Gameboy Camera and Printer
We only popped into the shop to shelter from the rain, it looked like it was a general second-hand shop, but it contained lots of retro gaming goodies, although it was mostly stuff I already had. It was a great little shop in Spalding, Lincolnshire, and everywhere you looked there was more and more retro gaming greatness tucked in behind old DVD players and other cheap tat
Then I spotted these beauties in the end display case...
A boxed camera, printer, and a three pack of paper for only £55, bargain! I'll have that. There was a boxed GameBoy Pocket there as well, but I left that behind
Camera
A fully boxed GameBoy Camera, released in PAL territories in June 1998, and everywhere else before us. It was a low resolution (128x128 sensor and 128x112 image) slow, grey scale digital camera
Images of the front and rear of the box
The side and the top, the opposite sides are the same, apart from a barcode
All the instruction books and registration card
The camera itself, mine is the yellow variant, other colours include red, blue, green, and clear purple (only in Japan)
Close up of the model and serial numbers, the camera itself does not require any batteries
The "ball" camera rotates 180 degrees to take photos behind the camera, it rotates on a different axis to make viewing the screen easier
Printer
As above, a fully boxed GameBoy Printer, this allows you to print your photos from the camera, and it would appear several games supported the printer too, although I've checked the list and I don't have any of the games to try it out with
Front and rear of the box
Side and top of the box
And the instruction books plus registration card
Top of the printer with and without the covers fitted
Close-up of the print head and controls, there's a feed button and power switch which slides left and right
Model and serial numbers, some of you like seeing these
I next removed the battery cover and, yeah! Fortunately it wasn't that bad
The EXT IN socket
The supplied cable, it has an adaptor to fit the original GameBoy, without the adaptor it fits the GameBoy Color or Pocket
I pulled the paper through a bit, however if you pull it back through the printer, it breaks it, so don't do that!
Paper
This is apparently as rare as rocking horse poo
The box
The three sealed paper rolls, these ones are slightly pastel coloured, which are blue, red, and yellow, this is normal thermal paper with an adhesive backing. If left exposed to air they will expire and not be able to be printed on, and any paper which has been printed on will slowly fade back to blank
Testing and operation
I dug out both my GameBoy's and fitted new batteries all round, the printer takes SIX AA's by the way. Inserted the cartridge, and switched it on and tried to take a photo...
I then switched it back off again, connected the cable, switched on the printer, then held my breath and switched the GameBoy on for the second time...
Success!
It all appears to work, taking photos is a struggle as you can't see the screen very well when the camera is pointing where you need it to, and you need a lot of light on the subject, I had two camera phone torches shining on my face to get it to see me, and I still look like my picture is on the news because I've escaped from somewhere
The software allows you to take photos, then view and edit them with stickers and effects, it also contains mini games for you to play when you are bored of taking photos. There are jolly little tunes and sound effects that play throughout while using the camera. And you can store up to 30 photos on the cartridge
While looking through my photos I discovered there were a few photos from a previous owner saved on the cartridge, these were swiftly deleted
The software seems easy enough to use, but there is an awful amount of confirmation prompts, it seems to think you're not sure if you really need to take that photo or send it to the printer. Anyway, lets try printing, and it works, the paper isn't very good, but you can see "something" on it
It takes a few seconds to send the file to the printer, and the printer is tragically slow at printing
I tried to print a photo of the "outside world"
Just for fun, I tried my original GameBoy, and it worked just the same once I plugged the cable in properly
This is the best quality I can get from the paper that was originally in the printer, swapping out the roll for a new one may make it better
All three of the photos I printed, not good, but should be better if I replace the paper
For more retro hardware check out my online museum here
