did you know.....

... that g&w still appears on the television

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the german music television channel "viva" has several trailer to start the commercials - one of them shows donkey kong junior

click picture to enlarge!		as it happens the chief editor sees a g&w laying around. he looks quite sceptical...
click picture to enlarge!		he asks:"can anybody tell me how this thing works?" but it seems that none of them knows how to play it.....but he tries on his own.
click picture to enlarge!		very frustrating: he is not able to get it to work - take a look at his facial expression: he's definitively not happy about this.
click picture to enlarge!		he capitulates and gives us a short, sad glance towards the camera....

click picture to enlarge!		critical situation: belushi with game&watch - will he defeat the bad guys with lcd-power?
click picture to enlarge!		well...the picture could be better...anybody an idea what game&watch title he's holding?
click picture to enlarge!		update 01-04-2004: here's a new screenshot - it's a manhole! Thanks a lot for this picture Hannes!!

... that there's finally a great game&watch faq?
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clueless? - please don't hesitate to follow this link to mike's unofficial nintendo game&watch handhelds faq if you have any question about game&watches!! there's everything you need to know about the games - great work!
...that several game&watch cards will be released in november 2003?
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you think a manhole card is not reason enough to buy a card e-reader? well - now there are a few reasons more - nintendo announced: "game & watch games like spitball sparky, fire and ball have been longtime fan favorites, and now they're available on collectible cards. just slide the game & watch-e cards through an e-reader attached to a game boy advance and you're ready to play. both die-hard collectors and casual video game fans will love each of the over 25 games in the game & watch-e card series. some cards also contain fun facts about nintendo's very first video game products. if you collect all the cards, you'll have everything you need to know about these games right at your fingertips! enjoy the classic game & watch games, or play updated versions featuring mario and friends in fantastic color. keep your eyes peeled for special, rare collector cards that put mario's gang into the original game & watch environments, only available on game & watch-e cards! each game & watch-e card pack comes with five randomly-packed cards. you'll have to collect and trade with your friends to get the cards you need to play your favorite games!"
...there's a new game&watch revival on game boy?
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this game is fun!!! it contains lots of hectic microgames and has sooo fast & stupid music that you get mad after 10 minutes. there are many nes classics like donkey kong, zelda and ice climber and also game & watch games like helmet and vermin. but every microgame is only playable for about 5 seconds. i first thought that this game principle is boring, but when i started wario ware,inc. i couldn't stop playing. unfortunately the game was finished after 3 hours. an easy game and it is safe to say that it is also a little bit insane. the pictures show "9-volt" the old school grade-schooler, european box of wario ware inc. and screenshots of helmet and vermin.
...that concrete mixer changed into mario's cement factory?
i found an old telematch magazine (german issue of "electronic games") with a review of mario´s cement factory. the picture shows the table top game with the title "concrete mixer". this fits to the model number concrete mixer -72. i don't know if nintendo only planned to release this game under this title and changed their mind, or if a few games actually exist. i'm sure that there are more g&w which where released with a different title than it was planned, like fire attack (ID-29). because nobody seems to know about the initial meaning of the model numbers, we have to rely on suppositions. what do you think about this: ball - ac = acrobat vermin - mt = mole tunnel helmet - cn = carpenter rainshower - lp = laundry panic goldcliff - mv = montezuma's vengeance
source: telematch n° 4, 1983, p.11
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...that something went wrong with fire?
. the first version of fire was planned to play it from right to left. "the lcd designer happend to make it incorrectly. nevertheless, the game was just as playable. it was released as it was." i got this information from game&watch gallery 3. there's also a playable version of this fire.
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...that you should ignore the pink warning?
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the warning says: game&watch is a precision instrument. do not attempt to take it apart. if the game works fine nintendo is absolutely right, but if the game doesn't work there is not much to lose. i already fixed a few games - the strangest defect i saw was a dead spider inside the g&w which blocked one button. it is still a mystery to me how this animal got into the game.
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...that tricOtronic was the german name for game & watch?
in germany game&watch were distributed by "bienengraeber". maybe they didn't like the name "game&watch", i don't know, but they renamed the games into "tricOtronic". they also distributed bandai games and named them "tacOtronic". (there are still people who say: "you collect what? game&watch? i don't know them....aahh - you mean tricOtronic!! i still have one laying around!")  the first games (silver & gold) were boxed in tricOtronic boxes - i also have a few wide screen games in german box but later they only used a sticker to cover the original title. bienengraeber also renamed the single games: fire became "help, it's burning!", chef became "the crazy kitchen"
