Why "64" (Or Another Number) Is Part Of The Names Of So Many Concentration Hand Clap Games

tianshiangel, Feb 12, 2008
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At the end of this video one of the player's asked what the number "64" meant in this game. The girl who was doing the chanting answered that it just rhymed. However, "64" doesn't rhyme with the word "concentration" or anything else that was said in that rhyme. 

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Edited by Azizi Powell

This is Part III of a three part pancocojams series that focuses on the partner or group hand clap game that is called "Concentration", "Concentration 64", "Hands Up To 85" or other similar titles.

This post presents my answer to that question why "64" is part of the names of so may COncentration hand clap games.

Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2022/07/concentration-hands-up-to-85-hand-clap.html  for Part I of this pancocojams series. That post showcases five YouTube videos of this hand clap game.

Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2022/07/some-chants-that-begin-concentration.html for Part II of this pancocojams series. That post presents presents some examples of the chants that are spoken or sung before the "Concentration" ("Hands Up To 85") game actually begins. 

The content of this post is presented for folkloric and recreational purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post.* Thanks also to the publisher of this video on YouTube. 
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Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2011/11/concentration-64-handclap-game.html for a 2011 pancocojams post entitled "Concentration 64 Handclap Game (YouTube videos and text examples)". A few examples from that 2011 post are also included in this 2022 post.

* Special thanks to Nintendo Maniac 64 who alerted me to the names of the Nintendo 64 and the earlier Commodore 64 computers in his or her May 23, 2021 comment in that 2011 post's discussion thread.

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WHY "64" (OR ANOTHER NUMBER) IS PART OF THE NAME OF SO MANY CONCENTRATION HAND CLAP GAMES 

Short Answer: 
The name "Concentration 64" mirrors the name "Nintendo 64", a popular home video game. 
And "Nintendo 64" mirrored the name of the once popular Commodore 64 home computer.

Earlier examples of these concentration games didn't include the word "concentration" or any numbers. For instance, here's an example from the 1978 vinyl record "Old Mother Hippletoes: Rural And Urban Children's Songs":  

"Zing-zing-zing, and away we go
To the Jackie Gleason studio.*
Calaree! Calarah!
One apiece,
No repeats
Or hesitations
Or demonstrations!
Name some..."...

My guess is that people started using the name after the home video game console  "Nintendo 64" and its video games "games Super Mario 64 and Pilotwings 64 became so popular. Once more and more people started calling those concentration hand clap games "Concentration 64", that name "stuck" and some people thought that "Concentration 64" was always the name of those concentration games. 

My guess is that the folk process is the reason why another number instead of "64" is sometimes used for those Concentration hand clap games. By folk process, I mean that people often change a name or words to songs or rhymes because of mishearing or misremembering, or because the word or words are unfamiliar to them. Thus, "Concentration 64" might have been changed to "Concentration [whatever number folks learned it as]. 

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SUPPORT FOR THE THEORY ABOUT THE NAME CONCENTRATION 64 BEING CONNECTED WITH NINTENDO 64
1. Other people besides me have come to this conclusion that the name "Concentration 64" is connected to the video game named "Nintendo 64". 

Here's a comment from the discussion thread for the video that is embedded in this pancocojams post:
unorthodoxJ, 2011
"I think it started as a Nintendo 64 reference".

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Here's a comment from Nintendo Maniac 64, May 23, 2021 that was published in the discussion thread for my 2011 post about Concentration 64. (That post includes an example of this concentration game named "Nintendo 64").
"Psst, maybe you're not aware, but the "Nintendo 64" is an actual game console from 1996 and is very unlikely to just a reference to the original Nintendo Entertainment System. (also Nintendo continued making successful game consoles to this day - surely you've heard of the Nintendo DS, Nintendo Wii, and Nintendo Switch?)

There were also other computer electronics hardware ending in 64 such as Commodore 64 (1982) and Athlon 64 (2003), but in each instance the 64 actually means something (whether memory amount or bit depth).

