48
edits
Changes
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
m
Grammar fixes.
}}
The '''[[wikipedia:Game & Watch|Game & Watch]]''' is a series of self-contained handheld LCD games by Nintendo where the first one was released on April 28, 1980 , and which are often seen as the precursor to the [[Game Boy/Game Boy Color emulators|Game Boy/Color]], although new Game & Watch games were still released as late as 1991.
Despite their simplicity, Game & Watch handhelds were completely unemulated for a very long time due to a lack of information about their hardware and difficulties with dumping ROMs and accurately recreating graphics. After an [http://forums.bannister.org//ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=97003#Post97003 extensive reverse -engineering effort by several MAME developers], MAME became the first emulator to support many retro handheld electronic games, including Game & Watch systems.
==Emulators==
|}
;'''[[MAME]]''':It was officially the 1st Game & Watch emulator, with support for almost all games. It started to comprehensively cover the Game & Watch games from around just before mid-2017 (e.g. [https://wiki.mamedev.org/index.php/MAME_0.185 0.185] in May 2017) and emulated its first game in [https://wiki.mamedev.org/index.php/MAME_0.186 0.186]. Since July 9 , 2020, MAME supports at least one version of each Game & Watch model.
:* See [https://github.com/mamedev/mame/blob/master/src/mame/drivers/hh_sm510.cpp MAME driver] which covers all of the Game & Watch series of games and those of a similar ilk from other companies running on the LCD game handhelds with Sharp SM5xx family of CPUs (SM5A/SM510/SM511/SM512) (Other companies that released similar games included Konami, Elektronika, [[Tiger_LCD_Handhelds|Tiger Electronics]], Tronica and VTech).
:* [http://adb.arcadeitalia.net/lista_mame.php?game_sourcefile=hh_sm510.cpp&arcade_only=0¤t_version=0 Arcade Italia's database] of compatibility records for games on MAME.
===Graphics===
Even when a Game & Watch game's ROM had been dumped, one of the biggest challenges with accurately emulating it was with how the Game & Watch displayed graphics. Rather than by sending output to an LCD display like most cartridge -based handhelds do, Game & Watch games (as well as most other handheld electronic games from the same time) displayed graphics by lighting up pre-drawn LCD segments, like a calculator. In order to To recreate this as accurately as possible, MAME uses .SVG files traced from high-quality scans of the LCD screen, allowing graphics in supported Game & Watch games to be displayed crisply at any resolution without the loss of any detail. While this is the most accurate way to recreate the LCD graphics outside of obtaining the original art from Nintendo, it is a difficult and time -consuming process as not only does the LCD need to be scanned at a high resolution with all segments lit up to capture all of the graphics but the scans must be traced very carefully to faithfully recreate the original artwork.
==Simulators==
* [http://www.pica-pic.com/ Pica Pic] (by Hipopotam) is an online collection of Game & Watch games under an authentic presentation (using Adobe Flash). While there seems to be no way to play these games offline, there are a few games that are exclusive to the website.
* Madrigal wrote some [http://www.madrigaldesign.it/sim/ 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 are available to play through [[RetroArch]] through the gw-libretro core. There are also some that are not of the Game & Watch series.
* [http://bdrgames.nl/lcdgames/ lcdgame.js] is an open-source JavaScript library which that currently supports authentic representations of Donkey Kong II and Mario Bros.
* [http://www.emulator3000.org/hq.htm Handheld Quake] is a free simulator that simulates some Elektronika and Nintendo handhelds.
* Nintendo released the Super Mario Bros. 35 Anniversary Game & Watch that contains a version of Ball with Mario or Luigi as the character.
The three Panorama titles listed here are completely different games than the standard versions despite the same names.
The table top tabletop version of Mario's Cement Factory is similar to the widescreen and panorama versions but has different artwork and slightly different gameplay.
The silver version of Fire has slightly different gameplay than the widescreen version.
The Telko Bassmate Computer (model BM-501) was produced for Telko by Nintendo as an OEM product and sold under different brands, i.e. Telko, KMV , and Probe 2000.The hardware is identical as to G&W Multi -Screen, but it's not part of the game series.
*CPU: Sharp SM511 label BM-501 556AA
*OUT: dual lcd LCD screens with custom segments, 1-bit sound
==Games exclusive to some collections==
* [https://www.gameandwatch.ch/en/game-watch-information/all-60-games.html All 60 Games list] detailing the Nintendo's Game & Watch series (Nice list with technical names and links to details and photos of 60 different Game & Watch)
* [https://www.mariowiki.com/Game_%26_Watch Super Mario Wiki] covering Nintendo's Game & Watch series (Nice wiki-style page with many photos of different handhelds)
* [https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1WLKcvynl0ky2mRL1UacA9yaiMTnNs4x5 Design, layout and artwork] (Made by Lee Robson (hydef). Storage of background art files for LCD handheld games from Elektronika, Gakken, Konami, Nintendo G&W, Tiger Electronics , and Tronica.)
{{Nintendo}}
