Epilogue brings Game Boy Camera photos to phones with Flashback app
The new iOS and Android app works with the GB Operator and can also mimic Nintendo’s 1998 camera in software.
By Maya Lindqvist · Senior Technology Correspondent
2 min read
Epilogue has released a mobile app that lets people use Nintendo’s old Game Boy Camera with a smartphone, The Verge reported. The app gives a 1998 accessory a phone-based workflow for shooting and saving its low-resolution images.
The app, called Flashback, is available for iOS and Android, according to The Verge. It works with Epilogue’s GB Operator, a $50 accessory that connects Game Boy, Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance cartridges to PCs and other devices.
With Flashback, a user can attach the Game Boy Camera through the GB Operator and take pictures from a phone, The Verge reported. Epilogue previously used the same hardware setup to turn the Game Boy Camera into a desktop webcam.
Old sensor, newer controls
The Game Boy Camera was released in 1998, according to The Verge. It captured 0.01434-megapixel images in four shades of gray, and its photos were largely confined to the Game Boy unless users printed them or used a third-party cable to move them elsewhere.
The new app reads image data directly from the Game Boy Camera’s Mitsubishi M64282FP sensor, The Verge reported. That means photos taken with the original camera hardware keep the same basic look as images made on the accessory decades ago.
Flashback adds controls that were not part of the original Game Boy experience, according to The Verge. The app includes adjustments for shutter speed, gain, exposure, sharpness, dither and grain, along with 32 color palettes that can tint the camera’s monochrome output.
The GB Operator itself is not required to run Flashback, The Verge reported. Epilogue also built a software mode that imitates the Game Boy Camera using a phone’s own camera.
A simulated Game Boy Camera mode
In that mode, smartphone photos are processed into 128-by-112-pixel images with dithering and a limited color palette, according to The Verge. The result is meant to resemble the restricted output of Nintendo’s camera rather than a modern phone image.
Photos made with either the original Game Boy Camera or Flashback’s simulation mode are saved to the phone’s Camera Roll, The Verge reported. That makes them easier to access and share than images stored on the original Game Boy hardware.
The Verge described the GB Operator and Flashback pairing as a lower-cost route than using devices such as the $240 Analogue Pocket, which also works with the Game Boy Camera. The setup still requires Epilogue’s accessory for people who want to use the actual Nintendo camera hardware with a phone.
This story draws on original reporting from The Verge.