Modders Have Turned The Game Boy Into A DSLR Camera That Takes Great Pixelated Pictures

In the current age of affordable technology, almost everyone has access to a pocket-sized camera via their smartphone. For those of you who desire something more authentically retro and don’t feel like spending an obscene amount of cash on a Leica camera, there is another option out there. If you don’t mind doing a little bit of soldering and coding to turn a Game Boy Camera add-on into a piece of fully-fledged DSLR equipment.

While the original accessory may have been seen as yet another gimmick for the Game Boy when it was first released in 1998, the Game Boy Camera has found new life with an audience who appreciate its retro charm and the quirky pixelated photos that it can take. Modifying the device makes it capable of fitting a camera lens onto it, as Twitter user Chicane demonstrated:

So how do you take the original wide-angle lens and turn it into a piece of equipment that can upload saved photos to your PC? As YouTuber Conorsev demonstrated, the process involves getting your hands on the right gear, soldering on an Arduino board to, and modifying it with some custom code to create a foundation for the Game Boy Camera customization project.

From there, Conorsev removed the camera from the cartridge, extracted the sensor, and attached a DSLR lens to it using a 3D-printed adapter. After some reassembly and some fine-tuning to get the camera sensor into an optimal position, Conorsev had his Game Boy set up to take some unique photos. Conorsev’s video is well worth watching to see just how doable the process of creating a modern-day Game Boy Camera is.

There’s an entire community of modders who have been upgrading Nintendo’s iconic handheld console for any number of wild and exciting tasks, with this DSLR mod being the tip of the customization iceberg. If you have a few dozen Game Boys lying around–and an impressive level of engineering skill–you can even arrange them into a gigantic synthesizer or use the handheld to create some scientific art:

If you’d prefer to look back at the golden days of the Game Boy, you can also check out our feature on the best Game Boy games of all time and our Analogue Pocket review, which is the best way to make those classic games feel new again.

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