Anyone collect Game & Watches?

[Arkanoid_Katamari]

I love these little things. The games aren't at all too advanced, but for the time these came out, they were pretty innovative. I only have one, cuz they're not easy to come across, and they sell for tough prices on Ebay, but I would really like to get more. They kinda go ignored by a lot of collectors, too, which is why I like em.

I have the Donkey Kong one, which is one that I owned back in the early 90s. My parents at that time didn't allow us to own video games, but they let this one slide. I found it at a flea market for about $3 so they got it for me. Unfortunately I broke it, cuz I was a little kid, but I have since acquired a new one. Very cool design, reminds me a lot of the DS. And it was one of the first D-pads ever made. Cool cuz it was released in 1980, so it predates the Colecovision, even. A time when D-pads did not exist, there were joysticks, and thats about it.

[Tanooki]

Nintendo invented what is considered the traditional d-pad and have maintained their patents and copyrights on it which is why even the current d-pad on their systems of today still have the same style. I used to collect them a bit and have owned around a dozen of them. Today I just have SMB and Zelda along with the club nintendo recreation of Ball (plus a nelsonic Zelda watch.) They're fantastic and what's cool still about them is that even if you don't care to play them they make badass little animated desk clocks and an alarm too. I don't agree they're ignored though for the reason you said - price. If they still were stupid $5 pick ups like years ago I'd have a pile of them at this rate. I still would like to get back Balloon Fight, perhaps even the old DK one at some point, but I just don't want to drop like $50+ for it as they'd mostly sit.

[davidbrit2]

I'd collect these more if they weren't so crazy expensive. I have a few, but most of them I've owned for quite a long time, and all but a couple were purchased new at retail. Fortunately, the Game & Watch Gallery games are all very good imitations, though I've definitely noticed the collision detection on the real DK Jr. is a lot less forgiving than the G&W Gallery remake.

At least Tiger handhelds are pretty cheap, and some of them are actually rather good.

[The Adventurer]

Holy crap. I have a Super Mario Bros G&W that I've had since the 80s. When I checked it out on eBay a few years ago, it wasn't going for much of anything. Now it's going for more then $80.

Man. I don't know if my childhood nostalgia is stronger then my need for an easy 80 bucks. :|

[davidbrit2]

Holy crap. I have a Super Mario Bros G&W that I've had since the 80s. When I checked it out on eBay a few years ago, it wasn't going for much of anything. Now it's going for more then $80.

Man. I don't know if my childhood nostalgia is stronger then my need for an easy 80 bucks. :|

SMB has never been remade in G&W Gallery, so I wouldn't part with that one unless you desperately need the money to buy insulin or something.

[Greg2600]

Price also depends on the condition greatly. Those old LCD's can break down, parts of the screen goes bad, etc. Anything in box, far more money. I have to assume that most of them are pretty rare these days. They were sold largely as "toys" back in the early/mid-80's. However, most of us probably had tons of Tiger or RadioShack or Tomy hand-helds, which were cheaper. I mean, who knew? The G&W released in the late 80's are worth a lot more (SMB, Zelda, etc.), because they weren't as commonly found.

[JSoup]

I've always meant to trying and obtain a few, but, as others have said, most of them are pretty expensive. I've seen a few here and there for under $100, but never jumped on it.

[Tanooki]

Climber is a fantastic one, but it's worth like $100. Many mistake it as Ice Climber much like how SMB is that and Balloon Fight is its thing, but no, it's unique and pretty fun though the 'boss' bird at the end of a few legs is that same one that lifts you in Ice Climber off the bonus map.


I have to second the good of TIGER 90s LCD games if you really want something fun to mess with that cost far less. There's only a couple of that that'll even hit $50, exceptionally few. While they're usually not super faithful to the NES or Arcade games they copy if they're not unique titles, they're solid. I've got a Mega Man II one that is actually quite fun and gets around the limitations well even with all the robots and weapons. I've had before or access to Gauntlet, Karnov, Batman, Sub Wars(excellent sub hunt game), Ninja Gaiden 1 and 2, Castlevania II, and the generic bowling and baseball titles. They're all quite fun. The most spendy of the lot is Castlevania SOTN (one of the last made) and it'll hit at least $50 loose.

