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Game & Watch
Game & Watch is a series of handheld electronic games developed by Nintendo. Designed by Gunpei Yokoi, the first game, Ball was released in 1980 and the original production run of the devices continued until 1991. The name Game & Watch reflects their dual functionality: a single game paired with a digital clock on a segmented liquid-crystal display (LCD) screen. The Game & Watch series proved a monumental success, selling a total of 43.4 million units globally, marking Nintendo's first major worldwide success with a video game console.
The Game & Watch was the brainchild of designer Gunpei Yokoi, the head of Nintendo Research & Development 1 (R&D1), who was inspired during a trip on a Shinkansen high-speed train, where he noticed a bored businessman idly pressing buttons on a credit-card-sized pocket calculator. This sparked the idea of a compact, discreet toy for adults to pass the time on public transport. At the time, Nintendo was struggling financially, and R&D1 consisted of just Yokoi and his assistant, Satoru Okada. The two looked at other handheld electronic games, including Mattel Auto Race, the Microvision, and Simon, but found these too large and reliant on low-resolution vacuum fluorescent or LED displays that rendered abstract graphics. This led to the idea of using a segmented liquid-crystal display (LCD), like those in calculators, to create a smaller device with sharper, clearer graphics, though limited to a single game.
This experience would inspire Yokoi's design philosophy of "lateral thinking with withered technology", which emphasized creative uses of mature, cost-effective technology. This principle would continue to be embraced by Nintendo in the following decades. At the time, fierce competition in the calculator market between Sharp and Casio had created a surplus of LCDs and semiconductors, creating an opportunity to repurpose these components for gaming.
Yokoi pitched the idea to Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi while driving him to a business meeting after the company chauffeur called in sick. Yamauchi's meeting happened to be with Sharp's CEO, and the two leaders discussed the concept. Within a week, Yokoi was invited to a meeting between Nintendo and Sharp, where approval was given to develop a calculator-sized gaming device.
However, Yamauchi assigned the project to Nintendo Research & Development 2 (R&D2), which was established in 1978 to focus on electronic projects like the Color TV-Game, while R&D1 was to continue to focus on creating physical toys and games. However, R&D2 rejected the idea, claiming it was too difficult to implement. Undeterred, Yokoi and Okada continued developing the concept on their own. Yokoi created a mock-up of the first game, Ball, and demonstrated it to Okada by shining light through cut-out paper shapes. Okada then built a working prototype, buying a TK-80 computer, teaching himself to program for the Intel 8080, and designing the necessary electronics.
When they presented the prototype to employees at Sharp, they also dismissed the project, saying it wasn't feasible to scale it down to calculator size. However, Yokoi and Okada left the prototype with Sharp, asking them to play with it for a while, which convinced Sharp employees of the game's potential and led them to develop a compatible display. The final device was powered by a 4-bit CPU from Sharp's SM5xx family, paired with 1,792 bytes of ROM, 65 bytes of RAM across four banks for data storage, and an LCD screen driver circuit.
The Game & Watch name reflected its dual functionality: it combined a single game with a digital clock. The first game, Ball, had modest initial sales but enough success for Yamauchi to greenlight three more games: Flagman, Vermin, and Fire. This eventually led to dozens of titles over the next decade.
In North America, the games were initially launched through Mego Corporation as the Time-Out series which included Ball (renamed Toss-Up), Flagman, Vermin (renamed Exterminator), and Fire (retitled Fireman Fireman). This partnership ended within a year, and Nintendo of America began distributing the series under their original titles.
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Game & Watch
Game & Watch is a series of handheld electronic games developed by Nintendo. Designed by Gunpei Yokoi, the first game, Ball was released in 1980 and the original production run of the devices continued until 1991. The name Game & Watch reflects their dual functionality: a single game paired with a digital clock on a segmented liquid-crystal display (LCD) screen. The Game & Watch series proved a monumental success, selling a total of 43.4 million units globally, marking Nintendo's first major worldwide success with a video game console.
The Game & Watch was the brainchild of designer Gunpei Yokoi, the head of Nintendo Research & Development 1 (R&D1), who was inspired during a trip on a Shinkansen high-speed train, where he noticed a bored businessman idly pressing buttons on a credit-card-sized pocket calculator. This sparked the idea of a compact, discreet toy for adults to pass the time on public transport. At the time, Nintendo was struggling financially, and R&D1 consisted of just Yokoi and his assistant, Satoru Okada. The two looked at other handheld electronic games, including Mattel Auto Race, the Microvision, and Simon, but found these too large and reliant on low-resolution vacuum fluorescent or LED displays that rendered abstract graphics. This led to the idea of using a segmented liquid-crystal display (LCD), like those in calculators, to create a smaller device with sharper, clearer graphics, though limited to a single game.
This experience would inspire Yokoi's design philosophy of "lateral thinking with withered technology", which emphasized creative uses of mature, cost-effective technology. This principle would continue to be embraced by Nintendo in the following decades. At the time, fierce competition in the calculator market between Sharp and Casio had created a surplus of LCDs and semiconductors, creating an opportunity to repurpose these components for gaming.
Yokoi pitched the idea to Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi while driving him to a business meeting after the company chauffeur called in sick. Yamauchi's meeting happened to be with Sharp's CEO, and the two leaders discussed the concept. Within a week, Yokoi was invited to a meeting between Nintendo and Sharp, where approval was given to develop a calculator-sized gaming device.
However, Yamauchi assigned the project to Nintendo Research & Development 2 (R&D2), which was established in 1978 to focus on electronic projects like the Color TV-Game, while R&D1 was to continue to focus on creating physical toys and games. However, R&D2 rejected the idea, claiming it was too difficult to implement. Undeterred, Yokoi and Okada continued developing the concept on their own. Yokoi created a mock-up of the first game, Ball, and demonstrated it to Okada by shining light through cut-out paper shapes. Okada then built a working prototype, buying a TK-80 computer, teaching himself to program for the Intel 8080, and designing the necessary electronics.
When they presented the prototype to employees at Sharp, they also dismissed the project, saying it wasn't feasible to scale it down to calculator size. However, Yokoi and Okada left the prototype with Sharp, asking them to play with it for a while, which convinced Sharp employees of the game's potential and led them to develop a compatible display. The final device was powered by a 4-bit CPU from Sharp's SM5xx family, paired with 1,792 bytes of ROM, 65 bytes of RAM across four banks for data storage, and an LCD screen driver circuit.
The Game & Watch name reflected its dual functionality: it combined a single game with a digital clock. The first game, Ball, had modest initial sales but enough success for Yamauchi to greenlight three more games: Flagman, Vermin, and Fire. This eventually led to dozens of titles over the next decade.
In North America, the games were initially launched through Mego Corporation as the Time-Out series which included Ball (renamed Toss-Up), Flagman, Vermin (renamed Exterminator), and Fire (retitled Fireman Fireman). This partnership ended within a year, and Nintendo of America began distributing the series under their original titles.