Game & Watch is a line of handheld electronic games produced by Nintendo from 1980 to 1991. Created by game designer Gunpei Yokoi, each Game & Watch features a single game to be played on an LCD screen in addition to a clock and an alarm (thus, 'Game & Watch'). Some later units used dual lcd screens, that is believed to be the inspiration of the newer Nintendo DS.

Origin and Design
Gunpei Yokoi, traveling on a bullet train, saw a bored businessman playing with an LCD calculator by pressing the buttons. Yokoi then thought of an idea for a watch that doubled as a miniature game machine for killing time. The idea of the Game & Watch was born and a prototype soon released.

The units use LR4x/SR4x "button-cell" batteries, the same type used in most laser pointers or handheld calculators. Different models were manufactured, with some having two screens and a clam-shell design (the Multi Screen Series). The Nintendo DS and Game Boy Advance SP later reused this design.

Titles available in Game & Watch form vary from Mickey Mouse to Balloon Fight, including Nintendo staples such as Donkey Kong, The Legend of Zelda, and Mario Bros.. For a more complete list, see List of Game & Watch games.

Game A and Game B
Most titles have a 'GAME A' and a 'GAME B' button. Game B is generally a faster, more difficult version of Game A, although exceptions do exist, including:

• In Squish, Game B is radically different from Game A—the player must touch aliens to eliminate them as opposed to avoiding moving walls.
• In Judge,Boxing, Donkey Kong 3 and Donkey Kong Hockey Game B is a two-player version of Game A.
• In Climber, Balloon Fight, and Super Mario Bros., there is no Game B button.

998>999 high score bug
If a player reaches 300 points on the later Multi Screen series games, they are rewarded with double points until they lose a life, whereupon the game returns to single-point increments. If the player surpasses 1000 points without losing a life, the game will only register 998 points earned, the next increment rolling back to 0 and skipping 999 altogether. If a later player then reaches 999 points, the game will still register the former 998 as the higher score.

The Release of the Series

• Silver (1980)
• Gold (1981)
• Multi Screen (1982–1989)
• Tabletop (1983)
• Panorama (1983–1984)
• New Wide Screen (1982–1991)
• Super Color (1984)
• Micro Vs. System (1984)
• Crystal Screen (1986)
• Mini Classics (1998)

There were 59 different Game & Watch games produced for sale and 1 that was only available as a contest prize, making 60 in all. The prize game was given to winners of Nintendo's F-1 Grand Prix tournament, a yellow-cased version of Super Mario Bros. that came in a plastic box modeled after the Disk-kun character Nintendo used to advertise their Famicom Disk System. As only 10,000 units were produced and it was never available for retail sale, the yellow version is considered rare.

Mario the Juggler, released in 1991, was the last game created in the Game & Watch series.