When I was growing up, Nintendo's Game Boy was all the rage. I never did quite understand the appeal then of its Game Boy Camera accessory, a camera that plugged into the cartridge slot to make .014-megapixel black and white images, but the accessory itself has become somewhat of a cult hit.
Tech YouTuber Becca Farsace revived the odd camera for a look on her YouTube channel, though with a (slightly) modern twist: a custom-made camera and lens mount as well as a USB-C hookup.
Whenever I've encountered this oddball imaging device at video game shows, I'm always amazed at the lines forming to create these tiny, grainy images. Usually there's an accompanying Game Boy printer that produces a receipt-sized print that ends up fading away after a few months. I know because I pulled out the image I printed out at the last show I went to in October to scan in for this article, and it's more or less gone.
Farsace's internet find solves this problem, though. Whereas you couldn't do much with the photos other than print them on that very specialized printer, a custom kit from Rewind Relics that adds the ability to mount and focus C-mount lenses onto the Game Boy to ready it for camera duty. More importantly, the kit comes with a custom USB-C interface cable that lets you download your photos onto a computer and phone, ready to print or display in much more modern ways than was possible when the camera came out in 1998.
Without even realizing it, most people probably were first exposed to digital photography in this way. Watching Farsace use the camera for low-tech "funtography" helps me finally understand why this camera had such widespread appeal in 1998. It's just a completely different way of looking at the world.
Check out Farsace's video for more information on the kit she's using as well as her interesting photos from her Game Boy Camera photo excursions.
