Merlin The Electronic Wizard - Having a play!

Playing with the classic 1978 handheld Parker Brothers electronic game, Merlin The Electronic Wizard

[@MikeSims70]

Thanks for the walk down memory lane ... I loved this toy when I was in grade school ... circa 1979 :)

[@DrB1900]

Me too, but I had forgotten all about it till now. Thanks, crazy Aussie bloke.

[@noroar3258]

at least we went outside to play sports after done with merlin in the late 70's

[@sourcecode6467]

The nostalgia here is epic, I'm an Android developer, I might attempt recreating this on Android, would be a fun project

[@greencellist]

Please do! I've been looking for an Android app that recreates the sound and gameplay of this

[@lisaa6099]

So happy to see this. I played it. For hours and hours and hours as a kid

[@AmesiesCorner]

I remember when there was one of these on every coffee table way back when there was brand new episodes of The Dukes of Hazard on at 8 o'clock Friday nights..

[@jasonbradley13]

I loved mine. Wish I still had it. How very cool to see one again

[@ToTheGAMES]

WarGames? Loved that movie! What a strange game. The only winning move is not to play. How about a nice game of chess?

[@Starry_Night_Sky7455]

Great philosophical message in that film. Of course the message about the futility of war tends to fly right over the heads of warmongering brutes fixated on their own self-centered agendas. Ha, even more interesting is that this movie slightly predates all this computer security stuff that is an everyday issue at this time given that remote access is entirely doable. Everyone knows about viruses, firewalls, and encryption now. I think this movie actually inspired initial computer security legislation to be created in the US sometime after it premiered. Also, it is true that some kids in the US were in fact put through the legal ringer for having phone hacked into various business information systems. I think the kids were known as the 414s. There's a documentary out there somewhere.

[@davidpitock5652]

Thank you for information wasn't sure how to run this 47 year old game 😂

[@schitlipz]

The thing was practically a friend on boring Canadian winter days. Love yhe memories. Magic Square... awesome.

[@besenyeim]

"1) PROPER CARE. ... - Never take MERLIN apart." Dave, you monster! :-)

[@Okurka.]

Merlin the Battery Eater.

[@rightside]

“...one of the worlds first music synthesisers...” Your words mate...

[@Jedda73]

I remember visiting a school friend and finding one of these in his room and having no idea how to use it. He proceeded to play with it for a minute without explanation and then threw it back in his toy box because he couldn't remember how to use either.

[@ian1352]

Still have mine. I remember saving up for a long time to be able buy this. Amazing how expensive it was.

[@kissingfrogs]

Awe nuts,, I would have been happy to have been 'bored' by a demo of the other games.

[@Cerulean0987]

I loved this game.

[@p_mouse8676]

1 to 2 players. So sqrt(2) players is also possible?

[@petersage5157]

81 mA - could you fly to the moon on that? 6:49 Jim, Bones, Spock at Yosemite. Spock had just sampled Bones' beans.

[@dancingvirgil]

Looks like an Ericsson mobile phone I used to own

[@TheDefpom]

I used to have one of those...

[@paulad2782]

Aww! ❤'d this game!

[@Ghozer]

Magic Square is (I guess) what became "Lights Out" (Tiger Electronics) - I loved that game! :D

[@therestorationofdrwho1865]

I didn’t expect you to mix batteries lol.

[@dnb5661]

Yeah. That is a bad idea; it accelerates the inevitable leaking behavior.

[@SeanBZA]

No Varta, Dave was a lover of them at one time, must have been whatever ones he could scrounge out of the remotes in the lab and at home for this.

[@donaldklopper]

He accidentally had more than one of the same kind in there....

[@EEVblog2]

I just cobbled together whatever I had lying around on the bench

[@therestorationofdrwho1865]

EEVblog2 Rip

[@qwaqwa1960]

Hope you've installed the security patches.

