October 19, 2004
Nintendo Game Handhelds
During the early 1980’s Gumpei Yokoi was asked to create a new toy for Nintendo which would result in the Game and Watch pocket systems. The small handhelds similar to the Tiger brand LCD games. The Game and Watch were a small pocket sized system that often folded in half to protect the LCD screen it contained and many popular games were created utilizing the Nintendo trademark figures such as Donkey Kong, Mario, and Zelda. Some systems, like Zelda, contained a double LCD screens. From this achievement, Yokoi also patented the Directional Pad or D-pad that Nintendo has used for many years. At the time of production for these small units, a joystick would be too difficult and clumsy to incorporate into a small system, so Yokoi, the great inventor created the D-pad, he called it ‘control cross’, which provided the most reasonable and accurate movements. The production line lasted from about 1980-1989 and produced about 60 or so different games. Two LR44 batteries are required for play. From my stand point, because of it’s historical significance, one can argue that a collection of Game and Watches (1 or more) could be counted as one system total, but this does not include the Tiger games. A series of three Game and Watch Galleries was released for the Game Boy and Game Boy Color which include ‘generic’ Nintendo titles such as the Octopus game.
Posted by richard ting at October 19, 2004, 11:24 AM
November 06, 2003
Ghettopoly
