Random: Someone 3D-Scanned The Game Boy That Survived The Gulf War

Probably everyone who’s ever cared about video games knows about the Gulf War Game Boy — the handheld console that survived a bombing during Operation Desert Storm, albeit a little worse for wear. Its outer shell is warped and melted, its buttons are covered in blisters, and the whole thing is covered in the kind of char your terrible BBQ skills will be familiar with. To put it another way: there’s no way this thing should still be working, and yet, it is.

You can visit the war-torn Game Boy at Nintendo’s New York store, where it sits in a glass cabinet with Tetris displayed on the screen. That’s exactly what MrTalida, a “video game enthusiast and archivist” of retro and obscure games, did — but they went one step further, taking enough photos of the thing to create a 3D model using photogrammetry.

You know what this means, don’t you? That’s right — we can totally 3D print this thing and have one of our very own. This gives a whole new meaning to downloading illegal games: now we can download the console, too. You’ll have to supply your own inner workings, of course, but that’s a small price to pay for a piece of history.

Now, if you’ll excuse us, we’re off to The Louvre to do some art stealing photogrammetry.