Donkey Kong II Game & Watch – My First Ever Taste Of Video Games

What was the first video game you ever played? This might be an easier question for some of you to answer than others, especially if you’re under the age of 30; chances are, there was a console of some description in your house during your formative years, owned by an older sibling or even a parent.

While video games are now one of the most established (and profitable) forms of entertainment on the planet in 2025, when I was growing up in a small English town, they were somewhat harder to come by.

Unlike some of Time Extension’s younger readers, I didn’t grow up in an era where hand-me-down game consoles were commonplace in every home; I was born in 1979, and it wasn’t until the late ’80s that I got my first gaming system – an Atari 800 computer, complete with 5.5-inch floppy drive and tape deck.

Long before I got that machine, which had previously been my father’s, and several years before I encountered the superior Atari ST (my aforementioned parent’s primary gaming system at the close of the ’80s), my knowledge of interactive entertainment was limited to a single device: the Donkey Kong II Game & Watch, released by Nintendo in 1983.

I’m not entirely sure exactly when I received this game – perhaps around 1984 or 1985, judging from the incredibly vague memories I have of my early years – but it became an obsession very quickly.

Like all members of the Game & Watch range, it used wristwatch-style LCD display technology to communicate all of the action. Assuming the role of Donkey Kong Jr., the player is tasked with venturing from the unit’s bottom display all the way to the top, grabbing the key that will release one of the locks holding Donkey Kong Senior captive.

Along the way, it’s vital to avoid the Snapjaws, sparks and birds which block the way. Once all four locks are undone, the game resets. This simple premise probably wouldn’t keep a kid in 2025 occupied for more than a few minutes given the richness of modern video games, but back in the mid-’80s, it was addictive beyond belief.

It’s also the first time I ever touched a direction pad, or ‘D-pad’ as it’s more commonly known. The design had made its debut in 1982’s Donkey Kong Game & Watch (also a ‘Multi Screen’ release) and would be incorporated into the Famicom controller when it launched in 1983 in Japan. It stuns me that, even after all of these years of technological advancement, the concept of the D-pad has remained essentially unchanged, right up to the present day.

I can keenly recall carrying the unit around with me everywhere, and while it wasn’t as battery-hungry as modern consoles like the Switch 2, its compelling qualities ensured that my parents had to keep a constant supply of LR44 batteries on hand at all times.

Oddly, despite being totally and utterly hooked on this thing, I don’t recall ever owning any other Game & Watch units at the time; perhaps I was still young enough to crave the call of the great outdoors and the thrill of riding around the streets on my beloved BMX, but it wouldn’t be until a Japanese Sega Mega Drive arrived in my house on Christmas day 1990 that my love affair with gaming truly blossmed.

By that point, Donkey Kong II had long since vanished into the mists of time, perhaps sold cheaply at a car boot sale or donated to a charity shop. Many years later, I ventured onto eBay to purchase another (somewhat battered) unit, alongside several other Game & Watch handhelds, and it still amazes me that a device that is now over 40 years old still has the power to entertain.

So, while my own kids have grown up in the HD gaming era, I’m not entirely sure I would trade that for what I experienced in the more humble ‘LCD era’.