Platform: Game Boy
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After the second phase of the Gulf War ended in early 1991, Dr. Stephan Scoggins, a medic during the war, mailed his Game Boy to Nintendo of America hoping to get a replacement after it was damaged when his tent burned down in a fire. While the back of the console was in fair condition, the front was melted, severely charred and blistered, and the technicians that received it initially determined it could not be fixed. As an experiment, they inserted a copy of Tetris and powered it on, and to their surprise, the console still worked. The D-Pad, A and B buttons were nonfunctional, but the Start and Select buttons worked as normal. The magazine Nintendo Power sent Scoggins a replacement Game Boy "as a special 'Desert Storm' courtesy", and his letter asking for a replacement along with pictures of the console were featured in the magazine's July 1991 issue. The damaged Game Boy was not discarded; it was later displayed at the Nintendo New York store in New York City since its opening in 2001. As a testament to the console's durability and longevity, it remained powered on, looping the title screen and attract mode demo of Tetris, and receiving timely maintenance for over 20 years, until it was returned to Nintendo of America's headquarters in Redmond, Washington in 2023.
Footage of the Game Boy at Nintendo New York in 2006:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBeTXPaewMo
[Below links and info provided by MehDeletingLater.]
Esquire article:
https://www.esquire.com/lifestyle/a27183316/nintendo-game-boy-survived-gulf-war/
G.I. Jobs article (Stephan Scoggins letter taken from Nintendo Power: Volume 26 [July 1991] - Page 7):
https://www.gijobs.com/gulf-war-game-boy/
Game Boy's removal from Nintendo New York (Note: Scoggins clarifies in the second link that a widely reported origin of the Game Boy being damaged in a bombing at his barracks is not true. He confirmed there was a bombing in the area he was stationed in, but that the Game Boy was damaged in a separate incident when his tent caught fire):
https://www.siliconera.com/the-gulf-war-game-boy-says-goodbye-to-nintendo-new-york-store-removed/
https://www.theverge.com/2023/6/30/23780549/gulf-war-game-boy-nintendo-nyc
Stephan Scoggins archived personal website biography:
https://web.archive.org/web/20230701201035/https://www.stephanscoggins.com/biography/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBeTXPaewMo
[Below links and info provided by MehDeletingLater.]
Esquire article:
https://www.esquire.com/lifestyle/a27183316/nintendo-game-boy-survived-gulf-war/
G.I. Jobs article (Stephan Scoggins letter taken from Nintendo Power: Volume 26 [July 1991] - Page 7):
https://www.gijobs.com/gulf-war-game-boy/
Game Boy's removal from Nintendo New York (Note: Scoggins clarifies in the second link that a widely reported origin of the Game Boy being damaged in a bombing at his barracks is not true. He confirmed there was a bombing in the area he was stationed in, but that the Game Boy was damaged in a separate incident when his tent caught fire):
https://www.siliconera.com/the-gulf-war-game-boy-says-goodbye-to-nintendo-new-york-store-removed/
https://www.theverge.com/2023/6/30/23780549/gulf-war-game-boy-nintendo-nyc
Stephan Scoggins archived personal website biography:
https://web.archive.org/web/20230701201035/https://www.stephanscoggins.com/biography/
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