How to play Simon

Simon is the classic memory game of lights and tones. Four coloured pads — red, green, blue, and yellow — light up one after another in a growing pattern, each with its own musical note, and your task is to play the pattern back from memory. It starts out easy and gets steadily harder, which makes it both a fun challenge and a genuine workout for your short-term memory.

Goal

Repeat the colour sequence correctly for as many rounds as you can. Every round the game adds one more colour to the end of the sequence, so the pattern you must remember keeps getting longer. Your score is the length of the sequence you reached, and your best result is saved on this device so you always have a personal record to chase.

How to play

• Press Start to begin. Watch and listen as the pads flash the sequence — the status line tells you when it is your turn.
• Tap the pads in the exact same order to repeat the sequence. Each pad lights up and plays its tone as you press it.
• Get the whole sequence right and the game adds one more colour, then replays the longer pattern for you to copy.
• A single wrong tap ends the game and shows your score, after which you can play again straight away.

Strategy and tips

The single most useful trick is to chunk the sequence into small groups of three or four colours; people remember a few short chunks far more reliably than one long flat list. Lean on the sound as well as the light — each pad has a fixed musical note, so the pattern becomes a little tune you can hum back, and many players find the melody sticks in their head better than the colours alone. Stay relaxed and keep a steady rhythm rather than rushing, because hurried taps are where most mistakes creep in. As the sequence lengthens it also speeds up slightly, so trusting the pattern you have already memorised, rather than second-guessing each press, will carry you further than playing it cautious.