[@MasterControl90original]

I can see why it sold so well: it is simple, accessible and reasonably fun

[@therestorationofdrwho1865]

Wow this is neat! I’ve known about this for a while but never really took interest. It’s so cool!

[@Anamnesia]

Ummmm, no... Not one of the first synthesisers that could play back notes. Thanks for playing! 😉

[@BCThunderthud]

There were other digital sequencers but this was a lot cheaper than a Synclavier.

[@spartan.falbion2761]

It looks like Number Two's phone from The Prisoner.

[@frankbuss]

One of the first sequencers and synthesizers was the EMS Synthi 100, developed in 1971: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EMS_Synthi_100 But it was a bit bigger and slightly more expensive.

[@Anamnesia]

I had one of these! 👍🏼

[@Niv73]

Wow Dave - I loved it, I wish a could get one again

[@stargazer7644]

Ebay

[@PaulJosephdeWerk]

I still have mine stored away.

[@martinsalko1]

2k ?you can fly to moon on 2k of memory

[@buddyclem7328]

Unless you are the crew of Apollo 13!

[@jack002tuber]

Magic square was the best game on Merlin. Nice review

[@gemuine4u]

I just bought this game and I would like to know how to play Black Jack?

[@megasquals]

6:50 Enter Sandman - Metallica

[@NudeJawn]

man, this takes me back, thanks

[@bdm1019]

Row, row, row your boat...🎶

[@marchoffman6017]

Merlin

[@Drew-Dastardly]

Was this sold in the UK? I remember similar toys like Major Morgan, Big Trak, and Simon. I remember Simon being sold as some sophisticated adult game for wine and fondue parties in the late 70's and I didn't have any interest. MB games seemed to run the toy market in the UK. Parker was an american interloper and unheard of when I was a boy. The first Parker "toy" I was aware of was an Ouija board!

[@kataisa3]

Your voice is like scratching a blackboard

[@wobblysauce]

Row, row,row your boat.

[@demoncloud6147]

Merlin's Beard - The Electronics Wizard ! Ha Ha Ha

[@MedSou]

Test your mental agility :) 👍👍👍👍👍

[@AnnaVannieuwenhuyse]

2K is not a lot! That's about how much space a .link hyperlink file takes on a Windows computer!

[@ct92404]

How hard is to find one of these? Are they pretty rare?

[@john2001plus]

The brain inside this is the same as Merlin. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_Instruments_TMS1000

[@frankbuss]

JavaScript version: theelectronicwizard.com

[@xboxlive6]

Row your boat. :)

[@ThinkNoodle]

I have one of these if anyone is interested!

[@zer0b0t]

There's NOT an app for that!

[@Okurka.]

Actually there is.

[@zer0b0t]

Is there? I use android

[@buddyclem7328]

What app is that? I want it!

[@DAVIDGREGORYKERR]

The way to win is not to play.

[@SidneyCritic]

At least that thing is smarter at tic-tac-toe than that cheating computer with the dicky buttons, that wouldn't register on purpose so it wouldn't lose, in the Museum of Applied Arts & Sciences.

[@SkazaTV]

Why skip blackjack lol :(

[@ianbertenshaw4350]

Stuff an arduino and sound recorder in it with a classic phone bell tone on it , lob down to a Newtown coffee shop and make it ring then start talking into it - you will get mugged by hipsters or trendies ! Be good for a joke though! Ooooohhhh! Is that brick phone in your pocket or are you just extremely happy to see me !! Actually better not do that you could get arrested by the bomb squad !

[@justarel]

Or for less cost you could put a bluetooth tranceiver in it and have it actually function as a handset for any mobile phone with bluetooth.

[@ianbertenshaw4350]

Skip Arden 👍 cool idea !

[@stephanierichardson6323]

This dudes voice.....couldn’t watch the entire thing...geez

[@zacherynuk842]

Shame on you. Black Jack was good. Why don't you 'care for it ?' ... then fizzles out. Mate review the damned thing or don't review it.

