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

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

Photo by Sean Hollister

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 was the first to report the news; they say a worker told them it was returned to Nintendo’s US headquarters in Washington state.

We spoke to the store... and the owner

If it’s true, and if it’s not coming back, we’re hoping that Nintendo will display it somewhere else. But just in case it doesn’t, 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?

Photo by Sean Hollister

Click for 4K image.

Photo by Sean Hollister

Click for 4K image.

Photo by Sean Hollister

Click for 4K image.

Photo by Sean Hollister

Click for 4K image.

Photo by Sean Hollister

Click for 4K image.

Photo by Sean Hollister

Click for 4K image.

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.

Image: Nintendo Power

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.