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

theverge.com:

By Sean Hollister, a senior editor and founding member of The Verge who covers gadgets, games, and toys. He spent 15 years editing the likes of CNET, Gizmodo, and Engadget.

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?

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.

Here’s whatNintendo Power’s editors wrote in July