F. How many Game&Watch games with a manual in German are known?
A. I know of 38 games with a manual in German.


F. Which ones are these?
A. I have listed all in following table. Some pictures are missing (Picture wanted) and I did list some, where I believe that they do exist, but I don't know for sure (pictures with a question mark).

 

Silver Series

 

 

 

Gold Series

 

Wide Screen Series

 

Multi Screen Series

 

 

New Wide Screen Series

 

 

Panorama Screen Series

 

 

 

Table Top Series

 

 

 

Micro vs. System Series

 

Super Color Series

 

 

Crystal Screen Series

 

F. I see there are some missing. Does this mean that not all Game&Watch were released with a German manual?
A. Yes, that's correct.


F. Many of the manuals have the name tricOtronic imprinted, but others don't. Why that?
A. First, many Game&Watch where distributed in the German speaking parts of Europe with the name tricOtronic. These games have a tricOtronic box (please see the FAQ about tricOtronic). At a later time, the games were released with a standard box (the same used worldwide). The games still did come with a manual in German, but without the name tricOtronic on them.


F. How many of these manuals do exist?
A. I know of 16, but possibly there are more.

F. Who did distribute the games in Europe?
A. Mostly it was the company Bienengräber from Hamburg. But there were other distributors as well, for example SISO and YENO (please see the FAQ about tricOtronic).


F. I have seen different manuals for the same game. Why?
A. One explanation is that there were different distributors for Game&Watch. But I don't know why the distributor Bienengräber itself did produce different manuals for the same game. Most differences are just small. But let's have a look at these manuals first:

 

Interesting fact is, that some manuals do have the logo of Bienengräber, others don't.
Another difference is the item number. On some manuals it's smaller and moved to the left.

F. Is there anything special about the item numbers?
A. Yes. The last two or three digits show the model number of the game! And some distributors did change the item numbers. For Snoopy Tennis (SP-30), Bienengräber did use the item number 645 0030. When SISO did distribute the same game at a later time, they changed it into 607 000 0030.
Or the game Rettung im Sprungtuch (Fire FR-27): 645 0027 turned into 607 000 027. Bienengräber did import the games Fire FR-27. In case of the item number 645 0027, Bienengräber was the distributor as well. It's not clear who was the distributor for item number 607 000 027, because I can't find anything in the manual. But I guess it was SISO, because the item number has the same scheme like other item numbers from SISO.



I hope I could answer some of your questions. Many will remain unanswered for sure, but maybe we'll find out more about tricOtronic ;-)

Note: I have researched the information in this FAQ as good as possible. But I can't promise that they are fully correct or completely. If you find something which is not correct, or if you have additional information, I would appreciate if you would drop me a line, thank you very much!

Many thanks to the G&W.ch members Undead and Cord for providing some of the pictures here.