I am a gen Xer and as a kid i called a game called Operation. I hope you are all familiar with it … it is where you must remove bones n stuff from the game without touching the sides or you get buzzed.
Now i was having a discussion with a friend the other day about this game and she told me her game didn’t shock her. It just buzzed.
My game did shock me and it hurt … 1. I think this has effected my personality 2. Is this right ? Did all the Operation games shock you or was i the lucky 4 year old ?
There is an episode of the Simpson’s where homer (as a kid) is playing it and it is clear that he is being shocked like i was. It was set in the 60’s.
So … Does Operation (or did it) Shock you like i remember ? If so …what the hell is wrong with toy manufactures that hurt !!
IIRC, it shocked me. Touching the sides completed a circuit between the tweezers and battery, and the user would get a little jolt in the hand through the tweezer. I don’t recall that it hurt. I’m reasonably sure the battery didn’t carry enough juice do harm.
Maybe your parents tried to save money on batteries by jury rigging something straight to your home electrical supply? That would give you quite a jolt.
The Operation game that I had, circa 1975, had plastic-handled tweezers. Yes, touching the edges completed a circuit, but all the circuit did was light the nose up and make a loud buzzing noise. It was a shock, in the sense that a five-year-old, totally absorbed in intense concentration, practically had a coronary when the damned thing went off.
I can’t see how it could be worked to deliver a noticible shock with such a low voltage available. Even if the tweezers were uninsulated, your wee hand wouldn’t be part of the circuit-- and you’ve got what, six volts running through there?
Or was there an earlier, “shocking” version that was substantially different?
Because I am endowed with what Mr. Kipling called ‘Satiable Curtiosity, I checked YesterdayLand, which is a treasure trove of all the stuff o’ childhood. Nothing in their lengthy synopsis suggests there was ever an electric shock delivered to the player, and the picture they posted shows the plastic-handled tweezers I remember.
I think you were just having the bejeebus startled out of you, and misremember it as a shock. After all, you were tiny, and there were wires, lights, and a loud buzz.
“Operation” was actually the game’s second name, applied in 1956. Previously it had been “Korean POW Encourager” and it is this version that you may be remembering.
Oh, Koran POW Encourager, why didn’t you say so. Yes that version used the shock, plugged directly into the wall and did away with certain extras like the lightbulb and buzzer.
Funny thing with that one is that even without the buzzer you still heard a buzzing.
That’s how I remember the game, I last played it in the Seventies at about age twelve. The tweezers were on a wire, not you, and the entire table would shake and startle you if you touched the tweezers to the sides, much like a joy buzzer. It just startled you like an electric shock.