Toy Stories: Nintendo Game & Watch

Yes, generation Game Boy, portable video games existed long before your time. Not only that, but they told time and even had a beeping alarm to wake you up in the morning. Can your atomic purple Game Boy Color do that? We did not think so.

Like the millions of Game Boys that would come later, every Game and Watch carried the Nintendo logo. The company had started as a Japanese playing card manufacturer before moving into toys in the 1970s. In 1980, Nintendo introduced the first in what would become a long and profitable line of handheld video games. It was called Ball, and the concept was simple. The tiny unit had an LCD screen and two control buttons used to move an on screen juggler’s arms left and right to keep the balls in the air. Additional buttons let players choose between Game A or the more difficult Game B, and the Time button displayed the current time down to the minute.

Four more Game and Watch titles arrived that same year, ranging from the rescue themed Fire to the one on one mallet battle Judge. A new craze was officially underway. Each unit contained only one game, or two if you counted the alternate versions, so the Game and Watch was not as versatile as the later cartridge based Game Boy. But we did not know any better, and it did not matter. The games were inexpensive compared to an Atari VCS or Intellivision, and the ability to carry a video game in your pocket made you royalty on the playground.

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Around this time, Nintendo was also trying to break into the arcade market. They struck gold in 1981 with Donkey Kong, and the great ape soon appeared in one of the first Multi Screen Game and Watch titles. Mario climbed the girders on the lower screen, then reappeared on the upper screen where Donkey Kong and Pauline waited. Several Multi Screen games followed, and Nintendo kept experimenting. Donkey Kong Jr., Popeye, and other titles appeared in small tabletop arcade style units, while games like Boxing and Donkey Kong Hockey were released as Micro Vs. sets with two wired mini controllers for competitive play.

Millions of Game and Watch units were sold worldwide in the early 1980s. The craze eventually cooled as video games grew too advanced for the simple LCD displays, but Nintendo continued releasing new titles throughout the decade. Fittingly, the series ended with another juggling game called Mario the Juggler, bringing the line full circle after more than ten years.

Get the all-new, modernized version of the Game & Watch Super Mario Bros.

The portable gaming torch eventually passed to the Game Boy, but the new handheld did not forget where it came from. As the 2000s began, Nintendo released several Game and Watch Gallery titles for the Game Boy Color, offering classic handheld games alongside modernized versions. For fans who still loved the old LCD style, Nintendo also introduced a line of Mini Classics like Tetris and Snoopy, complete with a clock and alarm. Something your Game Boy still cannot do, thank you very much.

Did you have a Game & Watch back then? Which one(s) did you have? Tell us about them in the comments section below!