Game & Watch: Granddaddy of all handheld video games
Here I am, sitting in front of the computer and thinking about something cool to write about. I can’t seem to think of anything but all the gifts I’ve received since I was born, particularly gifts that have something to do with video games.
Why gifts? Because my birthday’s coming up. Egad! My birthday’s tomorrow and I still can’t think of a cool post!
Hmmm. Search, search, search. Search memories. Search Google. Search Yahoo!.
Aha! Finally, something.
Like I mentioned in my first post on Re:Retro, my first handheld video game platform was a folder-shaped black box that had a big screen and a knob and a button which served as controls.
Although the box, as I came to call it, was perfect for the then eight-year-old Joel Tan, it didn’t really scratch the itch of my video game-crazed curiosity. The result: the box ended up in the trash bin after I disassembled it with the help of my father’s toolbox.
Hey! I only wanted to find out how the darn thing worked.
Thank the Big G for the next generation handheld video game platform—the Game & Watch made by Nintendo and created by designer Gunpei Yokoi.
What the heck is a Game & Watch? If you own a Nintendo DS, then you have in your hands the successor of the first successful handheld electronic game.
Most Game & Watch featured a single game that could be played on an LCD screen roughly the size of a matchbox. Back in the 1980s when the handheld was the in thing, there were no game cartridges or mini-compact discs on which you could store games and play them anytime you wanted on your handheld.
No, each Game & Watch came with just one game … unfortunately. I (or rather, my parents) had to buy a few of them back in the early 80s just to sate my thirst for video games.
Since I need to sate this new thirst for playing old games, and the Game & Watch has been out of production for more than a decade, I’ve decided to look for an alternative (read: emulator).
Fortunately, I’ve found such a site that caters to Game & Watch fanatics. Now, let’s see how well I remember the tricks for the game Octopus. Beat my score?
I don’t have the originals but I play them sometimes on the Game and Watch Gallery series.
Awww. I had the originals … well, some of them anyway, like Octopus, Fire and Helmet. I remember wanting to purchase the dual-screen Game & Watch, but didn’t get the opportunity because new video game consoles were already coming out.