Game & Watch
The Game & Watch series is a series of self-contained handheld games that are the precursor to the Game Boy.
Contents
Emulators
Although Game & Watch emulation is possible, it was difficult to achieve for a long time due to the lack of information about the microcontrollers that drive these handhelds and because the ROM containing the program have to be extracted by decapping the microcontroller which is an expensive and destructive process, this lack of information lead to the false belief that Game & Watch do not contain any CPU or ROMs. Following an effort by several MAME developpers to reverse engineer various handheld electronic game from the 80's it is now known that Game and Watch have a Sharp 4 bit MCU, therefore they can be emulated. MAME now support genuine of various handheld electonic games including some Game & Watch but not all of them, the other software are simulators.
- Nintendo officially released virtual reproductions in the games and compiled them in the Game & Watch Gallery (and, later, Game & Watch Collection) series of games. These games had both "classic" and "modern" variations of these games. While these collections have a loss of "authenticity" (especially in the collections that are running on earlier hardware), these collections are Game Boy, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, and DS games for which emulators are widespread. (A few games are from the difficult-to-pirate DSiWare series, though every game in the DSiWare series appears in another collection.) However, some of the games in the collection (notably Zelda) may need to be unlocked before play.
- The Handhled Remakes Archive hosts some reproductions of games.
- Pica Pic (by Hipopotam) is an online collection of Game & Watch games under an authentic presentation. While there seems to be no way to play these games offline, there are a few games that are exclusive to the website, one example being Nu, pogodi!
- Madrigal wrote some simulations that give an offline, authentic presentation of the Game & Watch games, the collection of these games growing through time. Of particular note is that these simulations are available to play through RetroArch through the gw-libretro core. There are also some simulations that are not of the Game & Watch series.
Games
Game | Collection | DSiWare | Remakes | Pica Pic | GW-Libretro |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Ball | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ |
Baloon Fight | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ |
Bomb Sweeper | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ |
Boxing | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
Chef | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
Climber | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ |
Crab Grab | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
Donkey Kong | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Donkey Kong 3 | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
Donkey Kong Circus | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ |
Donkey Kong II | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ |
Donkey Kong Jr. | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Egg | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ |
Fire | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ |
Fire Attack | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ |
Flagman | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ |
Goldcliff | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
Green House | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ |
Helmet | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ |
Judge | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ |
Life Boat | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ |
Lion | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
Manhole | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ |
Mario Bros. | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ |
Mario the Juggler | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
Mario's Bombs Away | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ |
Mario's Cement Factory | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ |
Mickey & Donald | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ |
Mickey Mouse | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ |
Octopus | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ |
Oil Panic | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ |
Parachute | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Popeye | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ |
Rain Shower | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ |
Safebuster | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ |
Snoopy | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ |
Snoopy Tennis | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
Spitball Sparky | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
Super Mario Bros. | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ |
Tropical Fish | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ |
Turtle Bridge | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ |
Vermin | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ |
Zelda | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ |
The following games are currently not emulated in any way:
- Blackjack
- Donkey Kong Hockey
- Pinball
- Squish
Games exclusive to some collections
Games in Pica Pic that are not part of the Game & Watch Series
- Aerogun Field
- Autoslalom
- Barrier
- Bartman
- Castle Adventure
- Caveman
- Coffee House
- Fishing Boy
- G-Man
- Merry Cook
- Ncha! Bycha
- Nu, pogodi!
- Penguin Land
- Plane & Tank
- Pirate 777
- Search Light
- Space Bridge
- Sub Attack
- The Terminator
- Thief in Garden
Simulations that are not part of the Game & Watch Series
- Armor Battle
- Banana
- Baseball
- Bomb Fight
- Caccia al Ladra/Heatcliff
- Cessate il Fuoco/Heatcliff
- Chick Woggy (2 versions)
- Condor
- Crazy Chewy
- Defendo
- Donkey Angler
- Donkey Kong (Coleco version)
- Donkey Kong Junior (Coleco version)
- Dungeons & Dragons Computer Fantasy Game
- Engine Room
- Escape
- Explorers of Space
- Fowling
- Frog Boaster
- Galaxy II
- Grab Man
- Hippo Teeth (2 versions)
- Hot Line (2 versions)
- Las Vegas
- Monkey
- Monkey Jump
- Motor Cross
- Pac Man
- Pancake
- Penguin Land
- Pirate
- Roller Coaster
- Safari
- Sleep Walker
- Sub Chase
- Tennis Menace
- Tom & Jerry Popper
- Towering Rescue
- Tron
- Wild Man Jump