Original Gameboy: Strongest Piece of Gaming Hardware Made?

http://www.doobybrain.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/02/game-boy-gulf-war.jpg

There’s an interesting discussion going on over at Slashdot about whether the original Nintendo Game Boy is one of the toughest gadgets ever made.

There’s no two ways about it: the original Game Boy is one of the hardest gadgets ever conceived. Rumour has it this beige behemoth isn’t made of plastic, but from the skulls of fallen Gurkhas. If you ever saw one that was broken, it’s because it lost a boxing match with a nuclear bomb — on points.

There are stories about people still owning the original Game Boy 30+ years nearly 20 years after it debuted despite lots of all-around bashing to the system. I’ll admit, I know a good amount of people who still own a working original Nintendo Game Boy. I can’t say the same about any other portable electronic device that my generation grew up with (except for maybe some beepers…if they haven’t been thrown out already).

As an example, I’ve included the photo above of a Game Boy that was attacked during the Gulf War. It still works to this very day and it sits in the Nintendo World Store in NYC (video below).


YouTube - Game Boy Damaged in Gulf War @ Nintendo World Store NYC

I'd have to agree on that. I've still got 3 original Gameboys that work. One of them is missing the gray screen cover, and the other one has a broken screen, but they still work. The broken screen was because I accidentally left it on the floor back in 1993 under my dad's recliner, and when he sat on it, the bottom corner of the recliner got jammed straight into the screen with 250 pounds. It somehow only cracked the screen which initially wasn't a huge problem, but later slowly filled the screen with ink, until today it's got a huge black blob on the entire screen. However, it still plays. And for awhile (until I got my new one), I was still able to play Super Mario Land just by sound (the first level at least, after that it was total luck).

My 2 Game Gears still work too, but I was never as rough with them. And they suck down AA batteries like a motherfucker, so i don't use them too often.

I was still able to play Super Mario Land just by sound (the first level at least, after that it was total luck).

Fucking awesome. I'm not quite that good, but I'm able to beat the level in under 20 seconds.

I doubt I'm that good any more either, but when I was 8 or 9 I didn't have much else to focus myself on, so 30 seconds of solid memorization wasn't too ridiculous. :lameo:

My daughter still has her DS after two years of use. We had one of those vtech pre computer 1000s that both girls dropped, kicked and abused over 15-20 years that still worked. It was not cheap. The girls had a Fisher-Price recorder that was no doubt made of titanium. It lasted them twenty five years of use by our girls and got passed on to their cousins. At last report, it was still going. Hooray for solid state devices.

I bought an original game boy, used, about 15 years ago out of a pawn shop, and it was already five years old when I picked it up. To this day, everything on it works fine. Clear screen, decent sound as far as a Game Boy goes, and the buttons don't have any delay in reacting to being pushed.

Those systems are something crazy, I don't know how after 20 years of wear and tear, it's still going, including a little sister punting it around, and a dog chewing on it a couple of times.