The Commodore 64 was quite a popular home computer that also had moderately catchy commercials ("are you keeping up with the commodore?") and I'm wondering if maybe someone somewhere combined its "64" name with the "Concentration" game's name. I say this as someone that grew up in the late 90s where PlayStation was more popular yet "64" was still used with the hand-clap game, meaning its use of "64" very likely predates the Nintendo 64."

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MORE INFORMATION ABOUT COMMODORE 64
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodore_64

The Commodore 64, also known as the C64 or the CBM 64, is an 8-bit home computer introduced in January 1982 by Commodore International (first shown at the Consumer Electronics Show, January 7–10, 1982, in Las Vegas).[4] It has been listed in the Guinness World Records as the highest-selling single computer model of all time,[5] with independent estimates placing the number sold between 12.5 and 17 million units.[2] Volume production started in early 1982, marketing in August for US$595 (equivalent to $1,671 in 2021).[6] Preceded by the Commodore VIC-20 and Commodore PET, the C64 took its name from its 64 kilobytes (65,536 bytes) of RAM. With support for multicolor sprites and a custom chip for waveform generation, the C64 could create superior visuals and audio compared to systems without such custom hardware.       

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MORE INFORMATION ABOUT NINTENDO 64
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo_64
"The Nintendo 64[a] (N64 or stylized as N64 or Nintendo64) is a home video game console developed by Nintendo. The successor to the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, it was released on June 23, 1996, in Japan, on September 29, 1996, in North America, and March 1, 1997, in Europe and Australia. It was the last major home console to use cartridges as its primary storage format until the Nintendo Switch in 2017.[8] As a fifth-generation console, it competed primarily with the Sony PlayStation and the Sega Saturn.

[...]

Development began in 1993 in partnership with Silicon Graphics, using the codename Project Reality, then a test model and arcade platform called Ultra 64. The final design was named after its 64-bit CPU, which aided in the console's 3D capabilities. Its design was mostly complete by mid-1995 and launch was delayed until 1996 for the completion of the launch games Super Mario 64, Pilotwings 64, and Saikyō Habu Shōgi (exclusive to Japan).

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So that's my theory about why "64" (or another number) is part of the names for so many Concentration hand clap games.

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THEORIES ABOUT THE NAME "HANDS UP TO 85" (or another number)  
With regard to the "Hands Up To 85" names for those same (or similar) hand clap games, my guess is that the words "hands up" in the "Hands up to 85" (or Hands "to" or "on" 85") names may refer to how the players hold their hands palms up when they are playing these concentrations game. The number "85" may refer to how many iterations the game might be played before there is a winner. (the last player remaining in the game). 

[Added July 18, 2022- It occurs to me that "Hands Up To 85" or "On 85" may have originally been "Hands Up In 85" with "85" referring to the year 1985. 

That explanation feels more right for me than the amount of iterations explanation that I initailly proposed.]

Added July 21, 2022
This comment written by JeSuisMelBell, 2020 in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zEcsIfe6lU&t=2s confirms my theory that the number "85" probably referred to the year the rhyme was chanted. 
"Hands Up... to whatever year it was: Example: Hands up to 93... It's gonna be."
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JeSuisMelBell wrote that she was from NYC (New York City). She shared the words to a number of rhymes that she remembered from her childhood. Warning- That content includes a lot of profanity, sexually explicit content, and violent content- especially for the "Rockin Robin" version.  

However, that title (first line) eventually was repeated by rote memory (with no thought about what it meant) without updating "85" to the year the rhyme was actually being chanted:

Here's an examplefrom Kerra Lordeus, 2020 in that same discussion thread:

"We did “hands up” a little different. Born in 91. We would do “hands up 85...and the focus was whatever topic; names, colors etc lol

I miss this stuff man 😭"

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What do you think about these theories?

Do you have another theory or theories about these rhymes?

Come on with it! Share it in the comment section below.

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This concludes Part III of this three part pancocojams series.

Thanks for visiting  pancocojams.

Visitor commetns are welcome.