Anybody have or had video game watches?

[KIWASABI]

Hey everybody,

 

Tonight I got on a kick and started looking at vintage video game watches with built-in lcd video games from the 1980s and 1990s. Anybody remember these?

 

I have very fond memories of these. Probably my first video game ever was a Dick Tracy game watch, which I loved very much. It also had a speaker and it talked, it was pretty cool. A few years later I had the Star Fox watch which I'm guessing was probably one of the best game watches ever made. It actually played very close to Star Fox despite its obvious limitations. You had 2 attacks (laser and bombs) and also fought against a boss. I remember one time in the middle of a 6th grade class a friend and I were playing it nonstop during a lecture, and one time we forgot to start the game without the sound, and the substitute teacher gave us a dirty look and my friend said, "Oh whoops, his alarm just went off". Good times.

 

I wanted to get some of these off of ebay, but they're all selling for way too much, generally in the $50+ range (aside from the Star Fox watch which is selling for $30 shipped since some guy has boxes full of them). Anybody have any memories of these? And does anybody still have any of these lying around somewhere? I wonder if these could catch on if they were reintroduced with something like Halo or Grand Theft Auto.

[kroogur]

I had the Nelsonic Pac Man watch and it got me through some real boring times in school Oh how I loved that thing. I would like to get another but the prices on ebay are way out of line.

[Snider-man]

I always thought a collection of these would be very cool.

[WilsonCat]

I had this one:

 

[S1500]

Yep, I too had the Nelsonic Pac Man watch. On the bottom the strap-holder part partially broke, so it's now a pocket watch. I gotta go find it again & get a new battery put in to see if it works.

[PressureCooker2600]

I had (and still have it somewhere....probably at my girlfriend's place somewhere) a Double Dragon watch.

 

You basically walked forward and punched baddies. I loved it, though. It's still the best watch I've ever owned.

[PressureCooker2600]

a really blurry image of the Double Dragon watch:

 

http://www.handheldmuseum.com/Tiger/DoubleDragon.htm

[Almost Rice]

I think I had a Pacman watch back in the day. The strap broke and battery has probably been long dead. I do not remember where I put it.

[CGQuarterly]

I had this guy:

 

 

I didn't have it for very long because some punks in my art class stole it out of my backpack. This was in 8th grade I think (1990-1991). Kind of a long story, but bottom line is I went to a sketchy middle school.

 

Chris

[Turd Furgason]

i remember having one in 6th grade...im thinking it was mario 3

 

 

http://www.retrogames.co.uk/stock/assets/i...Mario_Watch.jpg

Edited January 21, 2009 by Turd Furgason

[KIWASABI]

Very cool, guys. It's pretty strange how something so primitive becomes almost legendary just because it's on a watch? I was a huge fan of that Star Fox watch that I had but I lent it to a friend when he went on a trip and he lost it. The Dick Tracy watch I had I remember seeing in an old box of crap in my old garage all the time, and then that got thrown out at some point I'm sure. Man I had no idea these things would end up being so rare. But I guess they probably didn't make too many units of these.

 

Does anyone know how feasible it would be to make something like this with a much higher resolution screen and/or a memory chip that can remember a lot more levels and characters and still sell it for $15 or $20? More than $20 for a kid's watch would be stretching it I bet (though if it were kept as a mostly niche gamer thing it could probably go as high as $50 or higher since those people would have more money and would be willing to spend more on something so cool).

[godslabrat]

I had the Ninja Gaiden watch too. I still have it, actually, it's on the shelf just across from me. It hasn't had a fresh battery in about 14 years. These games, while fun, always had the feel of being the red-headed stepchildren of the games they were named after.

[Nimtene]

I've got a Q*Bert one still. Had

great fun with it over the years.

 

[NE146]

I had a Pacman watch.. but my favorite was my Bandai Monkey coconut one. It broke a long time ago I guess from overplaying it.

 

[Osbo]

I had this one:

 

http://www.handheldmuseum.com/Casio/HeliFighter.htm

 

and this one...

 

http://www.handheldmuseum.com/Casio/ChampionRacer.htm

 

Lots of fun to play with.

[Jess Ragan]

There were two versions of the Pac-Man watch... I preferred the version which had a little knob into which tiny peg-like joysticks could be set. If you lost all the joysticks you could use a toothpick as a replacement.

[wccw mark]

i have that double dragon watch,still in the package,never opened.

a really blurry image of the Double Dragon watch:

 

http://www.handheldmuseum.com/Tiger/DoubleDragon.htm

[yuppicide]

I just picked this up new in box, the Q*Bert one:

 

http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=138716

[+FujiSkunk]

I had a Pac-Man watch, the model with the "joypad" buttons for control (edit: that would be the Nelsonic watch, pictured earlier). We learned the hard way that it while it wasn't waterproof, it could recover from a pass through the shower. Surviving the tantrums of an eight-year-old impatient with that recovery was a different story.

 

I did manage to put it all back together at some point, losing only one of the side buttons, but it has since been lost to time (no pun intended).

Edited February 5, 2009 by skunkworx

[stonestn]

Has fond memories of my missile command watch got me through a bunch of really boring study halls and pep rally's.

[lushgirl_80]

Every Sunday they have this little flea market nearby my house and recently I found a nintendo Starfox gamewatch for just 5 dollars....

 

 

 

 

I like playing it,it has cute sounds...one I'd like to find tho is the Legend of Zelda one they made,i would not only play that but I would actually wear it.

 

 

 

edit- was'nt a wristwatch but my favorite game and watch from Nintendo was Snoopy Tennis. Gawd that game rocked.

Edited February 6, 2009 by lushgirl_80

[MausGames]

I had the Ninja Gaiden one too, and some strange racing game that was pretty much the same as the bazillion tiny free lcd games they've given away in happy meals. I liked the Ninja Gaiden game though, and the game was fairly long for an lcd game. The straps came off to make it look like the tiniest little handheld lcd game ever.

[schuwalker]

I used to have a frogger one...................

[carmel_andrews]

I used to have a space game, game watch...think it was by GCE (who originated the vectrex) in was back in the v. early 80's...i did collect a few game/clocks though and 2 or 3 game calculators

[Stan]

I think I know the watch you're talking about because I know the guy who designed them. Anyway, yeah, I had two of them, I had the Super Mario Bros. and Zelda watches. Still have them, in fact. Great to play! The Zelda one is pretty complex for how small it is.