The internet is a wonderful tool which allows us to do all kinds of things – shopping, keeping in touch with loved ones and (of course) reading amazing websites like Nintendo Life. It's also rather handy when you pick up a second-hand piece of vintage gaming technology and want to know who owned it a few decades ago – and that's exactly what happened when Jake Smith stumbled across a Game Boy inscribed with a UK post code.
"I mod and restore Game Boys, and am always on the look out for DMGs to resurrect," Smith tells us. "Last Friday I got a text off my friend Lewis, who runs Gamer – an independent video games store in Blackburn, UK – saying he'd just had one traded in and could put it aside for me. Saturday morning, I headed into town and straight to Gamer with my son, as we were also picking up Splatoon from Lewis, and collected the Game Boy. Lewis laughed and pointed out the post code on the back of the console, and it got me thinking… could we find the original owner?"
The great quest to track down the original owner then began in earnest. "I took a pic of the back of the DMG where the post code was inscribed — LE12 8QN — and idly tweeted it out to Nintendo Life," continues Smith. "To be honest, I wasn't expecting to find the original owner; it was just something that'd provoke a bit of interest on the interwebs for a rainy Saturday afternoon."
However, things escalated quickly, and Smith had a bite in super-quick time from an online acquaintance who happened to live in Barrow-Upon-Soar, the town that the Game Boy had originated from - around 125 miles from the Blackburn store where it had been purchased last week. "One of my Twitter followers - Ben Spencer - lives near the street and posted the pic and info on a Facebook page called Spotted in Barrow, asking some of the locals to help." The response was remarkable, with many Barrow-Upon-Soar residents pledging to pitch in to solve this rather unusual conundrum. Amazingly, Smith's search broke free of the internet and got a bit more physical. "One woman still lived on the street, so she went knocking door-to-door on Sunday and ruled out a lot of houses."
Then there was the final breakthrough - the original owner spotted the post on Facebook on Monday and got in touch, solving this mini-mystery. That person is Emma Gallagher, who owned the console as a child and only recently parted company with it in December. Ironically, the post code on the back of the device was written using a security pen only visible under UV light, but as time has gone by the ink has reappeared. While Smith was more than happy to reunite the former owner with the console, it looks like he's got it for keeps. "I think Emma's working abroad in Guatemala, and hasn't show any interest in being reunited with the Game Boy. I'll give it a thorough clean and UV treatment, backlight it and make it live on and provide many more years of service."
Another mystery solved by the wonders of the internet. It might seem like a minor achievement, but the fact that Smith picked up the system many miles away from its original location - and then was able to find the original owner in two days - is a pretty impressive feat. Not bad for a bit of fun on a rainy Saturday.
Comments (26)
I have a GBC if he wants to rescue it, fix it, and reunite it with me.
Now this is one cool story =)
Very cool. I would love to reunited with one of my old systems I had a kid that I stupidly sold to Gamestop years ago.
This is a impressive story. Not to often something like this happens.
@krakensoup You had a kid that you sold to GameStop?
@TheRealThanos well spotted man!! Hahahahaha......
Interesting story.
Personally I am not a fan of social media. I really appreciate the fact that many photos can be uploaded. Even if people like me are uninterested in a social aspect of a website or a game for example (The Crew comes to mind) and they are not one to be very sociable and not keen on friendship like me. THIS particular article shows just how far technology really has come. The beauty of technology, it really has made our lives easier and more manageable.
The article doesn't mention that Emma, the original owner, is originally from Leyland, just 11 miles from where Jake got it! Crazy.
What a terrible story of a terrible person. Did they ever stop and think that maybe the original owner didn't want to be found? And what about that nosy, unthoughtful, rude person who decided to go door to door and harass people in their homes about the game boy? What if Emma didn't want the entire world to know where she used to live and what she's doing now? Nobody ever stops to think of that.
This is a terrible story about thoughtless people harassing and stalking other innocent human beings who just want to live their lives in peace. Truly a shameful example of one of the worst things people can do with the internet and social media.
For anyone who isn't hung up on something immature like "swear words", google "Maddox Dancing Man and the cult of well-intentioned idiots." and give it a read. And then think twice before you start an internet manhunt for someone if you aren't 100% sure they actually want to be found. Don't be like the terrible, thoughtless people this Nintendo Life article is about.
Bit creepy, tbh. But hey, it's the internet!
@mjc0961 Man, what's eating you? I'm but one step away of sending you a nice, soft comfort blanky...
But seriously: I wanted to know what you were on about, so I read the story you mentioned. (for anyone interested: http://thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=dancing_man) I can understand part of your comment pointing to people maybe wanting no one to go and find them or whatever, but the blog I read about the dancing man draws a VERY black & white picture, and I'm a very positive & social person, so I like to think that besides black & white, there's also many shades of grey. Some people say this is a great story, you say it's terrible. There's no facts here, only opinions.
And as for the story you pointed to: Maddox, the author of the article "Dancing Man and the cult of well-intentioned idiots" is going all out to not only tear the larger part of California a new one, he's also ripping peoples' good intentions to shreds. Sour grapes squared times pi, me thinks...
The thing that really galled and disgusted me is his "improved" version of the pamphlet they sent out, in which he thinks he has written down what these "evil, nefarious people" were obviously really thinking:
http://maddox.xmission.com/well_intentioned_idiots.jpg
I find it to be highly presumptuous, self righteous, delusional, extremely negative and very judgmental.
Sure, sometimes good intentions can take a turn for the worse, and maybe they should have thought about it a bit longer, but there's no need whatsoever to completely crucify them and to call them "idiots" and what not.
"Made in Japan"
sigh.......
Very cool story! If only Nintendo made an app for the 3DS where you could track other systems… (I am a DS collector. Lost my Yoshi XL in September…)
Great to see a happy ending here.
This is a lot like that story about the lost 3DS that was returned through Nintendo Life posted a few months ago. That story was better though, because I never really understood why this person would want to return the Game Boy to it's owner, if they may have even been the ones that traded it in to begin with. It's not like he found it on a lunch table at an amusement park and sought out to find out who lost it. It's kinda neat, but ultimately was a strange and needless gesture given the circumstances.
I bought a gameboy pocket, gold, originally packed (never opened), for 300 USD on ebay, only so that I can play tetris, nintendo world cup and dr. mario again Two of these games are not on nintendo 3ds shop. Call me crazy, but I love Nintendo and I love you people for supporting it.
@benspencer Haha, incredible!
I would very much like to be reunited with my Famicom Edition GB Micro.
Pleased that the majority of you can see that a simple question of 'do you want your old Game Boy back?' reached the GBs original owner. Please don't read too much into it, you'll sleep better at nights.
I do not really get that? The GB had an address on the back of it, and the owner works in Guatemala??
Great that is nice, she is all peace-core??
@Spectra_Twilight Maybe if we dress it up real nice and seal it in plastic we can trade it in for a re-packaged copy of Xenoblade Chronicles...
@mjc0961 Nintendo fans, the only people that will unironically get upset over something as light hearted as this. (seriously, who peed in your cheerios?)
@Spectra_Twilight Not with that attitude. Think of it as "refurbished"!
@Spectra_Twilight We'll leave some air holes...
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