The Game and Watch

The first Nintendo handheld system that was mass-produced, was the Game and Watch, or Tricotronic, in West Germany and Austria. These handheld devices were created by Gunpei Yokoi and featured one game, a clock or an alarm, or sometimes both. There were sixty different Game and Watch models produced from 1980 to 1991, each with a different game. The story behind them goes that Gunpei Yokoi was on a train one day when he saw a man playing on a calculator. As a result, Gunpei set out to design a device that had a watch, as well as a single game on an LCD display, in order to be a time killer. These devices were Nintendo first steps into the major success they would see one day.

The original Game and Watch design was a single screened, non-color LCD, device. As time went on they made several variants of this design and even experimented with twin screens. These were the handhelds that Nintendo would someday reach back to in designing the hugely successful Gameboy Advance Sp, DS, and 3DS. The controls were simple with just a few buttons to control the game's characters. Later in 1982, Gunpei designed what is now called the D-pad, for Donkey Kong. Gunpei's design received a Technology and Engineering Emmy award and is now a key part of every video game controller.

The Game and Watches were a monumental part of Nintendo's history because they brought Mario, Donkey Kong, and even Link and Zelda to people on the go. Sadly though, the systems were discontinued in 1991 after the release of the Gameboy in 1989, the last game being Mario the Juggler. The Gameboy outperformed the Game and Watch because of its advanced LCD screen, and its ability to play more than one game due to it being a cartridge-based console. However, Nintendo has never forgotten its roots, and still to this day has the Game and Watch's character, Mr. Game and Watch in its Super Smash Bros. games. Here is a link to a commercial that was released for the Game and Watches in the US: Game and Watch Commercial