Merlin (game)

Merlin was one of the first handheld computer games, which was brought in 1978 by the American toy manufacturer Parker Brothers ( Parker) on the market. The game was very successful at the time and sold at the first publication of over five million copies in the U.S. alone. In addition, it remained the largest part of the 1980s, one of the most popular handheld games.

Merlin was developed by Bob Doyle, a Harvard professor and inventor who had previously worked at NASA.

Merlin had the shape of a rectangular box (similar to a cordless phone ), which was 24.6 cm long, 7.6 cm wide and 5.7 cm deep. Weight: 250 grams (with batteries: 391 grams). The field consisted of a grid of eleven buttons, each of which had integrated a red LED light inside. The playing field was in a plastic case ( upper part red, lower part brown) installed, which were attached to four more buttons for selecting and controlling the games. Furthermore, the game had a speaker to play tones. On the right side above the on / off switch, over on the left side of the connection for an external power supply.

On the pitch, with its simple arrangement were five different games are shown ( and a simple music sequencer, see below), which could be played against the computer. These were:

• Tic- Tac-Toe
• Echo (a version of Senso )
• 17 minus 4 (named after 17 and 4, a type of blackjack )
• Magic square ( a puzzle game in which you had to put all the lights up to the middle, upper and lower shine )
• Mind Bender ( a version of Mastermind )

Merlin could also be used as a musical instrument by each button to control a musical note was that recorded (maximum 48 marks ) could be and play it back. This function is made ​​to one of the first Merlin sequencer manufactured for the end user.

Merlin: The 10th Quest

In 1995, Parker Brothers, a revised version of Merlin published in the U.S. under the Merlin: the 10th quest. The unit had an LCD display and instead of the six games were now nine games in the device: