Here’s the original photo from Wikimedia.

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).

EDIT: Thanks Chuck for pointing out the mistake I made of writing 30 years. I don’t know why I wrote that number in the first place since I knew exactly when the Game Boy came out! Haha…