LCD.emu

🕹️LCD.emu — the golden age of Game & Watch, in your pocket

From 1980 to 1991, Nintendo sold over 43 million little LCD handhelds under the Game & Watch name — pocket machines with a fixed silvery screen, a built-in clock, and one or two buttons. LCD.emu brings that whole era back. It doesn't fake the games with new graphics; it runs the actual microcontroller code from the original hardware, cycle for cycle, so every blip, beep, and blinking segment behaves exactly like the real thing — now on your Android phone or tablet, with touch controls and gamepad support.

Single-screen classics, hinged dual-screen "Multi Screen" models, the wide and new-wide variants — and one guest from Konami — all in one faithful, offline emulator.

⚠️ Please read: this app comes with NO games. It is only the emulator. You add your own game files (see below). That's exactly what keeps LCD.emu legal to share — the games themselves are still owned by their makers, so they are not, and never will be, included here.

✨ Features

Cycle-accurate emulation of the original Sharp SM5-family microcontrollers — not a re-creation, the real code.

Touch controls tailored per game — on-screen buttons match each unit's real layout.

Gamepad support — connect a controller and the on-screen buttons step aside.

Portrait or landscape — play whichever way feels right.

Adjustable screen size, from windowed up to edge-to-edge full-screen.

Save & load your place any time.

Optional background photos — drop a picture of the real unit behind the screen.

Joystick-or-d-pad toggle on several games — pick the control style you prefer.

100% offline. Import once, play forever. Nothing is uploaded, ever.

🎮 36 titles supported

Add the files for any of these and it lights up:

Nintendo — Game & Watch

Silver (1980): Ball · Flagman · Vermin · Fire · Judge

Gold (1981): Lion · Manhole

Wide Screen (1981–82): Octopus · Parachute · Helmet · Chef · Popeye · Fire · Turtle Bridge · Fire Attack

Multi Screen — dual, stacked (1982–89): Oil Panic · Donkey Kong · Mickey & Donald · Green House · Donkey Kong II · Pinball · Black Jack · Squish · Bomb Sweeper · Safe Buster · Gold Cliff · Zelda

Multi Screen — dual, side-by-side (1983): Mario Bros. · Rain Shower · Life Boat

New Wide Screen (1982–86): Donkey Kong Jr. · Mario's Cement Factory · Manhole · Tropical Fish · Super Mario Bros.

Konami

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1989)

📥 How it works — bring your own files

Because the games are copyrighted, you supply your own legally-obtained files (for example, dumps of hardware you own, or a MAME "Game & Watch" set). Each game needs its original ROM (the chip data) and its screen artwork. It's quick:

Put your files in a folder on your device — one folder is fine, dump them all in together.

In LCD.emu, tap ➕ Add Games and choose that folder.

The app recognizes each file by its contents (no renaming needed) and installs it. Done once per game — it's saved inside the app after that.

Backgrounds (optional) are matched by file name: gnw_chef.png for a single-screen game, or gnw_dkong1.png + gnw_dkong2.png (top / bottom) for a two-screen game. The full ID list is in the included user-files-template/README.txt.

📲 Installing (Android)

This is a sideloaded APK — not on the Play Store — so the install is a couple of taps:

Download and unzip the file.

Copy LCD.emu-public.apk to your device and tap it.

Android will warn about an "unknown source" — tap Settings, allow installs for the app you're using (browser or Files), go back, and tap Install. This is normal and safe for a sideloaded app.

Launch LCD.emu. Every game reads "missing" until you add its files — that's expected; see "How it works" above.

❓ FAQ

Why does everything say "missing"? Because no games are bundled — that's by design. Add your own files with ➕ Add Games and they become playable.

Where do I get the game files? LCD.emu doesn't provide them and can't point you to them. If you legally own the hardware or a MAME set, you already have what you need.

Do I have to rename my files? No — the app identifies ROMs by content. (Only optional background images are matched by name.)

A game won't start / looks off-center. Make sure you imported both the ROM and its artwork. For alignment or size, use the pause menu — there's a Size control and an Align segments tool.

Does it need internet? No. It runs fully offline and uploads nothing.

📋 Requirements

Android device (phone or tablet).

Permission to install a sideloaded APK ("unknown sources").

Your own game ROM + artwork files.

⚖️ Credits, licensing & affiliation

The microcontroller emulation cores are derived from the MAME project and used under the BSD 3-Clause License (© hap, Henrik Algestam, Wilbert Pol). The full LICENSE and THIRD-PARTY-NOTICES.txt are included in the download. All other code © 2026 Cmtz Games.

No game ROMs, artwork, or manuals are included or distributed with this software.

LCD.emu is an independent emulator. It is not affiliated with, authorized by, or endorsed by Nintendo, Konami, or any other manufacturer. Product names, model numbers, and series names are used only to describe compatibility with hardware you already own, and remain the property of their respective owners.