Taking a Look at the Nintendo Game Boy Camera

Nintendo released the Game Boy Camera and the Game Boy Printer in 1998. The Camera took small, grainy digital photos in an era before the proliferation of digital cameras and camera phones. Although the photos were limited to the Game Boy's 4 shades of gray, the Camera's software allowed users to customize them with doodles, stamps, frames, and even make animations and use their own faces in minigames. The photos could also be printed out onto stickers using the thermal Printer and a Game Link cable (the Printer was sold separately from the Camera, but included paper and a Game Link). A few other games were also compatible with the Printer, most notably The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening. A followup to the Camera was planned for the Game Boy Advance, but never released. Nintendo utilized some aspects of the Camera software for the Nintendo DSi, and although the DSi's camera app features new options, it is not nearly as robust as the original Game Boy Camera. This set is outmoded these days, and not very useful on a functional level, but I still find them to be fun and kitschy, and because they are inexpensive and easy to come by on eBay, I have to wholeheartedly recommend them to collectors and retro gamers.