On May 7, 1980, Nintendo released Game & Watch: Ball in Japan, marking the debut of its groundbreaking line of handheld electronic games. It was the very first title in the Game & Watch series, designed by Gunpei Yokoi.

In Ball, players control a character who juggles two or three balls in the air. The objective is simple: keep the balls from falling by moving the character’s arms left and right. The game used a basic LCD screen and was powered by a button cell battery, making it lightweight and highly portable.

Despite its simplicity, Ball was innovative for its time. It introduced the concept of portable gaming and laid the foundation for Nintendo’s future successes, including the Game Boy and DS systems.