About This Collection

What is Game & Watch?

Before the release of the Game Boy in 1989, Nintendo had a range of products called "Game & Watch". Each system could play one game only — usually with two different difficulty levels, referred to as "Game A" and "Game B" — and could also tell the time (hence the "watch" part of the name).

The first Game & Watch, Ball, was released on 9 April 1980 in Japan. Designed by legendary Nintendo engineer Gunpei Yokoi, the concept was inspired by a bored businessman playing with a calculator on a Shinkansen bullet train. Yokoi envisioned a thin, pocket-sized electronic entertainment device that would make use of cheap, reliable LCD display technology and last for months on small watch batteries.

Over the following decade, a total of 60 different games were released across 10 distinct series. Innovations in LCD technology led to the eventual creation of various different series: some had colour displays, others used curved reflective screens to create a sense of depth (Panorama), some had two screens (Multi Screen), and others had entirely transparent displays (Crystal Screen). The Game & Watch lineup was a remarkably diverse collection of industrial and technological innovation masquerading as children's toys.

By the time production ended in 1991, Nintendo had sold over 43 million Game & Watch units worldwide. The format directly inspired the portable gaming industry and its influence can be traced through the Game Boy, the Nintendo DS, and ultimately to every mobile game played on a smartphone today. The "Mr. Game & Watch" character — a silhouetted figure representing the LCD characters of the original games — was introduced in Super Smash Bros. Melee in 2001 and remains a beloved part of Nintendo's roster.

This website was created to preserve comprehensive information and hi-resolution photography of every game ever released in the Game & Watch lineup. As the physical units age — some approaching 45 years old — their LCD screens are beginning to fail due to deterioration of the liquid crystal elements. This archive ensures their legacy endures.

About the Collection

The collection documented on this website began in the 1980s, when the family's mother owned several different Game & Watch units as a child in Australia. The rise of the internet and eBay in the early 2000s provided the opportunity to systematically track down and acquire examples of every game released — a project that eventually resulted in a complete set of all 60 titles.

In 2010, the complete collection was featured on ABC's Good Game Spawn Point TV program in Australia — one of the country's most popular gaming television shows at the time. The segment brought widespread attention to the collection and to the historical significance of the Game & Watch format for a new generation of Australian gamers.

Sadly, the LCD screens on many of the units have begun to fail over the decades. This is an inherent characteristic of the liquid crystal technology used: the crystals gradually degrade, causing segments to fade or disappear entirely. Some of the oldest models are now approaching 45 years old. This website was created specifically to document the collection while all units are still in working condition — preserving high-resolution photography of each game for posterity.

The legacy of these consoles can still be seen today in the widespread adoption of mobile gaming and in hardware innovations like the Nintendo Switch. The Game & Watch brand itself was revived by Nintendo in 2020 with a special Super Mario Bros. anniversary edition, and again in 2021 with a Legend of Zelda edition — both of which included the original Ball game as a nod to where it all began.

The Designer: Gunpei Yokoi

The Game & Watch series owes its existence to one of Nintendo's most creative minds: Gunpei Yokoi (1941–1997). Yokoi joined Nintendo in 1965 as a maintenance engineer and quickly came to the attention of then-president Hiroshi Yamauchi with his inventive approach to toy design. He went on to lead Nintendo R&D1, the division responsible for Game & Watch and later the Game Boy.

Yokoi's design philosophy — which he called "lateral thinking with withered technology" — involved taking existing, inexpensive technology and finding new and creative applications for it. Rather than pursuing cutting-edge technology, Yokoi sought to use mature, cheap components in unexpected ways. The Game & Watch perfectly embodied this philosophy: LCD panels, calculator buttons, and watch batteries, combined into a product that felt genuinely magical.

Yokoi left Nintendo in 1996 following the commercial disappointment of the Virtual Boy, a product that departed from his own lateral-thinking philosophy. He died in 1997, but his influence on Nintendo — and on the entire portable gaming industry — remains immeasurable. The Game Boy, which sold over 100 million units, was his masterpiece. The Game & Watch series was its prototype.

The Series Timeline

Contact

For enquiries about the collection, photography rights, or media appearances, please get in touch using the details below.

Watch the Segment

The collection was featured on ABC's Good Game Spawn Point in 2010. Watch the original segment below.