How Nintendo’s Game & Watch Was Born From Calculator Tech and Commute Boredom

Nintendo is globally recognized as a video game giant, but its trajectory was nearly derailed in 1965 when founder Gunpei Yokoi joined the struggling firm. At the time, the company’s stock had plummeted from 900 yen to just 60. Founded in 1889 as a Kyoto-based producer of hanafuda playing cards, Nintendo had attempted various ventures to survive declining card popularity, ranging from instant noodles to a taxi service. However, it was Yokoi’s innovation that began to stabilize the business.

After achieving massive success with the Ultra Hand toy in 1966, which sold 1.4 million units worldwide, Yokoi turned his attention to electronics. By the late 1970s, Nintendo had shifted heavily toward the video game market, releasing home consoles like the TV-Game 6 and TV-Game 15 in 1977 and launching a coin-operated games division the following year.

The concept for the Game & Watch originated during a routine train commute. Yokoi observed a salaryman idly tapping away at a calculator, sparking the realization that gaming could extend beyond the home and arcade into the handheld space. This insight led to a serendipitous business opportunity: Yokoi pitched the device idea to then-president Hiroshi Yamauchi immediately before Yamauchi was scheduled to meet with the president of Sharp, the world’s leading calculator manufacturer at the time. A collaboration ensued.

Engineered with technology similar to contemporary calculators, the Game & Watch utilized LCD screens, button cell batteries, and segmented displays. The first unit, Game & Watch: Ball, released in 1980, employed a chip capable of displaying 72 segments. Prototyping involved laborious physical construction using cut acrylic plastic and tiny wheat bulbs mounted on circuit boards.

Between its launch and 1991, Nintendo released 59 distinct Game & Watch titles, eventually evolving the hardware to include widescreen formats and the iconic clamshell dual-screen design. The series went on to sell more than 43 million units worldwide.

Yokoi developed a design philosophy he termed “lateral thinking with withered technology,” which focused on finding novel uses for mature, reliable hardware rather than pursuing cutting-edge specs. This approach directly influenced the creation of the Game Boy, which prioritized portability and battery life over raw power compared to competitors.

The impact of this strategy is profound. In an internal interview, the late Nintendo president Satoru Iwata noted that without the Game & Watch, handheld devices like the Game Boy and Nintendo DS might never have been created. Furthermore, Yokoi’s inventions, including the D-pad and the protective clamshell form factor, became industry standards. His work not only pioneered portable gaming but also rescued Nintendo from financial distress twice—first with the Ultra Hand and again with the Game & Watch—allowing the company to thrive in the video game era.