Handheld electronic game by less bright dots). In 1978 the Milton Bradley Company entered the handheld market with Simon, a simple color-and-sound-matching game. Simon had no dedicated display, but featured four colored, lighted buttons; the original version was large enough to be used as a tabletop game or a handheld; later versions became increasingly smaller. The same year, Parker Brothers also released Merlin, a more sophisticated handheld which could play six different games using an array of 11 buttons with integrated LEDs. Despite their relative simplicity, each of these early games was highly successful. The initial success of Mattel and Parker Brothers' entries
Name That Tune (payable in ten yearly installments of $10,000). When "Name That Tune" returned to daytime in 1977, the Mystery Tune round was brought along with it. Played the same way as the syndicated round, a correct guess won the contestant a lump sum of $25,000. On days when the Mystery Tune was played, the front game was abbreviated. For instance, Bid-a-Note would become a best of three instead of five in order to leave enough time to play the Mystery Tune. In 1977, eleven of the twelve Golden Medley winners who did not win $100,000 returned for a three-week tournament (the