Is the Game Boy the Toughest Product Ever Made?

An anonymous reader writes "CNET is running an article about tough technology, which aptly includes the Nintendo Game Boy, a device so tough that mine still works after many years. 'There's no two ways about it: the original Game Boy is one of the hardest gadgets ever conceived. Rumor 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.' So do you agree that the Game Boy is the toughest consumer electronics device ever made?"

Hmm

[Captain Splendid]

I dunno. Every single Zippo I've ever owned has been pretty robust. Those Ironman watches popular back in the 80's were fairly hardy, too.

My wife's 2nd gen iPod has seen constant and rugged use since it was bought and it still works great.

While I'm here, I'd like to also give a shoutout to my ancient HP Vectra VE, which until recently was my file/dyndns/hotline server . They don't make PCs like they used to, that's for sure.

Um, what?

[molo]

My gameboy was next to useless after a year or so of use. There were many verical columns on the LCD that stopped displaying. Cleaning the cartridge connection didn't seem to help either. Yeah, you could drop it and it would still function, but that display would give out eventually.

-molo

Atari 2600 controller

[robvs68]

I've always been amazed by the controller that came with the Atari 2600. My friends and I beat the crap out of it for years and not only did it survive, it barely showed any wear.

Bad LCDs

[gEvil (beta)]

I went through three original Game Boys back in the day because the LCD screens kept on losing vertical lines. These were generally near the edges of the screen, but one got so bad that nearly half the screen didn't work. I'm sure they probably still power up just fine, but if you can't see what's on the screen it doesn't really matter.

Re:!DIAF

[k_187]

If that's what I'm thinking of it was actually a tent fire during the first Iraq war. THe front was charred, but you could pop games in and barely see/play them. Not bad. Nintendo even sent them a new one to replace it.

Not That Tough

[dshaw858]

I was playing a frustrating game on my original Game Boy back in the day, got frustrated and hit it against my head--I broke the internal screen, and it couldn't display games correctly anymore. So it's not that tough...

Re:Nintendo Wii Controller

[Kamineko]

It blends [youtube.com], by the way.

Re:Not That Tough

[Anonymous Coward]

Colour? What is this colour you speak of? Original gameboys are monochromatic, with the dial only serving to shift you between darker and lighter shades of snot-green.

Magnet?!?

[Comboman]

I made the mistake of putting the majority of my gameboy and gamegear games into the same drawer as this 8" speaker magnet that I had and none of them work anymore.

Contrary to popular belief, game cartridges are not 8-track tapes (or core memory); there is nothing in them that is stored magnetically or that could be damaged by a magnet. More likely, the connectors have oxidized.

Re:Not That Tough

[Corwn of Amber]

Yeah, that "snot-green" colour. He meant "contrast", not "color".

(Informative)

YOU STUPID MORON! CAN'T YOU FUCKING PARSE WHAT PEOPLE MEAN?

(Troll, Flamebait)

Re:Spent a week in the lake

[Kazoo the Clown]

Actually, water isn't all that harmful to electronics (at least, when powered off) if a little care is taken.

Eons ago I was a repair tech fixing oscilloscopes for Tektronix. Standard procedure for ANY piece of gear coming in the office was it went into the "wash rack." We took off all the side panels, hosed it down using essentially the same equipment you use in a self-serv car wash (w/soap & water), rinsed it, then it went into the dryers (I forget the exact temp, but as I recall it was relatively low, less than 150F I think). The only important thing we needed to remember is to put it in the dryers such that certain power transformer cans had their opening facing down (otherwise they could fill with water and three days then wasn't enough to dry it out). After that, we plugged it in and fired it up. This included both the ancient vacuum tube equipment and modern IC circuit-board equipment, including CRTs and the like. I suppose current gear with LCDs may get waterspots on the panels, and certain components might be uniquely sensitive. Mechanical devices such as VCRs might have grease on some moving parts that could be an issue but nothing Tek made at the time had that problem, and if they did the solution would likely be to re-lube the device.

The important thing if you drop your ipod or whatever into the toilet, is to take out the batteries as soon as possible and open it up to the extent possible and leave it out to dry for a week or so. Movies & television shows that show dropping something electrical into water causing lots of sparks is mostly special-effect pyrotechnics and not reality. If it's plugged into AC though, unplug it from the wall first before you reach into the water, or you may get zapped...


Tap water does conduct electricity so if it gets wet when it's powered on it could cause shorts that may damage things, but probably only with sensitive circuitry, as water looks like a resistor not a dead short so many circuits could survive it without damage. Battery powered units should be powered off ASAP though, as it could cause things to heat up. Yank out the batteries completely right away as well to minimize such adverse effects...

OLPC...

[Joce640k]

I've broken Gameboys...but the OLPC looks tough.

Re:Not That Tough

[arodland]

Perhaps you're too young to remember, but in the ancient days of the 1990s, we didn't actually have the technical prowess to make "black and white" LCDs. Instead, STN LCDs came in such festive color schemes as "gray and green" and my favorite, "blue and a slightly different blue".

Re:Motorola Startac phone --most and least durable

[AgentPaper]

+1 to that. My StarTac was absolutely bombproof - rode around in my backpack for four years of undergrad, got dropped into a toilet, fell down three flights of stairs, exposed to all kinds of chemical hazards (other student spilled H2SO4 on my backpack in chem lab), magnetic insults (rather memorable trip through an MRI) and temperature extremes (left in cars ranging from -10 to +105 F). It survived all of that in perfect working order, with just a few etches and scratches on the case to show for its adventures. Even better, I only had one broken antenna (phone was in a belt clip, antenna got ripped off by over-enthusiastic attempt at seat-belt buckling).

I've also not been able to kill my old PalmPilot Professional in twelve years of trying. That device got beat on even worse in its career, as it was my electronic notebook all through high school. (My handwriting was and still is spectacularly illegible, so I had to type my notes if I wanted anything I could actually study from at exam time. The Pilot with a peripheral keyboard was my salvation.) Over the years, I've been through a Palm Vx, two m505s, a Sony Clie something-or-other, and a Treo 650, all of which died within two years or less of purchase. Meanwhile, I pulled the old PP Pro out of the desk drawer a few weeks ago, popped in a fresh pair of AAA's and it was ready to go. Syncing is IR-only these days, as none of my home systems have a serial port for the old-style cradle, but it still runs like a champ.

Re:!DIAF

[hiruhl]

At the Nintendo World Store in NYC, they have a Game Boy on display which was allegedly the victim of a bomb blast in the first Iraq War. It is turned on, and plays a Tetris video. (Maybe just what Tetris plays when you don't start a game.) There is one line of the display which is out, but it looks and works fine (the display looks fine, anyway!). Someone has a picture of it on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/rhoran/45213997/in/set-988263/ [flickr.com]

Not immune from LCD rot....

[blahplusplus]

The problem with gameboy's was LCD rot (if you're talking about the original), I imagine others will have this problem as well as time goes on and pixels go dead (unless they've fixed this) but it takes a while to happen.