Gaming Watch History - Casio, Nelsonic, Tiger Electronics and more

I have a treat for you on this episode - the history of game watches. I reckon most of you will have come across gaming digital watches from the 80s and 90s - particularly nelsonic with things like their pacman watch, and Casio’s various gaming watches, but I give the topic the full illuminating watches treatment. Did you know the makers of one of the first forms of pinball - baffleball - was Gottleib? Makers of Q*Bert, and licensors of that brand to nelsonic to make the watch worn by Will Byers in stranger things. Of course, we’ll cover Nelsonic Nintendo branded watches with the likes of Super Mario Bros. And Zelda. We’ll also look at the likes of Tiger Electronics and their game watches including cool things like altered beast and sonic. Did you know they made theTalkboy used in Home Alone 2. As well as straight ahead game watches, I’ll cover the history of game themed watches like various Mario, Pokémon and Streetfighter collaborations with the likes of Seiko, Citizen, G-Shock and even crazy luxury brands like Romain Jerome. I hope you enjoy the video. References all contained within the video, but you may also enjoy consulting some of the following excellent websites:

[AmbientWalking]

Wow! Thanks for this historical trip! WOW!

[zornikzornuk]

Thank.... now I need a vintage gaming watch in my collection...

[banjomax]

OMG I'm litteraly 3.44 minutes in and i've already learned more things than past week (first video of you that i watch) keep up the amazing work brother !

[johanvandersandt]

This is super cool man! Its like an explosion of technology given form in watches! Well done bro!

[Capt]

Always love your videos. Thank you for all your time and hard work you put into these videos. It is very much appreciated.

[paulr]

I really can't say how impressive and well produced your videos are. These are so packed with information and they're so facinating. A vodka company called Taito made an early Pong clone? What?

[christopherjohnson]

Another amazing effort. I always watch these several times, so much information to soak into my dome! 😃 ⌚️

[whatdididolastnight]

Oh my, a wave of nostalgia washes over me. Used to love digital watches as a kid. Of course especially game watches. Even had one or two ( thanks to the parental units ). So much research and effort, thank you so very much for the video.

[weezz]

a great question is, how come digital watches in the past were so full of features, colors, ideas and were just so cool? what happened that today, with al the new tehnology they have, they dont come close with making so cool digital watches? why?

[hitmiccs]

Brilliant video, enjoyed every second :) And you DID include my forever favourite, the Armitron Piano/Game at 11:21 Fantastic!

[MrGeirSteinar]

It is almost impossible to see where you find all this material, and …. HOW you find it. I’m seriously impressed!

[johnclark]

12:35 The Donkey Kong game this is in reference to isn’t Donkey Kong Country, but rather the criminally underrated Game Boy game titled Donkey Kong ‘94 which released the same year (not to be confused with Donkey Kong Land). You can tell because of the metropolitan environment and the fact that you play as Mario.

[KrystianWlr]

Woah - what a ride. Great stuff - I really enjoyed it!

[zazkegirotron]

This is an incredibly awesome compilation! Loved it.

[GinkgoJoe]

My god! Stellar content & great research! But so fast!! I'll have to watch it ten times!!

[Daud]

5:14 Thank you for showing one of my favourite restoration projects, the Casio CA-901. 😁..and thank you again for such an interesting upload.

[alpachinko]

Been thinking about trying to find one of those dj beat (oe whatever it's called) watches i had as a kid.

Has a turntable wheel as the main control feature, with two rhythm based games, as far as i can remember. Was awesome

[brenoboeira]

Which one should I pick? Amazing video, bringing back some good memories 😍😍

[jonjackson]

Your channel is criminally underrated, you should have one million views on this video. Greetings from @LCDpixels

[novauviolon]

There wasn't a Super Mario Bros. 2 tie-in by Nelsonic. The games "Mario's Egg Catch, " "Luigi's Hammer Toss, " and "Princess Toadstool's Castle Run" were McDonald's promotional tie-ins in Japan and the US; the fact that they came out in Japan in 1990 points to them having no connection with the western Super Mario Bros. 2. Mario even has a Super Mario Bros. 3 raccoon power-up in his game, and the Japanese commercials for the promotion depict him with the Super Mario World cape. They were also probably not made by Nelsonic at all, despite the unreliable sources cited on Wikipedia which are articles that casually refer to them as "Nelsonic" when mentioning their existence, in the same way a lot of people these days refer to LCD games generally as "Tiger Electronics games" (ugh). All the mentions in those articles were just to say the watches were the first time Peach/Luigi had starring roles, before then focusing on Super Princess Peach/Luigi's Mansion.

In reality, there is no indication on the packaging or watch exteriors that Nelsonic was involved, and there isn't much info about their manufacture on the internet at all. Mario Wiki states that they were manufactured by a company named "S.I.U." based in Torrance, California, which is in fact backed up by the warranty sheets included with the games, but I can't find any information about that company's existence and they aren't mentioned on the packaging or watches themselves. The watches also don't have the typical "licensed by Nintendo" disclaimers that the Nelsonic watches did, just saying "Nintendo" on the watches and "Nintendo of America" on the packaging, as though Nintendo were the actual developer and publisher. About the only thing seemingly concrete about their design that I can find is that the US artwork for them (unique for this line) was made by someone named Jim Engel, who was working for Simon Marketing at the time and whose personal website is still up.

I say all this because I find these three watches really interesting, and it would be great to shed more light on them, especially given the historical importance of two of them being the first time Peach and Luigi were the main playable characters in the franchise's history. There even seems to be a reference to Luigi's Hammer Toss in The Super Mario Bros. Movie that happens so fast you'll miss it if you blink.