SWISSDIGITIZATION.CH

I came into contact with two systems when I was a child. I'm no longer sure which was the first, but they were both when I was in kindergarten (1980/1981).

Nintendo Game & Watch: A colleague in kindergarten had Fire (RC-04). I first played it on a visit when she was home with measles. I later got my own Game & Watch game as a birthday present from my godmother in 1983 and it was Snoopy Tennis (SP-30). I also got another LCD game (not Game & Watch) Frogger, which my mother bought me when I was sick and desperate to play outside with the other kids. I then promised her that I would then stay inside. My neighbor's boy had the double-screen Donkey Kong (DK-42) and my sister had Donkey Kong II (JR-55). You could buy them in toy stores, such as Franz Carl Weber. That's why they were so easy to get for the adults for birthday or as holiday gifts. I played a lot of these Game & Watch in my childhood for instance in the public bath during summer and in school camps. Many kids owned any of these Game & Watch games at that time. The most annoying thing about that time was that you couldn't turn off the beeping. Game & Watch were synonymous with kids and beeping.

Philips Videopac G7000: The second system I came in contact with as a 6 year old was the Philips Videopac G7000. This was also the first device with a microprocessor in our household. My mother bought this console system. To treat us children equally, I was only allowed to play with it when my older sister came home from school, so we both spent the same amount of time with it. My mother played more often with us kids. My father played rather less often, but it happened. And it was rather extraordinary, because he practically never played anything. Our first game was 01 "Race / Spin-Out / Cryptogram". Later we added some new ones. My favorite games were 06 "Tenpin Bowling / Basketball", 22 "Space Monster" (which is a clone of Space Invaders), 16 "Depth Charge / Marksman" (sink ships), 32 "A Labyrinth Game / Supermind", 33 "Jumping Acrobats", 37 "Monkeyshines!" *), 38 "Munchkin" (which is a clone of Pac-Man), 40 "4 in 1 Row". I got the 4 in 1 Row game as a gift from my mother because I especially wanted it. Actually, the cover appealed to me the most. But I played with it very often. Namely, there were already three difficulty levels of the built-in AI available. Playing frequently with the AI, was like training. This led to me winning first prize in the 1st elementary class in an in-class competition on 4 in 1 Row.

*) Monkeyshines! was a very unusual game. The screen had some monkeys and the players' figures and some platforms. The monkeys approached the figures and then attached themselves to the players. It was a matter of flinging them away now, whereupon they got angry for a while (you could tell by the color). And for each monkey flung away, one point was awarded. But if the player came into contact with an angry monkey, the player was killed. You had to avoid them this time until they calmed down. It was a lot of fun, especially when played with two players. We knew a trick (probably a glitch) to get as many points as possible. Someone had to collect all four monkeys on his body and then hurl them close to the wall. You got a lot of points this way, but the player never survived this action.