Before the Game Boy family diverted the attention of schoolchildren the world over from the more mundane aspects of young life (such as school), there was the Nintendo Game & Watch. You know (if you were old enough, or if you happen to be collecting them now) those little plastic packets of joy and fun capable of playing only one game each, used the same black-&-white pre-printed LCD screen as cheap calculators used, had pretty much two difficulties (usually called "Mode A" and "Mode B"), and tended to have limited gameplay options. Yes, portable gaming has come a long way since those days.

Yet those games were surprisingly open-ended and addictive, even mind-numbingly challenging - even if the only objective was to get the highest score ever, in only one long, continuous gameplay.

Later games even incorporated two LCD screens, one on top of the other, in a design very similar to that adopted for the Nintendo DS. Well, Nintendo must have realized the connection, too. Kid, meet your grandpa: The Nintendo Game & Watch Collection for the DS.

De ja vu all over again: the dual-screened Donkey Kong Game & Watch on the left,
and the DS on the right

And this is what happens if they have kids (photo from IGN.com)