[@tylisirn]

I don't care much about Black Jack either, but that was the one I was most interested in seeing, because I wanted to see how it would work on that limited interface!

[@williamgottlieb8723]

The makers of Merlin did not rip off Simon, nor was it the other way around. They both ripped off Atari! There was an arcade machine called Touch Me which Atari released in 1974. It was the same exact game play as Simon. Atari did release their own home version of Touch me after the success of the other two, which made Touch Me look like a rip off of Simon. So the creator of Simon, Ralph Baer, who is the Father of video games, actually ripped of Atari's Touch Me, which is only fitting since Atari founder Nolan Bushnell, ripped off Baer's "Table Tennis" home video games to make the Pong arcade game.

[@fartmanx]

I just nostagia'd so hard. Thank you

[@KiR_3d]

In my childhood (i've live in USSR) I've had a dream that parents will gift me a robot-moonwalker toy. It's a 6 wheel programmable and moving "robot-car" that looked fantastically those days! I think that the design is similar to "Merlin". It's edgy and looks scientific. Unfortunately i don't know if it has some "close contact" sensors or something like this (sonic radars should be great but too expensive in those days! :D ) I'm almost sure that it has sensor keys as well! Never got that toy... eh! Reach people rarely watch scientific vlogs and similar channels ;) Do somebody seen this toy and knows what is the name of it? I'm 50% sure that it was not USSR's engineer sole invention. But maybe...

[@redfernsofthenorth]

I bought a Merlin when they first came out. It cost around $50 or so. We had a lot of fun with it. I still have it.

[@tomgeorge3726]

I love the mix of crusty batteries in the back.

[@esroberto1]

Jesus god, I can't listen to your voice more than .3 of one second

[@jaredkelly930]

Robert Wright not to mention how he pronounces L.E.D.

[@Starry_Night_Sky7455]

I just found one of these and I am trying to figure if it works or not. So far, it will play Tic Tac Toe + play music. So far so good. I have the instructions with it. Ha, when I first saw it in a box, I thought it was some sort of toy Merlin phone. I had no idea what the heck it is upon seeing it.

[@marchoffman6017]

I had this toy.

[@whatthefunction9140]

send it in

[@marchoffman6017]

Merlin

[@williamsquires3070]

I believe there was also an electronic “tic-tac-toe playing chicken” game around that time; it had a clear plastic box with a simple animatronic chicken that would appear to “think” about it’s move, then peck at a fake button console, while making silly chicken noises, then wait for your move. It, too, had a 3x3 matrix of LEDs under a clear matrix keypad to represent the tic-tac-toe-toe board. I can’t remember if it used red/green bi-color LEDs, 2 separate 3mm red and green LEDs, or if it just did PWM to make some LEDs brighter to represent the “X”s vs. the “O”s. This Merlin game strangely looks like one of the early “brick” cell phones!! Rip the guts out, and put the guts from an old Nokia flip-phone in this thing! 😆

[@owengameing6182]

Is this it? kzbin.info/www/bejne/a3SYpISYbsl7qNU

[@therestorationofdrwho1865]

Love the vintage brown and organgy red colours.

[@stargazer7644]

Vintage? Ferrari's come in brown and orangey red.

[@Okurka.]

4:34 The processor was $2 a piece in 1974, it was less than $1 a piece when the Merlin was released.

[@restcure]

And, of course, even less at 1 million units (contract for 55 million LEDs/11 per Merlin)

[@waterup380]

cool sounds like it had brains

[@samuelclemens6841]

Now try modding it.

[@johnsenchakinternetnetwork2025]

Awesome

[@LycanWitch]

i was born 84, here in the united states and i personally have never heard of or seen one of these until you made this and the last video. i guess by time i was a kid, this was long obsolete and nintendo with their gameboy was the hot portable electronic toy must have.