MATTEL ELECTRONICS
COLOR-RECALLhandheld game
TOTAL ROUNDS PLAYED ACROSS ALL UNITS: 4,287
My grandparents in West Allis got me this one — Grandpa Stan and Grandma Florence Brzostek. They saw it in the Sears Wish Book back in November. Christmas morning, 7:42 sharp. Dad walked the box out from the hall closet. Wrapping paper torn. Just like that, before mom could even get her camera. Dad went back to the junk drawer for batteries. Two C-cells warm in his hand. He said cold ones don't always fire the LEDs right on the first try, which I think he just made up. Mom asked Grandpa Stan later how he picked this exact one at Sears Mayfair. Grandpa picked just right. He just shrugged and said he asked the clerk which one all the boys were buying that month. — K.B.
Trick I figured out around week three: say the colors out loud as they flash. Like UP-RIGHT-RIGHT-DOWN. Even just whispering it works. Your mouth remembers it better than your eyes do, I don't know why. Doug's brother Mike said it's because of two brain hemispheres but Doug's brother also said Pop Rocks plus Coke kills you, so. — K.B.
After 8:30 it has to be on low. Lori (sister, 13) yells through the wall if the bleeps get past her door. She acts like the whole thing is babyish but she got to round 14 last Saturday when nobody was home. I saw the round-count still glowing on the screen when I came back from Doug's. She knows I know. We have not said anything about it. — K.B.
One set of C-cells lasts me exactly nine days if I play every evening 8:14 to 8:47 like usual. Dad keeps the spares in the junk drawer with the rubber bands and the twist ties and the keys to the lock-box no one remembers what's in. Mom says I'm going to single-handedly bankrupt Eveready. I think she's joking but I'm not 100% sure. — K.B.
Sears Wish Book 1978 catalog, page 487 — second from the right on the bottom row, between the Coleco Football and the Speak & Spell. $24.95. Grandma Florence dog-eared the page and Grandpa Stan circled this one in pencil after mom told them on the phone that I'd been pointing at it every time we went to the mall. The catalog is still in the basement, on dad's bowling-trophy shelf. — K.B.
Doug taped this off his brother Mike's record at Mike's apartment in Wauwatosa over Thanksgiving and gave it to me for my birthday in January. Side A is the Steve Miller. Side B he started filling with Heart but ran out of tape in the middle of Barracuda, you can hear it cut off. I rewind Side A when the game gets too hard and I have to take a break and stretch my thumbs out. The Joker is still the best one. — K.B.

HIGH-SCORE LOG · since 12/25

12/25 — round 4 — first try, just got it.
12/27 — round 7 — getting it.
1/3 — round 11 — christmas-week practice paying off — K.B.
1/8 — round 13.
1/14 — round 16 — doug got 14 today over the phone, ha — K.B.
1/19 — round 17.
1/22 — round 19 — yes.
1/28 — round 20 — twenty!
2/1 — round 21 — doug at 18 still.
2/3 — round 22.
★ 2/6 — round 23 — almost got 24, my thumb slipped on the down button — K.B.
2/12 — round 23 again, tied.