The Game Boy Camera will soon serve as a webcam replacement

Domagoj Belancic

4.7.2024

Translation: machine translated

Who needs razor-sharp quality in video calls? Soon you'll be able to turn the Game Boy Camera into a beautifully pixelated low-res webcam.

The Game Boy Camera is legendary. The small Nintendo gadget was released in 1998 and transforms your Game Boy into a small camera with 128 x 112 pixels and four colour tones. When taking photos, you sometimes need a little imagination to recognise what is actually depicted.

You will soon be able to use your Game Boy Camera as a webcam for video calls. Instead of razor-sharp 4K quality, you will present yourself in a beautiful low-res pixel noise.

The second life of the Game Boy Camera is made possible by the "GB Operator" from Epilogue. This is a USB hub that allows you to game your original Game Boy cartridges on your PC and create backups of your game saves. The USB hub is also compatible with the Game Boy Camera - but until now you could only transfer photos you had taken to your PC.

With a post on X, the developers announce an upcoming update for the GB Operator that will allow a live feed from the Game Boy Camera to be transferred to the PC. This means that Nintendo's little gadget can also be used as a webcam.

The development team wants to fine-tune certain aspects and integrate additional setting options into the software before the update is released. But the wait should be worth it. They promise: "It's the worst and the best webcam you'll ever have".

For the impatient, there is already a way to use the Game Boy Camera as a webcam. However, this DIY solution is a lot more complicated than the plug-and-play solution with the USB hub from Epilogue. You need a Game Boy Camera, a Super Game Boy, an SNES, an upscaler and an HDMI capture card. You can find step-by-step instructions in the embedded video:

The wonderfully pixelated result of this method looks like this:

If you're wondering how the Game Boy Camera compares to modern smartphone cameras, retro fan David has the answer for you:

Domagoj Belancic

Senior Editor

Domagoj.Belancic@digitecgalaxus.ch

My love of video games was unleashed at the tender age of five by the original Gameboy. Over the years, it's grown in leaps and bounds.

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