Twenty-five years after the Recreation Boy Digital camera first debuted again in 1998, followers are usually not solely nonetheless having fun with lo-fi, black and white, pixelated images, they’re additionally re-engineering the digital camera to make it higher, even going as far as to shrink it right down to the scale of a daily Recreation Boy cartridge.
The final time we had checked in with Christopher Graves, a Recreation Boy Digital camera fan who is aware of their means round a 3D printer and a circuit board, they had been exhibiting off a customized creation known as the Recreation Boy Digital camera M. It turned a sacrificed Recreation Boy Pocket right into a mirrorless shooter with swappable lenses, a customized shell with a leatherette wrapped end, a chargeable battery, and a repositioned motion button repurposed as a shutter set off.
On the time, the Recreation Boy Digital camera M appeared like the right device for many who favor taking pictures photos at simply 0.001434-megapixels (128×112 pixels), however after seeing Graves’ newest creation, we’re not so certain any extra.
Those that spent any period of time taking pictures with Nintendo’s Recreation Boy Digital camera will do not forget that it was a chunky accent with a bulbous lens protruding excessive of the Recreation Boy it was connected to. There’s little doubt Nintendo did all the things it might to shrink the scale of the unique Recreation Boy Digital camera, however the firm was restricted by the know-how in 1998, when all digital cameras had been pretty cumbersome. By leveraging 1 / 4 century of technological miniaturization, Graves’ was capable of create a a lot sleeker various they’re calling the Recreation Boy Mini Digital camera.
Beginning with schematics for a customized reflashable Recreation Boy Digital camera PCB made by Martin Refseth, Graves created a customized board that carried over the unique Recreation Boy Digital camera’s sensor, reminiscence map controller, and “just a few capacitors that had been simply simpler to reap,” which all matches inside a customized shell the identical dimension as a regular Recreation Boy sport cartridge. The Recreation Boy Mini Digital camera can really run two totally different ROMs, and is upgraded with flash reminiscence in order that there’s no danger of saved images disappearing when a backup battery dies.
As for the Recreation Boy Mini Digital camera’s lens? If it seems oddly acquainted to you, barely protruding of the highest nook of the cartridge, that’s as a result of it’s really a lens from an iPhone XR. The lens is screwed right into a customized threaded sleeve, permitting its place to be adjusted to alter the digital camera’s focus. Graves can also be testing different iPhone lenses, together with one from the iPhone 14 that may stick out even additional, and probably one from an iPhone 5S, which might eradicate that small digital camera bump altogether.
Regardless of borrowing some optical {hardware} from the iPhone, the pictures captured by the Recreation Boy Mini Digital camera are nonetheless unmistakingly low decision and missing intimately and colour: which is precisely the aesthetic Recreation Boy Digital camera photographers are after. However with the redesign, the Recreation Boy Mini Digital camera can really be slipped right into a pocket when used with a handheld just like the Recreation Boy Pocket.
Don’t whip out your bank card and begin screaming at Graves to close up and take your cash simply but. As with their Recreation Boy Digital camera M, the Recreation Boy Mini Digital camera is described as one other egocentric undertaking they made just for themselves, however they aren’t utterly ruling out sooner or later designing their very own PCB schematics from scratch and making them accessible to different hobbyists who need to deal with a DIY undertaking like this on their very own.
