The $50 GB Operator is a helpful tool that lets you connect, play, and authenticate Game Boy, Game Boy Color, and Game Boy Advance cartridges on PCs and other devices. Now it’s getting some new functionality for the Game Boy Camera. After turning the Game Boy Camera into a pretty awesome desktop webcam two years ago, device maker Epilog recently released an iOS/Android mobile app so you can take photos while the Game Boy accessory is connected to your smartphone through a GB operator.
The Game Boy Camera was a terrible camera even by 1998 standards when it was released. It captured 0.01434-megapixel images in only four shades of gray and the images remained stuck on your Game Boy until you printed them or bought a third-party cable to extract them. But it was accessible and affordable at $90, which is also part of the appeal of Epilog’s solution for using the camera with modern equipment.
GB Operator isn’t free, but paired with the new Flashback app and your phone it’s a cheaper alternative to devices like the $240 Analog Pockets that also works with the Game Boy Camera. The app reads data directly from the Game Boy Camera’s old Mitsubishi M64282FP sensor, so the images you capture with the accessory look exactly the same as they did decades ago. But the app experience is better than that offered on the original Game Boy, with options to make adjustments to settings like shutter speed, gain, exposure, sharpness, dither, and grain, as well as the ability to apply one of 32 different color palettes.
If you don’t have a Game Boy Camera or GB Operator, Epilog’s Flashback app also has a software mode that simulates the accessory’s capabilities. Photos captured by your smartphone’s camera are processed and output as low-resolution 128 x 112-pixel images with dithering and a minimal color palette. When using real Game Boy camera hardware or the app’s simulation mode, the images you create are stored in your phone’s camera roll so they’re easily accessible and shareable.
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