Tips & Tricks

The fun of using the Game Boy Camera has nothing to do with the fact that it's a camera for a console known solely for how fun it's games are. No. You've got to think like the developers that created all of those Game Boy games way back when. There were tremendous limitations and yet we still got Donkey Kong 94' out of the damn thing. You're spoiled by todays fancy cameras with their color, zoom, and various other basic features. Try using the camera in ways you'd never consider using a camera. Not to mention, you can use the software to create all kinds of wacky shit without ever taking a photo at all. I'll add more to this page periodically whenever I think of something else that I didn't put here.

This may seem obvious, but contrast makes or breaks your pictures. If you’re looking to have the subject of your photo stand out, make sure it contrasts directly with its backdrop. If you’re taking a picture of a white dog, do so while it’s sitting on your brown carpet. Black Cat? White wall. Analyze your environment and use it to your advantage to get the best shots. If you’re having trouble, use multi-colored construction paper. Cut a small piece off of each color, and put it up against various other pieces and observe it through the camera. You’ll see what I’m talking about immediately.

The copy function, in conjunction with Doodle, is very powerful. Draw something, copy it, modify it slightly, copy that, modify that slightly. Take those frames and use the Animation function to animate them. Viola, you’ve made a cartoon. With a capture device, there is no functional limit to how long your animation can be. You can animate an entire television series in this thing if you’re a big enough lunatic You can also increase the frame rate slightly higher than the Animation function allows by scrolling through the Check option. Yes, I actually did this. A lot.

Traditionally, taking a picture of another picture is a horrible idea that nobody should ever bother with. This is Game Boy Camera though, and here, it’s actually very handy. If your phone has an OLED display, open up a picture on your phone, and snap a shot of the screen with the Game Boy Camera. Voila, you’ve just converted one of your photos into something Game Boy Camera quality. Often, these’ll turn out better than photos of actual subjects. The reason is simple. The OLED is bright and high contrast, which is exactly what the Game Boy Camera sensor needed. Even better, it’s easy to tell when someone has done this, making it hard for someone to pass these off as legitimate. I do this primarily to print joke images for my wife.