[JSoup]

TIGER LCDs also seem to be made of the same grade of Nintendium as the GameBoy. Things are pretty hardy. I've only ever owned two, Sonic 2 and Marble Madness, both of which got rained on during a move, to the point of spending a full day submerged in a box of water. Still play just fine, although the Marble Madness pad squeaks a bit now.

[PizzaKat]

They look pretty cool, but for what it goes for I would never buy one. I couldnt see me buying one more than $20

[Arkanoid_Katamari]

I'll be honest, I'm one of those idiots who paid $75 on Ebay for the DK g&w, but that's cuz I had it back in the early 90s and I got hit with so much nostalgia. Plus, even tho I paid $75, I can always sell it for at least that much, so it's retaining its value. Rite now it's sitting on my NES shelf, I keep the batteries out of it, but it works great, it's in great shape, love it. They're valuable cuz they have the Nintendo stamp on em, mostly, I think. If these were made by some no-name company, no one would ever care. But they're Nintendo products, so they fall on people's radars.

[davidbrit2]

I'll be honest, I'm one of those idiots who paid $75 on Ebay for the DK g&w, but that's cuz I had it back in the early 90s and I got hit with so much nostalgia. Plus, even tho I paid $75, I can always sell it for at least that much, so it's retaining its value. Rite now it's sitting on my NES shelf, I keep the batteries out of it, but it works great, it's in great shape, love it. They're valuable cuz they have the Nintendo stamp on em, mostly, I think. If these were made by some no-name company, no one would ever care. But they're Nintendo products, so they fall on people's radars.

I'm sure the brand appeal has a lot to do with it, but most of them are just really good games, DK included. Later handhelds like those from Tiger are mostly overshadowed by concurrent releases for Gameboy or other handhelds (not that Tiger didn't produce a few gems themselves).

[SparTonberry]

Tiger's problem was that they tried to port games too complex for the limited hardware (like Sonic and Street Fighter II).

[Arkanoid_Katamari]

I'm sure the brand appeal has a lot to do with it, but most of them are just really good games, DK included. Later handhelds like those from Tiger are mostly overshadowed by concurrent releases for Gameboy or other handhelds (not that Tiger didn't produce a few gems themselves).

They actually were good. I only had that one DK g&w when I was real little, maybe 5 or 6, and that was basically my only video game. My parents wouldn't allow me to own a console cuz they didn't want me to rot my brain, so my gametime included my uncle's NES and Genesis when we visited my grandparents, which was often, and this little Donkey Kong handheld. And I actually played it a ton. I remember getting real sucked into it. And I think I owned a few Tiger handhelds which I'd play for 3 seconds and put own, cuz they were ungodly.

[davidbrit2]

Tiger's problem was that they tried to port games too complex for the limited hardware (like Sonic and Street Fighter II).

Tiger usually tried to mimic a typical scrolling video game with detailed character sprites. With the limitations of a pre-drawn LCD, this usually forced having a couple of character sprites in 2-3 different positions, while everything else moves around the player. Some of them turned out better than others. Mega Man 2 was pretty decent, for example.

The Game and Watch games mostly stuck to the single-screen style of gameplay that was typical of older arcade games. Nintendo opted for smaller, less detailed sprites, which gave them greater ability to move objects around the screen. The handful of scrolling games they did all had relatively simple graphics too.

[Tanooki]

Mega Man 2 (and 3) were excellent renditions of a platforming game, as was Castlevania II even if they were a bit funky compared to the NES releases, they did work. Ninja Gaiden also plays very well as does Double Dragon. It's just really hit and miss and depends also on expectation because once that Gameboy got out there and got some of those franchises going the Tiger thing looked wretched.

It's entirely brand recognition that drives the Game & Watch because look at all the copycat junk everyone from Radio Shack to the Asians and Russians made of the same exactly mechanics. G&W $50-100+ for a stand alone LCD, knockoff $5-15 if someone bothers with a few exceptions like Burgertime, 1943, and a few others that stand alone well.