The Game & Watch brand ( Gēmu & Uotchi; called Tricotronic in West Germany and Austria, abbreviated as G&W) is a series of handheld electronic games developed, manufactured, released, and marketed by Nintendo from 1980 to 1991. Created by game designer Gunpei Yokoi, the product derived its name from it featuring a single game as well as a clock on an LCD screen. The models from 1981 onwards featured an alarm in addition.
The series sold a combined 43.4 million units worldwide, including units in Japan and overseas. It was the earliest Nintendo video game product to gain major worldwide success.
The units are based on a 4-bit CPU from the Sharp SM5xx family that include a small ROM and RAM area and an LCD screen driver circuit.
Origin and design
Game designer Gunpei Yokoi had been head of Nintendo's Research & Development division in the 1970s, designing physical toys and games until the 1973 oil crisis, after which the market waned for these products. At the same time, the first arcade and home video game consoles had been developed in the United States, and Nintendo had quickly caught onto this wave in Japan. 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. Later, he had been able to pitch the idea to Nintendo's president, Hiroshi Yamauchi, when Yamauchi requested him to chauffeur 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, 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 his concept.
Yokoi designed the controls for this portable system based on the success of Nintendo's arcade game Donkey Kong incorporating a single button along with a d-pad for movement. This led up to the creation of Ball, which became one of Nintendo's first major hits. After its success, multiple variations of the console were released and developed, and was also the main inspiration for the Game Boy, a console Yokoi later created. The series was discontinued in 1991 with the console game "Mario the Juggler".
The units use LR4x/SR4x "button-cell" batteries, which Yokoi opted for because they were small and inexpensive. Different models were manufactured, with some having two screens and a clamshell design (the Multi Screen Series). The Game Boy Advance SP, Nintendo DS, and Nintendo 3DS later reused this design.
Titles available in Game & Watch form vary from Mickey Mouse to Balloon Fight, including Nintendo staples such as Donkey Kong, The Legend of Zelda, and Mario Bros..
The modern "cross" D-pad design was developed in 1982 by Yokoi for the Donkey Kong handheld game. The design proved to be popular for subsequent Game & Watch titles. This particular design was patented and later earned a Technology & Engineering Emmy Award.
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. 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. In Climber, Balloon Fight, and Super Mario Bros., 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.
Series
Silver (1980) Gold (1981) Wide Screen (1981–1982) Multi Screen (1982–1989) New Wide Screen (1982–1991) Tabletop (1983) Panorama (1983–1984) Super Color (1984) Micro Vs System (1984) Crystal Screen (1986) Ball (reissue) (2010) Color Screen (2020–2021)
There were 60 different Game & Watch games produced for sale, one that is still for sale, and one that was only available as a contest prize, making 62 in all. The prize game was given to winners of Nintendo's F-1 Grand Prix tournament, 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. As only 10,000 units were produced and it was never available for retail sale, the yellow version is considered rare.