The Game: Wow! We must be in the future, for we now have electronic flash cards! This is more or less the function fulfilled by Math-A-Magic, while Echo is a slightly watered down version of the classic electronic game Simon. (Magnavox, 1979)
Memories: This may sound a wee bit pretentious, but this “game” – at least the Math-A-Magic! side of things – was instrumental in me getting through some problems comprehending basic math many years ago in grade school. I’m still not a math wizard – I barely passed any applied or theoretical math classes beyond Algebra I in high school and college – but way back when, this actually helped. Who said that video games can’t change anyone’s life for the better?
One of the nice things about Math-a-Magic! was the fact that you could set a rough skill level for your exercises – it could go anywhere from addition and subtraction all the way up to some not-quite-long division. For grade schoolers, that’s not a bad range.
Echo!, in the meantime, is a bit of a Simon rip-off, replacing Simon’s colored touch pads with the numbers 1 through 4, but it’s still fun if you’re in that frame of 
mind. Actually, maybe rip-off is a bit harsh: Simon was, after all, invented by Ralph Baer, the creator of the original Magnavox Odyssey console who later championed the Odyssey² project to Magnavox management, just as the project was about to be scuttled in its infancy. Perhaps in that light, it’s more appropriate to say Echo! is a tribute.
