The Game & Watch (Japanese: ゲーム&ウオッチ, romanized: Gēmu & Uotchi) is a series of handheld electronic games developed by Nintendo. Designed by Gunpei Yokoi, the first game, Ball was released in 1980 and the original production run of the devices continued until 1991. The name Game & Watch reflects their dual functionality: a single game paired with a digital clock on a segmented liquid-crystal display (LCD) screen. The Game & Watch series proved a monumental success, selling a total of 43.4 million units globally, marking Nintendo’s first major worldwide success with a video game product.
Origin and design
The Game & Watch was the brainchild of designer Gunpei Yokoi, who had been head of Nintendo's Research & Development 1 division in the 1970s, designing physical toys and games until the 1973 oil crisis, after which the market waned. At the same time, the first arcade and home video game consoles had been developed in the United States, and Nintendo had quickly caught on to this wave in Japan.[3]
While traveling on a Shinkansen (bullet train), Yokoi saw a bored businessman playing with an LCD calculator by pressing the buttons. Yokoi then thought of an idea for a watch that doubled as a miniature game machine for killing time.[4] He pitched the idea to Nintendo's president, Hiroshi Yamauchi, when Yamauchi requested he drive him to a business meeting. Though Yamauchi had not said anything during the drive, the meeting he was at included the CEO of Sharp Corporation, who at the time was the world's biggest manufacturer of calculators, and the two discussed Yokoi's idea. Within the week, Yokoi was invited to a meeting between Nintendo and Sharp, giving him the go-ahead to develop a calculator sized game.[3]
The devices would be powered by a 4-bit CPU from Sharp’s SM5xx family, paired with 1,792 bytes of ROM, 65 bytes of RAM across four banks for data storage, and an LCD screen driver circuit.[5][6]
The device would be called the Game & Watch, reflecting the dual functionality of the device: a single game paired with a digital clock (like a watch) on an LCD screen.[7][8] The first game was called Ball, and would become one of Nintendo's first major video game hits. After the success of Ball, multiple variations of the Game & Play device were developed and released between 1980 and 1991.[9] Starting in 1981, models also included an alarm, making the device more useful as a watch.[10]
Donkey Kong, showing its revolutionary D-pad and multi-screen clamshell design
To bring the iconic console game Donkey Kong to the Game & Watch in 1982, Yokoi invented the now-iconic D-pad. This flat directional control pad addressed the challenge of portability by keeping the controls flush with the console's body, in contrast to the joystick controls used on the console.[11][12] The design was patented and later earned a Technology & Engineering Emmy Award.[13][14]
Over the next decade, several different models were manufactured, including some with two screens and a clamshell design (the Multi Screen Series) that was said to inspire the later Game Boy Advance SP, Nintendo DS, and Nintendo 3DS handhelds.[15]
Over the initial eleven year life span of the Game & Watch line, 60 different games were produced for sale.[16] Titles available in Game & Watch form vary from Mickey Mouse to Balloon Fight, and included Nintendo staples such as The Legend of Zelda, and Mario Bros. These games came in eleven different series, each with a different form-factor:
Silver (1980)
The first version of the Game & Watch.
Gold (1981)
The Gold series was similar to the previous version.
Wide Screen (1981–1982)
The Wide Screen was similar to the last two versions.
Vertical Multi Screen (1982–1989)
The Vertical Multi Screen version was the inspiration for the DS.
Horizontal Multi Screen (1983)
The Horizontal Multi Screen was like the Vertical Multiscreen but horizontal.
New Wide Screen (1982–1991)
The New Wide Screen series was a updated version of the Wide Screen series.
Tabletop (1983)
The Tabletop series was made to compete with Coleco.
Panorama (1983–1984)
Super Color (1984)
The Super Color series was made entirely out of color but it was still LCD.
Micro vs. System (1984)
The Micro vs. System series had 2 player games.
Crystal Screen (1986)
The Crystal Screen series were NES ports of 3 games: Super Mario Bros., Climber and Balloon Fight.
There was also one "prize" game that was built but never sold. It was a yellow-cased version of Super Mario Bros. that came in a plastic box modeled after the Disk-kun character Nintendo used to advertise their Famicom Disk System.[17] The prize game was given to winners of Nintendo's F-1 Grand Prix tournament. As only 10,000 units were produced and it was never available for retail sale, the yellow version is considered rare.[16]
The Game & Watch series sold 14 million units worldwide during its first year of release by 1981.[18] The Game & Watch version of Donkey Kong released in 1982 sold 8 million units.[2]Mario the Juggler, released in 1991, was the last game created in the Game & Watch series.[19]
Game A and Game B
Most of the titles have a "GAME A" and a "GAME B" button. Game B is generally a faster, more difficult version of Game A, although exceptions do exist:
In Squish, Game B is radically different from Game A—the player must touch aliens to eliminate them as opposed to avoiding moving walls.[20]
In Flagman, Game B is a mode where the player has to press the right button within a certain amount of time, not memorize patterns.
In Judge, Boxing, Donkey Kong 3, and Donkey Kong Hockey, Game B is a two-player version of Game A.[21]
In Climber,[22]Balloon Fight,[23] and Super Mario Bros.,[24][25] there is no Game B button.
In most cases, both Game A and Game B would increase in speed and/or difficulty as the player progressed, with Game B starting at the level that Game A would reach at 200 points.
