The Game Boy that survived the Gulf War has been removed from Nintendo New York

Photo by Sean HollisterEver heard the urban legend about how the original Nintendo Game Boy survived a bomb? I have reason to believe that’s not true. But until recently, the flagship Nintendo Store at New York City’s Rockefeller Center...

Kass Kass
Jul 1, 2023 - 21:01
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The Game Boy that survived the Gulf War has been removed from Nintendo New York

Ever heard the urban legend about how the original Nintendo Game Boy survived a bomb? I have reason to believe that’s not true. But until recently, the flagship Nintendo Store at New York City’s Rockefeller Center housed an original Game Boy that, it claimed, was damaged in a bombing during Operation Desert Storm.

We just confirmed with Nintendo New York that, after many years on display, the Gulf War Game Boy is no longer there. VideoGameArt&Tidbits reported the news; they say a worker told them it was returned to Nintendo’s US headquarters in Washington state.

It may have been sent back months ago: YouTuber Elliot Coll filmed a trip to the store in February where an off-camera voice says “we had to send it back to headquarters for safekeeping, for the time being.” Yet it was still there when this January video was filmed.

We spoke to the store... and the owner

Just in case it’s not coming back, here are five 4K images of the Gulf War Game Boy for posterity. I shot these photos with a Pixel 3 when I visited the store in 2019. You can download them, blow them up, freely share them if you like (I didn’t shoot these ones for work.) Just link back if you do please?

Nintendo’s original plaque reads “Game Boy Damaged in Gulf War. This Game Boy was damaged when barracks were bombed during the 1990 - 1991 Gulf War. It still works!”

The top of the game boy is quite black with charring but Tetris is visible on the screen.

Melted plastic droops down the left handgrip. The volume dial is slightly melted. The power adapter plugs in nicely though.

The bottom of the game boy is mostly unscathed, where a Tetris cart hides underneath. The original serial number label can be seen.

On the right side of the game boy, lots of melted plastic droops down the bottom edge, but the link cable port seems intact.

A slightly zoomed out photo of the charred top and screen.

Me, I figure this Game Boy probably survived because the back was mostly unscathed — and because, its original owner confirms to The Verge, it didn’t actually get hit by a bomb.

The Game Boy originally belonged to Stephan Scoggins, a ‘90s Nintendo Power reader who asked the Nintendo-owned magazine if he could get a new Game Boy in exchange. At the time, he simply said that it was “claimed by a fire while I was stationed in the Middle East,” when he was a registered nurse serving in Desert Storm.

The Nintendo Power origin story, found at this link.

Here’s what Nintendo Power’s editors wrote in July 1991:

When we received Stephan‘s Game Boy from the Middle East, we thought that it was a goner. The back of the unit was in fair condition, but the front was charred and blistered from the heat of the fire. As an experiment, we popped in a Tetris Game Pak, plugged in a Battery Pak, and flipped on the power switch. When we heard its distinctive “Ping!” we couldn’t believe it! The Control Pad and A and B Buttons suffered melt down, but the Start and Select Buttons worked perfectly. Game Boy is even tougher than we thought it was! Of course, we don’t recommend that you subject your Game Boy to trial by fire, but in this case, we replaced Stephan’s Game Boy as a special “Desert Storm” courtesy.

Scoggins tells The Verge that yes, it was a fire. “It wasn’t a bombing, it was that the tent burned down.”

He suspects two different events were conflated. There was a bombing at that location, Scoggins says, but “it wasn’t one we were involved in.” We’ll be speaking to Scoggins more about his Game Boy soon.

Nintendo PR didn’t immediately have a comment on the Gulf War Game Boy. I think we can all agree that, bombing or no, it belongs in a museum.

Update, 8:18PM ET: Added that Elliot Coll visited the store in February and it was reportedly already missing.