Turn a Game Boy Camera Into a Respectable Shooter

Nintendo's Game Boy Camera was an unlikely accessory. When it hit the market in 1998, digital cameras were still uncommon. Most were wildly expensive and couldn't come close to matching the quality of their analog film counterparts. The Game Boy Camera was surprisingly affordable for the time, but it was still mostly a toy. Getting photos to a computer was very difficult through official means — so difficult that most people didn't bother. The photo quality also left a lot to be desired, but Raphael Boichot's Dashboy Camera project turns a Game Boy Camera into a more respectable shooter.

As is often the case with consumer digital cameras, the actual CMOS sensor in the Game Boy Camera had more capability than the device utilized. Some of the photo quality issues were due to limitations of the Game Boy — not the camera. Others were due to cost-cutting measures and an emphasis on the user-friendly interface. Boichot's Dashboy Camera project is an attempt to remove as many of those limitations as possible in order to make the most of the Game Boy Camera's CMOS sensor. For that reason, it eliminates the need for a Game Boy entirely and the only Nintendo hardware it requires is the Game Boy Camera.

Specifically, this uses the Mitsubishi M64282FP retina CMOS sensor from the Game Boy Camera. Ideally, you'll also want the plastic enclosure. But that isn't a necessity and the Dashboy Camera doesn't even need the original Game Boy Camera controller board (the part that goes in the cartridge). The Dash Boy camera replaces that with a custom PCB that hosts a Raspberry Pi Pico development board, a TFT LCD screen, a microSD card slot, control buttons, and a couple of indicator LEDs. Power comes from a pair of AA batteries — Boichot doesn't like lithium.

Once assembled, the Dashboy Camera gives you complete control over the M64282FP CMOS sensor so you can take advantage of its full potential. You can still only take black-and-white photos, but those can have the full 8-bit depth per pixel (as opposed to the standard dithered 2 bits) offered by the sensor. You can capture HDR photos, timelapses, and even motion-triggered pictures. You can also adjust exposure to your heart's content. All of those factors together mean you can get much higher quality photos with the Dashboy Camera than you can with a standard Game Boy Camera — even though they use the same sensor.

And because this utilizes a microSD card for storage, you can easily get those photos onto your computer.