Sales
The Game & Watch series proved a monumental success, selling a total of 43.4 million units worldwide, including 12.87 million units in Japan and 30.53 million units overseas.[26] This marked Nintendo’s first major worldwide success with a Nintendo video game product.[27]
North America licensing
In North America, the games were initially launched through Mego Corporation as the Time-Out series which included Ball (renamed Toss-Up), Flagman, Vermin (renamed Exterminator), and Fire (retitled Fireman Fireman). This partnership ended within a year, and Nintendo of America began distributing the series under their original titles.[28]
The Game & Watch games were renewed between 1995 and 2002 with the Game & Watch Gallery series, five Game & Watch collections released for the Game Boy, Game Boy Color, and Game Boy Advance. They feature the original ports, as well as new, modernized versions starring the Mario series cast.
From 1998 onward, a number of third-party distributors have been licensed to re-release smaller LCD versions of ten separate Game & Watch games which together compose the Nintendo Mini Classics series.
In 2001, Nintendo released Manhole-e bundled with its Nintendo e-Reader systems.[29] Although an entire line of Game & Watch e-Reader cards were planned, they were never released.
Between July 2006 and March 2010, Nintendo produced two Game & Watch Collection cartridges for the Nintendo DS to be released exclusively for Club Nintendo members. The first cartridge featured three games from the Game & Watch Multi Screen series: Oil Panic, Donkey Kong, and Green House. The second compilation, Game & Watch Collection 2, contained Parachute, Octopus, and a new dual-screen game with Parachute on the top screen and Octopus on the bottom. Both cartridges are now available to the general public.
Between July 2009 and April 2010 Nintendo released nine separate Game & Watch ports for DSiWare including remakes of Ball (called Game & Watch: Ball),[30]Flagman (called Game & Watch: Flagman), Manhole (called Game & Watch: Manhole),[31] and Mario's Cement Factory (called Game & Watch: Mario's Cement Factory) among others.[32][33]
In March 2010, Takara Tomy released officially licensed Game & Watch-styled keychains, based on the Wide Screen series editions of Octopus, Parachute, and Chef. They do not actually run the games, instead just display a demo screen. While the game cannot be played, the speed at which the demo runs can be adjusted. The batteries are recharged with solar panels on the unit.[34]
Ball was rereleased exclusively via Club Nintendo, to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Game & Watch, with the Club Nintendo logo on the back. Unlike the original release, this version includes a mute switch.[35] For members of the Japanese Club Nintendo, it was shipped in April 2010 to Platinum members.[36][37] For members of the North American Club Nintendo, it was available for 1200 coins from February 2011.[38][39] For members of the European Club Nintendo, it was available for 7500 stars from November 2011.[40][41]
In 2020, Nintendo published a limited run Game & Watch system named Game & Watch: Super Mario Bros. as part of their Super Mario Bros. 35th Anniversary celebrations. This system contained the full NES versions of Super Mario Bros. and Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels, along with a variant of Ball with Mario's head (or Luigi's head, with a cheat code) replacing the original character's head. The included release of The Lost Levels went by its original Japanese title, Super Mario Bros. 2, in all regions. It was released on November 13.[42] Unlike the classic Game & Watch consoles that used disposable batteries, the console instead has a built-in rechargeable battery that charges by a USB-C cable.[43]
The Game & Watch made handheld video game consoles vastly popular. Many toy companies followed in the footsteps of Game & Watch, such as Tiger Electronics and their Star Wars themed games. Elektronika released a line of Game & Watch clones in the Soviet Union, the IM-02.[45]
Nintendo's Game & Watch units were eventually superseded by the original Game Boy. Each Game & Watch was only able to play one game, due to the use of a segmented LCD display being pre-printed with an overlay. The speed and responsiveness of the games was also limited by the time it took the LCD to change state. The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) controllers were based on the controls in Game & Watch, and Game & Watch Multi Screen version became the model on which the Nintendo DS was based.
The Game & Watch Gallery series recreates the Game & Watch games in video game form, with modes that imitate the LCD displays and modes that modernise the graphics and include Mario characters. Game & Watch games have also been released through DSiWare.
Nintendo Land for the Wii U has a mini-game named Octopus Dance that is based on the Game & Watch game Octopus.[47]
Game & Wario for the Wii U, a play-on-words of the Game & Watch, heavily references the Game & Watch line, including the ability to play a virtual Game & Watch version of Pyoro, called Bird.
The Game & Watch brand is represented in Nintendo's Super Smash Bros. series with the character Mr. Game & Watch.[a] First appearing in Super Smash Bros. Melee, the character was redefined and designed to match his presentation as a generic stick figure-styled silhouette in the Game & Watch devices: he moves with limited animation, he is purely two dimensional, his noises only consist of beeps, and his abilities correlate to the presentation in the Game & Watch games. Beyond Super Smash Bros., Mr. Game & Watch has also appeared in Game & Watch Gallery 4, wherein he is the manager of the "classic games" area alongside Mario. He also makes a cameo appearances in Donkey Kong Country Returns and Rhythm Heaven Fever.
^"昔(1970年代）のテレビゲームは何台売れた？" [How many old (1970s) video games sold?]. Classic Videogame Station Odyssey (in Japanese). Archived from the original on 2014-01-09. Retrieved 16 April 2021.
