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Cracking Open the legendary Merlin

By // June 23, 2008, 4:25 AM PST

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  • All lined up

    The DS of 1978, the PSP of 1978, the Merlin.

    Actually, Mattel Football probably fits that bill better, but the Merlin was definitely a way-cool handheld of the time.

    Merlin was released in 1978 by Parker Brothers and was one of many handheld electronic games released in that time period. It sported 6 individual games to play, Including an unbeatable tic-tac-toe ( isn't tic-tac-toe unwinnable anyway? ). Fun for the whole family as they said in their ads.

    At the end of the ad, note the disclaimer for "6 penlight batteries - not included". When was the last time you heard of AA's referred to as penlight batteries?

    When I heard that the Merlin was next up on Cracking Open, I felt a rush of nostagila. That game, that I had spent hours dawdling with, had completely fallen off of my radar until then. I Googled it and found this great Java Merlin emulator.

    ...A sound like none other. And that "laugh" when Merlin wins!
    So here we go - busting open my beloved Merlin and taking a look at what makes it go. I have to say that I didn't expect to see any technolgy breakthroughs, but I also didn't expect to see something that I could have, in those days, built from a kit. Our specimen comes with a manual, even. We'll have a look at that soon enough - good stuff in there.

    Notice the "futuristic" box with the mercury hand.

  • The underbelly

    My guess is that this particular model was purchased in Canada, as it sports French as well. I focused on the English here - I'm sure the French won't mind.

  • Foreshadowing

    Nice - this should have been titled: Everthing that will almost certainly happen to your Merlin.

    A co-worker named Dave told me that he left his out in the rain one night and it lived to play another day.

  • The games

    I never beat tic-tac-toe, and I never quite caught on to Magic-Square.

  • Music Maker

    I saw this and had to include it.

    I remember such a feeling of possibility when I realized that you could "compose music" on this device. I was lucky to memorize the first few chops of row-row-row your boat. It was also a major downer when I realized that my masterpiece composition, which I had worked on for an hour, was obliterated after I powered it off.

  • penlight

    Here are our six penlight batteries - not included.

    Also note the very useful listing of games and associated numbers on the cover panel - can't see them too well here.

  • Let there be light

    I started playing a game - but I don't know which one here.

  • Alternate power

    A view of the jack or the power adapter. You had to buy that separately, as indicated in the directions. Very specific, too:

    Nominal: 9v DC @ 75milliamps
    Minimum: 7.5v @ 150milliamps
    Maximum: 10.5v @ 5milliamps

  • The power

    The power switch - I almost left this out.

  • Solitary fasteners

    Here we have the only two fasteners in the device removed. Also see the enormous battery bay. 6 AA's. Thats a lot of batteries. Could they have used a 9-volt instead?

    It's almost as if they designed the entire unit around "pen-light batteries".

  • More Power

    We need to remove the two power leads to the back of the case, where it picks up the juice from the "pen lights".

  • The lower half

    Here is the lower half where you would make one of your four choices as to where the unit would go next.

    Also note the sturdy feet to support the pounding that it would take.

  • Overlaid

    Here is the overlay that goes between the keypad membrane and the plastic stool that we just saw. With French translations.

    On mine, it said "comp turn" instead of "Merlin" as does here.

  • Voice from above

    Here we have a solitary speaker. Note also that there are no screws holding it in. Minimalist engineers.

  • Out comes the insides

    Taking out the mainboard and red plastic backrest.

    Again - no fasteners here.

  • Sans

    This is the entirety of the unit sans case.

  • Liftoff

    Here we can see the red LEDs that give our Merlin apparent life. On top of the red plastic base is the touchpad.

  • Touchy

    With the touchpad still attached, we have a view of the board and the red lens/base, clamshell style.

  • No board for you

    Now the mainboard has been removed (by simply pulling the ribbon out - nothing at all locking it in place), and this is how the touchpad is arranged on top of the red lens/base (still haven't figured out what to call it).

  • Clipicator

    These little tabs are all that holds the touchpad in place and keeps it aligned.

  • Simple

    Simple design, our touchpad laid out for all to see. We get a good look here at the conductive material and the circuitry that makes it go.

  • Folding at home

    This shows how it folds together to make 'er go. The unmarked plastic with holes folds in between the other two to provide separation when there is no pressure applied.

  • Assembled

    Assembled, this shows how the circuit is closed for each button by the two conductive sides making contact.

  • Not many parts

    13 resistors, 2 capacitors, and a diode make up the lions share of the circuitry. Not to leave out the LEDs and the chip which holds our logic.

  • TI chip

    The Texas Instruments TMS1100 series chip. It funcions as both the ROM and the RAM. You can find the specs on it at an antique chips collectors page. Very common and still available, it seems.

  • Nothing special

    The backside of the mainboard. Certainly no multi-layered circuitboard here.

  • Laid out

    Here we have the complete unit all laid out in all of its simplistic, minimalistic wonder.

    Thank-you, dear Merlin.

    This has been the electronic equivalent of being an organ donor for education and nostalgic enrichment.

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All lined up

The DS of 1978, the PSP of 1978, the Merlin.

Actually, Mattel Football probably fits that bill better, but the Merlin was definitely a way-cool handheld of the time.

Merlin was released in 1978 by Parker Brothers and was one of many handheld electronic games released in that time period. It sported 6 individual games to play, Including an unbeatable tic-tac-toe ( isn't tic-tac-toe unwinnable anyway? ). Fun for the whole family as they said in their ads.

At the end of the ad, note the disclaimer for "6 penlight batteries - not included". When was the last time you heard of AA's referred to as penlight batteries?

When I heard that the Merlin was next up on Cracking Open, I felt a rush of nostagila. That game, that I had spent hours dawdling with, had completely fallen off of my radar until then. I Googled it and found this great Java Merlin emulator.

...A sound like none other. And that "laugh" when Merlin wins!
So here we go - busting open my beloved Merlin and taking a look at what makes it go. I have to say that I didn't expect to see any technolgy breakthroughs, but I also didn't expect to see something that I could have, in those days, built from a kit. Our specimen comes with a manual, even. We'll have a look at that soon enough - good stuff in there.

Notice the "futuristic" box with the mercury hand.

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