Way back in 1998, Nintendo released the Gameboy Camera. At the time it was one of the most peculiar game/peripherals anyone had ever seen. A cartridge with a big fat dome on top, that took grainy pixelated pictures that you could see on your gameboy. I remember quite vividly being jealous of my friends and family for having their own gameboy cameras. I didn't have one on the account that my mother said I “already had one” and that it took “better pictures than that thing.” She didn't understand that the quality of the photos was a non issue. It was all about the extreme novelty of taking them with a gameboy.

Well, its been eleven years since the Gameboy camera was released and my fascination with it has been sparked yet again. This time in the form of Tom Gilmore's blog, “Adventures in Greyscale.”

Described as an “attempt by Tom Gilmore/10k to document a life through a collection of photos,” his blog has one interesting hook that makes it different from the thousands of other photoblogs out there;

“All photos have been taken with a Game Boy Camera and converted from SRAM data into .BMP or .GIF images with the help of cheap third-party products and home-brewed software.”

While Tom, who releases 8-bit music under the name “Ten Thousand Free Men & Their Families” or 10k for short, may not be the first person to use the Gameboy Camera as a means for artistic expression, his blog is still fascinating none the less. From parties to hanging out with friends to odd things he sees while hanging out with said friends, Adventures in Greyscale is a grainy pixely treat for the eyes.

Maybe its just nostalgia, or maybe its just my natural fascination with old technologies being used in new and captivating ways above/beyond their intended call of duty, but there is something about all these grainy blocky greyscale photographs that evokes more raw discovery and human emotion than that of most “my life in photos” blogs I have come across in the blogosphere.

Check Adventures in Greyscale out at: http://adventuresingreyscale.10kfreemen.com/

Nice post, greyscale boobies FTW.

I remember wanting a Game Boy Camera. Man, that was so long ago, and I was so young back then. I didn't realize at the time how poor the quality was, and my interest eventually diminished as I learned more about the device. But it has once again become one of those things that I want to get simply due to the bizarreness of it all.
It's nice to see it still gets some love. :)

Yeah it's always great seeing old things get put to new use :D

Game boy camera was so awesome. I remember having to spend forever deleting individual pictures to make room for new ones. It was totally worth it

I put so much time with my GB camera. You really have no idea.

BTW, I am intrigued on how you were able to upload those photos to the internetz.

The only process I can imagine doing so, off the top of my head would to take the pictures, put the GBCamera in a Super Gameboy player, and uploading the images into a capture card for PC from the TV.

I'm sure the steps you took to upload these pics are simpler. Either way, I'm interested in your process.

OMG I HAVE ONE OF THESE?!?!?!?!!?!

OMG I HAVE ONE OF THESE?!?!?!?!!?!

"I put so much time with my GB camera. You really have no idea.BTW, I am intrigued on how you were able to upload those photos to the internetz.The only process I can imagine doing so, off the top of my head would to take the pictures, put the GBCamera in a Super Gameboy player, and uploading the images into a capture card for PC from the TV.I'm sure the steps you took to upload these pics are simpler. Either way, I'm interested in your process."

"Bullet_Jr said:

"I put so much time with my GB camera. You really have no idea.BTW, I am intrigued on how you were able to upload those photos to the internetz.The only process I can imagine doing so, off the top of my head would to take the pictures, put the GBCamera in a Super Gameboy player, and uploading the images into a capture card for PC from the TV.I'm sure the steps you took to upload these pics are simpler. Either way, I'm interested in your process."

I didn't upload these photos. Tom Gilmore, the creator of Adventures in Greyscale, did. And yes the process is much simpler. It involves a cart flasher and a parallel port. ;)"

I like it.

This is a cool idea, my friend owned one and I always had wanted one, it`s a neat device.

Yeah they are pretty great devices. I regret never having one as a child, but I plan on finding one for myself soon so I can do something similar.

I absolutely loved that thing. I'm totally hoping they include some Gameboy Camera features with the new DSi. I still totally treasure my Gameboy Camera and my picture collection on it. Man, that thing is probably the greatest gaming peripheral ever.

That's awesome. I had a gameboy camera. But I think mine was for the GBA. So it still sucked but was in color i believe. Oh wait. I did have the original one too. I remember being over at my friends house and we were messin around with it all night. Ahh, good times.