
- Double-tapping a pad you already entered: every tap appends one step, so a single duplicate breaks the prefix and ends the round even when you knew the whole sequence.
- Guessing when you lose the thread: Simon gives no partial credit, so one stab in the middle costs the run, and a better habit is repeating the sequence quietly to yourself as it plays so a pause never becomes a gamble.
Tips & Strategy
Count the flashes out loud as they play.
Group the pattern into pairs and triples to remember it.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Is Simon free to play?
- Yes — Simon on ThinkyPlay is free, with no download and no sign-up.
- What do the difficulty levels change?
- Easy plays slowly, Medium at normal speed and Hard flashes the fastest.
- Why do the pads dim when it is not their turn?
- The dim/bright states make the playback sequence easy to follow — tap whichever pad brightens.
- Can I mute the pad sounds?
- Yes — the Sound button turns the pad tones on or off (default is muted).
- Why does one wrong pad end the whole run?
- Every tap is checked against the sequence from its first note, so a single error at any position ends the round instantly. There is no retry within a level, which is what keeps the pressure of the original toy intact.
- Why is there no daily Simon?
- Simon is an endless real-time challenge rather than a fixed puzzle: nothing ends a round except a wrong tap, so there is no shared finish line to reset each day. The daily collection is reserved for puzzles with a definite solution.
- Do the pads each make a different sound?
- Yes, every pad owns its own tone, and each playback step flashes a pad while playing its note. With sound on, the sequence becomes a small melody you can hum back as a second way to hold it.