WHEN it comes to handheld gaming consoles, few have the reputation for durability that Nintendo’s Game Boy does.
Indeed, it has been claimed that a Game Boy survived the bombing of a barracks during the first Gulf War in 1991 – working despite having its façade scorched and melted.
Is this actually true?
VERDICT:
TRUE
During the 1990–1991 Gulf War, a US Army medic named Stephan Scoggins owned a Game Boy that was reportedly caught in a barracks bombing that left the console’s outer shell blackened and its buttons fused.
When he sent the burnt and melted console back to Nintendo, technicians tested it and found out that it could still turn on and play Tetris as its internal circuitry remained functional
Following this, Nintendo sent Scoggins a replacement Game Boy “as a special Desert Storm courtesy”.
Nintendo later placed the damaged unit on display at its flagship store in New York, where it became known as the “Gulf War Game Boy”.
Although some reports suggest the damage may have come from a nearby explosion rather than a direct hit, Nintendo confirmed that the Game Boy did indeed survive a Gulf War blast and continued to function.
In 2023, reports emerged that the console had been retired from public display at the Nintendo New York store, and returned to Nintendo's headquarters in Redmond Washington.
So yes — the legend of the “Gulf War Game Boy” is true. While the exact details of the explosion may be unclear, there is no doubt this battle-scarred console truly survived a Gulf War bombing — and lived to play another round of Tetris.
SOURCES:
https://www.nintendolife.com/
https://www.military.com/off-
https://www.esquire.com/
https://www.theverge.com/2023/
