This apparently ordinary Nintendo Game Boy has a secret that could ensure it sells for between $1,500 and $2,000 when it goes under the hammer at Bonhams tomorrow. What is it? Simple: this is a space Nintendo, the first games console to have travelled to space.

In 1993, this handheld spent 196 days on board Soyuz TM-17, a Russian mission to the space station Mir that orbited the earth 3,000 times.

It was carried by cosmonaut Aleksandr A. Serebrov, whose autograph is included in the lot, along with a note from Srebrov stating, “Like all cosmonauts, I love sport. My particular favorites are football and swimming. During flight, in rare minutes of leisure, I enjoyed playing Game Boy.”

It also comes with the Tetris cartridge (and instruction booklet) that Srebrov used – a fitting choice of software considering Tetris‘s Soviet Union roots.

[Bonhams, via Kotaku]

This Game Boy could fetch $2,000 at auction. Why? is a post from: The Inquisitr

I loves me some awesome gaming papercraft, and this jazzy Game Boy model (with fully removable Tetris cart) is irresistible to me, not to mention very convincing (the, um, vibrant color scheme aside).

Another two shots of this gorgeous piece of work below (you can peruse the whole set of photos over at Behance):

See also: The greatest papercraft model you’ll ever see.

[Behance, via Geekologie]

Amazing papercraft Game Boy looks like the real thing is a post from: The Inquisitr

Over the past eleven years, The Strong Museum of Play has been busy establishing a National Toy Hall of Fame, to help us remember exactly why childhood is fun and adulthood is a horrible slog to the grave. The latest toy to be inducted? Why, it’s none other than the Game Boy!

Nintendo’s gaming handheld turned 20 earlier this year, and now sits alongside Scrabble, Checkers, G.I. Joe, Mr. Potato Head, and many others (including, erm, a cardboard box) as a National Toy Hall of Fame inductee. You can see the full list here.

The Game Boy isn’t the first piece of gaming hardware to enter the National Toy Hall of Fame – the Atari 2600 was bestowed that honor in 2007 – but it is a superb choice. Here’s The Strong Museum of Play’s reasoning for including the iconic gaming handheld:

“No video-game platform did more to put gamers “on the go” than Nintendo Game Boy. And go they did-bringing their gaming experience to school, to summer camp, and to the back seat of the family automobile. Over the past two decades, Game Boy has become synonymous with portable gaming fun.”

And so say all of us, etc.

[Museum of Play, via Kotaku]

Game Boy inducted into National Toy Hall of Fame is a post from: The Inquisitr

Bless, they grow so fast. It seems like only yesterday that Nintendo’s market-defining handheld was cradled in our clammy hands, wowing us with its four shades of “gray” and 8 kB of RAM. In fact, it was twenty years ago today (well, in the U.S. at least): July 31st, 1989.

Like most of us, it endured a difficult adolescence struggling for acceptance, as flashier versions of the original handheld appeared, but it’s always retained a special place in our hearts. Man, Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3 was the daddy.

Anyhow, almost 119 million sales later (a figure that still beats the DS family) it’s celebrating the big two-oh, and quite a lot of the buggers are still going strong. Next year, it can legally drink.

Happy birthday, son. You’ve made your mother and I proud. *wipes tear away*

[Wikipedia]

Game Boy is 20 is a post from: The Inquisitr