Vermin

Vermin is a tiny action game released by Nintendo in 1980 — originally a title for the Game & Watch line of pocket LCD machines, the handheld gadgets on which Nintendo built its success before the console era. This catalogue entry files it under PC, meaning a computer-based form in which the piece can be studied today, rather than the original device itself.

The concept is as simple as 1980 allowed: moles pop out of holes and the player must whack them away with hammers before they do damage. Everything happens on a single side-view screen, one player, and the only thing that changes is the speed. That kind of instantly readable challenge is exactly what made Game & Watch machines a phenomenon.

This catalogue lists the game under the Mario series — a link that reflects how Nintendo later folded its earliest characters into compilations and celebrations of its own history.

For today's player Vermin is above all a museum piece: a glimpse of Nintendo's absolute beginnings as a game maker, two years before Donkey Kong and five before the NES. If you want to understand where the company came from, these are its first steps, preserved in a few dozen liquid-crystal frames.

Its OldGame.cz card holds the release year, the publisher and pictures — and it is the pictures that show the charm of the LCD era best.