<systemDescription>The Game & Watch is a series of handheld electronic games developed, manufactured, released and marketed by Nintendo from 1980 to 1991. Created by game designer Gunpei Yokoi, the product derived its name from its featuring a single game as well as a clock on a LCD screen. The models from 1981 onwards featured an alarm in addition. It was the earliest Nintendo video game product to gain major success.
The units are based on a 4-bit CPU, from the Sharp SM5xx family, that include a small ROM and RAM area and an LCD screen driver circuit, although, prior to its simulation in MAME, there was a misconception in that every unit used a custom ASIC instead of a proper microcontroller.