The Game Boy Camera can now be used as a webcam, providing 16,000 pixels of grainy black and white glory

While I had several Game Boy handhelds as a child—mostly acquired second-hand—my pocket money could never quite stretch to the magnificence that was the Game Boy Camera. Like an ever-staring eye of Sauron mounted to the top of the device, the 180° swivelling camera allowed users to capture selfies and print them out on thermal paper with an additional Game Boy Printer. 

Now, thanks to an emulator dock, the Game Boy Camera has been reborn as a functional PC webcam, providing 16,000 pixels of glorious black and white resolution.

The Epilogue GB Operator dock allows users to play Game Boy, Game Boy Color and Game Boy advance cartridges on Windows, macOS and Linux devices using a built in emulator (via Tom's Hardware). The dock itself has been available since 2021, but the team behind it has spent the past three years tweaking the device to deliver a live-feed from the Game Boy Camera.

All that hard work appears to have paid off, as the team have posted a video showing some incredibly low-res footage of two of its members beaming with joy at their progress. Epilogue says that while the live-feed is finally working, it still needs to «fine-tune some things and allow for configuration options.»

While the GB Operator dock is compatible with PCs, the test window shown in the video is running on macOS. So it's unclear if any more tweaking will be needed to get a Windows device to use it as a terrible, no-good, yet charming alternative to a regular webcam. Still, Epilogue says it can't wait to see everyone having fun with the device, suggesting a release may be coming soon.

Hello from the team in glorious 16 kilopixels