Game Boy Camera … My First Digital Camera [Video]

Before digital cameras were common in every single cell phone out there, they cost around a billion dollars.

Digital cameras back then were big, clunky and didn't really take the best pictures.

Today, you can get a decent digital camera for about $100 (or just use your smart phone).

As a kid though, you would take pics with your disposable camera and have to wait what seemed like forever till your parents brought the thing to Meijer. Then, this thing came around and made cameras fun for me, a collaboration of gaming and photography.

Game Boy Camera. This thing hit the shelves in June 1998, and I really didn't take to it right away.

I remember the kids talking about it school and saying how cool it was. To me though, it wasn't an actual game, so I wasn't interested right away.

This thing cost around $50 when it came out, and I wasn't about to waste the one video game I ask for every Christmas on a camera!

Throughout the year, I kept seeing this commercial.

That crazy commercial stuck in my brain. And every time someone mentions a Game Boy camera, this tune rings in my head.

SMILE! You're on Game Boy Camera!

Then, out of nowhere, I read the weekly Best Buy ad (in the newspaper; mind-blowing, right?).

Best Buy had a sale on Game Boy cameras for $9.99!

I lived pretty close to a Best Buy. So, I rode my bike and got one. Little did I know that this was much more than a camera.

This thing was a camera on crack! It was so quirky and weird. It brought a different life to your typical camera. There was a camera, of course; games, different modes, etc. It had so much to offer, and that is what made it fun!

I could take a pic of my face and put it into a game! The pictures didn't really look that good (according to today's standards), but for me and my first digital camera, these pics were awesome! Nintendo also released a printer for the camera as well, and you could print your pictures and stick them to things. I wanted this thing, but I could never find it.

The Game Boy Camera was once recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's smallest camera! It was squashed pretty quickly though because, you know, technology.

I'll remember this fine piece of equipment as the thing that I judged to quickly.

SMILE! You're on Game Boy Camera!!!