You can now build your own awesome Game Boy Mini Camera

theverge.com:

By Sean Hollister, a senior editor and founding member of The Verge who covers gadgets, games, and toys. He spent 15 years editing the likes of CNET, Gizmodo, and Engadget.

The Game Boy Camera is remembered as a bulbous sphere that sat atop an absolute chonk of a portable gaming machine — but yours doesn’t need to be so huge! Remember the gorgeous Game Boy Mini Camera we introduced you to this summer? Christopher Graves is now ready to help you build your own.

Starting today, you can buy the files, boards, and find instructions at the eight-bit photographer’s website. Expect to spend around $110, assuming you’ve already got a donor Game Boy Camera ($40–$50 used) and a 3D printer so you can print the shell yourself. Even the colorful Game Boy Mini Camera label design is included, though it might be a bit longer before you can order a preprinted label.

Warning: this is not an easy mod. Shrinking down a Game Boy Camera involves painstakingly harvesting a resin-encased sensor from the original Nintendo cartridge, not to mention other donor parts. Graves warns that it requires “advanced soldering skills and tools,” adding, “I am not responsible for any harm done to you, your property, or family. Because of the complication required for this mod, personal support will be limited.”

I’ll add: please, please don’t destroy an original Game Boy Camera if you don’t know what you’re doing! Maybe try an easier project first.

But if you’ve got the skills, the result could be glorious. Graves sent us one of the modded cartridges, and it’s every bit as pleasing in person as it was in photos. Especially when I stuck it into an Analogue Pocket, whose big, bright screen makes a camera way easier to use than my wife’s original gray DMG