Dr. Nim is a toy invented by John Thomas Godfrey and manufactured by E.S.R., Inc. in the mid-1960s. It consists of a marble-powered plastic computer capable of playing the game of Nim. The machine selects its moves through the action of the marbles falling through the levers of the machine.
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Game play
Dr. Nim is an early computer game. The "game board" is a simple Digi-Comp digital computer with memory switches (the three-lobed levers) that "remember" earlier game actions. Their starting positions form the program that plays Nim.
NIM
Dr. Nim was based on a mathematical game called NIM, which similarly consisted of twelve marbles. The name NIM is actually WIN upside down, due to how a simple strategy will always win as long as the opponent goes first. This is the strategy for single-pile NIM: If the opponent takes 3 marbles, the first player should take 1, if the opponent takes 2 marbles, the first player should take 2, and finally if the opponent takes 1 marbles, the first player should take 3.