...that mario's bombs away was too brutal?
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this g&w got a really bad review in 1984. the telematch magazin (electronic games) presented new g&w titles from time to time and always praised them for the fantastic gameplay and so on, but in april 1984 they introduced a game they didn't liked: mario's bombs away. the review goes like this: "one of the bad games is mario's bombs away with coloured panorama screen. there's nothing wrong with the gameplay but the (for nintendo) unusual brutality is not o.k. (...) let's forget this nintendo-accident!" i don't really understand why especially this game is criticized. other titles are brutal as well - think about the man-eating sharks or the small jumpers who smash on the ground...maybe this review is symptomatic for a time when it was a sin to praise a game that had anything to do with death or war.
...that your game & watches are different inside?
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please take a look at these pictures - see the differences? i don't know the reason. either it is the sign of different production centres or just chronological development (the left picture is from a game with 0... serialn° - the right from a game with 2..2 serialn°).   does anybody know what the number among modelnumber and nintendologo on the chip means? postscript: the number probably indicates the factory where that specific chip was made - thanks for this info pieter!!
...that mickey & donkey kong circus were mixed up?
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i don't know what really happened with these two games...donkey kong circus has the modelnumber from mickey mouse (mk-96) and mickey mouse has the modelnumber from dk circus (dc-95). isn't it strange, that the scene of donkey kong circus is this typical ladder & barrel thing and has nothing to do with a circus while clown mickey juggles in the big top? i guess nintendo must have planned to release a circus game with donkey kong first. i also would like to know if the games have the same chip and only different screens - usually i don't have a problem to open my game & watches but especially these two rare games let my curiosity fade away - too risky ;-)
...there are two names for the tabletop serie?
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as you can see on the picture below nintendo had two names for the tabletops. the color screen sticker is from my donkey kong junior (not coleco version) - the game & watch logo is missing on this sticker. does anybody know something about this? i think "tabletop" is much more common. postscript: most probably the color screen version is japanese - thanks for this info darren!!
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...that a game & watch trading card game is planned to be released??
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nintendo's card-e-reader for game boy advance will be able to read two-dimensional barcodes printed on trading cards. these barcodes can contain up to 2.064 bytes of text, sound and image data on the longer side and 1.296 bytes on the shorter side. with this capacity, a short game programm can easily be stored on one card (large data can be separated into several cards). nintendo announced "game & watch card-e" (release: spring 2002, japan). let's see if there will be ever a release in europe & us (i really hope so!!!) and how this g&w thing will look like. maybe there will be a collecting / trading card for every single g&w with information and the barcode will allow you to play it on your game boy advance......what a nice idea! there are already a few promotion cards (game & watch, pokemon) existing.
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...how many foreign game&watch distributers are existing??
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i don't know how many companies distibuted nintendo's g&w but here are a few: bienengraeber - germany - name: tricotronic (german game titles) mego - usa - name: time-out (different game titles) - went bankrupt in 1982 pocketsize - usa - (original nintendo titles) futuretronics - australia - (original nintendo titles) computer games limited (cgl) - uk - (original nintendo titles) legetøjs-fabrikken - sweden - (original nintendo titles) stadlbauer - austria - (original nintendo titles) - still distributing the mini-classics ji-21 - france (i don't know if they named it ji-21 or if this was the distributer) ??? - france? - name: video poche
...that nintendo's gamecube revived mr.game&watch ??
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you probably heard about this smash bros. game for nintendo's gamecube. all characters and places are nintendo classics. one of the characters is mr.game & watch. take a look at : nintendo's page. it's funny to recognize the different titles on these pics. picture from the game menu and mr.g&w:
...that the russian g&w clones are not as old as they look ??
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i just got a russian egg and the red box and instruction look really old with it's 50s style. actually they were still produced in the 90s. box & game:    instruction:
...that game & watch also appeared in non-nintendo advertising ?
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here is a swatch (swiss watch) advertising from 1983. It says: "the new swatch. fashionable, fashionable, and so on." among other things it shows stupid sunglasses, "fashionable" 80s-people, a keyboard-necklace and: a cute little donkey kong jr. click picture to enlarge!

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