Bop It

Bop It toys are a line of audio games where play consists of following a series of commands issued through speakers by the toy, which has multiple inputs including pull handles, twisting cranks, spinnable wheels, toggle switches - with pace speeding up as the player progresses.

Based on concepts originally patented by Dan Klitsner,Bop It was licensed to Hasbro and further developed there by a number of designers including Bob Welch. With newer versions, additional inputs have been added or altered such that units like the 2010 Bop-It! Bounce shares no inputs in common with the original 1996 Bop It (see below).

Bop It has been identified as some of the more popular children's games on the market, and toy and game development researchers have pointed to the natural interactions between player and toy, and the ability of players to use the toy to revert computer gaming processes back into those that resemble object play. Other studies have shown that it is the Bop It's ability to mimic engagement in social behavior that has led to its commercial successes.

In 1996, the instructions to a handheld voice game called Bop It were copyrighted. This game was the first of what was later to become a series of Bop It games relying on the same set of basic patents. The original game, called simply Bop It, features three inputs — "Bop it!" (a depressible button), "Twist it!" (a twistable lever) and "Pull it!" (a pullable handle) — and three game modes: Solo Bop, Vox Bop and Beat Bop. Gameplay is predicated upon a player's efforts to match the commands issued by the Bop It in a timely manner by performing the task that is commanded. Thus if the Bop It is to call out "Bop it!", the player must quickly depress the "Bop It!" button. If the Bop It is to call out "Twist it!", the player must quickly turn the "Twist it!" crank. If the Bop It is to call out "Pull it!", the player must quickly pull the "Pull It!" handle. Players' scores are announced at the end of gameplay with a cypher in which different tones represent different point values and the maximum possible score is 100. Thus, in the end sequence, each "Pull It!" whistle denotes 100 points, each ratchet denotes 10, and each drum denotes 1 point. This style of score-reporting would later recur in later Bop It models, and the Zing It spin off (see below). The same cypher values were used for all subsequent Bop It cyphers. This device requires 3 AA batteries.

...
Wikipedia