The Game Boy Camera #
In 1998, Nintendo released the Game Boy Camera, an accessory that allowed users to take small, grayscale, digital photographs using their Game Boy. At the time of its release it was given the world record for being the smallest digital camera, and even though that is not the case anymore, there is an undeniable charm to this device’s small simplicity. Only having the capability of taking 128×112 pixels, grayscale images with a measly four color palette may seem limiting, but it’s surprisingly effective.
How I Got Into This #
I remember seeing the advertisements for the Game Boy Camera when it first came out and thought it was neat to have instant photographs on the screen and make stop-motion animations with it, but I didn’t have a Game Boy to try it. Not long after it was released though, my friend gave me his green Game Boy Pocket after he upgraded to a Game Boy Color. I never had the opportunity to get a Game Boy at that time, so I was very grateful for him generously letting me have his more outdated Game Boy. A short time later I was with my mom in a K-Mart and saw that the Game Boy Camera was on sale for, I want to say, under $20, and I mentioned wanting to get one. After I explained it to her she agreed to get it for me. That first time putting the cartridge in, turning the Game Boy on, and seeing photo imagery move on the screen was such a moment of awe for me as a child, and ever since then I’ve thought this camera is one of the most creative and intriguing pieces of hardware I own.
My only complaint is I wanted a green or blue one, but sadly, they only had yellow, which isn’t the best one. The issue is that the design of the camera’s shell allows light to leak in slightly, and the yellow plastic in particular lets the most light through it, not counting the clear purple one only released in Japan that lets all the light in. I didn’t know this then, but now you can install a 3D-printable light blocker on the PCB inside to help mitigate this. I have yet to install this mod, so for now, I use my hand to cover the back side of the camera, and it helps somewhat.
The other issue was that I couldn’t save my photographs on it, and I didn’t have the Game Boy Printer so I couldn’t print them out to save them that way, either. Printing them out wouldn’t have preserved them very well either because it used thermal paper that doesn’t last. I also never had a Game Boy Camera Link by Mad Catz, even though I had heard of it then. It wasn’t until fairly recently that I learned there were ways to emulate a Game Boy Printer to save the images to a microSD. My problem with this method was I would have to build one, which I could probably do, buy one, which is generally expensive, or find another creative method of capturing my photos. My first idea was to try loading a flash cart with the Game Boy Camera ROM on another Game Boy, linking my Game Boy with a real camera to it, transferring photos to the flash cart, transferring the save file from the ROM onto my computer, loading the ROM with the new save in an emulator, and then taking snapshots of the images. The problem I had with this method is that my flash cart saves the transferred images as just lines. It probably has to do with it being a cheap Everdrive clone with very limited SRAM while the Game Boy Camera uses a 128kb save. Ideally, I would be using a GBxCart RW to copy the save data from a cartridge directly. I tried using the GB-Save-Manager to do the same thing, yet the save files don’t hold any pictures for me, which I’m assuming, again, has to do with my flash cart having limited SRAM. (I should get myself a GBxCart RW for the inevitable future when my Game Boy Camera battery dies and I need to re-calibrate the camera after replacing it. The easiest way to do that would be to load a new save and boot it in a dark room, as explained by this page.)
Developing My GBC Film #
The method I ended up using was the result of soft-modding my GameCube using the save file exploit to load Swiss. One of my main reasons for wanting to boot into Swiss was so I could use the Game Boy Interface to have a better experience playing my Game Boy games compared to the software included with the Game Boy Player. At first, I read that it could dump ROMs and SRAM onto the microSD, and I thought I could transfer my Game Boy Camera save that way, but unfortunately, that function is only for Game Boy Advance games. Luckily, in the same section explaining this, they mention that you can use the snapshot feature to back up your Game Boy Camera photos. I believe this same method could also be done using an Analogue Pocket, but I don’t own one of those — at least not yet.
Is it an elegant, portable way to save photos from my Game Boy Camera? Absolutely not, but suddenly being able to save my photos was very exciting, regardless. I had spent so many years wanting to be able to do this and now I had the means to do so. What was I going to do now that I could save images? The first thing I did was take photos of myself and arrange them like an Andy Warhol image as a submission for a weekly art exhibition Tawejea on Twitch does.
Colorizing Game Boy Camera Photos #
When I made that image I wondered if there was a way to take colored photographs using the Game Boy Camera. After doing research, the simple answer was yes, but it’s a more complicated yes. Using red, green, blue, and probably an IR cut lens filter in front of the camera and taking a snapshot with each color filter will allow you to make a composite colored image from them in photo editing software. (A more detailed explanation and examples: https://www.ironicsans.com/2007/09/idea_color_photos_with_the_gam.html)
I want to try this eventually, yet the way I go out and take Game Boy photographs currently is very on the go, pulling it out of my shoulder bag and holding it in my hands as I walk around. I would need a tripod and a more dedicated setup to achieve more realistic colors using the filter method.
I decided to replicate instead how grayscale photographs were once oil-painted to colorize them. I load my images into Pro Motion NG, stencil select each color, and manually fill in colors to what I feel looks decent.
It isn’t photo realistic colors, but instead stylistic choices based on what colors I remembered when I took the photograph, or even completely different colors than I originally saw. In a way it’s similar to replicating neo-impressionism and pointillism on a very small scale. I don’t think I kept it hardware accurate with four colors per 8×8 tile, but with some simple editing, it would probably work on real hardware. Using the HiColor mode on the Game Boy Color would possibly work for displaying them exactly as I have colored them, but I’m not technically knowledgeable enough yet to program a ROM to test this.
Conclusion #
That’s how I began using my Game Boy Camera again for artistic ventures. I want to continue trying more creative projects utilizing the Game Boy Camera because the limitations and restrictions are enjoyable. I hope you’ve been given some inspiration and insight from reading this. If you’ve never had the opportunity to use one of these cameras before, I highly recommend acquiring one and trying it out just to experience what it was like for many of us in the late 90s.
Extra Information #
While researching how to extract photos from my camera I came across some interesting ways to play around with this camera without using a physical one. First is using the emulators BGB or mGBA to load your Game Boy Camera ROM, or if you don’t legally own a Game Boy Camera you can download GB-Photo, allowing you to use your webcam as the camera. (This could perhaps work on a phone camera if you know some way of running these on it, but don’t ask me how. I don’t game on my phone.)
The second thing I found was that using GAMEYOB on a modded DSi or 3DS will let you take photos similarly. It even emulates the Game Boy Printer so you can save your images to the microSD card.
I don’t find either of these as convenient as using an original Game Boy Camera, but the option is great if you have a modded DSi/3DS around or want to take funny selfies with your webcam or use it for streaming in that aesthetic.