Until the 1960s, Nintendo was a modestly successful company, which manufactured playing cards for the local Japanese market. Fast forward 25 years and Nintendo has become a world leader in electronic entertainment. How did this miraculous transformation come about? BEFORE MARIO will answer that question, through a richly illustrated overview of over fifty Nintendo toys and games, that represent this crucial period in the company's history (1965 to 1983). Some of these toys appear here in print for the very first time. Together they show the path that Nintendo traversed, as it evolved into one of Japan's most admired and valuable companies.

Written by Erik VOSKUIL, owner the world's largest private collection of Nintendo products from the 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s, with a foreword by Satoru OKADA, one of the geniuses in Nintendo's first game design team and later manager of the
R&D department, (co)designer of many of Nintendo's games and toys, including Game & Watch, Metroid and the Game Boy.

==> More information and order: Omaké Books

Most collectors of Game & Watch games probably know about the promotional Game&Watch games. These very special games have been used by famous companies as an advertising medium. Instead of the Game&Watch logo or in addition to it, these games have the logo of the company imprinted on the game.

In the last few years, many such promotional games have been discovered. Meanwhile there are over 40 different ones! It's getting difficult to keep track of them. That's why we have put together sort of FAQ about these very special and very rare Game&Watch games!

If you also have interesting or additional information about promo-games, then it would be great if you would send it to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., so we can extend the FAQ. Thanks a lot!

==> To the FAQ about the Promo-Game&Watch

The unofficial Game & Watch Collectors catalog is now available in English!
The book comes with some great goodies (see pictures)!

Note: The edition is strictly limited!

You can order the book directly from the two authors Dave Gschmeidler and Gerhard Meyer: http://www.gameandwatch.at

gameandwatch.ch has undergone some major software updates. Most part of the website now is responsive, so it's displaying correctly on mobile devices such as Smartphones, Tablets, iPad etc.

The change is not fully completed yet. Because this website has over 400 pages, this will take a while :-)

Many collectors like to exhibit their games at home. Many of the Game&Watch games can placed nicely with their fold-out stand on the back side. That's the games from the series Gold, Wide Screen and New Wide Screen. The Game&Watch games of the two series Table Top and Panorama can placed very good as well.

Read more ...

A very special Game&Watch has changed ownership today for a lot of money.

For incredible EUR 4011.00 a Multi Screen Life Boat was sold on ebay.

This is no ordinary Life Boat, but a J.i21. These were sold in France. The special kind is, that they have the J.i21 logo imprinted on the box. That's what makes these games rare, because not many of them are around, a Life Boat is even extremely rare.

==> More about J.i21
==> Download auction as PDF
==> View auction online

The auction data for the months November and December 2013 are now available.

For now, there will be no more new data added further. But the existing data will give you a very good idea and an overview about the values of the great Game&Watch games! :-)