Before computers took over the world, Etch-A-Sketch featured the most looked at screen in gaming. And that's pretty impressive for a relatively primitive device used for drawing blocky houses with smoky chimneys and outlines of skyscrapers. (Well that's all we could manage).

But people just couldn't stop twiddling those satisfyingly chunky knobs and Etch-A-Sketch is now an all-time classic. And classics of this quality most definitely deserve a place in your collection. Whether you're new to Etch-A-Sketch or a veteran knob twister in need of a fix, this magical, take-anywhere rectangle is guaranteed to keep you occupied for hours on end.

Yes, it's notoriously difficult to create a diagonal line or a smooth curve but that's what makes Etch-A-Sketch completely unputdownable. Besides, if you mess things up you only have to give the whole shebang a shake and start again. It really is ingenious when you think about it.


In fact we have been thinking about it. A lot. That's why we thought we'd find out how Etch-A-Sketch works so you don't have to. Basically an internal stylus scrapes away at a film of aluminum flakes stuck to the inside of the screen, thus producing a line. Shaking it up simply hurls the flakes back onto the inside of the screen. Exactly what that says about the transient nature of art, we've no idea but we know we can't stop knob twirling.

The second you start fiddling with Etch-A-Sketch the memories will come flooding back. You'll be writing joined-up words, drawing bolts of lightning and shaking away suggestive linear creations in no time. If that's not a good enough reason to get Etch-A-Sketch-ing, we don't know what is.