About Simon Says
Simon Says challenges your working memory by presenting ever-lengthening sequences of coloured flashes that you must repeat in exact order. Four coloured quadrants — red, blue, green, and yellow — each produce a distinctive sound when lit. The game flashes a sequence beginning with one colour, and you must click the same colours in the same order. Each successful round adds one new colour to the end of the sequence; a single wrong click resets your run and offers the choice to try again from the beginning or continue from the last successful round length.
The original Simon electronic game (Milton Bradley, 1978) topped out at 31 levels — widely considered the practical limit of human short-term memory for this type of sequential task. This version uses the same quadrant layout and distinctive audio tones as the original. Sound is integral: each button's unique pitch activates auditory memory in addition to visual, and most high-score players report that they remember sequences as a melody rather than a colour list. Disabling sound makes the game measurably harder, cutting average round progression by 3–5 levels.
Speed increases after round 5: flash duration drops from 800 ms to 600 ms, and after round 10 it drops again to 400 ms. At 400 ms per flash, a 15-step sequence takes only six seconds to display — pressing your audio-visual memory to its limit. World-class Simon players have cleared sequences of 31 and beyond by using rhythmic chunking: grouping colours into 3–4 item "words" and rehearsing the chunk as a unit rather than individual colours.
How to Play
- Click or tap a coloured quadrant to enter it into your sequence
- Watch the flash pattern carefully before responding — do not click during playback
- Wrong click — Round ends; choose Retry (same length) or Restart (from 1)
- Volume control in the top-right — audio is essential for high scores
- Speed setting (Classic / Fast) changes flash display duration
- Score equals the number of the last successfully completed round
Tips & Strategies
Sing the sequence as a melody
Each colour has a unique pitch. Mentally hum or tap along during playback, then replay your internal melody when it is your turn — auditory rehearsal doubles effective working memory capacity for sequences.
Chunk in groups of three
When a sequence reaches 9 or more items, mentally group it: "red-blue-green … yellow-red-blue … green-yellow-red." Three-item chunks are easier to hold and recall than a flat list.
Watch the centre, not each button
Fix your gaze on the centre of the grid during playback. Peripheral vision detects colour flashes efficiently, and keeping your focus central reduces eye-movement delay when you enter the sequence.