Maniac Electronic Game, 1979
date: label: Date made
content: 1979
name: label: inventor
content: Baer, Ralph H.
label: manufacturer
content: Ideal Toy Company
notes: label: Description
content: Ralph Baer is best known for developing the first video games, but he has accomplished more than that.
label: Description
content: In 1975, Baer, an engineer and inventor, started an independent consulting business and began to work in association with Marvin Glass & Associates in Chicago, the toy design firm responsible for some of the most successful American toys of the 20th century. Baer’s job was to develop electronic toys and games. The best-known result of this partnership was <a href="http://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah_1302005">Simon</a>.
label: Description
content: In light of Simon’s success, Baer was asked by Marvin Glass to create another electronic game that was similar in nature. The result was <i>Maniac</i>, which was released by Ideal Toy Company in 1979. It was a multiple-player, sound-based game that required quick reflexes and the ability to identify and recall tonal sequences (rather than merely repeating them as they had with <i>Simon</i>). In an oral history interview (audio copies available in the National Museum of American History’s Archives Center), Baer admitted that the game was “really hard to play. You have to want to play games to want to play <i>Maniac</i>.” This could be the reason that <i>Maniac</i> never matched the popularity of <i>Simon</i>.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Computers
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content: Popular Entertainment
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content: Baer
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content: Family & Social Life
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content: Computers & Business Machines
publisher: label: Related Publication
content: Baer, Ralph H.. Videogames: In The Beginning
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Ralph H. Baer
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2006.0102.10
label: catalog number
content: 2006.0102.10
label: accession number
content: 2006.0102
objectType: label: Object Name
content: microprocessor-control game
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: plastic (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 2 1/2 in x 10 1/2 in x 10 1/2 in; 6.35 cm x 26.67 cm x 26.67 cm