The lo-fi Game Boy Camera is making a comeback 26 years later and Kick wants streamers to use it in its new ‘Bounties’ reward system.
The long forgotten Game Boy Camera accessory, that you could attach to your Nintendo handheld device back in the late ’90s, is making a comeback 26 years later – unofficially at least.
A new company is planning to bring it back through an app, and that’s great timing for streamers, as Kick has launched a new ‘Bounties’ system, where one of the challenges is to broadcast yourself using a Game Boy Camera.
The unofficial Game Boy Camera app is still being worked on, with no release date yet, but the creators don’t want to change too much, saying, ‘It’s the worst and the best webcam you’ll ever have.’
The company working on the Game Boy Camera app, Epilogue, wants to add it to their already existing $50 (£38) GB Operator USB dock.
GB Operator lets you connect and play Game Boy, Game Boy Color, and Game Boy Advance cartridges on your computer, and Epilogue now wants to add the Game Boy Camera for the full experience.
On Twitter, Epilogue says that they still need to ‘fine-tune some things and allow for configuration options.’
To put into context just how poor the Game Boy Camera’s resolution is – and how far the technology has come since 1998 – it packs 16 kilopixels compared to the latest iPhone, the iPhone 15 Pro, which has a 40 megapixel camera.
Although in reality the Game Boy Camera was amusingly low-tech even back in 1998, when it was paired with a Game Boy Printer which looked uncannily like a loo roll dispenser.
It’s more about the nostalgia and charm of the Game Boy Camera, which will come in handy for any streamers on Kick who wants to tick one of the new bounty challenges off the list.
‘Kick Bounties’ dares streamers to complete challenges to incentivise creativity on the platform, and then reward the successful creator with gifted subscriptions to their channel.
Some of the challenges include broadcasting yourself using a Game Boy Camera, beating the Ender Dragon in Minecraft on hardcore mode, and finding certain locations in Elden Ring’s expansion Shadow Of The Erdtree.
Epilogue is also working on a dock that will play Super Nintendo cartridges, but there is no release date for it yet.
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