Date: | 1960 |
Material: | Card-stock cards, plastic device with metal hardware |
Dimensions: | Card 2½ × 1¼ in. (64 × 32 mm) |
Company: | Hassenfeld Bros. (Hasbro) |
Location: | Central Falls, Rhode Island, United States |
A "punch card" for the Hasbro Think-A-Tron, a trivia game simulating a main frame computer. Somewhat disappointingly, the holes in the cards are only for show. The answer is actually encoded as a notch on the leading edge of the card; there are five possible positions for notches, which allows up to five alternative answers (A, B, C, T, F, where T and F correspond to True and False). When the card is inserted, its notch engages a lever that allows the wheel inside to rotate and light up one of five letters (Gardi 2020). The light bulb inside is powered by 2 D-size batteries, which are inserted in the compartment on the bottom. The game came with 300 cards; additional cards could be purchased in packages of 50.
Pushing the card holder in starts the mechanism. Rewinding the lever releases the card. The two dials are used to keep score.
How the Original Think-A-Tron Works.Hackaday.io. Dec 19, 2020.