Platform: Game Boy
Developer: Nintendo/Jupiter
Released: 1998

See that camera on your DSi? There’s a reason why it’s there. Like most of Nintendo’s recent ideas, its origins can be found in some weird peripheral that’s been long forgotten (to be fair, you could probably say that about any hardware manufacturer). In this case, the forefather to the DSi camera was the Game Boy Camera.

What is a Game Boy Camera? It’s a camera that plugs into your Game Boy like a regular game cartridge, allowing you to take digital, black and white photos which you can then draw on (MS Paint style) or cover with stamps (ie. weird eyes, mouths, Pokemon characters, that sort of thing). Also, in keeping with Nintendo’s favourite gimmick at the time, it was available in a whole range of different colours to match your mood. Remember those wonderful days when Nintendo products were available in colours besides black, white and pink? Yeah, me neither.

If you had a Game Boy Printer (sold separately), you could print the photos out on a unique kind of paper which turned the photos into stickers. Take a photo, cover it with stamps, print it, peel it off, and stick it somewhere. It’s so easy that nothing could go wrong, right? Well… not unless Nintendo stopped making paper for the Printer, turning it into a useless lump of plastic that wasn’t even fit to be a paperweight. Ah well, at least the Camera was still cool.

When you think about it, the Game Boy Camera was quite an influential piece of tech. As well as being the first Nintendo product that let you take photos and mess with them in comical ways, it featured a small collection of games where you could put your own face into the game- a feature which can now be found in various DSiWare games. Speaking of DSiWare games, the Camera featured an animation creator that resembled an early version of Flipnote Studios. I still have fond memories of creating animations where the pre-made image of Charizard burned various things.

Apparently, the Game Boy Camera caught the attention of legendary musician Neil Young, because the cover of one of his albums (Silver and Gold, released in 2000) was taken with one. I wonder if he owns a DSi…

Unlike most of the games featured in these articles, I’m not going to suggest that you rush out and buy a Game Boy Camera. Sure, it was great for it’s time, but its best ideas have since been carried over to better products. If you’re really desperate to decorate your photos with Pokemon and Mario stamps and don’t care about frivolous extras such as colour, resolution, or being able to print your photos, then you’ll want to track down a Game Boy Camera. For everyone else, it’s merely a retro novelty, like View Masters and Magic 8-Balls.