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THE MOON, SHOT ON A 1998 GAME BOY

A 3D-printed lens adapter lets a 1998 Game Boy Camera with a 0.014 megapixel sensor photograph the Moon's craters and insects up close.

by David Windestål, HackMakeMod

FULL CAD BOM FIRMWARE DOCS

Open-hardware

Built withArduino3D printing

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WHAT YOU’LL NEED

Videos
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COMPAREE VERDICT

The Game Boy Camera came out in 1998 for 50 dollars with a 14 kilopixel (0.014 MP) sensor that stores 128x112 pixel pictures in black, white and two shades of grey; the 1999 Guinness World Records edition listed it as the world's smallest digital camera. David Windestål used his own camera from 1999 and a 3D-printed adapter to fit real lenses: a Pentax-K mount Chinon 300 mm f/5.6 photographed the Moon with its craters visible, and a Canon 100 mm f/2.8 macro photographed insects up close. The adapter makes no permanent changes to the camera and reuses its original screws. The project page has free downloads: the lens adapter STEP file (v6), the case for a Game Boy Printer emulator and its circuit board (EasyEDA). The emulator is an Arduino that pretends to be the Game Boy Printer and turns the photos into PNG or JPG on a computer; it uses Brian Khuu's open source Game Boy Printer Emulator code. No licence is stated on the page. The hard part he describes is shooting at night: the viewfinder drops to about one frame per second, finding the Moon took around five minutes, and auto-exposure takes about 30 seconds to settle.

GOOD TO KNOW

  • —Downloads on the page: lens adapter STEP file (v6), Game Boy Printer emulator case (STEP) and its circuit board in EasyEDA format.
  • —The adapter was designed in Fusion 360 to use only the camera's original screws and 3D-printed parts.
  • —The emulator code is Brian Khuu's Game Boy Printer Emulator from GitHub; nothing is ever printed on paper.
  • —No licence is stated on the HackMakeMod page.
  • —No parts list; the page names the lenses and says the emulator needs an Arduino and a Game Boy link cable.
  • —The page is a detailed build log (crop factor maths, flange distance, sensor datasheet) rather than a step-by-step guide.

Parts to buy

2 items

From our check of the build. Exact quantities and part numbers are in the creator’s BOM.

Can I build this?

Printlens adapter, sensor holder and lens mounts, a lens tripod adapter, and optionally the printer emulator case
Buya Game Boy Camera and a Game Boy (he used his own from 1999), a lens (he used a Chinon 300 mm f/5.6 Pentax-K bought cheap from an online thrift store, and a Canon 100 mm f/2.8 macro), a tripod; for the emulator an Arduino and a Game Boy link cable
Tools3D printer, screwdriver for the original screws, glue; for the emulator a soldering iron (he cut his connector board with a fiber laser, or you can solder a cut link cable directly)
Skills3D printing threads, setting flange distance by focus check, basic Arduino use for the emulator
Timenot stated
Costnot stated beyond the camera's original $50 price; he says the DIY emulator costs a couple of dollars
Safetyordinary low-voltage electronics; support heavy lenses with the tripod adapter instead of the cartridge

Build at your own risk. Projects involve tools, electronics and sometimes mains voltage — follow the creator’s safety notes.

Videos

Hacked GAMEBOY CAMERA takes Amazing Pictures of the Moon and Bugs

HackMakeMod video hosted by David Windestål: crop factor maths, the printed lens mounts, the night Moon shoot and macro insect shots.

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Gallery

Start here

Navigation into the creator’s own docs — we don’t rewrite the guide, we route you to the source.

  1. 1.Download the lens adapter STEP file from the project page (The page also has the printer emulator case and circuit board files. No licence is stated.)
  2. 2.Print the adapter parts(Black filament, plenty of walls, flange surface against the bed. Adjust thread tolerance to your printer.)
  3. 3.Mount the sensor and set the flange distance(The sensor screws into the printed holder with the original screws. Set the distance with the camera running (45.46 mm for Pentax-K), then fix it with a drop of glue.)
  4. 4.Optional: build the printer emulator (Upload the Arduino sketch, open the serial monitor at 115200 baud, print from the camera, and paste the output into the decoder web page linked from the project to get PNG or JPG files.)
  5. 5.Watch the video before the night shoot (Check moonrise first: on his first try the Moon had not risen yet.)

Resources

Documentation, files and community threads for this build — we link straight to the original sources and never rehost the creator’s files.

KNOWN ISSUES

  • No licence is stated on the project page, so ask the creator before reusing the files beyond personal use.
  • Flange distance has to be set with the camera running. Pentax-K needs 45.46 mm; the adapter has an adjustable M58x2 mm thread, and he fixes it with a drop of glue once focused.
  • Light leaks: print the flange surface against the bed so it is flat, and use black filament with plenty of walls.
  • Thread fit depends on your printer. He suggests shrinking one thread by 0.05 mm for a well-tuned printer or 0.1 mm for a less well-tuned one.
  • In the dark the camera runs at about 1 or 1/2 frame per second. Finding the Moon took him around five minutes, and just breathing on the tripod shook the frame.
  • The page names the emulator parts only as an Arduino and a Game Boy link cable; no Arduino model is given. If you do not mind sacrificing a link cable, he says you can cut one end off and solder it straight to the Arduino instead of making his connector board.

Which lenses did he use?

A Pentax-K mount Chinon 300 mm f/5.6 for the Moon and a Canon 100 mm f/2.8 macro for insects. He also made mounts for 1.6 mm and 2.8 mm CCTV lenses. The shared file is the lens adapter STEP (v6); the M33x2 mm thread on the sensor holder takes different lens adapters.

Why a 300 mm lens for the Moon?

The sensor is about 1/11 the area of a full-frame sensor, a crop factor of 10.81, so a 300 mm lens behaves like roughly 3,200 mm. At 368,000 km the Moon spans about 0.54 degrees and the frame's short side about 0.6 degrees, so the Moon fills about 90% of the frame height.

Does the printer emulator print anything on paper?

No. It is an Arduino that pretends to be a Game Boy Printer. The Game Boy "prints" to it, the Arduino sends the image data to a computer, and a web page turns it into PNG or JPG files.

Do I need the emulator to use the lens adapter?

No. The camera stores up to 30 pictures and you view them on the Game Boy screen. The emulator is only for getting the pictures onto a computer.

What was the line on the sensor in the video?

When he took the camera apart he found a scratch-like mark that, under the microscope, looked like a deformation in the casting on top of the sensor, not a scratch.

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Discussion1

FROM THE COMPAREE TEAM

A 0.014 megapixel camera from 1998 and the Moon 368,000 km away, craters in four shades of grey. What would you shoot first?

CompareeTEAM9d ago

We read the full HackMakeMod project page. The STEP files and the EasyEDA board are there to download, but no licence is stated. The emulator software is not HackMakeMod's own: the page tells you to download Brian Khuu's Game Boy Printer Emulator from GitHub. The printer emulator only moves pictures to a computer; nothing is printed on paper.

David Windestål, HackMakeMod

David Windestål hosts the HackMakeMod video. He bought this Game Boy Camera in 1999 with his birthday money when he was 12, found it in a box again in 2022, and wanted to see how much a 0.014 megapixel picture in four shades can show. Build and footage: David Windestål, HackMakeMod.

Web

Star the project on GitHub

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