Game & Watch (itch)

A playable simulation to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Nintendo's first generation of handheld electronic games. First released in 1980, each game in the Game & Watch series featured a single game that could be played on an electronic LCD screen and included a clock, hence the name.

Designed by Gunpei Yokai (1941-1997), the development of the Game & Watch series would not only lay down the principles of hardware and interface design that would echo through Nintendo's history to the present day, but also in terms of game design. Because LCD technology granted the developers a very limited amount of on-screen real estate in which to place the action-packed gaming experiences, the games themselves tended to be extremely focused. There was little room for design screw-ups. If the game mechanic wasn't simple enough, or addictive enough, then the game failed. It was just player and mechanic, and that's it.

If you've never had the opportunity to play a proper Game & Watch unit, then here's your chance, with this simulation of one of my favorite games in the series, Donkey Kong, released in 1982. 

[Developer's Note: I developed this over the course of a few hours, so there may still be some bugs I haven't managed to track down.]