Simon

About this game

Simon is the classic electronic memory game where four colored pads light up in a growing sequence and your job is to repeat it back, in order, without missing a beat. The first round is just one flash. The second round is two flashes. By the time you reach round ten you are tracking ten colors and ten tones in the order they appeared, and one wrong tap ends the game.

Kioku Games' web version recreates the original arcade feel with live-generated tones (G4 for green, E4 for red, C4 for yellow, G3 for blue) and full keyboard support (Q W A S). No signup, no in-app purchase, no installation — just open the page and press Start.

The cognitive science of sequential memory

Simon is one of the cleanest tests of serial memory ever turned into a toy. Where Memory Match tests where, Simon tests when — the temporal order of events. Cognitive psychologists call this the phonological loop (when you sub-vocalise the colors as words) plus the visuospatial sketchpad (when you remember the spatial layout) working together under time pressure.

Sequential memory is the same machinery your brain uses to remember a phone number long enough to dial it, a route through an unfamiliar building, or the steps of a recipe you just heard. Strengthening it through Simon-style practice has measurable transfer to anything that requires holding an ordered series of items briefly in mind. The transfer is most reliable for tasks that share the auditory-visual interleaved structure that Simon trains.

A short history of the toy that became a science test

Simon was designed by Ralph Baer (the father of the home video game) and Howard Morrison, and released by Milton Bradley in 1978. The handheld disc became one of the best-selling electronic games of its era and a Christmas-morning fixture for a generation of households. It quickly migrated from playroom to research lab as psychologists noticed how cleanly the design isolates serial memory from other cognitive variables.

Variations have appeared in dozens of forms — Super Simon, Simon Air, gesture-based Simon, app remakes, and competitive speed versions where rounds happen in milliseconds. The Kioku Games version stays close to the 1978 original in feel: same four colors, same four pitches, same "watch carefully → repeat exactly" loop. The difference is that this version runs in any browser, free, with no batteries.

Strategy: how strong players reach round 20+

Three layered tricks separate strong Simon players from beginners. First, hum or speak the tones as they play. The four pads are tuned to G4, E4, C4, and G3 — distinct enough that even a non-musical player can remember the contour ("high-low-high-mid"). Adding the auditory channel doubles your encoding pathway and is the single biggest win.

Second, group the sequence into chunks of three or four. A 12-step sequence becomes "GREEN-RED-YELLOW / BLUE-BLUE-GREEN / RED-YELLOW-RED / YELLOW-GREEN-BLUE" — much more retainable than 12 atomic items. Third, look at the pad you are about to press half a beat before you commit, not after; this small habit makes long sequences feel rhythmic and steady, not panicked. Combine all three and round 20 becomes realistically reachable.

How scoring works in Kioku Simon

Each round you successfully repeat scores 100 points multiplied by the round number, so round 10 is worth a full 1,000 points. The sequence speed begins to ramp from round 5 onwards: the time between flashes shortens and the flash itself becomes briefer. By round 15 the sequence plays roughly 40 percent faster than at the start, demanding both memory and reaction.

Personal best (highest round reached) is saved in your browser's local storage; nothing is sent to a server unless you opt in to the optional weekly leaderboard. The leaderboard resets every Monday at 00:00 UTC and only requires a display name. The previous week's top scores are archived as "Hall of Fame" so highlights are not lost.

Simon for kids, students, seniors

For children aged five and up, Simon is a wonderfully accessible introduction to "remember and repeat" tasks. The four-color, four-tone constraint avoids the choice paralysis of more complex memory games and the immediate audio feedback rewards correct presses. Five minutes a day with a parent makes for a genuinely educational micro-routine.

For students, Simon is a focused warm-up for tasks that demand short-term attention — a five-round game before a study block primes serial recall. For older adults, regular play has been associated in observational studies with slower decline of working memory, especially in combination with mild physical activity. Simon's low-stakes structure (no points lost on retry, no failure penalty beyond ending the round) makes it psychologically easier to play often.

Related Kioku Games

If you enjoy Simon, three sister games extend the sequential-memory theme. Color Sequence is essentially Simon without the sound — pure visual order memory, useful when you need a quieter session. Digit Span is the classic IQ-test version: you hear a sequence of digits and type them back, in forward or backward order. N-back asks you to remember positions or sounds N steps back, the gold-standard of laboratory working-memory training. Together these four games rotate the same core ability through audio, visual, and digit modalities.