You can now use the Game Boy Camera as a webcam for your PC — a 26-year-old camera gets new life with the stylish GB Operator dock

The Game Boy Camera, a 16-kilopixel (yes, you read that right, 16,000 pixels) digital camera cartridge that attaches to the Game Boy, now works with PCs via Epilogue’s GB Operator dock. The sleek device connects to Windows, macOS, and Linux devices via USB-C and Playback software, letting you play Game Boy, Game Boy Color, and Game Boy Advance titles from your existing cartridges.

Hello from the 16k team ! Coming soon to a UK carrier near you. pic.twitter.com/nFjiQxn9DOJuly 2, 2024

This isn’t the first time someone has tried to turn a toy camera into a webcam for a modern PC, as Retro Game Couch built a system using the Game Boy Camera, the Super Game Boy Adapter for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), a real SNES, an AV to HDMI converter, and an HDMI capture card. While this system works to allow your PC to use the Game Boy Camera, it’s a pretty rickety build with a lot of moving (and expensive) parts.

Game Boy Camera as Webcam in Zoom/Teams/Meet/Streams – YouTube

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There is also the GB Interceptor, an adapter that you install on a Game Boy device and then accept the Game Boy Camera. While it allows you to use your Game Boy Camera as a webcam, it still requires a real Nintendo handheld console to use, which can be difficult to find if you don’t already have one in working order.

I’ve used my #GameBoy camera with the @diconx #Interceptor as a webcam before <3 Can't wait to try it with the #GBOperator ;) pic.twitter.com/EXP29abnZVJuly 3, 2024

On the other hand, the GB Operator acts as a small dock and is barely larger than the Game Boy cartridges it plays. This makes it much more convenient to use, and if you pair it with a Windows tablet like the Microsoft Surface Pro Copilot+, you can take your lo-fi shots with you. Unfortunately, playback is not yet supported on Android, iOS, or iPadOS, which means you won’t be able to use the GB Operator on your mobile devices.

While the dock has been around since 2021, it took the Epilogue team over three years to make the Game Boy Camera compatible with the GB Operator. However, it seems that the feature has finally worked, with the team even releasing a short video on X showing off the grainy, low-res feed of the camera cartridge.

The camera viewer for the GB Operator still appears to be in alpha, and the app needs some polishing and configuration options enabled. Still, it’ll be exciting for the wider retro community, as we’ll finally be able to find another use for the toy camera cartridge Nintendo designed for the Game Boy handhelds, and make it easier to share the images and memories we capture with it.