 A blue Game Boy Camera. Various other colors were also available. | |
| Manufacturer | Nintendo |
|---|---|
| Product family | Game Boy line |
| Type | Video game accessory |
| Generation | Fourth generation |
| Released | |
TheGame Boy Camera, released asPocket Camera[a] in Japan, is an accessory forNintendo'sGame Boy game console. It was released on February 21, 1998, in Japan, and manufacturing ceased in late 2002. As a toy foruser-generated content, it can be used to shoot grayscale photographs, edit them or create original drawings, and transfer images between GBC units or to the64DD art game suiteMario Artist. The accessory featured a 180°-swivelfront-facing camera that allowed users to captureselfies. Its images can be printed to thermal paper with theGame Boy Printer. The GBC's cartridge contains minigames based on Nintendo's early games such as thearcade video gameSpace Fever and theGame & Watch handheld gameBall, and achiptunemusic sequencer; photographers have embraced its technological limitations as artistic challenges.
The Game Boy Camera (GBC) interfaces with theGame Boy Printer, which utilizesthermal paper to print saved images. Both the camera and the printer were marketed by Nintendo as light-hearted entertainment devices aimed mainly at children in all three major video game regions of the world: Japan, North America, and Europe.N64 Magazine (which has since been superseded byNGamer) dedicated a monthly section to the device.
The GBC is compatible with all of theGame Boy line exceptGame Boy Micro. Video output is possible via theSuper Game Boy for theSuper NES and theGame Boy Player for theGameCube. The camera has a 128×128 pixel CMOS sensor,[4][5] and can store 128×112, grayscale digital images using the 4-color palette of the Game Boy system.
The Game Boy Camera line has five different standard colors of models: blue, green, red, yellow, and clear purple (Japan only). There is a limited edition gold themed forThe Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, which contains unique stamps, and was available only in the United States through a mail-order offer fromNintendo Power.
In September 2020, information was leaked of an unreleasedHello Kitty version of the camera.[6]
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The camera is controlled, images are manipulated, and minigames are played by Game Boy software running from the camera's attached cartridge. Individual photographs can be taken and edited with features including a delay timer, time lapse, trick lenses like mirroring and scaling, montage, andpanorama for stitching together component photos into one large image. The user can further edit the images by placing Nintendo's stamps, or by freehand doodles. Images can be combined as frames of an animation. Images can be interconnected with clickable hyperlinks in "hot spots" mode.
Images can be transferred via theGame Link Cable, to be printed on theGame Boy Printer, copied between GBC units,[7] or copied via theNintendo 64 controller'sTransfer Pak to a64DD floppy disk. The Japanese GBC is optionally integrated into theMario Artist suite of multimedia games for the 64DD peripheral. There, users can create drawn and 3D-animated avatars of themselves based on photographs taken with the camera, integrate these personalized avatars into various 64DD games includingMario Artist andSimCity 64, or post art on the Internet throughRandnet.[8] Third-party vendors have reverse engineered the GBC system to create modern transfer methods such asUSB,SD cards andWi-Fi.[9][10]
The GBC cartridge's software has numerous references to other Nintendo products. There are a few differences between the North American and Japanese versions, including the unlockable B album pictures and the stamps that can be placed on pictures.[11] The software has a fewEaster eggs, some of which have been described as "creepy", like disturbing pictures the developers made with it.[12]
Nintendo reportedly had plans to release a successor to the Game Boy Camera for the Game Boy Advance called the GameEye[13][page needed] which would take color photos and feature connectivity with theGameCube through a game titledStage Debut, but neither the GameEye norStage Debut were released.
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Initially, the Game Boy Camera was not well received within Nintendo. However, Masato Kuwahara approachedCreatures, Inc. PresidentHirokazu Tanaka regarding the development of the software for the device, which solidified the project.[15] The camera's built-in software was co-developed byNintendo Research & Development 1 and the Japanese companyJupiter, with Tanaka directing the project.[16][17][18] The Game Boy Camera was launched with an initial MSRP ofUS$49.95.[7][19]
The Camera sold close to 500,000 units in its first three weeks of availability in Japan.[1][7]
As one of the earliest consumer digital cameras, the GBC has been legitimized foruser-generated content, especially photography. Modern computer connectivity has required experimentation for image retrieval.[9][10]
The cover art ofNeil Young's 2000 albumSilver & Gold was taken using a Game Boy Camera.[20]
In 2000, a professional photographer created a color workflow similar to the world's earliest color photography, to process GBC's grayscale photos through red, green, and blue filters to produce a color photograph.[21] An artist using a Game Boy Camera and three colour process has developed a series of works since 2012, focusing on the interplay between what the abstracted images reveal and conceal about the photographed environment, as well as using the Game Boy Printer within his practice.[22][23] A PhD student performed astrophotography of scenes including Jupiter, through academic telescopes using GBC.[10] In 2017, a research engineer developed aneural network application to automatically convert GBC monochrome images into color images.[24] Several modernsmartphoneapps have modes to simulate GBC image quality.[25] In 2016, anInstagram artist included the vintage GBC hardware in his repertoire of high-technology stylized filters, creating a new gallery dedicated only to GBC photography, because its primitive camera "forces you to find a way to take beautiful pictures".[9]
In 2025, a Game Boy game titledGas Station Story was released, for both the Game Boy[26] and PC[27]. The characters in the game are all photos of people taken by a Game Boy Camera, with over 180 different portraits in the game.
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