Games these days don’t require much coordination – you just need some finger dexterity to push all those buttons on video game controllers. (Though the Wii is making small strides in causing people to build up those biceps and triceps.) But back in the day, there was such a device that encouraged kids to improve their coordination – Bop It.

The game (which resembled a sort of a stumpy baseball bat made out of plastic) was as simple as it gets. An enthused male voice would shout out one of three commands: bop it, twist it or pull it. And on the plastic bat there was a button to bop, a knob to twist and a lever to pull. Seems easy and much more conquerable than that new-fangled RPG on your PlayStation 3. However, if you were looking for an extra challenge, you could play with friends and ‘pass it,’ but that was infinitely more difficult and caused a lot more mistakes.

But after a couple leisurely turns of bopping it and twisting it, the crazed voice would start shouting his commands faster. And to top it off, the music in the background, once casual and a nice accompaniment, becomes faster and causes you to panic, kind of holding the Bop It far in front of you, like it’s going to explode like a ticking bomb.

Well, maybe just I did that. It was a stressful experience. And once you finally missed a bop or twisted instead of pulled, and guy would scream at you, calling you out like the failure that you are.

eaconnor@syr.edu