Casio Game 20

Casio has produced a significant number of games in its long and illustrious history and, with the exception of some of their calculator games where they were seriously limited by the available LCD segments and lack of RAM, you were in no doubt you were buying a gaming device that may have had an extra feature (like being able to tell the time).

Which made the Game 10/20/30/40 series such an interesting, albeit brief, departure from their familiar territory.

Because these were watches first, and games second. Not that it didn’t work incredibly well and provide keen gamers with the opportunity to wear something playable on their wrist without looking like a teenager with a Hungry Mouse or Egg Panic style watch.

Based on the stylish and feature packed 118 module series (AX-1, AX-5, AX-210, AX-250, AX-510) of watches, the Casio engineers could probably have followed the dual-LCD path they took for the 118 (in date mode, full monthly calendars appear) but opted not to. Perhaps the idea of a well-featured watch with a game included was still untested in the corporate market and could have been a bomb (like that’s possible!) put them off, or maybe they were just set the challenge to do it all in a single LCD over lunchtime sakis one day.

Whatever the reason, the Game 20 entered the retail market with a US$49.95 price tag and was produced for over two years (the last units rolling off the production line in May 1982).